Cooking appliance door with a modular unit for an ambient lighting and cooking appliance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cooking appliance doors face challenges in robustly coupling light from light-emitting diodes into light guides while minimizing losses and preventing unwanted light emission.
Innovation Solution
The door design includes a cover element fixed to a corner connector, which supports precise positioning of the light guide and prevents stray light, using a corner cap to ensure correct alignment and contact pressure, and features a receiving part with a U-profile to secure the light guide, along with an optical element for homogeneous illumination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the light guide is directly coupled to the LED without additional positioning elements, then the device complexity is reduced, but the manufacturing precision and reliability of light coupling deteriorate due to tolerance variations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a corner connector as an intermediary component between the LED and the light guide. This corner connector includes a positioning element that mediates the connection, ensuring precise alignment and coupling of the light guide to the LED while accounting for manufacturing tolerances. The positioning element acts as a mediator that transfers and aligns the optical components without requiring direct precision coupling between the LED and light guide.
2Reliability
If the light guide is positioned with high precision using multiple positioning elements, then the light coupling efficiency is improved, but the device complexity and assembly difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple positioning functions into a single integrated corner connector component. The corner connector combines the positioning element, the LED mounting structure, and the light guide coupling mechanism into one unified component. This consolidation maintains high light coupling efficiency through precise positioning while reducing the overall number of separate parts and simplifying the assembly process.
3Ease of manufacture
If the light source is exposed without shielding, then the ease of manufacture is improved, but unwanted light emission and light losses occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the light shielding function from the main light path and implements it through the corner connector structure. The corner connector is designed to shield the LED light source from direct exposure while maintaining the optical coupling to the light guide. This extraction approach prevents unwanted light emission and energy loss without complicating the manufacturing process, as the shielding is integrated into the existing corner connector component.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration achieves efficient light coupling with minimal losses, ensuring precise and reproducible light emission through the light guide, enhancing visibility and reducing operational costs by minimizing light scattering.
Implementation Method 1
at least one light guide (20) arranged between the front pane (6) and the further pane (9), by which light is coupled into the light guide (20) and along the light guide (20) is transmitted
Implementation Method 2
light is coupled into the light guide (20) and along the light guide (20) is transmitted
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
The invention relates to a door (5) for a cooking appliance (1), with a modular attachment (7) arranged on a front side (8) of a first pane (6) of the door (5). The modular attachment (7) comprises a further pane (9) which is held on a frame (10) of the modular attachment (7). In the door's (5) installed position when closed, the first pane (6) is closer to the cooking chamber (4) of the cooking appliance (1) than the further pane (9). The modular attachment (7) includes a light source (22) arranged in a corner region of the frame (10) and a light guide (20) arranged between the first pane (6) and the further pane (9). The modular attachment (7) includes a cover element (30) which is fixed in the corner region to a mounting area of a corner connector (15) of the frame (10), the cover element (30) at least supporting the correct positioning of the light guide (20) in the corner region. Furthermore, the invention relates to a cooking appliance.