WO2018029002A1

WO2018029002A1 - Thin film heating cooker detecting cooking utensils with improved heating methods

Info

Publication number: WO2018029002A1
Application number: PCT/EP2017/069010
Authority: WO
Inventors: Pinar YAVUZ; Oguzhan KAYA; Ulas OKTAY; Alper YESILCUBUK; Emre Yavuz TURK
Original assignee: Arcelik Anonim Sirketi
Priority date: 2016-08-08
Filing date: 2017-07-27
Publication date: 2018-02-15
Also published as: EP3498054A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for the operation of a thin film heater cooker. The present invention more specifically relates to a thin film heating appliance comprising at least one thin film heating cooker (1), said at least one thin film heating cooker (1) comprising a plurality of thin film heating elements (4) forming a two-dimensional web of neighboring thin film heating elements (4) and at last one sensor unit in the form of an inductive sensor (9), a capacitive sensor (10), an optic sensor (11) or a load sensor (12), each of said thin film heating elements (4) being supplied power by a busbar (5).

Description

THIN FILM HEATING COOKER DETECTING COOKING UTENSILS WITH IMPROVED HEATING METHODS

The present invention relates to a system for the operation of a thin film heater cooker.

It is well-known that thin film heaters are extensively used in cooking appliances operating as a cooker. Thin film heaters have a wide range of usage from windscreens to cooking. When a thin film heater is used for cooking purposes, it will normally consume approximately four times more power in comparison to its other usages. Beside space usage advantages due to the lower thickness of thin film material, a cooking hob with thin-film heating elements provides faster heating having improved efficiency and uniformity.

Among others, a prior art publication in the technical field of the invention may be referred to as EP1206164, which discloses a device for determining the location of cooking utensils on a cooking hob comprising a plurality of thermal cells distributed in matrix formation below a heat-resistant surface on which the cooking utensil can be located in random manner, the determination of its location, form and dimensions enabling those thermal cells lying below the utensil to be energized, the same thermal cells being also individually used for this determination. WO2015160890 discloses a thin film heater appliance.

The present invention provides a system for the operation of a thin film heating cooker with the help of sensors in various functions aimed to sense the utensil’s position as provided by the characterizing features defined in Claim 1.

Primary object of the present invention is to provide a system for the operation of a thin film heating cooker by which a cooking utensil’s fixed position is sensed and thanks to this operation, the associated part of the thin film heating cooker will step in and provide improved heating.

The present invention proposes a thin film heating appliance with a plurality of preferably 4x4 matrix formation thin film heating cookers, each one comprising a plurality of thin film heating elements. The configuration can be in the form of rectangular, C-type or ring-type thin film heating elements.

In the case of rectangular configuration, sensor units are located around the periphery of the thin film heating elements or between shorter edges of said rectangular thin film heating elements. Optic sensor couples oppositely communicate at shorter side edges and inductive sensors and capacitive sensors are disposed along longer edges. In the case of C-type and ring-type configurations, at least one sensor unit consisting of inductive, capacitive optical or load sensors is located centrally.

Accompanying drawings are given solely for the purpose of exemplifying a thin film heating cooker, whose advantages over prior art were outlined above and will be explained in brief hereinafter.

The drawings are not meant to delimit the scope of protection as identified in the Claims, nor should they be referred to alone in an effort to interpret the scope identified in said Claims without recourse to the technical disclosure in the description of the present invention.

Fig. 1 demonstrates a general schematic view of a rectangular type heater configuration with a thin film heating cooker comprising a plurality of distinct type sensors according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 demonstrates a general schematic view of the sensor type distribution in the rectangular type heater configuration according to the embodiment of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 demonstrates a general schematic view of a C-type heating cell configuration with a thin film heating cooker comprising a plurality of distinct type sensors according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 demonstrates a general schematic view of a ring-type heating cell configuration with a thin film heating cooker comprising a plurality of distinct type sensors according to another embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 5 demonstrates a general schematic view of a matrix formation adaptation of heater configuration with a thin film heating cooker system according to the present invention.

