Modular blender with improved water heating and light beam detection
AssigneeF'real Foods, LLC
InventorsSteven T. Connell, John Diemer, Kathleen A. Scheible, Kurt J. Ahmann, Patrick M. Goebel, Shek Fai Lau, Curtis Tom
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of operating a blender having a rotatable cutting blade in a food preparation chamber includes providing a sensing light assembly, generating at least one sensing light beam below the food preparation chamber, inserting a cup containing food to be blended into the food preparation chamber, generating an error signal if a foreign object crosses the sensing light beam, and preventing or stopping rotation of the cutting blade in response to the error signal.
Claims21
A method of operating a blender having a rotatable cutting blade in a food preparation chamber and a cupholder configured to receive a cup containing food to be blended, comprising:
- providing a sensing light assembly;
- generating a first sensing light beam and a second sensing light beam with the sensing light assembly;
- determining if a foreign object is located below the rotatable cutting blade using the first sensing light beam;
- generating a first error signal if the foreign object crosses the first sensing light beam;
- preventing or stopping rotation of the cutting blade in response to the first error signal;
- determining whether the cup is correctly seated in the cupholder using the second sensing light beam;
- and
- generating a second error signal if the cup is not correctly seated in the cupholder.
A method of operating a blender having a rotatable cutting blade in a food preparation chamber and a touch screen control panel, comprising:
- providing a sensing light assembly;
- generating a first sensing light beam with the sensing light assembly, the first sensing light beam located outside of the food preparation chamber;
- generating a second sensing light beam with the sensing light assembly;
- inserting a cup containing food to be blended into the food preparation chamber;
- requesting an input from a user via the touch screen control panel, the input indicative of a desired consistency of a blended product;
- detecting a characteristic of the cup using the second sensing light beam;
- detecting if a foreign object is located below the rotatable cutting blade using the first sensing light beam;
- generating an error signal if the foreign object crosses the first sensing light beam;
- and
- preventing or stopping rotation of the cutting blade in response to the error signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.