Steamer Loading Interface for Multi-Zone Cooking Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cooking appliances lack user-friendliness and efficient space utilization, particularly when handling multiple food items across different treatment zones, leading to potential undercooking or overcooking due to the operator's difficulty in tracking the placement and cooking status of food items.
Innovation Solution
The cooking appliance automatically assigns and displays the most suitable treatment zones for each food item based on cooking time and energy optimization, allowing for easy reconfiguration of loading as needed, using a touchscreen interface to simplify the process and ensure optimal cooking results.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple food items are placed in different treatment zones of a treatment level, then the cooking space utilization is improved, but the operator's ability to track and manage each food item's placement and cooking status deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit provides automatic feedback by displaying on the touchscreen which treatment zones are occupied and their respective cooking statuses. This eliminates the need for operators to manually track food placement, as the system continuously monitors and presents the information, resolving the contradiction between high space utilization and ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-monitoring and self-display of treatment zone occupancy and cooking status. The control unit automatically detects which zones are occupied and presents this information without requiring operator intervention or memory, allowing the system to serve itself in tracking its own state while maximizing cooking capacity.
2Productivity
If treatment levels are loaded with multiple food items requiring different cooking times, then the cooking capacity is improved, but the risk of undercooking or overcooking food items increases
Solution Approach 1:
The treatment chamber is segmented into multiple independently controllable treatment zones, each capable of being assigned to different food items with specific cooking requirements. The control unit manages each zone separately, allowing different cooking times and parameters for different food items simultaneously, thus maintaining cooking reliability while increasing overall capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically assigns and reassigns treatment zones to different food items based on their specific cooking requirements. The control unit can adaptively manage cooking processes in real-time, adjusting parameters for each zone independently to ensure each food item receives appropriate treatment, preventing undercooking or overcooking while maximizing cooking capacity.
3Ease of operation
If a touchscreen interface is used to display treatment zone status, then the user-friendliness is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The physical treatment zones are represented as visual copies on the touchscreen interface. Each treatment zone has a corresponding graphical representation that displays its occupancy and status, providing an intuitive visual copy of the physical state that enhances user-friendliness without requiring complex manual tracking mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The mechanical and manual tracking system is replaced with an electronic touchscreen interface controlled by a control unit. This substitution of mechanical tracking with electronic display and control simplifies the user interaction while managing the complexity internally through automated sensing and processing systems.
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 enhances user-friendliness and resource optimization by ensuring that food is cooked uniformly and efficiently, reducing the risk of errors and allowing for seamless handling of varying food sizes and cooking times.
Implementation Method 1
a first treatment zone (200) arranged in the first treatment level (2) and assigned with a first cooking time (220) for a first food item (210)
Implementation Method 2
monitoring of the corresponding actual cooking product status variables, such as the core temperature, for the different cooking products in the different treatment levels can be ensured via a plurality of, preferably wireless, measuring sensors
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
The steamer has a cooked food conditioning device, a controlling or regulating device and a display and operating device. The cooking chamber has a horizontally extended conditioning plane. Each conditioning plane has two conditioning zones and each conditioning zone is assigned to a parameter. The display and operating device has a display field for each conditioning zone. An independent claim is included for a method for cooking cooked food in a cooking chamber of a steamer.