Self-cleaning oven

We have designed an innovative automatic cleaning system for a domestic oven that allows to obtain significant advantages in terms of time, energy consumption and quality of the final result, compared to what is commercially available

Sector: Home appliances
Target: Improve the process of automatic cleaning of a domestic oven
Solution: Self-cleaning oven with mixed water and steam technology

Context

A solution on the market, but not performing enough

If until a few years ago the competition in the domestic world focused almost exclusively on the different cooking functions, now instead the focus is shifting more and more on the cleaning of the system.
Currently the market has 3 possibilities: pyrolysis cleaning, hydrolysis cleaning and catalytic cleaning.
Faced with this scenario, we began to study a system that would allow us to overcome all the limits of the 3 existing ones and that would represent a real product innovation.

The challenge

As for the complexity of the study, we found ourselves to have to face different difficulties. The greatest limit of this innovation is that the oven needs to be connected directly to the network water for both loading and unloading. In addition, the testing part and fine-tuning the cycle has involved a considerable expenditure of resources since a first version of the system involved the use of a detergent particularly aggressive which on the one hand provided excellent results, but on the other hand, it would certainly have been an obstacle for the marketing and use in users.
Finally, the arrangement of the necessary components within the system at the moment has not been considered. It was thought to prepare it externally because the goal we set ourselves to achieve was the sustainability of the idea.

The solution

The solution we have designed, prototyped and tested includes a cleaning system made by entering the steam cavity and then of water. In the first phase the steam contributes to soften the dirt, in the second the mechanical action of water removes it from all internal surfaces and conveys it to a positioned unloading area at the bottom of the cavity.
At the end of the washing, the heating elements that dry are turned on the residual water and the cleaning process is completed, without any need for user intervention.
Briefly summarizing the advantages of the application are:

        Ø Possibility of insert the cleaning kit into an existing platform with few Changes;
        Ø It's not necessary the realization of ad hoc components (if not those necessary for the washing system);
        Ø Extreme speed of the cleaning cycle compared to the pyrolytic oven;
        Ø Temperature internal reached by the contained oven;
        Ø Possibility of use commercial detergents (the tests were carried out with tabs for dishwasher);
        Ø Action is avoided final of the user who no longer has to complete the cleaning process;
        Ø Possibility of set different cleaning cycles depending on the level of dirt in the oven;

Le attività svolte

Ø   General study of the oven assembly;
Ø   Preparation of documentation for patent filing and support to the company in charge;
Ø   General study of the oven assembly;
Ø   Detailed 3D modeling;
Ø    Preparation of the first version of the prototype;
Ø   Realization of control software
Ø   Experimental tests of cooking and washing in different configurations;
Ø   Prototype modification with water recirculation system;
Ø   New software development
Ø   New experimental laboratory tests.

The Patent

The innovation proposed by SPM has been the subject of a patent Nr. 102020000020491