EP1470369B1 - Baking oven - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to an oven with a lighting device for illuminating a cooking chamber.

Such ovens are general, especially from the publications US 4 516 007 A . US Pat. No. 6,087,643 . EP 1 067 826 A and WO 02/01113 A known, the WO 02/01113 shows an oven with a cooking compartment lighting, which is automatically switched off after a predetermined operating time. When a manually operable oven element is actuated, the cooking chamber lighting is automatically switched on again.

Furthermore, the shows US-A-5 909 950 a refrigerator door handle which carries a touch sensor which, when touched by a user, turns on interior lighting means of the freezer. The interior lighting device is controlled by a switch which detects whether the door is open or closed. The lighting device remains switched on until the freezer door is closed again.

By the invention, the problem to be solved, the cooking chamber lighting versatile usable.

This object is achieved according to the invention by the features in the characterizing part of claim 1.

Accordingly, the invention particularly relates to an oven with a lighting device for illuminating a cooking chamber and with a lighting control device for switching on, holding the on state and off the lighting device according to a predetermined time profile, which defines the startup, hold and shutdown of the luminous intensity, characterized in that the lighting control device at least two different time profiles for raising, holding and shutting down the luminous intensity, and that the lighting control device is provided by a door opening signal element or a door handle signal element or a function switch or a lighting switch or illumination sensor, a signal for selecting a Receive time profile, and that the lighting control device in response to a signal that it has received from the door opening signal element or the door handle signal element or the function switch or the lighting switch or illumination sensor, selects the applicable time profile for the lighting device.

The inventive design of a lighting system for cooking chambers of ovens, the times for the startup, the holding and the shutdown of the luminosity are variable, such that the respective times depend on the type of operation of the oven, which leads to switching on the lighting.

So the lighting can be started up very quickly when you turn on a door switch, z. B. if with the opening of the oven door immediately good lighting is desired. Furthermore, the light can be kept at a maximum illuminance for a very long period of time because, for example, in a door open for a longer period of time, the user presumably wants to handle the food in the cooking space or clean the cooking space and requires constant lighting for this purpose. After the holding time has elapsed, the luminous intensity can be shut down again very slowly, thereby indicating to the operator that the lighting system is not switched off automatically by a fault, but automatically correctly. A slow or very slow increase in luminosity and a slow or very slow shutting down the luminosity means that the startup and / or shutting down the luminosity along a luminous intensity-time ramp of a time profile (diagram curve) takes place. With a rapid change in the brightness, the ramp is steep. A very rapid change means a sudden increase or decrease in luminosity rather than a luminosity time-ramp.

According to a further embodiment of the invention may be provided instead or simultaneously for a different type of use that after a brief touch of the door handle the illuminance is ramped up moderately fast (ramp) to a maximum brightness, kept there short and then quickly shut down again (steep Ramp or sudden loss of luminosity without ramp). The customer wants to see here only briefly through a door window in the cooking chamber of the oven to check the progress of the cooking process in the oven.

Furthermore, it can be provided in the same or another embodiment that when operating the oven via a function switch, a separate time profile is provided, which optimally corresponds to the predetermined time profile via the function switch. For example, a specific cooking process of the food can be switched on by the function switch of the oven, the cooking chamber lighting automatically switched on according to a time profile adapted to this cooking process, the lighting level is raised, held and shut down again when switched off.

According to a further feature of the invention, it can be provided that, in each case, the lighting is not raised up to maximum brightness to suit the application. Instead, the brightness, z. B. in continuous lighting of the cooking chamber, left at a lower brightness to indicate the customer certain operating conditions. For example, the luminosity of the cooking chamber lighting during the entire cooking process automatically remain switched on the lower luminosity to make the food through a Garraumfenster better visible to the user and thereby also signal to him that the cooking process in the oven proceeds properly.

An advantage of the invention: the customer can be offered a different cooking time for each operating mode individually matching different time profiles.

Further features of the invention are contained in the subclaims.

Accordingly, a particular embodiment of the invention is that at least two different time profiles are provided, which have differences in raising the luminous intensity of a minimum value to a maximum value.

