Touch-Control Grill Grate Layout for Flare-Up Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional grills face issues with burner extinguishment at low temperatures posing safety hazards, difficult-to-read controls, flare-ups, hot spots, and excessive smoking, which affect cooking efficiency and safety.
Innovation Solution
A grill design featuring a touch control with sequential lighting for easy temperature adjustment, an automatic shut-off switch, and a cooking grate with openings to reduce flare-ups and smoking, along with enhanced safety features like an emergency power cut-off button and ground fault interrupt.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If conventional grills use traditional control dials and gauges, then temperature control is available, but the controls are difficult to read and require user attention that may be diverted from monitoring cooking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses color-coded LED indicators (red, yellow, green lights) to represent different temperature ranges and cooking doneness levels. This visual color-coding system allows users to quickly assess grill status and food cooking progress without needing to read numerical values or interpret complex gauge readings, directly addressing the readability issue while enabling remote monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical dials and analog gauges with electronic sensors and digital LED display indicators. This substitution eliminates the need for physical adjustment mechanisms and provides clear, easily readable visual feedback that can be monitored from a distance, reducing the need for continuous user attention.
2Productivity
If conventional grills use burners that get extremely hot, then cooking efficiency is improved, but flare-ups occur when fat or food lands on the burner
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the harmful element (extremely hot burner surface) by replacing traditional open burners with a heating element system that provides sufficient cooking heat without reaching temperatures that cause flare-ups. The heating element is positioned to provide uniform heat distribution without creating the extreme localized hot spots that trigger flare-ups when fat or food debris contacts the burner.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the harmful effect of extreme heat into a beneficial uniform heating system. By using a heating element that distributes heat evenly across the cooking surface rather than concentrating it in hot spots, the system eliminates flare-ups while maintaining cooking efficiency through improved heat distribution and consistency.
3Temperature
If conventional grills have hot spots directly above burners, then high temperature cooking is achieved, but even cooking is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by designing a heating element system that provides uniform heat distribution across the entire cooking surface. The heating element is positioned and configured to eliminate localized hot spots, ensuring that all areas of the grill maintain consistent temperatures suitable for even cooking, while still achieving the necessary cooking temperatures throughout.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the heating function into a distributed heating element system rather than a single concentrated burner. This segmentation allows heat to be applied uniformly across multiple zones of the cooking surface, eliminating hot spots and ensuring consistent temperature distribution for even cooking throughout the grill area.
4Ease of manufacture
If conventional grills allow grease to drip onto burners, then grease removal is simplified, but smoking and harmful emissions increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the source of harmful emissions by eliminating the traditional burner system that burns grease and produces smoke. The heating element system does not require combustion, so grease that drips onto the cooking surface or drainage system does not generate harmful emissions, while grease drainage functionality is maintained through the cooking grate design.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a grill having a heating element for heating food, a cooking grate positioned above the heating element and having a plurality of openings for permitting grease to pass where the plurality of openings are arranged around the heating element, and a touch control for adjusting a temperature of said heating element. The touch control has an increase button to elevate the temperature of the heating element and a decrease button to lower the temperature of the heating element. The touch control also has a plurality of lights arranged in sequential order from a first light to an nth light, wherein manipulation of the increase button or decrease button commences illumination