Patent Application
20200182484
Modern gas ovens are all typically equipped with a vent to assure good combustion in the oven chamber by effectively exhausting the products of combustion and promoting the influx of secondary air. In most ovens the vent size is fixed and is sized to accommodate the worst-case combustion scenario that the appliance may be subject to. For example, if an oven is equipped with both bake and broil burners, the worst case (meaning the most venting required) is generally the broil burner. The vent would thus be provided with a minimum size to accommodate the broil burner.
However, sizing an oven vent in this fashion make the oven inefficient during normal operation because an oversized vent causes excessive heat loss and thus thermal inefficiency. This sizing convention also requires additional time for the oven to reach operating temperature. Additionally, in most ovens the gas burner is cycled off and on to maintain a constant temperature. When the oven attains a requisite temperature setting the burner is cycled off, and when it then cools to a predetermined amount below the setpoint the burner cycles back on. As is readily seen, an oversized gas vent will cause the oven to cycle off and on much more frequently, thus causing additional operating expense.
Furthermore, in convection ovens the convection fan can't operate when the gas burner is on because it adversely impacts the gas flame and combustion. Generally, an electric convection element is also used, but it is typically insufficient to maintain the oven cavity temperature during convection. Once the temperature drops below the setpoint, the convection fan must be shut off and the burner is then reignited to bring the oven up to temperature again. Again, with oversized conventional oven vents the operating characteristics of the oven can be quite inefficient since a great deal of heat is lost through the vent.
From the foregoing it can readily be seen that there is a need in the art for a gas oven vent that can be sized to allow the oven to operate efficiently in many different applications, from conventional baking and broiling to convection use.
The present disclosure is related to systems and apparatus for providing an electronically controlled gas oven vent damper. The system described herein utilizes an electronically or electrically actuated damper that is installed in fluid communication with a vent opening of a gas oven. Additionally, the system provides control logic to operate the vent damper based on a variety of oven use conditions.
In various embodiments, the system disclosed herein provides a damper control that can reduce the effective vent size during the bake “off” cycle. In various embodiments, the system disclosed herein provides a damper control that provides a normal or optimized effective vent size during bake “on” cycles. In various embodiments, the system disclosed herein also provides a damper control that provides a normal or optimized effective vent size during broil “on” cycles. In various embodiments, the system disclosed herein also provides a damper control that reduces the effective vent size during convection burner off cycles. In various embodiments, the system disclosed herein also provides a damper control that reduces the effective vent size during self-cleaning cycles. Additionally, and in further embodiments the system disclosed herein also provides a damper control that increases or maximized the vent opening during and shortly after burner ignition, and then reduce the effective vent opening size thereafter to assist in rapid oven heat up.
In other embodiments, the system and methods disclosed herein may include an electronically controlled vent damper that enables the oven to use both the bake and broil burners simultaneously since it can be opened to provide adequate combustion air for both burners. Additionally, and in some aspects the invention can provide faster pre-heat times since both bake and broil burners can be efficiently operated simultaneously.
As used herein for purposes of the present disclosure, the term “appliance” should be understood to be generally synonymous with and include any device that consumes electrical power and can be connected to an electrical circuit or battery, for example one used in a residential or commercial setting to accomplish work. The appliances referred to herein may include a plurality of electrically operated components powered by the circuit, the components operable by manipulation of control knobs or selectors. The appliances referred to herein may also include a gas supply or source and one or more gas valves for supplying gas to a burner or heating element. The appliance gas valves may be controlled by a selector or knob, either directly or indirectly, and the appliance may also include a processor or processors that operate, control and monitor the appliance and the various components and functions thereof referred to throughout this specification.
The term “vent” is used herein generally to describe various openings and/or passages that communicate between the interior of an oven and the exterior thereof to supply combustion air thereto. A “vent” may be provided in a wide variety of shapes and sizes without departing from the scope of the invention. The term “damper” is used herein generally to describe various apparatus to restrict and/or enhance the effective size of a “vent” and is not limited to one specific apparatus or structure.
The term “controller” or “processor” is used herein generally to describe various apparatus relating to the operation of the system and the appliances referred to herein. A controller can be implemented in numerous ways (e.g., such as with dedicated hardware) to perform various functions discussed herein. A “processor” is one example of a controller which employs one or more microprocessors that may be programmed using software (e.g., microcode) to perform various functions discussed herein. A controller may be implemented with or without employing a processor, and also may be implemented as a combination of dedicated hardware to perform some functions and a processor (e.g., one or more programmed microprocessors and associated circuitry) to perform other functions. Examples of controller components that may be employed in various embodiments of the present disclosure include, but are not limited to, conventional microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
A processor or controller may be associated with one or more storage media (generically referred to herein as “memory,” e.g., volatile and non-volatile computer memory such as RAM, PROM, EPROM, and EEPROM, floppy disks, compact disks, optical disks, magnetic tape, etc.). In some implementations, the storage media may be encoded with one or more programs that, when executed on one or more processors and/or controllers, perform at least some of the functions discussed herein. Various storage media may be fixed within a processor or controller or may be transportable, such that the one or more programs stored thereon can be loaded into a processor or controller so as to implement various aspects of the present disclosure discussed herein. The terms “program” or “computer program” are used herein in a generic sense to refer to any type of computer code (e.g., software or microcode) that can be employed to program one or more processors or controllers.
