Oven Rack Glider Structure for Warp-Resistant Manufacturing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing oven racks face manufacturing complexity and dimensional stability issues due to numerous bends, flattened areas, and a continuous perimeter rail, leading to increased production costs and potential warping, which affects their mounting and operation.
Innovation Solution
A simplified oven rack design featuring two planar side panels with straight cross members and traveling gliders, eliminating the perimeter rail and associated bends, to reduce manufacturing steps and enhance dimensional stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a continuous perimeter rail with numerous bends and flattened areas is used, then the rack can be mounted in gliders, but manufacturing complexity and production costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous perimeter rail is divided into separate modular components: side rails with U-shaped bends and longitudinal rails with L-shaped bends. Each segment can be manufactured independently through simple bending operations, then assembled together. This segmentation eliminates the need for complex continuous rail fabrication with multiple bends and flattened areas, significantly reducing manufacturing complexity while maintaining the mounting functionality in gliders.
2Ease of manufacture
If numerous bends and flattened areas are applied to side rails, then gliders can be mounted to the rack, but the number of manufacturing steps increases
Solution Approach 1:
The U-shaped bends are pre-formed on the side rails and the L-shaped bends are pre-formed on the longitudinal rails during the initial bending process. These preliminary bending actions create the necessary mounting features (flattened areas with openings) as an integral part of the rail segments, eliminating the need for subsequent separate flattening and opening creation steps. This preliminary action significantly reduces the total number of manufacturing steps and production time.
3Stability of the object's composition
If a continuous perimeter rail is fabricated from one rod through numerous bends, then the rack structure is formed, but dimensional stability deteriorates causing warping
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous perimeter rail is segmented into separate side rails and longitudinal rails that are assembled together. Each segment is relatively simple in shape with fewer bends, reducing internal stresses that cause warping. The modular assembly allows for better dimensional control and stability compared to a single continuous rail subjected to numerous bends, while the overall rack structure is formed by combining these stable segments.
4Ease of manufacture
If multiple welds are used to join rails and form perimeter, then the rack structure is completed, but manufacturing complexity and production costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The rack is divided into modular segments (side rails with U-shaped bends, longitudinal rails with L-shaped bends) that can be manufactured separately with minimal or no welding. The segmentation allows each component to be produced as a near-final part, reducing the need for extensive welding operations to join multiple rail sections. This approach significantly reduces the quantity of welds required while maintaining structural integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
A home appliance having an oven rack including an appliance body having a plurality of oven walls defining an oven cavity; an oven rack for removable disposition in the oven cavity, wherein the oven rack includes two flat side panels and a plurality of straight cross members extending laterally therebetween to define a cooking vessel support surface; and a pair of traveling gliders wherein each glider includes a channel configured for receipt of one of the side panels wherein the oven rack can travel in and out of the oven cavity supported at the side panels by the traveling gliders.