Oven appliance and methods for high-heat cooking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional oven appliances struggle with providing localized, high-heat cooking without overheating or damaging the appliance, leading to inconsistent cooking results, especially when cooking multiple items in quick succession.
Innovation Solution
An oven appliance with a top heating element and temperature sensors, controlled by a controller to initiate preheat and cooking cycles with specific time intervals, allowing for localized high-heat cooking without overheating the appliance, and enabling quick succession of cooking cycles without complete deactivation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If a pan is placed closer to a bottom heating element to heat the pan faster or to a higher temperature, then the pan heating speed and temperature are improved, but the pan or trapped heat may damage portions of the oven appliance
Solution Approach 1:
A cooking plate is introduced as an intermediary component between the bottom heating element and the food pan. The cooking plate directly contacts the heating element to absorb and concentrate heat, then transfers it to the pan through conduction. This intermediary allows the pan to reach high temperatures without placing the pan itself in direct contact with the extreme heat source, preventing damage to both the pan and oven appliance.
Solution Approach 2:
The heating function is segmented into two distinct components: a bottom heating element that generates heat and a cooking plate that distributes and regulates it. This segmentation allows the heating element to operate at high temperatures without directly heating the pan to damaging levels, as the cooking plate acts as a heat buffer and distribution medium.
2Productivity
If heat is trapped or localized too much from the bottom, then the pan heating efficiency is improved, but certain portions of a food item may be burned without sufficiently cooking the rest
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by concentrating heat at the bottom cooking surface through the cooking plate while simultaneously enabling top-down heat application. This creates a temperature gradient that is intentionally non-uniform at the source (hotter at the bottom) but results in uniform cooking throughout the food item due to heat penetration from both directions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines bottom heating (through the cooking plate) and top heating (through the broiler element) into a single cooking system. This merging of heating sources from opposite directions allows efficient heat transfer to the pan while ensuring uniform cooking of the food item, preventing burning on one side while the other side remains undercooked.
3Temperature
If all heating elements are deactivated to cool the cooking chamber between cooking items, then the cooking chamber temperature is reduced, but multiple items cannot be cooked in quick succession
Solution Approach 1:
The cooking plate is preheated to a high temperature before the actual cooking cycle begins. This preliminary heating action stores thermal energy in the cooking plate, allowing it to maintain high cooking surface temperatures even when the heating elements are deactivated between cooking items. The stored heat in the cooking plate enables rapid succession of cooking cycles without requiring full chamber cooling.
4Stability of the object's composition
If conventional heating elements are used with diffuse heat distribution, then the cooking chamber temperature is uniform, but localized high-heat cooking cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements local quality by creating a focused high-heat zone at the bottom cooking surface through the cooking plate, while the rest of the cooking chamber maintains more uniform temperatures. This allows localized high-heat cooking (such as for pizza or bread) without requiring the entire chamber to be heated to extreme temperatures, thus achieving both localized intensity and overall stability.
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
This solution ensures consistent high-heat cooking on a specific surface while preventing overheating, allowing for efficient cooking of multiple items without damaging the appliance or resulting in burnt food.
Implementation Method 1
The top heating element may be mounted above the cooking surface to heat the cooking chamber
Implementation Method 2
The temperature sensor may be disposed within the cabinet and may include a temperature sensor mounted on the cooking plate and/or a temperature sensor mounted on a chamber wall
Implementation Method 3
heat from the bake heating assembly is thus forced to rise through an air gap, and any other intermediate elements, between the bake heating assembly and the wire rack
Implementation Method 4
Heat within the cooking chamber is relatively diffuse
Data Source
AI summary
An oven appliance may include a cabinet, a plurality of chamber walls, a cooking surface, a top heating element, a temperature sensor, and a controller. The cooking surface may be defined in a cooking chamber. The top heating element may be mounted above the cooking surface to heat the cooking chamber. The temperature sensor may be disposed within the cabinet. The controller may be configured to initiate a cooking operation that includes initiating preheat activation of the top heating element, receiving temperature signals from the temperature sensor during the preheat activation, determining a preheat threshold is met based on the received temperature signals, and initiating cooking activation of the top heating element based on a cooking cycle having a predetermined time interval subsequent to determining the preheat threshold is met. Initiating cooking activation may include directing the top heating element based on the cooking cycle for the predetermined time interval.