Electric food mixer
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorRichard L. Stottmann
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electric food mixer includes an electronic control for operating the mixer in one of a plurality of three modes as selected by a user. In a normal mixing mode, the user selects the speed of the motor and starts and stops the motor by manually actuating a switch. In a timed mixing mode, the user selects the desired running time of the motor as well as the speed of the motor. The motor is started in this mode in response to the manual actuation of a switch, but automatically stops upon the expiration of the selected running time. In a utility timer mode, the mixer is controlled to operate as a utility count-down timer. Upon starting the mixer in the normal mixing mode or in the timed mixing mode, the motor is controlled to start at a slow start-up speed that is less than any of the selectable mixing speeds.
Claims39
An electric food mixer having a motor operable at a plurality of mixing speeds comprising:
- means actuable by a user for starting said motor;
- and
- means responsive to the actuation of said starting means for automatically controlling said motor to start at a start-up speed less than the slowest of said mixing speeds and to run at said start-up speed for a predetermined period of time.
An electric food mixer having a motor comprising:
- means for selecting the speed of said motor from a plurality of selectable speeds;
- means actuable by a user for starting said motor;
- and
- means responsive to the actuation of said starting means and to said speed selection means for automatically controlling the motor to start at a start-up speed less than the slowest selectable speed, to run at said start-up speed for a predetermined period of time, and thereafter to increase in speed at a predetermined rate to the selected speed.
An electric food mixer having a motor comprising:
- means actuable by a user for selecting a desired running time for said motor;
- means for monitoring the running time of said motor;
- and
- means responsive to said time selection means and said monitoring means for automatically stopping said motor when the motor has been running for a period of time equal to the selected running time.
An electric food mixer having a motor comprising:
- means actuable by a user for selecting a desired running time for said motor;
- means actuable by a user for starting said motor;
- count-down timer means responsive to the actuation of said starting means for counting down the actual running time of said motor from said selected running time to zero;
- and
- motor control means responsive to said count-down timer means for automatically stopping said motor when said count-down timer reaches zero.
An electric food mixer comprising:
- a motor;
- means operable when said motor is off for counting down time;
- means actuable by a user for selecting the length of time said count-down timer means is to count down from;
- and
- means for displaying the time in said count-down timer means.
An electric food mixer comprising:
- at least one food beater;
- a motor for rotating said beater;
- means for visually displaying time;
- means operable when said motor is off for controlling said display means to count down time from a selectable time;
- and
- means actuable by a user for selecting the set time from which said controlling means controls said display to count down.
An electric food mixer comprising:
- at least one beater;
- a motor for rotating said beater;
- count-down timer means for counting down time;
- first means actuable by a user for setting said count-down timer means to the desired running time of said motor;
- utility timer setting means actuable by a user for setting said count-down timer means to a desired count-down time;
- means actuable by a user for starting the operation of said mixer;
- and
- means for controlling the operation of said mixer in a first mode and in a second mode, said controlling means being responsive to the actuation of said first means and said starting means to start and run said count-down timer means and said motor in a first mode, said controlling means automatically stopping said motor in response to said countdown timer means counting down to zero from the set running time, and said controlling means being responsive to the actuation of said utility timer setting means and said starting means to start said count-down timer means counting down from the set desired count-down time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.