Diagnostic system for a cooking appliance
First Claim
1. A diagnostic system for a cooking appliance having a heating element, said diagnostic system comprising:
- a thermal probe to measure the temperature at or near said heating element;
means responsive to said thermal probe for acquiring the thermal profile of the cooking appliance over a predetermined time period; and
means for comparing said acquired thermal profile with known thermal profiles of the cooking appliance; and
means for identifying a malfunction in the cooking appliance based on the comparison between said acquired and known thermal profiles of the cooking appliance.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The diagnostic system of the present invention monitors and accumulates the thermal signatures or characteristics during at least one operational mode of the cooking appliance. These thermal signatures or characteristics are collected--through the same temperature sensor used to regulate the temperature of the cooking appliance--and then stored in, for example, a look-up table. Advantageously, this may be accomplished without the need of special sensors or interface boards. The thermal signatures or characteristics may include first order or higher order temperature gradients, as well as temperature profiles. The stored thermal signatures provide a baseline from which the diagnostic system can detect and identify whether the cooking appliance is working under normal operating conditions.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A diagnostic system for a cooking appliance having a heating element, said diagnostic system comprising:
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a thermal probe to measure the temperature at or near said heating element; means responsive to said thermal probe for acquiring the thermal profile of the cooking appliance over a predetermined time period; and means for comparing said acquired thermal profile with known thermal profiles of the cooking appliance; and means for identifying a malfunction in the cooking appliance based on the comparison between said acquired and known thermal profiles of the cooking appliance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A cooking appliance for cooking a food product in a cooking medium, said cooking appliance having a diagnostic system comprising:
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a heating element to heat the cooking medium; a temperature sensor to measure the temperature of the cooking medium; a microprocessor operatively connected to said heating element so as to regulate the temperature of the cooking medium, during a predetermined period said microprocessor measuring the temperature profile of said cooking medium, and then comparing the measured temperature profile with minimum and/or maximum values for said temperature profiles; and means for indicating a malfunction when said measured temperature profile is outside the range defined by said minimum and/or maximum values. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. In a cooking appliance of the type regulating the temperature of a cooking medium through at least proportional control heating, the improvement comprising:
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means for acquiring the thermal profile of the cooking appliance; means for comparing said acquired thermal profile with known thermal profiles of the cooking appliances, each indicative of a specific malfunction; and means for identifying the specific malfunction based on the differences between said acquired and known thermal profiles. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for diagnosing faulty operation of an apparatus having a heating element, said method comprising the steps of:
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measuring the temperature at or near said heating element; acquiring the thermal profile of the apparatus over a predetermined time period; and comparing said acquired thermal profile with known thermal profiles of the apparatus; and identifying a malfunction in the apparatus based on the comparison between said acquired and known thermal profiles. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification