Whirlpool Corporation

Other

Teka Industrial S.a.

Cristiano Vito Pastore

Davide Parachini

Andrea Gallivanoni

Joshua George Abdoo

Alexander L Clayton

Donald John Gilmore

Bruce M Wiatrak

Seth Herndon

Salvatore Baldo

Pallavi Manjrekar

Christopher D Cullen

Neomar Giacomini

James Charles Johncock

Collin Andrew Stipe

Matthew Peter Ebrom

Brandon Lynn Satanek

Wyndham Fairchild Gary, Jr

Gianpiero Santacatterina

Christopher L Carpenter

Ariana Bruno

Hanks Hu

John Doyle

Vince Huang

Heng Tong Pit

Richard J Hughes

Juan Chen

Tracy Yu

Casey L McCuan

Kevin Michael Chase

Scott E Carpenter

Kent D Pilcher

Brent M Burgess

Claudio Civanelli

Marco Giuliani

Tamara Distaso

Jack Li

Xiangxu Liu

Gregory Edward Bauman

Aaron Edward Showers

Natalie Anne Hillmann

Carlo Calesella

Diego Neftali Gutierrez

Raffaele Paganini

Kyle A Walters

Alessandro Boer

Daniele Turetta

Tushar Ashok Kalbande

Ettore Arione

Rocco Petrigliano

Andrea Ferrise

Roy Qiu

Davide Gerola

Joel Fletty

Ken Lei

Blake Cartwright

Giulio Ghiglieri

Michael Tsai

Alberto Morandotti

Stefano Moroni

Federica Inderst

Gioacchino Prestigiacomo

Rahul Dudhe

Davide Colombo

Nicholas Brenn

Ajit Janardan Manohar

Dick Ge

Luca Zilio

Salvatore Sanna

Rahul R Pandey

Enrico Bellinetto

Matteo Rinaldi

Natalia Roumpedaki

Sugosh Venkataraman

Fabio Gastaldello

Federico Garuccio

Xiangxu Li

Teresa Vitale

Josh Abdoo

Larissa Ducci De Araujo

Rahul S Dudhe

Marco Forgione

Riccardo Nava

Michele Frasca

Casey L Mccuan

Vittorio Claudio Crisafulli

Alberto Maranzana

Mario Barbati

Francesco Jatta

Matthew P Ebrom

Bruce Wiatrak

Collin A Stipe

Gabriele Bonfrate

A cooking appliance having a cabinet including an insert within the cabinet to define cooking chamber with an access opening and a door selectively closing/opening the access opening, the cooking appliance comprising at least one of a first cooling flow path through a back wall of the cabinet, over a top wall of the insert, and out a side wall of the cabinet, a second cooling flow path through a bottom wall of the cabinet, along the bottom wall of the cabinet, and out a side wall of the cabinet, and a third cooling flow path through a bottom wall of the cabinet, out a front wall of the cabinet, into the door, out of the door, into a front wall of the cabinet, and out of a side wall of the cabinet.

Automatic oven

An induction cooking apparatus includes a panel forming a cooking surface and a bottom surface. The cooking surface is configured to support a cooking utensil. A housing is in connection with and disposed beneath the cooking surface. The housing forms an enclosure having an internal cavity. The enclosure includes a first side and a second side opposite the first side. A plurality of induction coils is arranged in at least one linear array beneath the cooking surface. A beam structure includes a first end portion and a second end portion. The beam structure is configured to extend across the housing of the cooking apparatus from the first side to the second side and support the plurality of induction coils. A plurality of spring mechanisms connects the first end portion to the first side and the second end portion to the second side.

Induction coil compression apparatus for beam assembly

An induction heating device comprises a D.C. power supply referenced to a ground connection. The D.C. power supply is configured to supply power to the induction heating device and comprises a voltage rectifier configured to rectify an input voltage into a direct current and output the D.C. voltage to a D.C. bus and a ground connection. The device further comprises a plurality of resonant loads arranged in a matrix comprising a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows. Each of the resonant loads is connected at a first end to a row and at a second end to a column. A plurality of first switching devices are in connection with each of the columns between the D.C. bus and at least one of the resonant loads. A plurality of second switching devices are in connection with each of the rows between the resonant loads and the ground connection.

Control circuits and methods for distributed induction heating devices

A method for controlling an induction heating device includes supplying current from a D.C. power supply into a resonant load and emitting the current from the resonant load. The current is directionally conducted from the output node of the resonant load to a switching node downstream from the output node. The current conducted through the resonant load is controlled with a switching device.

System and method for controlling quasi-resonant induction heating devices

A method for controlling a heating operation of an induction cooktop includes generating a direct current (DC) power from an alternating current (AC) power source. The DC power is supplied to a first resonant inverter and a second resonant inverter via a power supply bus. A switching frequency of each of the first resonant inverter and the second resonant inverter is controlled and in response to the switching frequency supplied to a plurality of induction coils of the resonant inverters, an electromagnetic field is generated. A selective tuning operation of the first resonant inverter or the second resonant inverter includes controlling a connection of a capacitor to either the first resonant inverter or the second resonant inverter.

