Patent Application
20120153787
Ovens having hinged doors are known in the art. The hinges can be located at the bottom, the side or at the top of the door. Traditionally, oven doors have been moved between the open and closed position manually. More recently, however, some ovens include drive units and operating switches that can be used to cause the door to move automatically between the open and closed positions.
Some ovens with power operated doors include a switch that controls a drive mechanism used to open and/or close the oven door. When a user actuates the switch, the door to the oven may open automatically. A user may then place food into the oven and actuate the same switch to cause the oven door to close automatically.
The inventors of the instant application realized that with conventional automatic doors, the location of a door switch may be convenient in one circumstance but not in other circumstances. For example, a cook getting ready to place a 30 lb turkey in an oven may activate a switch located on the front surface of the oven door to cause the door to open. However, once the door is open and the turkey has been placed inside the oven, the switch located on the front surface of the door may no longer be in a convenient location for easy activation to cause the door to close.
One aspect of the technology herein may be embodied in a home appliance that includes a drive unit that is operable to move the door between the open and closed positions.
The home appliance may include a sensor that facilitates opening and closing of the door.
Another aspect of the technology relates to disposing a sensor on an inner portion of a home appliance. For example, the sensor may be disposed on an inner surface of the door of the home appliance or it may be disposed on an inner surface of the home appliance surrounding the enclosure. In another aspect multiple sensors may be disposed at multiple portions of the inner portion of the home appliance.
Yet another aspect of the technology relates to providing a home appliance with a sensor that is configured to signal a drive unit to move a door to a closed position. Alternatively, or in addition, a sensor may be configured to cause a door to move to an open or closed position.
In some examples, at least two sensors are disposed on an interior portion of a home appliance and activating either sensor may cause the door to move to a closed position. One or all of the sensors may be covered when a door the home appliance is in a closed position.
In some examples, one or more sensors are located on an outer portion of a home appliance. The outer portion may include an outer surface of a door such that the sensors are disposed on the outer surface of the door. Activating the sensor may signal a drive unit to move a door of the home appliance to an open position.
Some examples may include a sensor on an outer portion of a home appliance and a sensor on an inner portion of the home appliances the sensors being positioned such that the sensors are substantially aligned when the door is in the closed position.
In some examples, additional functionality in a home appliance beyond opening or closing a door may be activated when a sensor is triggered.
Another aspect of the technology involves triggering a sensor in response to moving a door of a home appliance a certain distance. This can include moving a door of a home appliance in a closing direction to cause a sensor to trigger the opening of the door.
In some examples, a home appliance includes a vent to facilitate temperature control of a heated enclosure of the home appliance. A sensor may be positioned adjacent the vent such that the sensor is cooled by the vent when the home appliance increases in temperature.
Sensors in examples may use capacitive, piezoelectric, light sensors.
In examples where a door moves automatically between open and closed positions door movement may be halted when a certain resistance to opening the door is detected.
In certain embodiments a home appliance with an enclosure has a door that is moveable between open and closed positions. A first sensor may be disposed on an outer surface of the door such that when it is activated, the door opens. A second sensor may be disposed on the enclosure such that the door of the home appliance covers the second sensor when the door is in a closed position. The second sensor, when activated, may cause the door to move to the closed position.
The following description is provided in relation to several examples which may share common characteristics, features, etc. It is to be understood that one or more features of any one example may be combinable with one or more features of other examples. In addition, single features or a combination of features may constitute an additional embodiment(s).
In the embodiment illustrated in
The door 104 may include a partially or substantially transparent viewing panel 110 that may, for example, be constructed out of glass. In certain other example embodiments, a non-translucent material may be used for the front of the door.
An instrument panel 106 that may provide information and allow control of the oven is located on the top of the front surface of the door 104. For example the instrument panel 106 may have a start button, a stop button, and may display the current time. Buttons, control switches and displays used to control various functions may also be included on the instrument panel 106. In alternate embodiments, the instrument panel 106 could be located not on the door, but on a non-moving surface of the oven housing. In the embodiment illustrated in
The oven 100 includes a first sensor 102 on a side, e.g., the right side, of the door which is used to trigger the door 104 to automatically open. The first sensor 102 could be, for example, a capacitive sensor, an ambient light sensor, a piezoelectric sensor, or any other type of suitable sensor that allows a user to touch the sensor to instruct the door to automatically open.
