GB2470786A

GB2470786A - A cookware handle having an inbuilt timer

Info

Publication number: GB2470786A
Application number: GB0909876A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Bernard Anthony Fellowes
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2009-06-03
Filing date: 2009-06-09
Publication date: 2010-12-08
Also published as: GB0909876D0; GB0909531D0; TW201043180A

Abstract

A cookware handle2and timer4combination, wherein the handle2has one or more recesses3adapted to receive the timer4housing in a locked and releasable engagement. The recess3may have a through hole14to another side of the handle2to provide access to the rear of the timer housing4and to enable the timer4to be pushed out of the recess3without the use of special tools. The handle2may have a recess3,16on at least two locations around the handle2. The timer4and the recess3,16may have complimentary engagement surfaces such as indentations or projections. The timer housing4may contain all the electrical components in their entirety. Also disclosed is a plurality of pieces of cookware, each piece having a handle with a recess, the set further comprising one or more timers adapted to be received in the plurality of recesses. The cookware may comprise saucepans, frying pans, fish kettles as well as items of crockery or cookware.

Description

A COOKING AID

Description of Invention

THIS INVENTION relates to a cooking aid and more particularly to a timer unit in combination with a handle of an article of cookware.

When cooking, it is important that foodstuffs are cooked for the right amount of time: too short and the foodstuff will be inedible; too long and the foodstuff may be overcooked. When cooking multiple ingredients in separate pieces of cookware, one must co-ordinate timings and know how much longer each of the foodstuffs needs to be cooked. Modern day kitchen appliances such as cookers and microwaves usually carry a single timer. However, a cooker, for example, might have four or five gas burners or heating elements each of which can accommodate a separate piece of cookware and a separate foodstuff requiring cooking for a predetermined amount of time as well as a pair of ovens. One timer is not enough.

Timing in cooking is important and recipes give the time for which the different ingredients need cooking. Likewise, off-the-shelf foodstuffs and ingredients state a time for which they need to be cooked.

There have been prior attempts to offer dedicated timers for respective pieces of cookware. For example, US 2008/1 30422 discloses a countdown timer which is programmable and microprocessor based and which provides multiple independent countdown type timers in conjunction with a visual metaphor for the piece of cookware or foodstuff being heated. This solution is rather complex and involved and does not associate the timer intimately with the respective piece of cookware being heated.

A timer in a handle for a coffee pot is known from US 2006/0283329. The timer is part of the handle and the handle can be removed from the coffee pot but no part of the timer is removable from the handle. The timer is dedicated to that piece of cookware.

US 2003/0169801 discloses a cooking pot with a bracket extending from the pot onto which a sleeve carrying a temperature sensor or timer display is removably coupled. A temperature sensor is attached to the cooking pot and coupled to the temperature sensor inside the sleeve. The temperature sensor or timer is formed as one part with the sleeve for sliding over an "L" shaped bracket which provides the handle for the cooking pot. The timer is not removable from the sleeve.

EP 1280443 discloses an electronic frying pan system in which a removable module forms part of the handle of a frying pan. The removable module is electrically connected to other components of the "smart" handle including sensors located within the handle and in contact with the frying pan.

None of the solutions provides a neat and effective solution to providing a timer function which is intimately coupled to the cookware and foodstuff being timed whilst also being interchangeable and applicable to other designated pieces of cookware.

One aspect of the present invention provides a cookware handle and timer combination, wherein the handle has one or more recesses and the timer has a timer housing which is adapted to be received in a respective recess in a locked and releasable engagement.

Other aspects of embodiments of the invention provide that the handle has a movable clip to lock the timer in the recess; the recess has a through-hole to another side of the handle to provide access to a rear surface of the timer housing seated in the recess and to push and release the timer unit out of the recess without the use of special tools; the handle has a recess at each end of the through-hole; the timer housing has a front surface which is substantially flush with a main surface of the handle when the timer housing is seated in the recess; the handle has a recess on at least two locations around the handle; a recess is provided on a top surface of the handle; the timer housing and the recess have respective complementary engagement surfaces to lock the timer housing in the recess; the timer housing has indentations and/or projections to engage with complementary projections and/or indentations in the recess of the cookware handle; and/or the timer housing has no external electrical connections and no battery compartment removable cover, the timer housing enclosing the entirety of the electrical components.

A further aspect of the invention provides a timer for use in the timer and cookware handle combination.

Another aspect of the invention provides a handle for use in the timer and cookware handle combination.

A further aspect of the invention provides a set of cookware comprising a plurality of pieces of cookware, each piece having a handle with a recess, the set further comprising one or more timers adapted to be received in a respective one of the plurality of recesses.

