Program control and display system for a cooking appliance

Details Program control and display system for a cooking appliance Program control and display system for a cooking appliance

1999-09-01

2001-07-03

Paschall, Mark (Department: 3742)

Electric heating

Heating devices

With power supply and voltage or current regulation or...

C219S483000, C219S506000, C219S414000, C219S395000, C099S328000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06255630

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of appliances and, more particularly, to a system used to control the programming and display for a cooking appliance.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Many cooking appliances available in the marketplace today incorporate electronic controls. A typical electronically controlled cooking appliance will be provided with a control system used for selecting an operating mode and time. It is also known to incorporate a visual display as part of the appliance, with the control system determining the information presented in the display. More modern systems generally utilize alpha-numeric displays to convey to the user both a mode and time for a desired cooking operation.
However, prior systems do not enable the programming or information displaying of successive cooking operations. That is, it would be convenient to be able to program a cooking appliance to perform multiple cooking operations and to be able to display information concerning each of the cooking operations. For instance, during a first cooking operation within a cooking cavity, it would be convenient to be able to program a second cooking operation to follow the first cooking operation in the same cooking cavity. In addition, it would be beneficial to be able to display information to the user concerning the second cooking operation, such as the time until the start of the second cooking operation, while the first cooking operation is in progress.
Known cooking appliances including programming and displaying features are generally pre-programmed with fixed set-up parameters, such as the type of clock display, temperature scale, display illumination level and duration of an end of cooking operation signal. To be more user friendly and adaptive to the particular environment of use, it would be beneficial to provide a cooking appliance control system having at least certain set-up parameters which could be altered by a consumer such that the appliance can be, to some extent, customized.
Based on the above, there exists a need in the art for a cooking appliance which can be conveniently programmed to perform and display information concerning successive cooking operations. In addition, there exists a need in the art for a cooking appliance incorporating a control system which permits the modification of pre-set operating parameters of the appliance, such that the appliance can be somewhat customized by a consumer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a cooking appliance is provided with a program control and display system that enables successive cooking operations for a single oven cavity to be established and permits the display of information to a user concerning both cooking operations. In particular, the cooking appliance can be programmed to perform successive cooking operations, such as a baking operation after a toasting operation. For instance, when a first cooking operation is already underway, a second operation can be programmed, with the display indicating the different cooking operations selected, as well as the amount of time before the second operation will be initiated.
The control system of the present invention is designed to ease the inputting of program information by a user, as well as to convey status information to the user. Furthermore, the system can be re-programmed by a user in order to change default set-up parameters. For example, the control system can be modified to change the display language, temperature scale, display illumination level, display scrolling speed and end-of-operation audible signaling duration.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts in the several views.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4328408 (1982-05-01), Lawson
patent: 4390766 (1983-06-01), Horinouchi
patent: 4636621 (1987-01-01), McGeorge
patent: 4687910 (1987-08-01), Aoshima et al.
patent: 4761540 (1988-08-01), McGeorge
patent: 5272300 (1993-12-01), Edamura et al.
patent: 5398597 (1995-03-01), Jones et al.

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