A further embodiment of the invention is that at least two different time profiles are provided, which have differences in shutting down the luminous intensity from a maximum value to a minimum value.

A further embodiment of the invention is that at least two different time profiles are provided, which have differences in holding the luminosity.

Fig. 1

schematisch einen vertikalen Querschnitt durch einen Backofen gemäß der Erfindung

Fig. 2

ein Zeitprofil-Diagramm,

Fig. 3

ein weiteres Zeitprofil-Diagramm,

Fig. 4

ein nochmals weiteres Zeitprofil-Diagramm und

Fig. 5

ein nochmals weiteres Zeitprofil-Diagramm, als Beispiele für Zeitprofile, von welchen mindestens zwei verschiedene Zeitprofile gemäß der Erfindung in Abhängigkeit von der Art der Bedienung des Backofens durch einen Benutzer zur Anwendung kommen.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings of preferred embodiments. In the drawings show

Fig. 1

schematically a vertical cross section through an oven according to the invention

Fig. 2

a time profile diagram,

Fig. 3

another time profile diagram,

Fig. 4

another time profile diagram and

Fig. 5

another time profile diagram, as examples of time profiles, of which at least two different time profiles according to the invention depending on the type of operation of the oven by a user are used.

The in Fig. 1 shown oven 2 according to the invention may be an electric oven or gas oven in the form of a stand-alone device or a built-in appliance for installation in a household appliance or in a kitchen furniture.

The oven 2 contains an illumination device 4 for illuminating a cooking chamber 6 and a lighting control device 8 for switching on, holding the switch-on state and switching off the lighting device 4 according to a predetermined time profile. The time profile defines startup, hold, and shutdown of luminosity.

The oven 2 further includes a cooking chamber door 10 with a door handle 12, a fan 14 and an electric or gas-operated heater 16 for heating the cooking chamber 6 under the control of an oven control device 18th

The oven controller 18 and the lighting controller 8 may be two separate devices or together a combined device.

At one or more function switches 22, one of several cooking programs for cooking food in the cooking chamber 6 can be selected on the oven control device 18. The cooking chamber can be designed for baking, roasting, grilling, heating or other treatment of food. Corresponding cooking programs can be switched on by means of the function switch 22 on the oven control device. The function switch 22 may be a rotatable or rotatable pluggable knob or a touch sensor. Different time profiles can be provided for each cooking program or for groups of cooking programs. These can be adapted to the cooking processes and thereby also indicate to a user in which operating situation the cooking chamber is.

A switch 24 on the oven body can be actuated by the cooking chamber door 10 when opening and closing the cooking chamber door 10. The switch 24 informs the lighting control device 8 respectively when the cooking chamber door 10 is opened or closed and when it is open or closed.

Simultaneously or alternatively, the door handle 12 or a part of it may be formed as a switch or touch sensor, which tells the lighting control device 8, respectively, whether a manual touch takes place briefly or longer.

The lighting control device 8 has at least two different time profiles for starting, holding and shutting down the luminous intensity of the lighting device 4 in the cooking chamber 6. The time profile which can be used by the lighting control device 8 in each case depends on the "type of operation" which led to the lighting device being switched on.

Examples of "types of operation" are: opening the cooking chamber door 10; after a short opening time closing the cooking chamber door 10 again; after a long opening time closing the cooking chamber door 10 again; momentarily touching the door handle 12 to thereby signal the lighting control device 8 that a brief activation of the lighting device 4 is desired without opening the cooking chamber door 10, wherein the door handle is a switch or touch sensor which signals a manual touch of the lighting control device; a relatively longer manual touch of the door handle 12 (and optionally opening the cooking chamber door 10) to thereby signal the lighting control device 8 that the cooking chamber door 10 will be opened or is being opened, the door handle being a switch or touch sensor which is a manual Touching the lighting control device signals; Operating the function switch 22 to select or turn on a desired cooking program on the oven controller 18; Actuating a lighting switch or lighting sensor 26 as a functional element on which a user can set the lighting device 4 independently of the lighting control device 8, regardless of whether the cooking chamber door 10 is in the closed position or in the open position.

The Fig. 2 to 5 show examples of different time profiles, each of which can be assigned a time profile of a particular type of operation.

