Cooking Hob Panel with Resistor-Based Overflow Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cooking hob overflow detection systems often inaccurately determine boiling over due to electrostatic capacitance fluctuations, leading to unnecessary appliance shutdowns or failure to detect actual overflow events.
Innovation Solution
A panel for a cooking hob featuring electrically and thermally insulative material with rows of resistors on both surfaces, where heat application causes conductive pins or pads to connect resistors in series, allowing for precise measurement of electrical resistance changes to indicate overflow location and quantity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If electrostatic capacitance-based detection is used to detect overflow, then the detection can be implemented, but false detection occurs due to capacitance fluctuations during cooking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the electrostatic capacitance-based detection system with a thermal conduction-based detection system. Instead of measuring electrical capacitance changes, the invention uses temperature sensors to detect heat conduction patterns caused by liquid overflow, thereby eliminating false detections from capacitance fluctuations during normal cooking operations
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the detection parameter from electrostatic capacitance to thermal conduction characteristics. By monitoring temperature changes and heat flow patterns rather than electrical capacitance, the system achieves stable and accurate overflow detection without being affected by the electrical fluctuations that occur during induction cooking
2Measurement precision
If thermal conduction detection is used to detect overflow, then accurate detection can be achieved, but the detection system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates the overflow detection function into the existing cooking panel structure by incorporating temperature sensors and thermal conduction pathways that serve both cooking control and overflow detection purposes. This multi-functional approach achieves accurate detection without adding separate complex detection systems
Solution Approach 2:
The detection system is divided into multiple temperature sensing zones across the cooking surface, allowing localized detection of overflow events. Each zone independently monitors thermal conduction patterns, enabling precise location and detection of spills while maintaining system manageability through modular sensor arrangements
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
Accurately detects and locates overflow events on a cooking hob, enabling timely user warnings and corrective actions, such as automatic appliance shutdown, thereby enhancing safety and preventing surface damage.
Implementation Method 1
when heat is applied to a region of the upper surface corresponding to the first end of the pin, the pin expands such that the second end of the pin makes an electrical connection to the corresponding pair of resistors of the lower surface
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3A~4
AI summary
A panel (10) for a cooking hob has an upper, cooking surface (12) and a lower surface (12). The upper surface (12) has rows (18) of resistors (20). The lower surface (14) has rows (22) of plural resistors (24) corresponding to the rows (18) of resistors (20) of the upper surface (12). The resistors (20, 24) in each row (18, 20) of one of the surfaces (12, 14) are normally electrically connected in series and the resistors (24, 20) in the other surface (14, 12) are normally not electrically connected with each other. When heat is applied to a region of the upper surface (12), the not-normally-connected resistors (20, 24) that underlie the region of the upper surface (12) where heat is applied are electrically connected in series with each other and are electrically connected with the corresponding other resistors (24, 20). The resistance can be measured so as to enable the location of the region or regions where heat is being applied to be identified.