Electrolux Appliances Aktiebolag

Fabio Angeli

Laurent Jeanneteau

Alex Viroli

Massimo Nostro

Svend Erik Christiansen

Massimo Zangoli

Filippo Milanesi

Filippo Martini

Emanuel Urgese

Alan Mengozzi

Giacomo Corsi

Nicola Sparnacci

A cooking hob includes at least one heating power transferring element with multiple concentrically arranged windings, one or more heating power energy units for powering the windings, a control unit that controls the heating power energy units, and detection means that determines the coverage of the windings by a cookware item. The control unit balances the heat provided to the cookware item by determining a rescaled electric power for the windings based on power requests and information regarding the coverage of the windings and establishes an operating cycle by determining a duty cycle for one or more windings. The duty cycle defines the activation time of the respective winding and is chosen such that the mean electric power provided to the respective winding within the operating cycle is equal or essentially equal to the rescaled electric power associated with the winding.

Cooking hob

An induction cooking hob includes a control unit and at least one cooking zone. The cooking zone includes at least three induction coils. At least one first group of one or more induction coils and at least one second group of two or more induction coils of the at least one cooking zone are alternatingly activatable or activated by a control unit.

Induction cooking hob and method for controlling a cooking zone

The invention relates to a power module, preferably induction module for powering one, two, three, four, at least one, at least two, at least three or at least four heating element (s), preferably electrical, radiant and/or induction heating elements, more preferably induction coils (), of a cooking appliance, preferably a cooking hob, more preferably a radiant or induction hob (), the power module () at least comprising: &#x2014;one, two or at least two heating power units (), in particular three or at least three heating power units, more in particular four or at least four heating power units, preferably heating frequency units and/or induction generators (), each for providing power, in particular electrical power, to one, two, three, at least one, at least two or at least three heating elements (); &#x2014;one or at least one controller () for controlling the heating power unit(s) (); &#x2014;a communication interface () for coupling the power module () with one or at least one user interface (); &#x2014;wherein, in particular in a first configuration mode, the power module () is adapted to be operated either according to a master module configuration or a slave module configuration and/or&#x2014;wherein, in particular in a second configuration mode, the power module () is configured to directly communicate with the at least one user interface, a corresponding cooking appliance as well as a corresponding method for operating a cooking appliance.

Power module and cooking appliance

The invention relates to a method for controlling an induction hob (), the induction hob () comprising a plurality of induction coils () and two or more power units (), each power unit () being coupled with one or more induction coils (), wherein a cooking zone is formed by associating one or more induction coils () to a coil group (-), the method comprising the steps of: &#x2014;defining one or more coil groups (-), each coil group (-) being associated with one or more induction coils (); &#x2014;calculating a relative power value or relative electrical parameter value of each coil group (-) based on a maximum power value or maximum electrical parameter value, the maximum power value being the power value of the coil group with the highest power request, respectively, the maximum electrical parameter value being an electrical parameter value of the coil group (-) with the highest power request; &#x2014;calculating, for each coil group (-), a coil activation number based on the relative power value or relative electrical parameter value, the coil activation number being the number of induction coils () to be activated in subsequent steps of a coils activation sequence; &#x2014;establishing a coils activation schedule based on the coil activation number; &#x2014;operating the induction hob () according to the coils activation schedule. wherein the power units () are operated according to a master-slave configuration, wherein a master power unit is adapted to calculate the coil activation number, establish the coils activation schedule and operate the plurality of induction coils () of a master power unit and one or more slave power units according to the coils activation schedule.

Method for controlling an induction hob

Contacts of a relay may glue together during operation. This state may be measured and a controller may issue a pulse width-modulated signal at a certain duty cycle and frequency in order to vibrate the relay contacts to make them open again. Once this is the case, the process is stopped. This process may be repeated a certain number of times, and if successfully degluing is not possible, a notification may be generated. Also after a certain number of degluing cycles, a signal may be generated to indicate replacement of the relay.

Apparatus, method, appliance, and computer program product for operating a relay

An induction module powers one or more induction coils. It includes an induction generator; a controller; and a communication interface for coupling with a user interface. The controller is adapted to operate the induction module according to first and a second configuration modes, wherein in the first configuration mode the induction module is configured to directly communicate with the user interface, and in the second configuration mode, the induction module is adapted to be operated either according to a master module or a slave module configuration. In the master module configuration, the induction module is configured to receive user interface information from the user interface and provide operation information to a slave induction module. In the slave module configuration, the induction module is configured to receive operation information from a master induction module and operate the induction generator according to that operation information.

Growing community of inventors

Forli, Italy

Fabio Angeli