The time profiles of Fig. 2 to 5 show the time on the horizontal axis and the luminosity on the vertical axis. It was assumed that the lighting device is switched on each time from zero (min = 0) to a maximum value (max) of the brightness (brightness). According to the invention, however, time profiles are also possible, by means of which, for example for a continuous lighting state during the cooking process in the cooking chamber 6, the lighting device 4 is switched to a reduced luminous intensity "max / x".

Fig. 2 shows a time profile 32, according to which at the time t1, the lighting device 4 is turned on, but in this case the luminosity does not rise suddenly to the maximum value max, but in accordance with a luminous intensity-time ramp 34 with a pitch angle α. The maximum luminous intensity is reached at time t2 and then maintained until time t3, which is represented by a time profile section 35. At the time t3, the lighting device 4 is switched off, wherein the light intensity is not switched off suddenly, but instead is switched off slowly according to a falling ramp 36 with an angle β until the next time t4.

Fig. 3 shows another time profile 43, according to which the lighting device 4 is suddenly switched on at the time t1 to maximum brightness and is switched off suddenly to the zero value at the switch-off time t4. This results in a vertical rising edge 44, then a horizontal time profile section 45 and then a vertical falling edge 46th

Fig. 4 shows a time profile 53 with a rise ramp 34 equal to or different than in FIG Fig. 2 and a suddenly falling OFF edge 46 according to Fig. 3 , and a time profile section 55 extending horizontally between the times t2 and t4.

Fig. 5 shows a time profile 63 with a sudden from zero to maximum rising edge 44 at time t1 accordingly Fig. 3 , then a horizontal time profile section 65 until time t3, and then a falling time profile ramp 36 having a falling angle β equal to or different from that in FIG Fig. 2 ,

Further time profiles may be, for example, that the rising and / or the descending time profile section convex or concave instead of straight and / or that the horizontal section 35 or 45 or 55 or 65 of the Fig. 2 to 5 It is not necessary to reduce the maximum luminosity (max) immediately after reaching it, so that a ramp - up of the luminous intensity (eg ramp 34 of the luminous intensity) is avoided Fig. 2 or 4 ) a ramp-down of the luminous intensity (eg time profile section 36 of FIG FIGS. 2 and 5 ) or a sudden shutdown and thus a vertical time profile section 46 corresponding to 3 and 4 followed. Similarly, a time profile is possible in which a vertical ramp-up time profile section corresponding to 44 of the FIGS. 3 and 5 a ramp-shaped downhill section (eg ramp 36 in FIG FIGS. 2 and 5 ).

The ramp angles α and / or β may be the same or different for all time profiles.

The "maximum values" referred to in the specification and in the claims may correspond to the highest allowable electric currents of the lighting device or lower values. The "minimum values" mentioned in the description and in the claims preferably mean "completely switched off" and thus luminous intensity equal to zero, but may also mean a low luminous intensity with a value above zero.

Claims (4)

1. Baking oven with a lighting device (4) for lighting a cooking compartment (6) and with a lighting control device (8) for switching on, keeping switched on and switching off the lighting device (4) according to a predetermined time profile that defines the increasing, maintenance and decreasing of the light intensity, characterised in that the lighting control device (8) has at least two different time profiles (32, 43, 53, 63) for increasing, maintaining and decreasing the light intensity and that the lighting control device (8) is provided to receive, from a door opening signal element (24) or a door handle signal element (12) or a function switch (22) or a light switch or light sensor (26), a signal to select a time profile, and that the lighting control device (8) selects the relevant applicable time profile for the lighting device (4) as a function of a signal, which it has received from the door opening signal element (24) or the door handle signal element (12) or the function switch (22) or the light switch or light sensor (26).
2. Baking oven according to claim 1, characterised in that at least two different time profiles (32, 43, 53, 63) are provided, which differ in the increasing of the light intensity from a minimum value to a maximum value.
3. Baking oven according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that at least two different time profiles (32, 43, 53, 63) are provided, which differ in the decreasing of the light intensity from a maximum value to a minimum value.
4. Baking oven according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that at least two different time profiles (32, 43, 53, 63) are provided, which differ in the maintenance of the light intensity.

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