In order that the present invention may be more readily understood, embodiments thereof will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side view of a piece of cookware embodying the present invention; Figure 2 is a top view of another piece of cookware embodying the present invention; Figure 3 is a timer embodying the present invention; Figure 4 is a side view of the timer of figure 3; Figure 5 is a handle of a piece of cookware embodying the present invention; Figure 6 is the handle of figure 5 fitted with a timer embodying the present invention; Figure 7 is a partial cross section through a cookware handle including a timer; Figure 8 is a partial cross-section through a cookware handle having a pair of recesses, one of which includes a timer; and Figure 9 is a view of a timer held within a recess in a handle by a movable clip.

Referring to the drawings, figures 1 and 2 show embodiments of the invention. An article of cookware 1, in this case a saucepan, has a handle 2 and holds, in a recess 3 in the handle 2, an electronic timer 4. The timer 4 is located in a side of the handle in figure 1. Referring to figure 2, it is also possible to locate the timer on the top of the handle where it is visible from above.

Figures 3 and 4 show the timer in more detail. The timer 4 is entirely self-contained with the only visible components being a housing 5, a three-or a four-seven segment LED or LCD display 6 giving either the hours and minutes for which the timed countdown will count through or the minutes and seconds; and three control buttons 7,8,9: one setting the number of hours (or minutes) to be timed; one setting the number of minutes (or seconds) to be timed; and a start/stop button. Simultaneously pressing the hour and minute (or minute and second) buttons 7,8 resets the timer.

The timer 4 has an audible beep which sounds at the end of the countdown period set buy the buttons. The LCD or LED display 6 may also flash or simply show 00:00 or 0:00. If the display is an LED display, then it may change brightness also. The tone of the sound warning/beep can vary between timers and batches of timers so that individual timers can be uniquely identified. The timer 4 has a vibration function in some embodiments.

The timer 4 is a sealed unit offering no access to the battery but it is not particularly heat resistant or hermetically sealed to prevent the ingress of moisture or steam. The housing encloses all of the electronics of the device, including the battery, electronics hardware and the display. Thus, there is no access into the timer housing to the battery compartment without damaging the housing or using special tools. The timer is tamper resistant. The timer is top drawer dishwasher-proof.

The timer is able to work and operate in a cooking environment where temperatures are high and moisture content may also be high. Since the timer is to be situated in the handle of the piece of cookware, the timer is appropriately designed to function satisfactorily but not for an extended period of anything over two years, for example. Battery life is in the region of 1-2 years.

The housing 5 of the timer 4 is in the shape of an elongate lozenge with two parallel substantially flat faces -a front face 10 and a rear face 11. The housing 5 may be provided with a series of snap-fit indentations around its perimeter to be received in a corresponding number of snap-fit projections provided around the recess 3 in the handle 2. The housing 5 may also be smooth and the snap-fit projections comprise the smooth outer rim 13 of the recess in the handle as seen in figure 7. The timer housing 5 is preferably, in some embodiments, an interference fit in the recess. The interference fit locks the timer 4 in the recess 3.

The timer housing 5 does not have any electrical connections or terminals on any of its external surfaces and it is not adapted to communicate wirelessly with any other devices. The timer 4 is entirely standalone, self-contained and designed to operate in a kitchen environment for a predetermined time period. The timer has a sleep mode and will power down after a period of non-use.

The housing 5 has a predetermined external shape designed to conform with, complement, co-operate with and fit into a recess, partial recess, hole or snap points formed in the handle 2 of a piece of cookware 1. A recess 3 is described here and illustrated in figure 5. Recess is used as a general term to mean any physical mechanism or shape of that part of the handle for holding at least a part of the timer within the handle 2.

It is important that the recess 3 is formed in the handle 2 of the piece of cookware since such handles are usually specifically designed to conduct heat from the cookware inefficiently so that the handle can be grasped and picked up. The handle operates as an inefficient conductor of heat but the timer should, in any event, be located in a recess as remote as possible from the source of heat, the piece of cookware. Designing a timer to be integrated with a cookware lid or the body of the piece of cookware is possible but the cost of developing a suitably robust timer to withstand that environment is not warranted when the handle 2 offers a less extreme environment.

To fit the timer 4 into the recess 3, the timer housing 5 is simply pressed firmly into the recess 3 where it clicks into place -see figure 6.

The front face 10 of the timer housing 5 is substantially flush with the surface of the handle 2 and does not cause any interruption in the user's grip on the handle 2. The timer 4 is locked in the recess 3. The timer 4 is released from the recess 3 by pushing the timer out as shown in figure 7 or moving the clip as in figure 9. In some embodiments, a screw driver or the like can be used to prise the timer 4 from the recess but this is less preferred.

The recess 3 is not a blind hole in some embodiments. The recess 3 has a shoulder 12 onto which the timer housing sits within the recess 3. Within the inner edge of the shoulder 12 and preferably concentric with the recess 3 is a through-hole 14 going from one side of the handle 2 to the other. The through-hole 14 is large enough so that a person's index finger can press the rear surface 11 of the timer housing 5 through the through-hole 14 and pop the timer 4 out of its recess.

