Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – Automatic control
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-09
2001-07-31
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 3742)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
Automatic control
C099S337000, C099S342000, C099S355000, C099S417000, C099S467000, C099S476000, C099S516000, C219S386000, C219S401000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267045
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to a cooking device with a cooking chamber, a heating device, a circulating system, an energy storage and extraction system and a measuring and regulating system, which is connected to the heating device, the circulating system and the energy storage and extraction system.
Conventional cooking devices are usually uneconomical, to the extent that their components are operated with externally supplied energy.
For example, DE 197 57 415 C1 discloses a cooking device with heat recirculation, in which a heat transfer fluid flows through a heating heat exchanger which emits heat to the cooking medium of the cooking device. The temperature of the heat transfer fluid is increased by compression upstream of the heating heat exchanger, if appropriate with a preheating device arranged ahead.
DE 23 34 285 A1 discloses a cooking device of the generic type with a heat accumulator, from which stored thermal energy can be extracted at desired times of limited duration and can be delivered to a cooking air stream. Used for this purpose is a monolithic heat accumulator block, which can be integrated in the cooking device only poorly, tends to crack, usually also has poor thermodynamic properties and is not capable of satisfactorily covering high and low temperature ranges.
DE 2 229 939 A1 discloses a heat accumulator, which is made up of individual shaped blocks, for a cooking device. At least part of the air stream thermally preparing a food can be blown through the accumulator.
A latent heat accumulating means as part of a condenser of a cooking device is known from DE 41 06 348 A1.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to develop the cooking device of the generic type further in such a way that it overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art, and in particular permits optimized energy regulation for a large temperature range.
This object is achieved according to the invention by the energy storage and extraction system comprising at least a first energy store for accommodating a first material, which is suitable for accumulating heat and/or consumes or releases latent heat during a phase transition, and at least a second energy store for accommodating a second material, which is suitable for accumulating cold and can be charged with heat and/or cold energy inductively, resistively and/or convectively.
Furthermore, it may be provided that the first energy store can be charged with energy by means of a heating device, preferably in cooking phases which require no or little energy, and/or breaks in cooking, and/or by means of waste heat, such as heat from waste air, condensate, the non-condensed part of a cooking medium and/or excess steam.
Furthermore, it may be provided that the first material comprises a metal, a salt, a polymer, water, steam and/or superheated steam.
The second material may comprise a metal, a salt, a polymer, water and/or iron.
According to the invention, it is preferred that the first and/or second energy store of the energy storage and extraction system is or are arranged in a space-saving manner in an insulating skin of the cooking device.
Furthermore, it may be provided that the energy stored in the energy storage and extraction system can be used in the form of thermal, electrical and/or mechanical energy in the cooking device, in particular for at least partly operating the heating device, the circulating system, a moisture-regulating device, a steam generator and/or a cooling unit, by using the measuring and regulating system.
Furthermore, it may be provided that energy can be extracted from the energy storage and extraction system convectively, in particular via at least one heat transfer surface.
Furthermore, it is proposed according to the invention that energy can be extracted from the energy storage and extraction system by restriction and/or compression, preferably of a steam that is present as the first material, by adding water and/or vaporizing water on hot walls, in particular for vaporizing water and/or heating a cooking process.
It is also proposed according to the invention that energy can be extracted from the energy storage and extraction system by expansion and/or relaxation, preferably of a medium that is present as the second material, in particular for cooling the cooking chamber, freezing cooking ingredients before and/or after cooking, and/or condensing out vapors from the cooking chamber.
Finally, a preferred further development according to the invention is proposed, in which the measuring and regulating system ensures that the maintaining of a cooking process always has highest priority.
The invention is consequently based on the surprising finding that, by fitting an energy storage and extraction system which comprises at least one heat accumulator and at least one cold accumulator and is connected to the measuring and regulating system already present in a conventional cooking device, the power consumption can be reduced by operating a heating device, a steam generator, a fan, a cooling unit, a humidity regulating unit etc. in a regulated manner, with simultaneous utilization of waste heat and/or cold, by controlled and simple extraction of stored energy, without conventional cooking devices having to be converted.
In this process, an energy store can, for example during breaks in cooking, which always occur in the case of batch operation or as a result of the cooking sequence, and/or in cooking phases in which a cooking process requires little or no energy, be charged by means of a, possibly additional, heating device, which is controlled by the measuring and regulating system, in accordance with a priority hierarchy, for ensuring an undisturbed sequence of a cooking process, or by the heat from waste air emerging from the cooking chamber or emerging excess steam. Then during high energy cooking phases, in which the cooking process requires a large amount of energy, then system is able to extract more energy from the energy store than the heating device installed for heating the cooking ingredients can deliver.
Cooking processes with high energy consumption can also be speeded up by using a cooking device according to the invention, in particular at the beginning. If, for example, the energy store is rated at a capacity of 2 kWh and its energy is extracted in the first 10 minutes of cooking, this produces a power increase of 12 kW, that is to say that, with a heating power of 9 kW, in the first 10 minutes of cooking 21 kW are made available to the cooking process.
The presence of a heat accumulator and a cold accumulator also allows something being cooked to be frozen, subsequently cooked and possibly frozen again in the (partially) cooked state in an energy-saving way.
Thermal energy can also be converted into cold, in order for example to condense vapors out of the cooking chamber.
Further features and advantages of the invention emerge from the following description, in which two exemplary embodiments of the invention are explained in detail on the basis of schematic drawings;
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Kohlstrung Peter
Wiedemann Peter
Rational AG
Schiff & Hardin & Waite
Simone Timothy F.
LandOfFree
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