Electric heating – Heating devices – With power supply and voltage or current regulation or...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-15
2001-06-26
Paik, Sang (Department: 3742)
Electric heating
Heating devices
With power supply and voltage or current regulation or...
C219S410000, C219S680000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06252206
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for controlling a cooking appliance that simplifies user input to perform cooking processes, including processes using a plurality of cooking energy sources for faster and more efficient cooking.
BACKGROUND ART
Cooking appliances have been available, for example, Thermador lines of built-in wall ovens, that feature combination cooking. Combination cooking often involves the use of a microwave cooking source in addition to a thermal cooking source or thermal convection heat source. Using combination cooking can result in a significant decrease in cooking time while maintaining the same level of cooking performance with that of conventional cooking means. However, the previously known combination cooking ovens include controls that require multiple actuations to select and define the combination operating mode by individually programming the use of each source such as the element selection, time and temperature of thermal convection heating, the time, element selection and temperature of thermal cooking and the time and power level of microwave cooking separately. For example, a user may select to bake at 350° and at the same time, microwave at 50% power level for 30 minutes. In this instance, the user has to select the mode (bake) and temperature (350°), select the additional mode (microwave) and power level (50%) and the length of time to cook (30 minutes). As shown by the example, selecting the combination mode with previously known controls can be an involved process, requiring numerous pieces of information from the user and numerous switch manipulations by the user to generate the information for setting up control of the cooking apparatus.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
The present invention overcomes the above mentioned disadvantages by reducing complexity of control, simplifying programming with a user friendly, automated combination of cooking processes. In a preferred example referred to as the CookSmart™ mode, the programming of the combination mode described above is simplified by reducing user chosen selections to two steps and requiring a substantially lower amount of information than previous processes. In this example, the user simply selects the type of food to be cooked according to one of a plurality of predefined categories, and enters the length of conventional cooking time.
In the preferred embodiment, the cooking control includes four predefined categories. For example, in a CookSmart process mode, the user may select CookSmart 1 mode for a cooking process for foods that include breads and desserts, CookSmart 2 mode for a cooking process for foods that include vegetables, CookSmart 3 mode for a cooking process for foods that include meats and casseroles, and CookSmart 4 mode for a cooking process for foods that include frozen foods.
The length of instructional cooking time, preferably the conventional bake time taught by a recipe, is entered by the user and is automatically converted by the control to an actual reduced cooking time. The actual reduced cooking time may be a fraction of the conventional cooking time, the reduction factor of which depends on the category selected. Each automated cooking process category specifies to the control the type of heat mode or combination of cooking energy sources to use, the temperature to which the oven is to be raised, the type of each cooking energy source, the microwave power level to use and the cooking time conversion factor. For example, in the above CookSmart cooking process modes, a user's input of the food category and time may be converted to time, power and the temperature commands as follows.
In CookSmart 1 cooking process mode, the control governs the appliance to convection bake at 400°, microwave at 40%, time factor of 25%.
In CookSmart 2 cooking process mode, the control governs the appliance to bake at 450°, microwave at 80%, time factor of 30%.
In CookSmart 3 cooking process mode, the control governs the appliance to convection bake at 400°, microwave at 70%, time factor of 25%.
In CookSmart 4 cooking process mode, the control governs the appliance to convection bake at 425°, microwave at 50%, time factor of 40%.
As a further example, cookies that are normally baked in a standard oven at 375° for 10 minutes may be prepared with the parameters above by selecting CookSmart 1, and entering the conventional cook time, which in this case is 10 minutes. Once activated, the control calculates for the reduced cooking time by multiplying the entered conventional cook time by the time factor identified above in the CookSmart 1 cooking process mode, which calculates a cooking time of 2{fraction (1/2 )} minutes. The appliance will then automatically convection bake at 400° and microwave at 40% for 2{fraction (1/2 )} minutes. The control will turn off the cooking energy sources at the end of 2{fraction (1/2 )} minutes.
The examples above are for illustration purposes only. The number and definitions of food categories, and the number and operation of each heating source for each category, and the number and types of categories may be defined in numerous specifications and standards within the controller without departing from the present invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4568810 (1986-02-01), Carmean
patent: 5345067 (1994-09-01), Ohta et al.
patent: 5548104 (1996-08-01), Ko
patent: 5595673 (1997-01-01), Ekstrom et al.
patent: 5756970 (1998-05-01), Barger et al.
patent: 6005229 (1999-12-01), Brown et al.
Leukhardt, III H. Alan
Uy Dindo S.
Walsh Cyral Martin
Brooks & Kushman P.C.
BSH Home Appliances Corporation
Paik Sang
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