Device for cooking food
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional devices for cooking egg-based foods face challenges in maintaining precise positioning of inner and outer tubes and ensuring uniform filling of the ring gap, leading to issues with centric alignment and air pockets during the cooking process.
Innovation Solution
A device with an elongated outer tube and inner tube, featuring a cup-shaped end piece with passage openings and a centric guide opening, allows for easy centric positioning and filling of the ring gap, while a thermocouple or float integrated into the end piece enables temperature and fill level monitoring, and bayonet pins ensure secure attachment and easy cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the inner tube is inserted inside the outer tube without positioning aids, then the device structure remains simple, but the inner tube cannot be precisely and centrically positioned within the outer tube
Solution Approach 1:
The end piece serves as an intermediary component that mediates between the inner tube and outer tube. It provides the centric guide opening that receives and guides the inner tube, ensuring precise centric positioning without requiring complex mechanical positioning systems. The end piece acts as a mediator that translates the simple insertion action into precise centric alignment.
2Manufacturing precision
If the ring gap is filled from the top without ventilation, then filling is straightforward, but air pockets form inside the ring gap preventing homogeneous filling
Solution Approach 1:
The end piece is segmented into multiple functional zones: filling openings for material input, ventilation openings for air escape, and partition walls that separate and direct flows. This segmentation allows simultaneous filling and ventilation operations, enabling homogeneous filling by dividing the filling process into controlled pathways that prevent air pocket formation.
Solution Approach 2:
The ventilation openings in the end piece act as intermediary channels that facilitate air escape during filling. These openings mediate between the incoming filling material and the trapped air, providing a controlled pathway for air to escape while material fills the ring gap, thus preventing air pocket formation.
3Manufacturing precision
If the inner tube is held in place during insertion, then centric positioning is achieved, but the handling and positioning operation becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The centric guide opening in the end piece enables the inner tube to self-center during insertion. The geometric constraint of the guide opening automatically guides the inner tube into centric position without requiring external positioning actions or complex handling procedures. The system serves itself by using the geometry of the guide opening to achieve precise positioning.
Data Source
AI summary
A device for cooking food, the device includes an elongate outer tube which can be sealed at its lower end and an elongate inner tube, the outer diameter of which is smaller than the inner diameter of the outer tube such that the inner tube can be inserted longitudinally into the outer tube thereby forming an annular gap between the inner tube and the outer tube. A closing piece can be placed on an open upper end of the outer tube and can be fastened thereto. At least one passage opening is formed in an end face of the closing piece, which passage opening is aligned with the annular gap, in such a way that the annular gap can be filled from the outside through the passage opening when the closing piece is placed on the upper end of the outer tube.