Glass-Ceramic Worktop Design for Multi-Functional Interactive Surfaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cooktops, especially glass-ceramic ones, are limited in size and functionality, making it difficult to produce large, flat, and versatile surfaces for both cooking and other activities, and they are not designed for multiple uses beyond cooking.
Innovation Solution
A worktop made from a monolithic glazing material with a large area, low lightness, and low light transmission, integrated with heating elements and light sources, allowing for various activities and functions, including cooking, and equipped with an interface for wireless communication, enabling a multiuse interactive surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional glass-ceramic plates are used for cooktops, then they provide good thermal resistance and aesthetic appeal, but they are limited in size (typically smaller than 0.4 m2) and functionality (exclusively for cooking)
Solution Approach 1:
The worktop is designed to perform multiple functions beyond cooking, including serving as a dining surface, workspace, or display area. The substrate integrates both cooking zones and non-cooking zones, allowing the same surface to be used for food preparation, dining, or other activities, thereby achieving multi-functionality while maintaining a large area of over 0.7 m2.
2Illumination intensity
If the substrate lightness L* is lowered to mask heating elements when off, then visibility of underlying elements is improved, but light transmission decreases making it harder to detect heating elements when on
Solution Approach 1:
The substrate uses a specific lightness value L* lower than 10 to create a dark appearance that masks heating elements when they are off. However, when heating elements are activated, they emit light or heat that changes the visual properties of the substrate, allowing users to detect the active zones despite the dark base color. This color/visibility change enables both masking and detection functions.
3Area of stationary object
If glass-ceramic plates are made larger than 0.4 m2, then they can provide more surface area for activities, but they become difficult to obtain with conventional processes and have problems with flatness and handling
Solution Approach 1:
The invention specifies precise parameter ranges for the substrate, including lightness L* lower than 10, haze lower than 30%, and light transmission lower than 10%. These parameter changes define the optical properties of the glass-ceramic material to achieve the desired dark appearance with adequate masking effect while maintaining manufacturability of large surfaces over 0.7 m2 with acceptable flatness.
4Reliability
If conventional multilayer ceramic cooktops are used, then they provide good thermal performance, but they have substantial thickness (about 12 mm) and are complex to produce
Solution Approach 1:
The worktop uses a composite structure consisting of a glass-ceramic substrate with integrated heating elements and light sources. This composite material approach combines the thermal performance of ceramic materials with the aesthetic and functional properties of glass-ceramic, while integrating multiple functions (heating, lighting, display) into a single unified structure rather than separate layers, thereby reducing production complexity.
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, ergonomic, and safe surface for multiple uses, enhancing functionality beyond cooking, while maintaining the advantages of glass-ceramic materials like thermal resistance and aesthetic appeal, and overcoming the challenges of producing large, flat, and functional cooktops.
Implementation Method 1
at least one heating element (in particular under the substrate and hidden by the latter when this heating element is not in operation/is turned off)
Implementation Method 2
at least one light source, in particular intended to light up (make visible) one or more zones (such as heated zones) or one or more elements or displays (for example an indicator of an operational state or a power indicator) of the substrate, especially via the transmission of light through the substrate
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to an advantageously interactive item of furniture and/or appliance comprising:at least one worktop formed from at least one substrate made of a monolithic glazing material and of area larger than 0.7 m2, said substrate having a lightness L* lower than 10, a haze lower than 30% and a light transmission TL lower than 10%;at least one heating element;at least one light source, in particular intended to light up one or more zones or one or more elements or displays of the substrate, this source in particular being located under the substrate and being hidden thereby when said source is at rest; andat least one interface for communicating with at least one element of the worktop such as the one or more light sources and/or the one or more heating elements and/or if needs be wirelessly with at least one external element.