WO2010130567A2 - Cooking hob and method for heating cooking vessels placed on the cooking hob - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a cooking hob for heating one or more cooking vessels (7), such as pots, pans or the like, which can be placed on the cooking hob on a support plate (4) on a predefined surface area, said cooking hob comprising preferably a device (8) for identifying the position of the at least one cooking vessel (7) on the cooking hob. The invention is characterized in that the cooking hob comprises a radiation source (9) for generating a light beam, wherein said radiation source is mobile or the light beam thereof can be directed via a mobile deflecting device (12) to the side of the support plate (4) facing away from the cooking vessel, and/or the detection device comprises a sensor device (8) for detecting a reflection image of the light beams reflected by the support plate (4).

Description

 Hob and method for heating up on the hob

cooking vessels

The invention relates to a hob for heating placed on the hob cooking vessels such as pots, pans or the like., Which preferably comprises a device for detecting the position of the cooking vessel on the hob and a method for operating the hob.

It is well known in the art to automatically determine the position of objects on a hot plate. Thus, WO97 / 19298 discloses the idea of distributing heating elements, such as induction coils, under a control plate of a heating field for cooking vessels in a matrix arrangement. It is proposed to determine the position of the cooking vessels on the heating field and the control u.a. depending on this position determination. Further developed solutions of this type for cooking vessels on cooktops are shown in EP 1 206 164 B1 and DE 603 08 704 T2.

However, the above-mentioned type of position determination has not yet prevailed, so that there is a need for a hob, which allows a simplified determination of the position of the cooking vessel and possibly also the heating of the cooking vessel on the hob.

In addition, there is also a need for simplifying the heating of the cooking vessels per se.

The solution to these various problems, alone or in combination, is the object of the invention. The invention solves this problem by the subject matter of claim 1. It also provides the method of claim 11 and the use of claim 14.

The invention thus provides a cooking hob for heating cooking utensils placed on the cooking hob on a setting plate, such as pots, pans or the like, which preferably has a device for detecting the position of the cooking vessel on the setting plate, the cooking hob having a radiation source for generating a light beam , which is movable or whose light beam via a movable deflection by the side facing away from the cooking vessel of the

Adjusting plate is steerable on the side facing the cooking vessel side of the adjusting plate, and / or wherein the detection device comprises a sensor device for detecting a reflection image of the light reflected from the cooking vessel and / or the adjusting plate.

According to an idea of this claim, the cooktop has a radiation source for generating a light beam, which is movable or whose light beam can be directed via a movable deflection device onto the side of the control panel transparent to this light wavelength.

Exactly in the plane of the cooking vessel facing side of the footprint of the light beam is focused and runs according to a scheme within the area of the located in this level bottom of the cooking vessel.

Thus, the light can be used by only a single radiation source to heat according to a predetermined scheme or determined in each case depending on the situation or cooking task scheme alternately several cooking vessels on the shelf. This is inexpensive and easy. In addition, it makes sense and particularly advantageous if the detection device has a sensor device for detecting the reflection image of the light rays reflected from the cooking vessel bottom or from the setting plate.

This is particularly advantageous when the cooking vessels are freely positionable on the setting plate within a predetermined, limited area, since in this case it is necessary to determine the exact position of the one or more cooking vessels on the setting plate, so that the light beam is directed to the area of the top of the translucent or even heated by the light plate on which the cooking vessel or the cooking vessels are placed.

In this case, it is again expedient if the sensor device is connected to a control device which determines the position of the cooking vessel from the sensor signals and which in dependence on this determination

Radiation source and / or the deflection device such that the generated light beam is directed to the surface area on which the cooking vessel is located after the result of the position determination.

Of course, only a cooking vessel can be placed on the hob, whose

Position is determined and that is heated. However, it is particularly advantageous if the position of a plurality of cooking vessels on the setting plate is determined with the sensor device and if the plurality of cooking vessels are heated with the radiation source.

In this case, the light beam of the radiation source is particularly advantageously successively offset in time by a suitable control of the radiation source or the deflection device - preferably repeated periodically according to a scheme - directed at the various cooking vessels.

The invention also relates to a cooking appliance, in particular a cooking stove, with a hob according to one of the preceding claims. The invention also proposes the use of a laser for heating one or more cooking vessels / cooking vessels erected on a shelf of a hob of a cooking appliance. The use of a laser for this purpose has hitherto not been considered, although it is particularly well suited to the task of heating a cooking vessel on a hob due to the fact that it is designed to produce a precisely directed, high energy light beam.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention can be found in the dependent claims.