The term “Internet” or synonymously “Internet of things” refers to the global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols. The appliances, controllers and processors referred to herein may be operatively connected to the Internet.
It should be appreciated that all combinations of the foregoing concepts and additional concepts discussed in greater detail below (provided such concepts are not mutually inconsistent) are part of the inventive subject matter disclosed herein. In particular, all combinations of claimed subject matter appearing at the end of this disclosure are contemplated as being part of the inventive subject matter disclosed herein. It should also be appreciated that terminology explicitly employed herein that also may appear in any disclosure incorporated by reference should be accorded a meaning most consistent with the particular concepts disclosed herein.
In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale. Emphasis is instead generally placed upon illustrating the principles of the disclosure, wherein;
Referring to drawing
Additionally, controller 200 may be equipped with an operator or user interface 240 to provide audible or visual feedback to a user as well as provide a user the ability to provide instructions or commands to controller 200. Exemplary but non-limiting user interfaces that may be employed include a mouse, keypads, touch-screens, keyboards, switches and/or touch pads. Any user interface may be employed for use in the invention without departing from the scope thereof. It will be understood that
The processor 202 may be any hardware device capable of executing instructions stored in memory 204 or data storage 206 or otherwise processing data. As such, the processor may include a microprocessor, field programmable gate array (FPGA), application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or other similar devices.
The memory 204 may include various memories such as, for example L1, L2, or L3 cache or system memory. As such, the memory 204 may include static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), flash memory, read only memory (ROM), or other similar memory devices. It will be apparent that, in embodiments where the processor includes one or more ASICs (or other processing devices) that implement one or more of the functions described herein in hardware, the software described as corresponding to such functionality in other embodiments may be omitted.
The user interface 240 may include one or more devices for enabling communication with a user such as an administrator. For example, the user interface 240 may include a display, a mouse, and a keyboard for receiving user commands. In some embodiments, the user interface 240 may include a command line interface or graphical user interface that may be presented to a remote terminal via the communication interface 230.
The communication interface 230 may include one or more devices for enabling communication with other hardware devices. For example, the communication interface 230 may include a network interface card (NIC) configured to communicate according to the Ethernet protocol. Additionally, the communication interface 230 may implement a TCP/IP stack for communication according to the TCP/IP protocols. Various alternative or additional hardware or configurations for the communication interface 230 will be apparent.
The storage 206 may include one or more machine-readable storage media such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, or similar storage media. In various embodiments, the storage 206 may store instructions for execution by the processor 202 or data upon with the processor 202 may operate. For example, the storage 206 may store a base operating system for controlling various basic operations of the hardware. Other instruction sets may also be stored in storage 206 for executing various functions of system 10, in accordance with the embodiments detailed below.
It will be apparent that various information described as stored in the storage 206 may be additionally or alternatively stored in the memory 204. In this respect, the memory 204 may also be considered to constitute a “storage device” and the storage 206 may be considered a “memory.” Various other arrangements will be apparent. Further, the memory 204 and storage 206 may both be considered to be “non-transitory machine-readable media.” As used herein, the term “non-transitory” will be understood to exclude transitory signals but to include all forms of storage, including both volatile and non-volatile memories.
While the controller 200 is shown as including one of each described component, the various components may be duplicated in various embodiments. For example, the processor 202 may include multiple microprocessors that are configured to independently execute the methods described herein or are configured to perform steps or subroutines of the methods described herein such that the multiple processors cooperate to achieve the functionality described herein.
Referring now to
As shown in
In some aspects and embodiments as best depicted in
In yet another aspect of the invention, actuators 130 may be provided such that power failure to actuator 130 forces actuator 130 to return damper 120 to a fully open position. This feature of the invention provides a measure of safety in the event of a power failure since the oven will be fully vented in any event.
Referring now to
In operation, system 10 utilizes a suitable instruction set for processor 202 to control damper 120 (or dampers 120 depending upon the configuration of oven 100) depending on the specific task being performed by oven 100. The oven operating characteristics are known by inputs 220 to controller 200 and therefore damper 120 position can be carefully selected based upon those characteristics. In some exemplary embodiments controller 200 has a plurality of inputs 220 operatively coupled thereto that are representative of oven function (bake, broil, convection, clean) and oven temperature that represent all the various combinations of use of oven 100. In one embodiment, when controller 220 senses that lower oven 102 has been set to “bake” controller 200 provides an output 210 to the lower oven 102 vent 110 damper 120 to actuate it to the fully open position for a predetermined time period to aid in starting the oven 102 burner. Once the predetermined time period expires controller 200 then provides an output 210 to damper 120 actuator 130 to move damper 120 to a preset position required for the oven temperature desired.
