Cooking appliance

• US 20080000650A1
• Filed: 06/28/2007
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Choi, Sung Ho
• Application Number:
  US11/819,591
• Publication Number:
  US 20080000650A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 169/65
• CPC Class Codes: A62C 3/006 for kitchens or stoves

Abstract

Disclosed are a cooking appliance for constantly monitoring a risk of fire in the same and nearby appliances, and a fire control method using the same. The cooking appliance comprises a casing forming an appearance of the cooking appliance. A fire sensing unit is disposed on one wall of the casing. The sensing unit senses an indoor state or an internal state of the casing. A notifying unit is disposed in the casing for notifying a pre-specified terminal of current information. A control unit is disposed in the casing for comparing sensed information from the fire sensing unit with previously stored reference information to determine whether a fire occurs and controlling the notifying unit according to the determination result.

Claims

1. A cooking appliance comprising:

a casing forming an appearance of the cooking appliance;

a fire sensing unit disposed on one wall of the casing for sensing an indoor state or an internal state of the casing;

a notifying unit disposed in the casing for notifying a pre-specified terminal of current information; and

a control unit disposed in the casing for comparing said information with previously stored reference information to determine whether a fire occurs and controlling the notifying unit according to the comparing result.

2. The cooking appliance according to claim 1, wherein the fire sensing unit comprises at least one among a temperature sensor for sensing an indoor temperature or an internal temperature of the casing, and a smoke sensor for sensing an indoor smoke amount based on optical transmittance.

3. The cooking appliance according to claim 1, wherein the notifying unit comprises a communication module connected to the Internet or a network for transmitting information data.

4. The cooking appliance according to claim 1, wherein the pre-specified terminal comprises at least one among a control server of a fire station, a portable terminal of a user, and a terminal of a fire-related company or fire manager.

5. The cooking appliance according to claim 1, wherein the control unit comprises a memory for storing said reference information and an identification of the specified terminal.

6. The cooking appliance according to claim 5, wherein the memory is located within a protection casing, the protection casing being made of a fire-resistant material.

7. The cooking appliance according to claim 1, wherein the casing is a casing of an over the range (OTR), and the fire sensing unit is disposed on a bottom of the casing.

8. The cooking appliance according to claim 1, further comprising:

an extinction material tank disposed in the casing for storing an extinction material including extinction liquid or extinction powder; and

a spraying unit for selectively spraying the extinction material stored in the extinction material tank under control of the control unit.

9. The cooking appliance according to claim 8, wherein the casing is a casing of an over the range (OTR) and the spraying unit is disposed on a bottom of the casing.

10. A cooking appliance comprising:

a fire sensing unit for sensing an indoor state;

a memory for storing the sensed indoor state information and previously-set indoor reference information;

a control unit for comparing the sensed indoor information with the previously-set indoor reference information to determine whether a fire occurs; and

a notifying unit for notifying a pre-specified terminal of the indoor state information and fire occurrence according to the signal of the control unit.

11. A method of controlling a cooking appliance comprising the steps of:

sensing an indoor state or an internal state of a casing;

comparing the sensed state information with reference information stored in a memory to determine whether a fire occurs; and

controlling a notifying unit to notify a pre-specified terminal of fire occurrence.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the state information sensed in the sensing step comprises a time related temperature parameter or a time related smoke amount parameter.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the state information sensed in the sensing step comprises a time related temperature parameter or a time related smoke amount parameter, and

the determining step determines by the comparing between the state information and the stored reference information.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising specifying a time when the determination is made as a fire occurrence and storing it in the memory when it is determined that the fire occurs.

15. The method according to claim 11, wherein the notifying step comprises transmitting a message to the specified terminal through the Internet or a network.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the message comprises at least one among the fire occurrence time, the sensed state information, and address information.

17. The method according to claim 11, further comprising an initial extinction step of spraying an extinction material stored in an extinction material tank when it is determined that the fire occurs.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising the step of performing the sensing step and the determining step again to determine whether the fire is extinguished after performing the initial extinction step.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising the step of re-notifying, by the notifying unit, a pre-specified terminal of a result of determining whether the fire is extinguished.