Hereinafter, the invention with reference to the drawings based on

Embodiments described in more detail. It shows:

1 is a schematic, partially sectioned view of a first cooking appliance with a hob and a set up thereon in a first position cooking vessel,

Fig. 2 is a schematic, partially cutaway view of another

Embodiment of a cooking appliance with a hob and a cooking vessel erected thereon in a position, Figure 3 - 6 different schematic plan views of hobs; 7 and 8 further teilgeschnitte Darestellungen of stoves with hobs.

1 shows a cooking appliance 1 with a housing 2, which has a hob 3 with a positioning plate 4 and an operating unit 5 with a control surface 6. Fig. 2 shows a further embodiment, where the Bedienfiäche 6 is integrated in the actuator plate 4.

On the hob, a cooking vessel 7 is placed. This cooking vessel 7 or possibly more of the cooking vessels 7 are arbitrarily placeable on the hob 3 within a defined Garflächenbereiches G (see the various arrangements of Figs. 3 to 6 and the different positions of the pot 7 in Fig. 1 and 2). The position of the at least one cooking vessel 7 on the hob can be determined with a detection device 8.

By the detection device 8, it is also possible to manually predetermine the desired cooking vessel position.

This detection device 8 is designed as a sensor device, in particular as a digital camera, which is designed to detect electromagnetic radiation reflected from the underside 9 of the positioning plate 4 and to evaluate the detected image with a computing unit 10 which has a microprocessor in order to extract from the determined values, the position of the cooking vessel 7 on the adjusting plate 4 to determine.

As a function of this position determination, electromagnetic radiation generated by means of a radiation source 11 is then directed in a targeted manner to the region of the upper side of the control plate in which the cooking vessel 7 is located.

The material and / or the structure of the control plate is chosen so that the radiation can pass almost unhindered and reaches the bottom of the cooking vessel bottom almost without loss of energy. As the material for the control plate is suitable, for example, for the wavelength of the radiation used transparent glass or glass ceramic.

For aligning the beam on the cooking vessel bottom surface in the plane of the top of the adjusting plate 4, a reflector and / or focusing means can be used, here a mirror 12 which is movably positioned under the adjusting plate and whose position is variable, for example by means of controllable servomotors in order to redirect the light directed by the radiation source 11 onto the mirror 12 in a targeted manner into the respective area of the cooking surface G to be heated, on which the cooking vessel 7 is located after the result of the position determination. Of course, instead of a single larger spatially (eg, two mutually perpendicular axes of rotation) adjustable mirror and a plurality of smaller, individually controllable mirror can be placed below the control plate 4 in order to align the radiation more targeted and accurate than with a single mirror is possible.

It is conceivable, with the aid of a test beam, first of all to "shut down" the surface of the setting plate 4 in order to determine the position of one or more of the cooking vessels 7 on the setting plate or setting plate 4 before starting a cooking operation.

For this purpose, it is also conceivable to provide the cooking surface G on its underside, that is to say the side facing away from the cooking vessel bottom, with a layer which can be activated by the test radiation, in order to make visible the position for the cooking vessel.

After setting up the cooking vessel, the actual cooking process can begin. During this cooking process, the positioning can be determined e.g. be repeated at predetermined intervals to determine whether the cooking vessel 7 (see FIGS. 1 and 2) has possibly been displaced,

Fig. 3 illustrates that the invention is of course also suitable for non-cylindrical cooking vessels, but also for elongated pots 7 or the like, as they are used for various food items. These can also be placed freely on the cooking surface and also displaceable during the cooking process (see FIGS. 3 and 4).

Of course, the above-described method of positioning and heating the cooking vessel is not limited to a single cooking vessel. Rather, it is also possible to detect the position of several cooking vessels 7 - see FIG. 5 - during a "scanning" of the Garflächenbereiches. The heating of several of the cooking vessels 7 can be done either with multiple sources of radiation 9 and several mirrors 12 or it is the one radiation source 9, for example, periodically directed to the various cooking vessels 7, ie, the mirror 12 is moved from cooking vessel 7 to cooking vessel 7.

Of course, preferably the light beam is interrupted when jumping to the next cooking vessel surface. The interruption takes place immediately when the cooking vessel is removed from the adjusting plate 4.

Lasers are particularly suitable as the radiation source 9, since their precisely directed light beam on the one hand enables a particularly accurate position determination and on the other hand the laser light beam is suitable for initiating a sufficiently high energy when a correspondingly designed laser is selected in order to heat the cooking vessel 7.

