Waffle Mold Overflow Venting With Dough Recovery Tray
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing molds for cooking dough-based foods like waffles and donuts suffer from dough overflow due to steam accumulation, leading to malformed products and tedious cleaning, as the peripheral wall does not effectively manage the expansion pressure and steam release.
Innovation Solution
The mold features a peripheral wall with a discharge portion that allows excess dough to escape through a controlled opening, preventing steam from trapping and ensuring even cooking, with a recovery tank to collect the excess dough and facilitate cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a peripheral wall is used to prevent dough overflow, then dough containment is improved, but steam accumulation causes dough to escape anyway leading to malformed food and cleaning issues
Solution Approach 1:
The peripheral wall is segmented into a first portion and a second portion, with the first portion having a first height and the second portion having a second height greater than the first height. This segmentation allows the lower section to contain dough while the upper section provides overflow protection, resolving the contradiction between containment and shape quality.
Solution Approach 2:
A non-stick coating is applied as an intermediary layer on the peripheral wall surfaces. This coating prevents dough from adhering to the wall during cooking and overflow, allowing smooth dough release and eliminating the need for extensive cleaning, thus resolving the contradiction between containment reliability and manufacturing precision.
2Reliability
If a peripheral wall extends vertically beyond the median plane to contain dough, then dough overflow is prevented, but cleaning becomes tedious due to dough baked on the wall and baking sheet
Solution Approach 1:
A non-stick coating is applied as an intermediary layer on the peripheral wall surfaces. This coating prevents dough from adhering to the wall during cooking and overflow, allowing smooth dough release and eliminating the need for extensive cleaning, thus resolving the contradiction between containment reliability and manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The non-stick coating acts as a sacrificial layer that protects the underlying peripheral wall from dough adhesion and burning. While the coating may degrade over time, it is easily reapplied, providing a cost-effective solution that maintains containment functionality while eliminating cleaning difficulties.
3Stress or pressure
If steam accumulates in the upper part of the cooking chamber, then dough is forced to escape over the periphery, but this creates aesthetic defects and requires additional cleaning
Solution Approach 1:
The peripheral wall is segmented into a first portion and a second portion, with the first portion having a first height and the second portion having a second height greater than the first height. This segmentation allows the lower section to contain dough while the upper section provides overflow protection, resolving the contradiction between containment and shape quality.
Solution Approach 2:
A non-stick coating is applied as an intermediary layer on the peripheral wall surfaces. This coating prevents dough from adhering to the wall during cooking and overflow, allowing smooth dough release and eliminating the need for extensive cleaning, thus resolving the contradiction between containment reliability and manufacturing precision.
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 design prevents dough overflow, ensures uniform cooking, and simplifies cleaning by allowing controlled dough evacuation and steam release, resulting in aesthetically pleasing and easily maintained waffles.
Implementation Method 1
a mold for making a food based on a dough which swells under heat
Implementation Method 2
the pressure exerted by the expansion of the dough and by the steam generated by the cooking of the latter
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
The mold e.g. waffle iron (1) for preparing a batter based food puffs under heat, comprises two subsets of ovens (2, 3) moving with respect to the other between an open position for laying the batter and removing the baked food and a closed position in which the subsets define a baking chamber, and a removable batter recovery tray present outside the baking chamber. Each subset of oven comprises an upper baking plate (5) and a lower baking plate (4) both providing a shape to the food, which is obtained by baking of the batter. The lower baking plate comprises a peripheral wall (10). The mold e.g. waffle iron (1) for preparing a batter based food puffs under heat, comprises two subsets of ovens (2, 3) moving with respect to the other between an open position for laying the batter and removing the baked food and a closed position in which the subsets define a baking chamber, and a removable batter recovery tray present outside the baking chamber. Each subset of oven comprises an upper baking plate (5) and a lower baking plate (4) both providing a shape to the food, which is obtained by baking of the batter. The lower baking plate comprises a peripheral wall (10) defining the chamber and extending vertically above the plane of the chamber. The peripheral wall comprises a drop forming an opening on an evacuation portion (11). The opening allows the evacuation of a surplus batter by expansion. The evacuation portion is located on the side of the mold, where articulation is present between the two oven sub-sets and present about one eighth of the wall. Each baking plate comprises teeth separated from each other by grooves. The peripheral wall present outside the evacuation portion reaches a level more closer to a bottom plane of the upper baking plate than the median plane of the baking chamber, and the level of the groove bottom of the upper baking plate. The recovery tray comprises a recovery edge extending at its side that is adjacent to the evacuation portion and reaching the evacuation portion. The recovery edge forms a unit for fixing the tray with the lower sub-set, and comprises an immobilization groove in which a falling edge of the evacuation portion is present.