AU2007201770B2 - Oven control - Google Patents

Abstract

A monitoring and advisory system for a plurality of ovens, including a means for receiving information from the plurality of ovens on the conditions in each oven and the usage of each oven, processor means for determining and identifying which of the 5 plurality of ovens meets a predetermined condition, based on the information received from the plurality of ovens, and forwarding an indication of the identified oven to an output means for interpretation by an operator. Heating means 12 14 16 18 Oven Chamber 1 Oven Chamber 2 Oven Chamber 3 Oven Chamber 4 20 22 24 26 Control system for Control system for Control system for Control system for chamber 1 chamber 2 chamber 3 chamber 4 Heating means 112 114 116 118 Oven Chamber 1 Oven Chamber 2 Oven Chamber 3 Oven Chamber 4 * ontrol System Communications Processor User interface/ means display

Description

P/00/0 II Regulation 3.2 AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title: Oven control The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: 2 Oven control Field of the invention The present invention relates generally to control systems for monitoring and controlling multiple ovens. The invention is particularly suitable for deck ovens 5 comprising multiple oven chambers, and it will be convenient to describe the invention in relation to that exemplary but non-limiting application. Background of the invention Multiple chamber deck ovens are well known and widely utilised by users. Such ovens may comprise a single heating means connected to several oven chambers, 10 stacked vertically on top of each other or several oven chambers vertically stacked with each having separate heating means. Each oven chamber in the deck oven is provided with an individual control system displaying information about that particular chamber (e.g. temperature, bake time remaining, etc) and allowing a user to control the chamber (e.g. adjust the temperature, set a timer, control the input of 15 steam into the chamber etc.). Being able to separately control each oven chamber is essential, as it allows each oven chamber to be treated as an individual oven. This independent control, for example, allows a user to have one oven chamber set at a high temperature for baking one product while an adjacent chamber is set at a different temperature (of 20 even turned off) for baking a separate product. Generally speaking, baking a new product involves preparing the dough (which, depending on the product being made may need to be baked shortly after being prepared or may need to sit and prove for a period of time between preparation and baking), placing the bake into an oven chamber, monitoring the bake to prevent 25 accidental burning, and removing a completed bake from the appropriate chamber. Management of these activities in respect of deck ovens, especially large deck ovens (some deck ovens include up to 12 independently operable chambers), where 3 each chamber of the oven is potentially at a different temperature and/or different stage in a current bake, becomes quite complicated and is often done inefficiently. Despite each oven having a bake time all reading different elapsed times, 5 during typical operation, a baker habitually opens the oven doors to constantly visually check the progress of the bake. The complications are further exacerbated by the fact that the vertical arrangement of the deck oven itself generally prevents more than one person interacting with the oven at a time. Summary of the invention 10 A monitoring and advisory system for a plurality of ovens, including: a system for monitoring and advising a plurality of oven chambers during use, the system including: (a) a processor, (b) a connection for connecting the processor to a plurality of oven 15 chambers for providing information to the processor indicative of the one or more current conditions of each of the oven chambers and the time when current use of each of the oven chambers is complete; and (c) a communication arrangement coupled to the processor for communicating with an operator; wherein the processor is configured 20 to: (i) determine a desired oven chamber condition for a product to be baked based on information received from the operator; 4 (ii) determine the current condition of each oven chamber and the time when current usage of each oven chamber is complete; (iii) determine, for each oven chamber, an expected time to 5 reach the desired oven chamber condition once the current usage of the oven chamber is complete, the expected time being the sum of time for the oven chamber to complete current usage, and the time taken to change the oven chamber to the desired oven once the current usage is complete; 10 (iv) identify the oven chamber with the lowest expected time as the desired oven chamber; and (v) control the communication arrangement to communicate the identity of the desired oven chamber to the operator. In a preferred for of the invention: (i) the communication arrangement includes 15 a user interface; (ii) the processor is configured to make the identification of the next available oven chamber in response to the operator input entered via the user interface; and (iii) the processor determines the desired oven chamber condition from the operator input. Preferably, the user interface includes a display such as a monitor. 20 In addition to displaying the indication of the identified oven chamber, the display may also display other information regarding the current condition and/or usage of each of the oven chambers. The information of the one or more current conditions of each of the oven chambers provided to the processor may include at least one variable 25 selected from the group including the current oven chamber temperature of 5 each of the oven chambers, whether steam is being applied, the humidity of each the oven chambers and whether the heating elements are activated. Preferably, the one or more current conditions of each of the oven chambers is current oven chamber temperature of each oven chamber and the desired 5 oven chamber conditions is desired oven chamber temperature determined by the processor. Preferably, the operator input includes an indication of a type of product to be baked and the processor is configured to determine the desired oven chamber condition based on the product type. 10 The decision as to which oven chamber to communicate to the operator is made based on a review of the ovens which are currently not in use and the temperature of each oven. The oven which is at a temperature which may correspond to the information derived from the look-up table is identified and that oven selection is conveyed to the operator. 15 If an available oven chamber is not at the required temperature, then the processor reviews the status of the currently used oven chambers to obtain the time when one will become available generally from the oven timer and the current temperature of the oven chamber. If the oven chamber is at the required temperature and will be available within a predetermined time period, 20 which may be set by the operator, then the selection of that oven chamber is conveyed to the operator preferably by the display. Alternatively or concurrently, the processor may determine the time taken for an oven chamber not at the required temperature to heat up to or cool down to the required temperature. If the time to reach the required temperature is 25 less than the time when an oven chamber at the required temperature becomes available or less than a predetermined time, then that oven chamber is identified and the selection conveyed to the operator with an indicator as to when it is at the required temperature. Preferably there is a warning indicia to 5a warn the operator that the oven chamber is not yet at the required temperature but is the next available oven chamber suitable for the product. In a further aspect of the invention, a computer program for operating a plurality of ovens is also disclosed. 5 Brief description of the drawings The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings which show a preferred embodiment of the control system. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the features of the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings. 10 Figure 1 provides a sectional side view of a multiple chamber deck oven; Figure 2 provides a high level logical representation of the deck oven depicted in Figure 1; 6 Figure 3 provides a high level logical representation of a deck oven in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 provides a logical representation of the components of a control system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; 5 Figure 5 provides an exemplary user interface to the control system of Figure 4; and Figure 6 provides a decision making flow chart by which the control system may select the best chamber for a new bake. Detailed description of the embodiments Figure 1 depicts an example of a multiple chamber deck oven 10. This particular 10 deck oven 10 comprises four independent oven chambers 12, 14, 16 and 18, each chamber with its own control system 20, 22, 24 and 26 respectively. The control systems 20, 22, 24 and 26 allow control of the oven 10 (e.g. setting a temperature, setting a timer, controlling steam generation, controlling flue adjustments) and provides details associated with the chamber (e.g. current temperature of the 15 chamber, time elapsed, time remaining) to the user. The oven 10 is also provided with a heating means (not shown in Figure 1) which provides heat to each of the chambers by heating each oven with individual heating elements in each oven. Thus essentially the bank of ovens operates as a collection of individual ovens each operated individually. 20 Figure 2 provides a high level logical representation of the deck oven depicted in Figure 1. As can be seen, each oven chamber 12 to 18 communicates individually with its associated control system 20 to 26 and is heated by a common heating means 28. Each control system 20 to 26 receives status information from sensors monitoring the environment of the associated oven chamber 12 to 18 (e.g. the 25 temperature of the chamber), and displays this information to the user. When the user interacts with the control system associated with a particular chamber, for example by setting the temperature, the control system sends control signals to the appropriate chamber to effect the control specified by the user.