If several of the cooking vessels 7 are located on the setting plate / cooking surface, it is conceivable to alternately direct the laser beam to the different cooking vessels according to a control principle, depending on the nature of the task - e.g. a slight heating of the contents of a small cooking vessel or heating the contents of a larger cooking vessel - the energy input can be controlled. In addition can

Temperature sensors or the like. Be used to control the cooking process

By using the laser source, a very precise, energy-saving control of the heating / cooking process is possible. Thus, a pulsed energy supply / radiation conceivable or even irradiation of the cooking vessel in different areas of the cooking vessel with different intensity, for example, to heat one half of a cooking vessel more than another half. Instead of a laser beam and the use of other high-energy and well focusable radiation sources is conceivable. So an infrared radiation source could be used. It is even conceivable the use of sunlight.

Fig. 7 also shows that it is also conceivable, the light of the laser beam of

Radiation source of the hob to use for heating food in a furnace 13, which is to be used for heating food and which is arranged elsewhere, for example below the cooking appliance shown. This can also be done in combination with microwave radiation on a rotatable plate 14.

Fig. 8 shows the application of heating and cooking food by means of the traveling radiation in a separate cooking appliance / oven 13.

For clarity, in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, the Garraumabtrennung to the mirror 12 is not shown, since of course the mirror should not be acted upon by the vapors or fat splashes.

The invention provides in summary u.a. Also, a device and a method for using a traveling energy beam for food preparation on a cooktop plate, wherein by a radiation source very flexible several

Cookware / cooking vessels can be heated simultaneously and with different intensity.

The cooking process can be automatically monitored and controlled according to the cooking progress. In this case, energy saving effects are achieved by possibly very fast shutdown or pulsation of the energy beam.

Fig. 5 also illustrates that on the control panel (eg a touch screen) windows and switches can be displayed in the manner of menus, with which cooking parameters such as a temperature and / or a time can be entered, whereby the control unit receives these values as input , The hob can be connected to a computer network, where appropriate, an Internet and / or mobile monitoring is feasible.

It should be noted that the various components such as the camera 8 and / or the laser 9 and / or the mirror 12 and / or the control device can be connected to each other wirelessly or via cable.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1 garage

2 housings

3 hob

4 control plate

5 control unit

6 control surface

7 cooking vessel

8 detection device

9 bottom

10 arithmetic unit

1 1 radiation source

12 mirrors

13 oven

14 plate

G Garflächenbereich

Claims

claims 1. Hob for heating of one or more on the hob on a shelf (4) in a predetermined surface area deployable cooking vessels (7) such as pots, pans or the like., Which preferably comprises a device (8) for detecting the position of the at least one cooking vessel (7) on the hob, characterized in that the hob has a radiation source (9) for generating a light beam, which is movable or whose light beam via a movable deflecting device (12) on the side remote from the cooking vessel side of the adjusting plate (4) is steerable, and / or that the Erfassungsvoπϊchtung a sensor device (8) for detecting a reflection image of the Stellplatte (4) has reflected light rays. 2. Hob according to claim 1, characterized in that the or the cooking vessels (7) are freely positionable within the surface area G. 3. Hob according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the radiation source (9) is a laser. 4. Hob according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the radiation source is an infrared light source. 5. Hob according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the sensor device (8) is a camera. 6. Hob according to claim 5, characterized in that the Sensor device (8) is a digital camera. 7. Hob according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the sensor device (8) is connected to a control device which determines the position of the cooking vessel (7) from the sensor signals and in response to this Determining the radiation source (9) and / or the deflecting device (12) to control such that the generated light beam is directed to the surface area on which the cooking vessel is located. 8. Hob according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that with the sensor device (8), the position of several of the cooking vessels (7) on the adjusting plate can be determined and that with the radiation source (9) the several cooking vessels are alternately heated. 9. Hob according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the light beam of the radiation source can also be steered on food to be cooked in an oven, which is arranged below the hob or next to the hob. 10. Cooking appliance with a hob according to one of the preceding claims. 1 1. A method for controlling and / or controlling a hob according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the position of the cooking vessel 7 is determined on the hob with the sensor device (9) and / or that with the radiation source (9), in particular the laser, one or according to a predetermined scheme alternately several of the cooking vessels are heated on the hob. 12. The method according to claim 1 1 _5, characterized in that the light beam of the radiation source for heating the cooking vessel and for determining the Position of the cooking vessel is used on the hob. 13, A method according to claim 1 1 or 12, characterized in that the position of the cooking vessels 7 manually on the footprint 4 within the surface area G without placing the cooking vessels can be predetermined. 14. Use of a laser for heating one or more on a shelf at least one hob of a cooking appliance erected cooking vessel / cooking vessels (7).