Toaster
AssigneeBreville Pty Limited
InventorsStephen John MCCLEAN, Johnson THIE, Duncan Bruce HELLMERS, Ali TOFAILI, Alastair Leonard DOVER
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A toaster heating assembly (55A, 55B) including: a frame (60); a panel (65) at least partly supported by the frame (60); a spacer (80) mounted to the panel (65); and an elongate heating element (93) having a plurality of spaced apart elongate heating element portions (95) supported by the spacer (80), so that the spacer (80) is located between the plurality of heating element portions (95) and the panel (65) to provide a gap (94) between the plurality of heating element portions (95) and the panel (65).
Claims20
A toaster including:
- a housing having a cavity;
- a toaster sub-assembly located in the cavity, the sub-assembly including:
- a pair of opposing heating element assemblies that are spaced so as to provide a toasting area within the cavity for receiving foodstuff to be toasted;
- and
- a carriage moveable between the opposing heating element assemblies and to support the foodstuff received in the toasting area, the carriage being moveable between a lowered toasting position and a raised inspection position relative to the heating element assemblies;
- and
- a sensor assembly located away from the toasting area and including a sensor device to detect a surface temperature of the foodstuff supported by the carriage when the carriage is in the raised inspection position.
A method of operating a toaster, the toaster including a toaster sub-assembly having a pair of opposing heating element assemblies that are spaced so as to provide a toasting area for receiving foodstuff to be toasted and a carriage moveable between the opposing heating element assemblies to support the foodstuff received in the toasting area, the method including the steps of:
- moving the carriage of the toaster sub-assembly to a raised inspection position relative to the heating element assemblies;
- detecting a surface temperature of the foodstuff supported by the carriage of the toaster sub-assembly when the carriage is in the raised inspection position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.