Appliance for preparation of heated and stirred beverages and foods

Abstract

An appliance for preparation of heated and stirred beverages and foods has a vessel and a base, with a mixing element rotationally driven within the vessel by magnetic coupling with a driving magnet array attached to an electric motor and covered by a cap. The mixing element is mounted on a rolling contact bearing assembly which fits upon a pin which extends from the cap through an opening in the vessel bottom. The vessel bottom is preferably a cast metal piece with internal cavities in which one or more heating elements are mounted whereby a liquid in the vessel is simultaneously heated and stirred or whipped. Electrical power to a mixing motor and heating elements is controlled either by a manually resettable thermostat, or by a self-latching relay controlled switching circuit which includes a blocking diode to supply rectified AC current to the motor for low torque start ups which will not decouple the magnetic flux drive of the mixing element.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.