Removable Paddle Ice Cream Maker with Hardness Sensor
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ice cream makers face challenges in easily filling and removing the dessert mixture, and they often produce ice cream of a single hardness, making it difficult to achieve desired consistency and texture variations.
Innovation Solution
A device with a rotatable paddle and a cooling chamber that uses sensors to detect the hardness of the ice cream mixture, controlling the paddle and cooling elements to maintain a selected hardness, and allows for easy filling and removal of the mixture through a removable bucket system with a pivoting paddle mechanism.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a fixed paddle mechanism is used in traditional ice cream makers, then the structure is simple, but it is difficult to remove the frozen dessert from the reservoir
Solution Approach 1:
The paddle assembly is made movable relative to the reservoir, transitioning from a static fixed position to a dynamic removable position. The paddle can be detached from the drive shaft and removed along with the frozen dessert, solving the difficulty of dessert removal while maintaining operational simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The paddle mechanism is divided into separable components: the paddle assembly that contacts the dessert and the drive shaft that provides power. This segmentation allows the paddle to be removed independently with the dessert while the drive mechanism remains in the reservoir.
2Adaptability or versatility
If traditional ice cream makers use a single freezing mechanism, then the device is simple, but they can only produce ice cream of a single hardness
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows adjustment of freezing parameters including temperature and freezing time to produce ice cream at different hardness levels. The processor module controls the freezing process parameters to achieve user-selected consistency and texture variations.
Solution Approach 2:
A sensor module detects the hardness of the ice cream mixture during freezing and provides feedback to the processor module, which adjusts the freezing process to maintain the selected hardness level, enabling versatile ice cream production.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a sensor module and processor module are added to control hardness, then adaptability improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor module replaces manual hardness assessment with automated detection, and the processor module replaces manual control adjustments with automated electronic control of the freezing process, improving adaptability while keeping the interface simple.
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
Enables easy filling and removal of the ice cream mixture while ensuring consistent hardness and texture, allowing for user selection of ice cream type and hardness levels, improving the overall ice cream making process.
Implementation Method 1
a cooling chamber supported by the body for containing an ice-cream mixture, the cooling chamber being associated with a cooling element for cooling the ice-cream mixture
Implementation Method 2
a sensor module for detecting a hardness measure of the ice-cream mixture
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus for making a frozen dessert. The apparatus including a reservoir located within a chassis for receiving a liquid dessert mixture and a rotatable paddle located within the reservoir. The paddle can have a body coupled to at least one respective scraper element by a living hinge, such that the scraper element has a scraping edge that is radially-outward biased by the living hinge for abuttingly engaging a wall of the reservoir. The reservoir and the axis of rotation can be substantially horizontally directed, with a substantially vertically-orientated lid closing an opening of the reservoir, the lid defining an aperture for receiving the mixture or enabling egress of the frozen dessert.