When a user activates the first sensor 102 on the oven door, a signal is communicated to a drive mechanism that causes the door to move from the closed position to the open position. As is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, various types of motors and drive mechanisms may be used to provide mechanical control over the position of the door.
The drive mechanism may cause the door to open to a preprogrammed position such that a user may then access the cooking cavity inside of the oven. The position to which the door opens, the speed of the door movement and various other aspects of door movement may be predetermined. In alternate embodiments, the user may be able to set these door opening parameters.
In the embodiment illustrated in
In examples an oven may include a heating element (e.g., a burner) disposed on a lower portion of a cooking cavity in the oven. The heating element disposed on a lower portion of the cooking cavity may facilitate the baking or roasting of food placed into the oven. Alternatively, or in addition, an oven may include a heating element disposed on a top portion of the cooking cavity. Such an upper heating element may allow food placed into the oven to be “broiled.” An oven may include a fan disposed in the cooking enclosure to facilitate the movement of hot air around the cooking enclosure. This convection process may speed up the cooking of food placed into an oven.
The heating elements for an oven may be hooked up to an electrical grid or may be connected to another heating source such as natural gas, propane, or the like. The heat provided by heating elements disposed in a cooking cavity of an oven may be controlled by a thermostat provided on an outer surface of the oven. Accordingly, users may control the temperature of the cooking cavity. Control of temperature or other oven functionality (e.g., whether the upper broiler burners are on) may be provided by mechanical switches, electrical connections, or the like. Control may be presented to the user in the form of mechanical dials, a touch screen, etc. In certain instances (e.g., an oven with a touch screen), the oven may require an electrical connection to power certain features of the oven.
In certain examples, an oven may include a timer that allows timed control of oven functionality. For example, an oven may have a timer that sets the oven to “bake” at 425° for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the timer may automatically cause the oven to turn off. In certain examples an oven may include preset cooking times for a variety of different types of food (e.g., 350° for 15 minutes for steak or 425° for 12 minutes for salmon).
Certain example ovens may include an auto-clean functionality. One technique for accomplishing this is to oxidize the organic matter in the cooking cavity through use of extreme heat (e.g., at a temperature in excess of 500° F.).
In other examples, an oven may be a microwave oven that uses microwave radiation to heat food. An example microwave oven may include a magnetron used to convert electrical energy into microwave radiation. In certain examples, a microwave oven may include a stirrer and/or a turntable to facilitate even distribution of microwave energy. In certain examples, a microwave oven may also include a convection process.
An oven may also include one or more racks that may be inserted into the oven. The racks may help in adding or removing food from the cooking cavity of the oven.
The subject technology may also be applied to other types of home appliances. For example, another type of home appliance is a dishwasher. A dishwasher may include one or more racks for placing items to be washed in the dishwasher. In examples a dishwasher may be connected to a water source. In certain examples a dishwasher may include a heating element for heating items within the dishwasher to speed up the drying process after the items have been washed.
In certain examples, a home appliance (e.g., an oven or a clothes dyer) may require electricity to be supplied at a higher than normal household voltage. For example, an electrical connection of 240V may be preferred or required over a standard 120V connection.
In examples, a home appliance may be configured to receive one item or multiple items into an enclosure of the home appliance. The received item(s) may then be subject to a function performed by the home appliance (e.g., cooking food for an oven, drying clothes for a clothes dryer or washing dishes for a dish washer). In certain examples, a home appliance may perform multiple functions on the items located within the enclosure. For example, a dishwasher may wash and then dry dishes located within the enclosure.
In the embodiment illustrated in
In other embodiments, the first sensor could be located on the viewing panel 110 at the center of the front surface of the oven door. In still other embodiments, the first sensor could be located on a side, top or bottom surface of the door or the oven housing. The first sensor could be located at virtually any location in which it can be conveniently operated by a user when the door is in the closed position.
Hinges 214 attach the door 208 to the main body of the oven to allow the door 208 to move between and open and closed positions. The drive mechanism that controls movement of the door may include a powered arm assembly 212 that controls the position of door 208. Accordingly, when the drive mechanism is activated, the powered arm assembly 212 may position the door in an open position, a closed position, or some position between the open and closed positions.
