Patents by Inventor Vern A. Neal

Vern A. Neal has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 12044406
    Abstract: A cooking appliance includes: a gas cooking element; an igniter disposed adjacent to the gas cooking element to ignite the gas cooking element; a gas valve for regulating gas flow to the gas cooking element; a burner control mechanically coupled to the gas valve to vary the gas flow to the gas cooking element; a sensor for detecting the positioning of the burner control in an ignition range of positions; and a control circuit coupled to the igniter and the sensor and to activate the igniter in response to detected movement of the burner control into the ignition range of positions, the control circuit further configured to maintain activation of the igniter for a predetermined minimum length of time once activated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2024
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Vern A. Neal, Richard W. Cowan, John Kenneth Hooker
  • Publication number: 20240060647
    Abstract: A temperature setpoint is reestablished and maintained in a gas oven using multiple gas burners. In some instances, the multiple gas burners may be cycled using predetermined activation durations for each gas burner when reestablishing the temperature setpoint, and in some instances, the gas burners may be cycled over multiple iterations in order to reestablish the temperature setpoint. Furthermore, in some instances, each gas burner may include a spark igniter that may be used to minimize the amount of time required to ignite the gas burner when reestablishing the temperature setpoint.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2022
    Publication date: February 22, 2024
    Inventor: Vern A. Neal
  • Patent number: 11853022
    Abstract: A cooking appliance may employ one or both of a post-preheat phase and a two stage preheat phase to both accelerate preheating of an oven cavity while minimizing temperature differentials therein. A post-preheat phase may be performed subsequent to a preheat phase, but prior to a cooking phase, to cycle a cooking element disposed in a cooler portion of an oven cavity to reduce a temperature differential between the top and bottom of the oven cavity. A two stage preheat phase may sequentially activate each of top and bottom cooking elements in an oven cavity a single time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Vern A. Neal, Clayton James O'Donoghue
  • Patent number: 11796182
    Abstract: A cooking appliance includes a secondary venting arrangement within an oven cavity to supplement a primary venting arrangement with localized venting of combustion products adjacent a flame detector that detects a flame emitted by a gas burner disposed under the oven cavity. Doing so may assist with stabilizing the flame generated by the gas burner prior to establishment of steady state flow pattern within the oven cavity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Richard W. Cowan, Felix Conde Zelocuatecatl, Vern A. Neal
  • Patent number: 11739941
    Abstract: A multi-burner gas oven control system is used in a cooking appliance to control multiple gas burners disposed in one or more cooking cavities of the cooking appliance. Each gas burner has an associated dedicated gas valve that is coupled to a gas supply through a common, shared gas valve, as well as an igniter that is used to ignite the gas supplied to the gas burner. During activation of a selected gas burner, all igniters are activated in connection with activating the shared gas valve and the dedicated gas valve for the selected gas burner. In addition, in some instances individual ignition sensors may be used to both confirm ignition of the selected gas burner and detect ignition of any unintended gas burner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Vern A. Neal
  • Publication number: 20230213203
    Abstract: A cooking appliance is provided that includes a cooktop and a double oven. A first oven may be a standard radiant or convection oven. A second oven comprises a combined toaster-oven and air fryer. The combined toaster-oven and air fryer can include a heat source that is the same as or different from the heat source of the first oven. The heat source of the second oven can include a plurality of graphite bake heating elements and a plurality of graphite broil elements. The second oven includes a fan disposed configured to provide targeted air flow directly onto a food load that is placed inside said second oven.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2022
    Publication date: July 6, 2023
    Inventors: Felix Conde Zelocuatecatl, Richard W. Cowan, Vern A. Neal, Jody Anne Swann, Charles Cardwell, II
  • Publication number: 20230095549
    Abstract: A cooking appliance includes: a gas cooking element; an igniter disposed adjacent to the gas cooking element to ignite the gas cooking element; a gas valve for regulating gas flow to the gas cooking element; a burner control mechanically coupled to the gas valve to vary the gas flow to the gas cooking element; a sensor for detecting the positioning of the burner control in an ignition range of positions; and a control circuit coupled to the igniter and the sensor and to activate the igniter in response to detected movement of the burner control into the ignition range of positions, the control circuit further configured to maintain activation of the igniter for a predetermined minimum length of time once activated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2021
    Publication date: March 30, 2023
    Inventors: Vern A. Neal, Richard W. Cowan, John Kenneth Hooker
  • Publication number: 20220412570
    Abstract: A cooking appliance includes a secondary venting arrangement within an oven cavity to supplement a primary venting arrangement with localized venting of combustion products adjacent a flame detector that detects a flame emitted by a gas burner disposed under the oven cavity. Doing so may assist with stabilizing the flame generated by the gas burner prior to establishment of steady state flow pattern within the oven cavity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2021
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Richard W. Cowan, Felix Conde Zelocuatecatl, Vern A. Neal
  • Publication number: 20220404024
    Abstract: A cooking appliance and method of operation thereof in which cooking element drying operations are implemented to drive moisture out of the electrically-insulative material in a sheathed electrical cooking element. In many instances, the cooking element drying operations are of relatively short duration and/or include multiple cycles to drive moisture out of the electrically-insulative material without generating sufficient leakage current to cause a GFCI trip, and in some instances, while maintaining a surface temperature of the cooking element below a temperature that could cause a skin burn to occur and/or for items in contact with the cooking element to be damaged.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2021
