Sliding Cooking Heater Door Control for Pinch Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
The automatic opening/closing mechanism in sliding-drawer type cooking heaters poses a safety risk due to the potential for users' fingers or hands to be pinched or hit by the door, and slow door movements can irritate users rather than ensure safety.
Innovation Solution
The cooking heater incorporates a detection system that reverses the door's direction upon obstacle detection, adjusts closing speed before complete closure, and uses a latch structure to secure the door, allowing for safe and efficient operation by preventing pinching and impact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the door opens/closes at a fixed low speed to ensure safety, then user safety is improved, but user satisfaction deteriorates due to irritation from slow operation
Solution Approach 1:
The door opening/closing mechanism transitions from fixed speed to variable speed operation. The control unit adjusts the motor speed dynamically based on door position and detected conditions, enabling the door to move quickly when safe and slow down when approaching closed position or detecting obstacles, thus resolving the contradiction between safety and user satisfaction
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates obstacle detection feedback through sensors that monitor the door path. When an obstacle is detected, the control unit receives feedback and automatically adjusts the door speed and direction, enabling safe operation without requiring manually slow fixed speed, thereby improving both safety and user satisfaction
2Productivity
If the door moves quickly to improve operation efficiency, then user satisfaction is improved, but safety deteriorates due to risk of pinching or hitting users
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit performs preliminary actions by slowing down the door before it reaches the closed position and before potential obstacle zones. This preliminary speed reduction prevents pinching or hitting risks while maintaining overall quick operation, thus improving both safety and efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
Real-time obstacle detection feedback enables the system to maintain high speed when the path is clear and automatically reduce speed or reverse when obstacles are detected, resolving the contradiction between quick operation and safety by adapting speed to actual conditions
Data Source
AI summary
In a cooking heater having an automatically opening/closing door, when a lock determination unit detects that transmission of a torque of a driving unit is stopped by detecting an abrupt deceleration, which suggests that an obstacle to the movement of an opening/closing door that is opening/closing is detected, an operation instructing unit operates the opening/closing door in an opposite direction. Further, in the closing operation of the opening/closing door, when an opening/closing door position calculating unit detects the position ahead of a completely closed position at which the opening/closing door is completely closed by the action of an intermediate switch during the closing operation of the opening/closing door, the operating instruction unit lowers the closing speed of the opening/closing door of the operation instruction unit to prevent such a situation that a user's finger or hand is caught in the opening/closing door.