The through-hole 14 is sized to accommodate a person's finger or a universal tool but other embodiments have a shaped through-hole, like a keyhole, to fit and receive a dedicated tool which may be unique to that cookware manufacturer.

Preferably deformable pads 15, for example rubber pads as shown in figures 7 and 8, are provided in all embodiments on at least some part of the shoulder 12 of the recess 3. Compression of the rubber pad or pads 15 when the timer housing 5 is pushed into locked engagement into the recess 3 prevents the timer housing 5 from rattling within the recess 3 and holds it firmly in position.

In some embodiments, there is a similar recess 16 on the other side of the through-hole 14 as shown in figure 8. By providing a recess 16 on the other side of the handle 2 to the recess 3, the timer 4 can be placed in either recess 3,16 to improve visibility of the timer display or to prevent handling of the cookware accidentally starting, stopping or resetting a timer.

A handle 2 can be configured with three recesses: a left recess, a right recess opposite the left recess and an upper recess in the top surface of the handle.

Multiple timers can be fitted to a multi-recessed handle.

The timer housing can be located in a number of positions and in a number of orientations in the handle.

The location of the recess or recesses around the handle can be varied for different handle designs. Optimal recess position might be slightly away from top centre so that the timer would be angled toward a cook.

In some embodiments, see figure 9, there is a spring-loaded clip 17 at one end of the recess 3 and a tab 18 at the opposite end of the recess such that the timer housing 5 can be slid under the tab 18 into the recess 3 and the spring loaded clip 17 pressed out of the way by movement of the housing 5 into the recess 3. The clip can be simply movable and not spring-loaded.

The timer 4 is released by moving the clip 17 to one side. The clip 17 can be used in conjunction with the through-hole 14 release mechanism or independently thereof.

All the pieces of cookware in, for example, a saucepan set have handles 2 with the necessary recesses 3,16 provided in them. A set of eight (e.g.) saucepans is sold with four (e.g.) timers. The timers can then be moved about between the saucepans as they are required. As and when the batteries run out, individual timers can be easily and cheaply replaced. A cook can buy more timers so that all the pieces of cookware have an associated timer.

Cookware includes sauce pans, frying pans, fish kettles, cauldrons, warming dishes, salad bowls as well as items of crockery that might be heated and other items of cookware which have a handle into which a recess 3 can be provided. If the cookware is to be put into an oven or the like where the environment is too extreme for the timer, then the timer is simply removed.

Timers 4 can be easily interchanged between cookware articles 1.

The timer 4 is a count down timer. In some embodiments the timer is a count up timer or a count down timer so that a cook can see how long a piece of foodstuff has been cooking for. Additionally the functionality for toggling between a count down display and a count up timer is present in some embodiments.

When used in this specification and claims, the terms "comprises" and "comprising" and variations thereof mean that the specified features, steps or integers are included. The terms are not to be interpreted to exclude the presence of other features, steps or components.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the following claims, or the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed result, as appropriate, may, separately, or in any combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof.

Claims

Claims 1. A cookware handle and timer combination, wherein the handle has one or more recesses and the timer has a timer housing which is adapted to be received in a respective recess in a locked and releasable engagement.
2. A combination according to claim 1, wherein the handle has a movable clip to lock the timer in the recess.
3. A combination according to any preceding claim, wherein the recess has a through-hole to another side of the handle to provide access to a rear surface of the timer housing seated in the recess and to push and release the timer unit out of the recess without the use of special tools.
4. A combination according to claim 3, wherein the handle has a recess at each end of the through-hole.
5. A combination according to any preceding claim, wherein the timer housing has a front surface which is substantially flush with a main surface of the handle when the timer housing is seated in the recess.
6. A combination according to any preceding claim, wherein the handle has a recess on at least two locations around the handle.
7. A combination according to any preceding claim, wherein a recess is provided on a top surface of the handle.
8. A combination according to any preceding claim, wherein the timer housing and the recess have respective complementary engagement surfaces to lock the timer housing in the recess.
9. A combination according to any preceding claim, wherein the timer housing has indentations and/or projections to engage with complementary projections and/or indentations in the recess of the cookware handle.
10. A combination according to any preceding claim, wherein the timer housing has no external electrical connections and no battery compartment removable cover, the timer housing enclosing the entirety of the electrical components.
11. A timer for use in the combination of any preceding claim.
12. A handle for use in the combination of any preceding claim.
13. A set of cookware comprising a plurality of pieces of cookware, each piece having a handle with a recess, the set further comprising one or more timers adapted to be received in a respective one of the plurality of recesses.
14. Cookware, cookware handles, timers and combinations thereof substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.
15. Any novel feature or combination of features disclosed herein.