Catalyst assembly for an indoor pizza oven appliance
AssigneeHaier US Appliance Solutions, Inc.
InventorStephen Bernard Froelicher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An oven appliance includes a housing defining a discharge vent, a cooking chamber positioned within the housing, an exhaust duct providing fluid communication between the cooking chamber and the discharge vent, an air handler operably coupled with the exhaust duct for urging a flow of heated air from the cooking chamber, through the exhaust duct, and out of the discharge vent, and a catalytic converter assembly. The catalytic converter assembly includes a catalytic element positioned within the exhaust duct for lowering volatile organic compounds from the flow of heated air and a catalyst heater positioned upstream of the catalytic element for selectively heating the flow of heated air.
Claims17
An oven appliance defining a vertical direction, a lateral direction, and a transverse direction, the oven appliance comprising:
- a housing defining a discharge vent;
- a cooking chamber positioned within the housing;
- an exhaust duct providing fluid communication between cooking chamber and the discharge vent;
- an air handler operably coupled with the exhaust duct for urging a flow of heated air from the cooking chamber, through the exhaust duct, and out of the discharge vent;
- a catalytic converter assembly comprising:
- a catalytic element positioned within the exhaust duct for lowering volatile organic compounds from the flow of heated air;
- and
- a catalyst heater positioned upstream of the catalytic element for selectively heating the flow of heated air;
- and
- a controller in operative communication with the catalyst heater, the controller being configured to:
- obtain a temperature setting of the oven appliance;
- and
- adjust operation of the catalyst heater based on the temperature setting, wherein adjusting operation of the catalyst heater comprises adjusting an operating duty cycle of the catalyst heater.
An oven appliance defining a vertical direction, a lateral direction, and a transverse direction, the oven appliance comprising:
- a housing defining a discharge vent;
- a cooking chamber positioned within the housing;
- an exhaust duct providing fluid communication between cooking chamber and the discharge vent;
- an air handler operably coupled with the exhaust duct for urging a flow of heated air from the cooking chamber, through the exhaust duct, and out of the discharge vent;
- a catalytic converter assembly comprising:
- a catalytic element positioned within the exhaust duct for lowering volatile organic compounds from the flow of heated air;
- and
- a catalyst heater positioned upstream of the catalytic element for selectively heating the flow of heated air;
- and
- a controller in operative communication with the catalyst heater, the controller being configured to:
- obtain a temperature setting of the oven appliance;
- and
- adjust operation of the catalyst heater based on the temperature setting, wherein adjusting operation of the catalyst heater based on the temperature setting comprises selecting a power level of the catalyst heater that is inversely proportional to the temperature setting.
A method of operating an oven appliance, the oven appliance comprising a cooking chamber, an exhaust duct fluidly coupled to the cooking chamber, an air handler operably coupled with the exhaust duct, a catalytic element positioned within the exhaust duct, and a catalyst heater positioned upstream of the catalytic element, the method comprising:
- obtaining a temperature setting of the oven appliance;
- and
- adjusting operation of the catalyst heater based on the temperature setting, wherein adjusting operation of the catalyst heater based on the temperature setting comprises:
- determining that the temperature setting is within a predetermined temperature range;
- obtaining a power level of the catalyst heater using the temperature setting and a lookup table;
- and
- operating the catalyst heater at the power level.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.