Modular domestic cooking appliance with customizable cooking bays/ modules
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional domestic cooking appliances have a fixed configuration of heat generating devices, making customization challenging and impractical for manufacturers to produce a wide array of configurations with multiple types of heating elements, such as gas burners, resistive heaters, and induction heaters, due to the complexity and cost of wiring and connectors.
Innovation Solution
A domestic cooking appliance with modular bays and a controller that automatically detects and identifies different types of modules based on jumper configurations between pins, allowing for interchangeable modules like gas burners, resistive heaters, griddles, and induction heaters, and managing electrical current to prevent excessive consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a wide array of different heating devices and configurations are provided to meet customization needs, then adaptability and versatility are improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal connector design that can accommodate multiple types of heating devices (gas burners, resistive heaters, induction heaters, griddles, grills, steamers) through a single standardized interface. The connector includes multiple pins that can be selectively activated based on the module type, allowing one wiring harness design to support all device configurations without requiring custom wiring for each variant.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses jumper configurations on the connector pins to encode different module types. By changing the electrical connectivity parameters (which pins are jumped/connected) rather than the physical connector structure, the system can identify and adapt to various module types dynamically, reducing the need for hardware variations.
2Adaptability or versatility
If all possible electrical connections and connectors are included for every configuration, then adaptability is improved, but ease of manufacture deteriorates due to cumbersome and expensive wiring harnesses
Solution Approach 1:
A single universal wiring harness design with standardized connectors is used across all configurations. The connector includes all possible pin connections in a standardized layout, but not all pins are necessarily activated for each module type. This allows manufacturers to produce one type of wiring harness for all configurations rather than creating multiple custom harnesses.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the configuration-specific information from the physical wiring structure and encodes it in jumper settings on the connector pins. This separates the universal connector hardware from the specific configuration requirements, allowing the wiring harness to remain simple and standardized while still supporting multiple configurations through selective pin activation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple custom parts and configurations are designed for each possible setup, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity and part variety increase excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a universal bay and connector design that can accommodate all module types without requiring custom mounting structures or specialized connectors for each device type. The standardized interface and bay design reduce the number of unique parts needed while maintaining the ability to support diverse cooking modules.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple configuration options are merged into a single standardized platform. Rather than creating separate hardware variants for different configurations, the patent combines all configuration possibilities into one universal bay design with selectable pin connections, reducing part variety while maintaining configuration flexibility.
Data Source
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AI summary
A domestic cooking appliance (100) includes a plurality of bays (104a-104d; 108a-108b) adapted to receive a plurality of different types of modules (106, 110, 114); a module (106, 110, 114) connected to a bay (104a-104d; 108a-108b) of the plurality of bays (104a-104d; 108a-108b); and a controller (120), wherein the controller (120) is adapted to determine the bay (104a-104d; 108a-108b) in which the module (106, 110, 114) is connected and a type of the module (106, 110, 114) of the plurality of different types of modules (106, 110, 114). A method of controlling a domestic cooking appliance (100) includes connecting a module (106, 110, 114) of a plurality of different types of modules (106, 110, 114) to the domestic cooking appliance (100); determining a type of the module (106, 110, 114); determining a position where the module (106, 110, 114) is connected out of a plurality of possible positions; and displaying the type and the location of the module (106, 110, 114) on a display (112) of the domestic cooking appliance (100).