7 For the sake of clarity in the present application status information and control signals are depicted as being sent from and to the individual oven chamber to which those signals relate. It will be appreciated, however, that the signals may be sent to different destinations depending on the control required. For example, a control 5 signal to increase the temperature may be sent to one place, a control signal to introduce steam into the chamber a different place, and a control signal to open a flue to a different place again. Figure 3 provides a high level logical representation of a deck oven in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. As can be seen, instead of each oven 10 chamber 112 to 118 being provided with separate control systems, a single control system 30 is provided. The control system 30 is configured to receive status information from, and send control signals to, all oven chambers 112 to 118. The control system 30 may be provided on the deck oven itself or, if desired, may be provided at a remote location so as to leave the face of the deck oven free and allow 15 monitoring and control of the oven chambers from that remote location. As shown in Figure 4, the control system 30 broadly incorporates a communication means 32 for receiving status information from, and sending control signals to, each of the chambers controlled by the control means 30, a user interface means 34 for displaying information regarding the ovens to a user and allowing the user to input 20 control signals, and a processor means 36 (discussed in detail below). While the three components of the control system 30 must be able to communicate data between each other, there are numerous ways in which they may be connected to do so. For example, the communication means 32 and processor 36 may be hard wired to each other and to the oven chambers being controlled, but the user 25 interface 34 may connect to the processor via a wireless connection allowing the monitoring of the status of the ovens and the control of the ovens to be achieved from a remote location (for example, the ovens may be in a baking room but may be controlled and monitored by a user from a shop counter). Figure 5 depicts one example of a user interface 50 that may be provided in order to 30 monitor and/or control the chambers being controlled by the control system 30. The 8 user interface includes a status display 52 which provides a user with crucial information regarding all of the chambers being controlled at a glance. Each chamber being controlled (in this case 12 of them) is displayed in a list, providing information regarding the product 54 (if anything) currently being baked in a 5 particular oven chamber 56, the minutes of bake time elapsed 58, and a visual representation of the bake time remaining 60. As can be seen, the visual representation of the bake time remaining 60 in respect of each chamber is provided in such a way that a user can see immediately which bakes are close to completion, and therefore which ovens need to be checked and how long it will be until a 10 chamber will be free. To further enhance usability and provide a user with the most crucial information immediately, the visual representation of time remaining is split into a first region 62 and second region 64. The first region 62, displaying to the user, for example, that there is only 5 minutes left for a bake and therefore it must be checked/removed shortly, may be shown in a separate colour (e.g. red) to the 15 second region 64. Other information may be included in this status display 52 as is deemed necessary or relevant. For example, the display could be adapted to also display information as to the current temperature of each of the chambers. The user interface 52 also includes various control options for controlling the 20 chambers. The selection panel 70 allows a user scroll through the oven chambers attached to the control system 30 and displayed in the status display 52 in order to select a particular oven chamber to be controlled. The user may scroll up or down through the list of chambers displayed in the status display 52 by activating the up button 72 or down button 74 respectively. To show the user which chamber is 25 currently selected the status display 52 may highlight 76 the selected oven. Once the user has highlighted the chamber they wish to control, they may activate the select button 78 to select that chamber. Once a chamber has been selected in the selection panel 70, the user may press the menu button 80 to transition between various control options, which are then 30 displayed in the control panel 90. The control option currently active will be displayed 9 in an area 92 at the bottom of the control panel 90. In the present example the option selected is the 'timer' option, allowing a user to control the timer of the oven chamber selected. Other control options include temperature and bake time. By pressing the up button 94 or down button 96 the selected control option (in this case 5 the timer) may be incremented or decremented respectively. The current value for the control option is displayed in box 98 - in Figure 5, box 98 is showing the user that the time remaining on the selected oven is 20 minutes. The user interface 50 may also include steam controls, including an on/off button 93 to control the presence or absence of steam in the chambers. One set of controls 95 10 may be used to manually control the release of steam into the chamber, while the other set of controls 97 may be used to manually control the venting of the steam. If desired, multiple status displays 52 (with or without