The following numerals are assigned to different part numbers used in the detailed description:

Thin film heating cooker
Sensor unit

3) Glass surface

4) Thin film heating element

5) Busbar

6) Rectangular type heating cell

7) C-type heating cell

8) Ring type heating cell

9) Inductive sensor

10) Capacitive sensor

11) Optic sensor

12) Load sensor

13) Rectangular thin film heating element

14) C-type thin film heating element

15) Ring type thin film heating element

The present invention proposes a thin film heating cooker (1) having an inductive sensor (9), a capacitive sensor (10), an optic sensor (11) or a load sensor (12) in a sensor unit (2).

Said sensor unit (2) can consist of any combination of the mentioned sensors. A busbar (5) typically consists of electrical conductors as a generating station on which power is concentrated for distribution. The thin film heating cooker (1) uses thin film heating elements (4) as a heating source in the form of electrically conductive material placed relative to a substrate. Typically, a glass surface (3) is placed on the thin film heating elements (4) to transmit the heat to utensils that are needed to be cooked. Basically, a thin-film heating element is a conductive film forming a thin film on a substrate heating said substrate. The thin-film heating element may for instance include a tin oxide resistive film delimited by oppositely extending busbar (5) conductors.

The present invention, on the other hand, addresses the situation where a cooking utensil such as a pot or pan being set on the thin film heating cooker (1) which has inductive, capacitive, optic or load sensors (9, 10, 11, 12) to sense the position and existence thereof. These sensors work as part of an integrated system to sense positionment of a cooking means as will be delineated hereinbelow.

To this end, the inductive sensors (9) mentioned in accordance with the present invention typically operate in line with the Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction. As is known to the skilled reader, in case a metal object is placed across the inductive sensor (9), eddy currents are generated within the ferromagnetic base. In this case, change of the voltage drop at the terminals of the coil provides an indication for the presence of the metal object.

Secondly, a conventional capacitive sensor (10) that generates a capacitive field through an RC oscillator is provided. The metal or non-metal particle enters the capacitive field and this in turn causes a change in the dielectric level. Thereby capacitive sensors (10) successfully detects if there is a metal or non-metal object by means of variation of the oscillation frequency.

Further, the present invention makes use of optical sensors (11) or photocells comprising a transmitter or light source and a receiver to sense the light. Light source emits light at a particular frequency at the transmitting side. The receiver is used to receive the light from the source in the determined frequency.

Finally, the present invention makes use of known type of load sensors (12) using a strain gauge measuring the deformation as a change in electrical resistance, which is proportional to the applied forces.

In brief, inductive sensors (9) in the sensor unit (2) sense if there is a metal utensil on the glass surface (3) by means of the change in the voltage value of the coil that generates electromagnetic field. Capacitive sensors (10) in the sensor unit (2) sense the utensil thanks to the change in the measurement of dielectric coefficient. Optic sensors (11) in the sensor unit (2) sense the utensil whereby the utensil blocks the light that goes through the optical sensor. Load sensors (12) in the sensor unit (2) sense the utensil by means of the weight of the utensil.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the configuration shown in Figure 1 relates to the thin film heating elements (4) in the form of a rectangular thin film heating element (13). The busbar (5) conductors are located oppositely along the longer edges of said rectangular thin film heating elements (13). The heating elements can be connected in parallel or in series to provide different power rates with the same voltage value. The sensor units (2) are located immediately around the periphery of the thin film heating elements (13) or between shorter edges of said rectangular thin film heating elements (13).

In this embodiment of the present invention, a rectangular type heating cell (6) comprises the rectangular thin film heating element (13), at least one sensor unit (2) and the busbar (5). The optic sensors (11) are peripherally located at the shorter side edges of the thin film heating cooker (1) surface, at an elevated level above the glass surface (3) at both sides of the respective thin film heating cooker of the cooking appliance; accordingly, said reciprocally operational optic sensors (11) will function as a transmitter and receiver to locate the correct position of the utensil. An inductive sensor (9) is disposed along longer edges of the thin film heating cooker (1) between each pair of the rectangular type heating cells (6). Therefore, two longitudinally neighboring thin film heating elements (4) share an inductive sensor (9) thereinbetween. Inductive sensors (9) and capacitive sensors (10) typically detect if there is a utensil immediately above a respective area. An optic sensor (11) can be individually used as sensor unit (2) below the glass surface (3) and in association with a respective heating element. In this case, the optic sensor (11) senses presence of a pan directly above the same.

