Apparatus with a mixing device for cooking food

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing cooking apparatuses face challenges in effectively mixing foods in containers with irregular shapes, discontinuities, or sharp edges, leading to food deposition and incrustation issues due to inadequate reach by traditional mixing blades.

Innovation Solution

A mixing device with an upending element and translation element, featuring a terminal cleaning element made of flexible material, which can adapt to the internal container's geometry to lift and remove food from hard-to-reach areas, ensuring thorough mixing and cleaning.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If a traditional rigid mixing blade is used, then effective mixing is achieved for standard containers, but mixing effectiveness deteriorates in containers with irregular shapes, discontinuities, or sharp edges

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveadaptability to different container shapesVSAvoidmixing effectiveness

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The mixing blade incorporates a flexible element that can deform and adapt to the internal geometry of the container, including irregular shapes, discontinuities, and sharp edges. This flexibility allows the blade to maintain contact with all surfaces of the container during rotation, ensuring reliable mixing effectiveness across various container configurations without requiring multiple specialized blades.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #30Flexible shells and thin films

2Device complexity

If a rigid mixing blade is used, then structural simplicity is maintained, but food deposition and incrustation occur in hard-to-reach areas

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveblade structure complexityVSAvoidfood deposition and incrustation

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The flexible element of the mixing blade can conform to the container's internal surfaces, reaching into corners, discontinuities, and irregular geometries that rigid blades cannot access. This eliminates food deposition and incrustation in hard-to-reach areas while adding minimal complexity to the blade structure, as the flexibility is achieved through material selection rather than complex mechanisms.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #30Flexible shells and thin films

3Ease of manufacture

If the mixing blade is made of non-flexible material, then manufacturing simplicity is achieved, but cleaning effectiveness deteriorates in irregular container geometries

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveblade manufacturing simplicityVSAvoidincrustation in difficult-to-reach zones

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The flexible element can be manufactured using conventional techniques with flexible materials, maintaining ease of production. The key advantage is that once installed, the flexible blade automatically adapts to the container geometry during operation, providing self-cleaning action in irregular zones without requiring complex manufacturing processes or assembly procedures.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #30Flexible shells and thin films

Data Source

PatentEP3307124B1Apparatus with a mixing device for cooking food

Publication Date: 2019.08.28 DE LONGHI APPLIANCES SRL

Figure 1~2
Figure 3~5
Figure 6~7

AI summary

Apparatus for cooking foods that comprises an external container (12) with protective lid (13) of the openable type, and an extractable internal container (11). The internal container (11) is open at the top and has a base wall (14) and at least one lateral wall (15), a heating device (28) connected to a possible mean to transfer the heat generated (31) toward the surface of the internal container (11) and a mixing device (16) reciprocally mobile with respect to the internal container (11).