In the embodiment illustrated in
When the door of the oven is closed, the front surface 206 and the second sensor 202 will be covered by the door. In some instances, the second sensor 202 will be located on the front surface 206 such that it is essentially directly behind the first sensor when the oven door is closed. When the first and second sensors are located in this fashion, a user would be touching substantially the same location on the oven to cause the door to open and to cause the door to close. For similar reasons, the size and shape of the second sensor 202 may be substantially the same as the size and shape of the first sensor 102.
In the embodiment illustrated in
In the embodiment illustrated in
In the embodiment illustrated in
In the embodiment illustrated in
In the embodiment illustrated in
In alternate embodiments, first and second sensors may be disposed in different locations and/or more than two sensors may be positioned on the front face of the door, the rear face of the door, or the front face of the oven.
In certain embodiments the sensors of a home appliance may also be used to determine when the door to the home appliance reaches the open and/or closed position. For example, the second sensors 262 and 264, being opposite one another when the door is closed, may be configured to sense each other when the door is moved into the closed position. Accordingly, one or both of the sensors may send a signal to the drive unit to stop closing the door. In other embodiments, an inner sensor (e.g., second sensor 232) may be configured to sense the surface that is opposite the sensor (e.g., the inner surface of the door or the front surface of the oven) and send a signal to the drive unit to stop closing the door.
A sensor (not shown) may be disposed in the home appliance to sense movement of the door 304. In
Once the sensor within the oven detects a predetermined amount of movement of the door 304 in the closing direction (e.g., 1 mm in the closing direction), the sensor sends a signal to a drive unit that causes the door to move to the open position. Accordingly, as shown in
In some embodiments, the sensor may also be used to trigger the drive mechanism to cause the door to close. In these embodiments, if the door is in an open position, and the user moves the door slightly, the sensor would send a signal to the drive mechanism to cause the door to close. The slight movement of the door detected by the sensor could be movement in either the opening or the closing direction.
The home appliance may also include a second sensor 406 that is also coupled to the drive mechanism 402. The second sensor is used to instruct the drive mechanism to cause the door to move to the closed position. The second sensor could be one of the second sensors discussed above with respect to
The above-described embodiments may relate to an oven with a door that opens and closes a cooking cavity. However, a similar door drive mechanism and switch arrangement could be used on other types of home appliances. For instance, the drive mechanism and switch arrangement could be used on a microwave oven, an ice maker, a dishwasher, a refrigerator and/or freezer, a clothing washer, a clothing dryer, a trash compactor or other typical household or domestic appliance that includes a door.
In some embodiments a door may be connected to a main body of a home appliance by one or more hinges. In alternate embodiments, the door may be moveably connected to the main body by another technique. For example the door could be slidably connected to the main body such that it slides between an open position and a closed position.
In some embodiments, the area of the sensors that can be touched to activate the sensor may be demarked by one or more lines that define the area in which the sensor is located. In other embodiments, the sensor area may not be so marked, but instead may blend in with the surrounding surface (for example, the surface of the door) upon which it is located.
In some embodiments, the sensors may be used to cause additional functions to occur, in addition to instructing a door to open and/or close. For example, if the first and second sensors are located on a dishwasher, a user loading a dishwasher may simply wish to hit a button to cause the dishwasher door to close and to cause a dishwashing operation to begin. Accordingly, a sensor disposed on an inner surface that is accessible when the dishwasher door is open may cause both operations to occur (e.g., closing of the dishwasher door followed by a starting of the dishwashing operation).
Some embodiments may include a safety mechanism that stops movement of a door if an obstruction is encountered during an opening or closing operation. In such embodiments, if the door is opening or closing and the drive mechanism encounters a certain level of resistance, the door would automatically stop. The door might also automatically reverse direction for a small amount of travel, or the door might reverse direction and return to the position it occupied before the movement operation began. This type of safety mechanism could prevent damage to the drive mechanism itself, injury to the operator or a bystander, or the destruction of some item that has been placed in the movement path of the door. In other embodiments the safety mechanism may use the sensors disposed on the home appliance to detect objects before the door hits the objects.
While the invention has been described in connection with what are presently considered to be the most practical and preferred examples, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed examples, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements.