the other control features of the user interface 50) may be provided. For example, the status display may display on the oven itself as well as on a screen visible from a shop counter or similar so the 15 status of the chambers may be monitored without having to be in the immediate vicinity of the oven. The processor 36 is configured to receive status information sent from each of the oven chambers (via the communication means 32), display the status information on the user interface 50, and receive control information entered into the user interface 20 50 by a user and sending appropriate control messages to the correct destination. In addition, the processor 36 is also configured to implement logical rules to assist the user in making baking decisions. For example, when a new bake is to be undertaken, instead of a user either analysing the user interface 50 to determine which oven is available or, as 25 traditionally has been the case, go to the oven itself to visually inspect the oven chambers, the user may simply enter in the new product which they wish to bake into a user interface. The processor 36 preferably has a look-up table correlating bake time and temperature with the type of product to be baked. From this 10 information, the processor 36 can determine the most appropriate oven for the bake and set the temperature and bake time accordingly. Figure 6 depicts a flow chart of a simplified decision making process 100 that may be employed by the processor 36 in order to select the most appropriate chamber 5 for a new bake. The new product to be baked is entered into the control system 102 which determines the temperature and time required to bake that product 104. The processor 36 then analyses the status of the chambers 106 and determines whether there are no chambers currently free 108 (i.e. all chambers are currently being used), one chamber free 110, or more than one free chamber 112. 10 If there are currently no oven chambers available, the processor 36 determines which chamber will be the next to become free 114 - i.e. which chamber has the least remaining bake time. If the temperature of the next chamber to become free is close to the temperature required for the new bake 116, that chamber is selected for the new bake 118. If the next chamber to become free is not close to the required 15 temperature for the new bake, the processor 36 determines whether any other chambers will be free at a similar time, and whether any of those chambers are close to the temperature required for the new bake 120 (e.g. the processor determines the next chamber to finish and then looks for chambers that will finish within a predetermined time period, e.g. 5 minutes, from that chamber). If there is a 20 chamber nearing completion that is closer to the required temperature, the processor 36 will select that chamber for the new bake 122. If no other chambers are nearing completion, or there are other chambers nearing completion but they are not close to the required temperature, the processor 36 will select the first chamber due to become available for the new bake 124 (i.e. the initially identified chamber 25 selected in step 118). For example, it may be the case that the temperature required for the new bake is 200 degrees, the first chamber that will become free is currently at a temperature of 150 degrees, and there is a second chamber that will become free 1 minute after the first chamber which is currently at a temperature of 200 degrees. In this case the 30 processor will determine that the second chamber is to be used for the bake 11 although it is not the first to become free, it will be a better temperature and is therefore the more efficient choice. If there is one free chamber 110, the processor undertakes a similar decision making process to determine the most appropriate chamber for the new bake. If the free 5 chamber is close to the required temperature it will be selected for the new bake 128. If the chamber isn't close to the required temperature, the processor 36 will analyse the other chambers 130 to determine whether any are close to completion and close to the required temperature. If such a chamber exists the processor 36 selects that chamber for the bake 132 and if not the currently free chamber is 10 selected 134. If there is more than one chamber free 112, the processor 36 will analyse the temperatures of those free chambers (which may be completely cold or may have just recently been switched off and still be cooling down), to determine whether any are close to the temperature required for the new bake 136. If one of the free 15 chambers is close to the required temperature it is selected for the bake 138. If none of the free chambers are close to the required temperature the processor 36 looks at whether any of the chambers currently in use are close to completion and if so whether any are at a temperature close to the temperature required for the new bake 140. If such a chamber exists the processor 36 selects that chamber for the bake 20 142 and if not the currently free chamber is selected 144. Once the processor 36 has selected the chamber to be used for the new bake, it informs the user and, if required, sends control signals to prepare the chamber (e.g. raising the temperature). While the invention has been described in relation to deck type ovens and a single 25 control system for controlling multiple oven chambers, it will be appreciated that each oven chamber is essentially an oven in its own right, and the control system may easily be adapted to monitor and control any arrangement of such ovens which may be independently controlled.