Load sensors (12) being centrally disposed in the middle of the thin film heating cooker (1), a plurality of capacitive sensors (10) are peripherally located along the longer edges of the thin film heating cooker (1) surface.

According to the embodiment of Fig. 1 or 2, the busbar (5) typically comprise a pair of elongate, parallel rods at two longer sides of the thin film heating elements (4). The configuration of busbar (5) conductors along two longitudinal edges provides faster and more effective heating along the surface of the thin film heating elements (4).

Further, advantageously, load sensors (12) are centrally positioned behind circumferentially bordering thin film heating elements (4) of the thin film heating cooker (1). Longer side sensor units (2) of the circumferentially bordering thin film heating elements (4) are capacitive sensors (10) and each neighboring pair of longer edge circumferentially bordering thin film heating elements (4) share an in-between inductive sensor (9). Therefore, advantageously, shorted edge optic sensors (11) and central load sensors (12) successfully sense presence of a cooking utensil while inductive and capacitive sensors (9, 10) together with the information received from the load sensors (12) specify correct positionment of the utensil. It is to be noted that a cooking appliance comprises a plurality of thin film heating cookers with the 4x4 layout as shown in Fig. 1 and 2.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the configuration shown in Figure 2 relates to the thin film heating elements (4) in the form of a C-type thin film heating element (14). The busbar (5) is placed at two ends of the C-shape heating element, forming a perpendicularly extending terminal relative to the curved axis of the C shape structure. The heating elements can be connected in parallel or in series to provide different power rates with the same voltage value. The sensor units (2) are located in the center of said C type thin film heating element (14). The sensor unit (2) can be formed as sensor assembly consisting of inductive, capacitive optical, or load sensors (8, 9, 10, 11).

The configuration shown in Figure 5 relates to a general schematic representation of the thin film heating elements (4) in the form of a matrix layout.

In a yet still further embodiment of the present invention, the configuration shown in Figure 4 comprises ring-type thin film heating elements (15). The busbar (5) conductors are configured in a ring-like shape to enclose said ring-type thin film heating element (15) from inside and outside the same in a radially enclosed manner. The sensor units (2) are located in the center of said thin film heating elements (4). The sensor unit (2) can be consisted of inductive, capacitive, optical or load sensors (8, 9, 10, 11).

In one embodiment of the present invention, a thin film heating appliance comprising at least one thin film heating cooker (1), said at least one thin film heating cooker (1) comprising a plurality of thin film heating elements (4) forming a two-dimensional web of neighboring thin film heating elements (4) and at last one sensor unit in the form of an inductive sensor (9), a capacitive sensor (10), an optic sensor (11) or a load sensor (12), each of said thin film heating elements (4) being supplied power by a busbar (5).

In a further embodiment of the present invention, each of said thin film heating elements (4) are delimited by longitudinal busbar (5) conductors enclosing said thin film heating element (4) at least at two sides thereof.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, each of said thin film heating elements (4) are in the form of a rectangular thin film heating element (13) and said busbar (5) conductors are located oppositely along the longer edges of said rectangular thin film heating elements (13).

In a further embodiment of the present invention, each of said sensor units (2) are located around the periphery of the thin film heating elements (13) or between shorter edges of said rectangular thin film heating elements (13).

In a further embodiment of the present invention, said optic sensors (11) are peripherally located at the shorter side edges of the thin film heating cooker (1) surface.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, an inductive sensor (9) is disposed along longer edges of the thin film heating cooker (1) between each pair of the rectangular thin film heating elements (13).

In a further embodiment of the present invention, two longitudinally neighboring thin film heating elements (4) share an inductive sensor (9) thereinbetween.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, load sensors (12) are centrally positioned behind circumferentially extending thin film heating elements (4) bordering the edges of said thin film heating cooker (1).