In other embodiments, when oven 102 is in use and oven 102 burner cycles “off”—indicating that preset temperature has been reached, controller 200 actuates lower oven 102 damper 120 to close it to a predetermined minimum position, thereby reducing the heat loss through damper 120 and prolonging the “off” cycle. Once the oven 102 burner reignites damper 120 is then returned to its normal open position.
In yet another aspect of the invention controller 200 provides a predetermined damper 120 position when oven 102 is in the “broil” mode of operation. In another embodiment when oven 102 is being used in convection mode, controller 200 moves damper 120 to a predetermined reduced open or minimum position when oven 102 burner is off and the convection fan is on. In a similar fashion, controller 200 may actuate damper 120 to a predetermined minimum open position when oven 102 is in self clean operation, but the burner is off.
In some aspects and embodiments oven 102 may include variable valves that control the bake and broil burners, and thus the amount of heat supplied by these burners during oven operation. In conventional ovens 102 wherein the bake and broil burners operate only in “full on” or “full off” modes, the burners simply cycle on an off to control temperature in oven 102. However, in variable valve ovens the bake and broil burners may be operated at a low or reduced gas flow rate, thereby supplying only the heat necessary to maintain oven 102 at temperature. When used with variable valve ovens 102, vent damper 120 may be optimized to provide a vent position that maximizes oven 102 efficiency.
In one exemplary but non-limiting embodiment, oven 102 may be equipped with a bake burner that operates from a minimum of 12,000 BTU/hr up to 18,000 BTU/hr in Natural gas. Utilizing variable vent damper 120, controller 200 operates to optimize the vent 110 effective opening size by providing a damper 120 position for the exact gas flow rate commanded. In some embodiments damper 120 may be fully opened to heat oven 102 to a preheat temperature, and then controller 200 reduces damper 120 to a predetermined position based on the position of oven 102 burner. This feature of the invention also facilitates control of oven 102 cycle times, since changing the burner rate lengthens or shortens the “on time” for oven 102 while changing the vent 110 damper 120 position lengthens or shortens the “off time” of oven 102.
In a yet further embodiment of the invention as depicted in
Referring now to
In the aforementioned example, when processor 200 determines “air free” CO to be in excess of a predetermined maximum, damper 120 is actuated to provide more air venting to oven 102, thereby improving combustion. In some embodiments damper position 120 can be optimized by controlling damper 120 position to control “air free” CO to a predetermined set point.
In a yet further embodiment, when a gas concentration above a predetermined maximum is sensed by gas sensor 150, as indicated by output 152, controller 200 is provided with instructions to actuate damper 120 to a predetermined open position, thereby enhancing combustion in oven 102.
While a variety of inventive embodiments have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that a variety of other methods, systems, and/or structures for performing the function and/or obtaining the results, and/or one or more of the advantages described herein are possible, and further understand that each of such variations and/or modifications is within the scope of the inventive embodiments described herein. Those skilled in the art will understand that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the inventive teachings is/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalents to the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is, therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presented by way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventive embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individual feature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein. In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems, articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent, is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.
All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood to control over dictionary definitions, definitions in documents incorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the defined terms.
The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in the specification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to the contrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.”
The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in the claims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements so conjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some cases and disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with “and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” of the elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and/or B”, when used in conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer, in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionally including other elements); etc.
As used herein in the specification and in the claims, “or” should be understood to have the same meaning as “and/or” as defined above. For example, when separating items in a list, “or” or “and/or” shall be interpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, but also including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and, optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated to the contrary, such as “only one of” or “exactly one of,” or, when used in the claims, “consisting of,” will refer to the inclusion of exactly one element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term “or” as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusive alternatives (i.e. “one or the other but not both”) when preceded by terms of exclusivity, such as “either,” “one of,” “only one of,” or “exactly one of” “Consisting essentially of,” when used in the claims, shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law.
As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “at least one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should be understood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more of the elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including at least one of each and every element specifically listed within the list of elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the list of elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally be present other than the elements specifically identified within the list of elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as a non-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “at least one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and/or B”) can refer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements other than B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elements other than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionally including more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including more than one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.
It should also be understood that, unless clearly indicated to the contrary, in any methods claimed herein that include more than one step or act, the order of the steps or acts of the method is not necessarily limited to the order in which the steps or acts of the method are recited.
In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitional phrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of,” and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases, respectively, as set forth in the United States Patent Office Manual of Patent Examining Procedures, Section 2111.03. It should be understood that certain expressions and reference signs used in the claims pursuant to Rule 6.2(b) of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”) do not limit the scope.