System and method for tuning an induction circuit

A method is provided for identifying cookware items placed on top of an induction cooktop having a plurality of coils. The method includes the following steps: acquire coverage factor information for each coil and collect it into a matrix; identify all local maxima in the matrix; find the coordinates of each of the local maxima as follows: when the local maxima is a single coil, the coordinates are those of the coil center, and when the local maxima is a region of contiguous coils, the coordinates are those of a centroid of the region; calculate distances from each coil to each of the coordinates of the identified local maxima; determine a minimum among the distances; classify the coils in clusters, based on the distances from the local maxima; and use the identified coil clustering to estimate the position, shape, size, and orientation of the cookware items.

System and method for identifying cookware items placed on an induction cooktop

A method is provided for controlling average power delivered to coils of a flexible induction cooktop having a plurality of coils that are arranged adjacent to one another in a non-overlapping manner to form an array. The method includes: a) identifying a group of the plurality of coils that are underlying one or more cookware items; b) providing power to at least one coil of the group of coils underlying one or more cookware items; and c) at the same time, not providing power to coils of the group of coils underlying the cookware items that are adjacent to the at least one coil to which power is provided to prevent interaction between adjacent coils of the group of coils.

Method for improving accuracy in load curves acquisition on an induction cooktop

An induction cooking apparatus including a coil beam assembly, an inverter assembly, and a heatsink. The coil beam assembly includes one or more induction coils. The inverter assembly includes a first circuit board that is electrically connected to the induction coil(s) such that the inverter assembly is configured to supply electricity to the induction coil(s). The heatsink has a beam-like structure and is attached to both the coil beam assembly and the inverter assembly. The heatsink is positioned above the inverter assembly and below the coil beam assembly such that the heatsink is the sole support structure for the inverter assembly. A method for assembling the induction cooking apparatus is also described.

Induction cooking apparatus with heatsink and method of assembly

An automatic oven having a controller and a sensor assembly for automatically determining a food type for a food item placed in a cooking chamber of the automatic oven, and cooks the automatically determined food item according to a cooking profile selected based on the determined food type, while optionally accommodating a user input on the determining of the food type, and the cooking profile, including an optional degree of doneness.

A method for calculating the humidity level in a cooking apparatus is disclosed. The method includes heating a food load in a cooking cavity of the cooking apparatus and selectively activating a convection fan in the cooking cavity. The method further includes monitoring a humidity signal detected by a humidity sensing apparatus in response to the activation of the convection fan. As a result of the activation of the convection fan, the method may determine an actual humidity level from a plurality of humidity levels based on a change in the humidity signal.

Automatic oven with humidity sensor

A cooking appliance can include a cooking chamber and an imaging device for capturing an image of a food item inside the chamber. The appliance can include a transparent, touchscreen display for displaying the interior contents of the cooking appliance to a user without requiring the user to open the cooking appliance, as well as providing for the user controlling, operating, and interacting with the cooking appliance.

Cooking appliance with an imaging device

A method for identifying cookware on an induction cooktop having coils, includes the steps: (a) acquire a coverage factor matrix; (b) set a present level at a maximum value of the matrix; (c) count closed iso-level curves corresponding to the present level and save the result; (d) decrease the level by an amount; (e) count closed curves corresponding to the decreased level; (f) when the number of closed curves at the present level is not lower than that from the previous level, update the saved result with the present level; (g) when the number of closed curves at the present level is lower than that from the previous level, keep the previously saved result; (h) repeat steps (d) to (h), until the number decreases; (i) assign coils inside the curve to a distinct cluster; and (j) use the clustering to estimate a position, shape, size, and orientation of the cookware.

A cooking assistance appliance can include a body, at least one camera, at least one sensor, and an imaging device for capturing an image of a cooking appliance. The cooking appliance can provide for monitoring use of the cooking appliance, as well as assisting the user in operating the cooking appliance. Additionally, the cooking assistance appliance can be integrated into a hood or a microwave oven and vent combination above a stovetop.

Cooking assistance appliance

An induction cooking apparatus includes an induction coil forming a top surface and a bottom surface. The induction coil includes a plurality of conductive windings. A temperature sensor protrudes through the top surface of the induction coil. An electrical circuit is in communication with the temperature sensor. The electrical circuit is disposed on a substrate, which may form a chassis configured to support a plurality of conductive connections. The substrate forms a spring mechanism in connection with the temperature sensor.

Temperature sensor compression features for induction cooktop assembly

An induction cooking apparatus includes a plurality of induction coils arranged in at least one array. At least one beam structure is configured to support the at least one array of induction coils. At least one electrical circuit is in connection with the at least one beam structure and in communication with each of the plurality of induction coils forming the at least one array. At least one inverter assembly is configured to drive the induction coils. The electrical circuit and the inverter assembly form a connection interface including a plurality of mating connectors. The mating connectors of the connection interface electrically connect the array with the inverter assembly.

Connection interface for induction coil array

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Comerio, Italy

Cristiano Vito Pastore