In a further embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of capacitive sensors (10) is peripherally located along the longer edges of the thin film heating cooker (1) surface.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, said thin film heating appliance comprises a plurality of thin film heating cookers with a 4x4 layout of thin film heating elements (4).

In a further embodiment of the present invention, each of said thin film heating elements (4) are in the form of a C type thin film heating element (14) with busbar (5) conductors placed at two ends of the C shape heating element, forming a perpendicularly extending terminal relative to the curved axis of the C shape structure. The C-type configuration is advantageous in that the surface area of the thin film heating elements (14) provide a more concentrated heating in view of the more compact space usage by each C-type element and also provides acceptably fast heating results compared to smaller busbar (5) conductor sizes.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, a sensor assembly comprising at least one sensor unit (2) consisting of inductive, capacitive optical or load sensors (8, 9, 10, 11) is located in the center of said C type thin film heating element (14).

In a further embodiment of the present invention, each of said thin film heating elements (4) are in the form of ring type thin film heating elements (15) with busbar (5) conductors configured as a ring-like shape to enclose said ring type thin film heating element (15) from inside and outside the same in a radial manner. This configuration is both advantageous in fast heating due to fully enclosing busbar (5) conductors with sizes substantially greater than the C-type configuration. Further, fast and effective heating is achieved thanks to the ring type thin film heating elements (15).

In a further embodiment of the present invention, a sensor assembly comprising at least one sensor unit (2) consisting of inductive, capacitive optical or load sensors (8, 9, 10, 11) is located in the center of said ring type thin film heating element (14).

Claims

A thin film heating appliance comprising at least one thin film heating cooker (1), said at least one thin film heating cooker (1) comprising a plurality of thin film heating elements (4) forming a two-dimensional web of neighboring thin film heating elements (4) and at last one sensor unit in the form of an inductive sensor (9), a capacitive sensor (10), an optic sensor (11) or a load sensor (12), each of said thin film heating elements (4) being supplied power by a busbar (5) characterized in that;

each of said thin film heating elements (4) are delimited by longitudinal busbar (5) conductors enclosing said thin film heating element (4) at least at two sides thereof.
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 1, characterized in that each of said thin film heating elements (4) are in the form of a rectangular thin film heating element (13) and said busbar (5) conductors are located oppositely along the longer edges of said rectangular thin film heating elements (13).
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 2, characterized in that each of said sensor units (2) are located around the periphery of the thin film heating elements (13) or between shorter edges of said rectangular thin film heating elements (13).
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 2 or 3, characterized in that said optic sensors (11) are peripherally located at the shorter side edges of the thin film heating cooker (1) surface.
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that an inductive sensor (9) is disposed along longer edges of the thin film heating cooker (1) between each pair of the rectangular thin film heating elements (13).
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 5, characterized in that two longitudinally neighboring thin film heating elements (4) share an inductive sensor (9) thereinbetween.
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, characterized in that load sensors (12) are centrally positioned behind circumferentially extending thin film heating elements (4) bordering the edges of said thin film heating cooker (1).
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7, characterized in that a plurality of capacitive sensors (10) are peripherally located along the longer edges of the thin film heating cooker (1) surface.
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 1, characterized in that said thin film heating appliance comprises a plurality of thin film heating cookers with a 4x4 layout of thin film heating elements (4).
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 1, characterized in that each of said thin film heating elements (4) are in the form of a C-type thin film heating element (14) with busbar (5) conductors placed at two ends of the C-type thin film heating element, forming a perpendicularly extending terminal relative to the curved axis of the C-shape structure.
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 10, characterized in that a sensor assembly comprising at least one sensor unit (2) consisting of inductive, capacitive optical or load sensors (8, 9, 10, 11) is located in the center of said C type thin film heating element (14).
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 1, characterized in that each of said thin film heating elements (4) are in the form of ring type thin film heating elements (15) with busbar (5) conductors configured as a ring-like shape to enclose said ring type thin film heating element (15) from inside and outside the same in a radial manner.
A thin film heating appliance as in Claim 12, characterized in that a sensor assembly comprising at least one sensor unit (2) consisting of inductive, capacitive optical or load sensors (8, 9, 10, 11) is located in the center of said ring type thin film heating element (14).