Transparent Glass-Ceramic Worktop for Heating and Visual Display
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional glass-ceramic cooking surfaces are limited in size and functionality, making it difficult to achieve large, flat, and versatile worktops for domestic and professional use, as they are primarily designed for cooking and lack versatility in accommodating various activities and objects.
Innovation Solution
A glass-ceramic worktop with a transparent monolithic substrate of large dimensions, enhanced light transmission, and integrated heating elements and light sources, along with a communication interface, allowing for multiple uses such as cooking, displaying information, and supporting various objects, while maintaining safety and aesthetic appeal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If glass-ceramic plates are designed with specific transmission properties for cooking hobs, then they can mask heating elements at rest and allow visual detection during operation, but they cannot accommodate objects other than heat-resistant cooking utensils and are limited to cooking functions only
Solution Approach 1:
The glass-ceramic plate is designed to perform multiple functions: cooking (with integrated heating elements), displaying visual information (through controlled light transmission), and serving as a general work surface. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction by making the plate adaptable to various uses while maintaining a unified design structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The plate's transmission properties are optimized to dynamically adapt to different operational states: at rest it masks heating elements for safety, during cooking it allows visual detection, and for display functions it permits light transmission for visual information. This dynamic behavior enables functional versatility without requiring fundamentally different designs for each function.
2Area of stationary object
If conventional glass-ceramic cooking surfaces are used, then they provide cooking functionality, but they are limited in size (surface area generally less than 0.4 m²) and lack versatility for accommodating various activities and objects
Solution Approach 1:
The large-format glass-ceramic plate (surface area greater than 0.7 m²) is designed to simultaneously support multiple functions: cooking zones with heating elements, display areas for visual information, and general work surfaces for various activities. This resolves the contradiction by providing both large area and functional versatility through integrated multi-functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The large plate is divided into distinct functional zones: cooking zones with integrated heating elements, display zones for visual information, and general work areas. This segmentation allows each zone to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall plate unity and achieving both large surface area and functional versatility.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a monolithic glass material substrate of large dimensions is used, then it provides a continuous surface for multiple uses, but it requires precise control of light transmission and opacity properties
Solution Approach 1:
The glass-ceramic material's optical parameters (light transmission, opacity, blur) are precisely controlled within specific ranges to enable multiple functions. By adjusting these parameters, the plate can mask heating elements when needed, allow visual detection during cooking, and permit light transmission for display functions, thereby achieving multi-use capability while managing manufacturing precision requirements.
4Temperature
If glass-ceramic plates are designed for cooking hobs, then they have appropriate transmission properties, but they are not intended to accommodate objects other than heat-resistant cooking utensils
Solution Approach 1:
The glass-ceramic plate maintains its heat resistance for cooking applications while simultaneously being designed to accommodate various objects including cold items, display elements, and general work surface objects. This universality resolves the contradiction by making the plate adaptable to both hot and cold objects, as well as various activities, without compromising its thermal properties.
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
The solution provides a stable, versatile, and interactive work surface that can be used for cooking, displaying information, and supporting objects, offering improved safety, comfort, and aesthetic appeal, while overcoming the limitations of traditional glass-ceramic surfaces in terms of size and functionality.
Implementation Method 1
The work surface or the equipment according to the invention having a continuous upper surface capable of simultaneously or successively allowing activities (such as work, games, reading, etc.), the support of objects (such as papers, computers, vases, dishes, etc. .), and the preparation or cooking or reheating of food in appropriate containers
Implementation Method 2
The substrate consists essentially, or even solely, of the glass material, this substrate/glass material possibly being provided with decorative or functional coatings of low thickness... with a blur less than 15% and/or a light transmission T L greater than 60%
Data Source
Figure 1~3
AI summary
The present invention relates to an advantageously interactive furniture and/or household apparatus including: at least one worktop made of at least one substrate made of a one-piece transparent glazing material with a surface area greater than 0.7 m2, said substrate more particularly being mainly or entirely bare or provided with a coating or coatings such that the resulting coated substrate has a haziness below 15% and/or a light transmission TL above 60% and/or an opacity indicator below 85; at least one heating element; at least one light source, more particularly intended to indicate one or more areas or one or more elements or displays of the substrate, this source more particularly being vertically perpendicular to the substrate for projective display, or under the substrate for transmissive display through the substrate; at least one interface for communicating with at least one element of the top such as the light source(s) and/or the heating element(s), and/or optionally with at least one external element for wireless communication; and possibly an element mounted on the substrate or worktop, more particularly such that the assembly, made of the substrate or worktop and the mounted element, has a haziness above 15%, and/or a light transmission TL below 60% and/or an opacity indicator above 85.