12 Since modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention may be readily affected by persons skilled in the art, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiment described, by way of example, hereinabove.

Claims (9)

1. A system for monitoring and advising a plurality of oven chambers during use, the system including: (a) a processor, 5 (b) a connection for connecting the processor to a plurality of oven chambers for providing information to the processor indicative of the one or more current conditions of each of the oven chambers and the time when current use of each of the oven chambers is complete; and (c) a communication arrangement coupled to the processor for 10 communicating with an operator; wherein the processor is configured to: (i) determine a desired oven chamber condition for a product to be baked based on information received from the operator; (ii) determine the current condition of each oven chamber 15 and the time when current usage of each oven chamber is complete; (iii) determine, for each oven chamber, an expected time to reach the desired oven chamber condition once the current usage of the oven chamber is complete, the expected time being 20 the sum of time for the oven chamber to complete current usage, and the time taken to change the oven chamber to the desired oven once the current usage is complete; (iv) identify the oven chamber with the lowest expected time as the desired oven chamber; and 14 (v) control the communication arrangement to communicate the identity of the desired oven chamber to the operator.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein (i) the communication arrangement includes a user interface; (ii) the processor is configured to make 5 the identification of the next available oven chamber in response to the operator input entered via the user interface; and (iii) the processor determines the desired oven chamber condition from the operator input.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the user interface includes a display. 10

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein in addition to displaying the indication of the identified oven chamber, the display also displays other information regarding the current condition and/or usage of each of the oven chambers.

5. The system according to claim 1 wherein the information of the one or 15 more current conditions of each of the oven chambers provided to the processor includes at least one variable selected from the group including the current oven chamber temperature of each of the oven chambers, whether steam is being applied, the humidity of each the oven chambers and whether the heating elements are activated. 20

6. The system according to claim 5 wherein the one or more current conditions of each of the oven chambers is current oven chamber temperature of each oven chamber and desired oven chamber conditions is desired oven chamber temperature determined by the processor.

7. The system according to claim 2, wherein the operator input includes 25 an indication of a type of product to be baked and the processor is configured to determine the desired oven chamber condition based on the product type. 15

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the processor has a look-up table relating the desired oven chamber condition to the type of product to be baked and is configured to use the look-up table to make the determination of the desired oven chamber condition. 5

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an indicator for displaying when the identified oven chamber is at the desired oven chamber condition.