    Publication date: December 22, 2022
    Inventors: Vern A. Neal, Felix Conde Zelocuatecatl
  • Publication number: 20220381436
    Abstract: A multi-burner gas oven control system is used in a cooking appliance to control multiple gas burners disposed in one or more cooking cavities of the cooking appliance. Each gas burner has an associated dedicated gas valve that is coupled to a gas supply through a common, shared gas valve, as well as an igniter that is used to ignite the gas supplied to the gas burner. During activation of a selected gas burner, all igniters are activated in connection with activating the shared gas valve and the dedicated gas valve for the selected gas burner. In addition, in some instances individual ignition sensors may be used to both confirm ignition of the selected gas burner and detect ignition of any unintended gas burner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Publication date: December 1, 2022
    Inventor: Vern A. Neal
  • Patent number: 11486577
    Abstract: An apparatus, cooking appliance and method functionally verify a gas burner that is controlled by two or more electronically-controlled gas valves coupled in series with one another. Functional verification is performed during ignition and/or shut off of the gas burner at least in part by sequencing the activation and/or deactivation of the gas valves and testing the ignition state of the gas burner while one of the valves is activated and the other is deactivated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Vern A. Neal
  • Publication number: 20220308537
    Abstract: A cooking appliance may employ one or both of a post-preheat phase and a two stage preheat phase to both accelerate preheating of an oven cavity while minimizing temperature differentials therein. A post-preheat phase may be performed subsequent to a preheat phase, but prior to a cooking phase, to cycle a cooking element disposed in a cooler portion of an oven cavity to reduce a temperature differential between the top and bottom of the oven cavity. A two stage preheat phase may sequentially activate each of top and bottom cooking elements in an oven cavity a single time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2021
    Publication date: September 29, 2022
    Inventors: Vern A. Neal, Clayton James O'Donoghue
  • Publication number: 20220099301
    Abstract: An igniter assembly for a gas cooking appliance is disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the igniter assembly may have an igniter that can be removed from and/or inserted into an igniter socket/base through a surface of a cooking appliance without having to remove the surface of the cooking appliance. Accordingly, when the surface is being cleaned after cooking applications, the igniter can be removed from the surface, thereby eliminating any potential damage to the igniter and allowing the surface to be thoroughly cleaned. After cleaning, the igniter can then be re-inserted into the igniter socket through the surface of the cooking appliance without having to remove the surface of the cooking appliance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2021
    Publication date: March 31, 2022
    Inventors: Richard W. Cowan, Vern A. Neal
  • Patent number: 11280498
    Abstract: A system for inhibiting and providing access to appliance control knobs includes a support structure for mounting individual control knobs or groups thereof, and an actuator assembly for extending and retracting control knobs either individually or collectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Richard W. Cowan, Felix Conde Zelocuatecatl, John Hooker, Vern A. Neal, Nathan E. Nelson, Daniel J. Trice
  • Patent number: 11262069
    Abstract: A cooking appliance includes a gas cooking element, an electromechanical valve fluidly coupled with the gas cooking element to regulate a flow of gas to the cooking element, a flame detector configured to detect an active state of a flame for the gas cooking element, a manually-actuated user control movable over a range of positions, and a controller coupled to the electromechanical valve, the flame detector, and the manually-actuated user control. The controller is configured to initiate a calibration process to determine an active range for the gas cooking element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Richard W. Cowan, Vern A. Neal
  • Publication number: 20210404658
    Abstract: A cooking appliance includes a gas cooking element, an electromechanical valve fluidly coupled with the gas cooking element to regulate a flow of gas to the cooking element, a flame detector configured to detect an active state of a flame for the gas cooking element, a manually-actuated user control movable over a range of positions, and a controller coupled to the electromechanical valve, the flame detector, and the manually-actuated user control. The controller is configured to initiate a calibration process to determine an active range for the gas cooking element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2020
    Publication date: December 30, 2021
    Inventors: Richard W. Cowan, Vern A. Neal
  • Patent number: 11009238
    Abstract: One or more cooking elements of a cooking appliance may be controlled during the preheat phase of an oven self-clean cycle to maintain a temperature within an oven cavity proximate an intermediate temperature setpoint that is below a self-clean temperature setpoint for the oven self-clean cycle until reaching a predetermined time in the oven self-clean cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Vern A. Neal
  • Patent number: 10890333
    Abstract: An optical sensor is used in a cooling system of a cooking appliance to sense rotation of the cooling fan. For example, in one aspect a cooking appliance is disclosed as including a housing with a cooking enclosure and cooling passage for venting heat generated within the cooking enclosure; a cooling fan in fluid communication with the cooling passage in order to provide a directed airflow within the cooling passage; and an optical sensor to sense rotation of the cooling fan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Vern A. Neal, John Hooker, Daniel J. Trice
  • Patent number: 10865999
    Abstract: One or more cooking elements of a cooking appliance may be controlled during the preheat phase of an oven self-clean cycle to dynamically control a rate of temperature rise to reach a target temperature setpoint at a predetermined time in the oven self-clean cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: MIDEA GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Vern A. Neal
  • Publication number: 20200363067
    Abstract: A system for inhibiting and providing access to appliance control knobs includes a support structure for mounting individual control knobs or groups thereof, and an actuator assembly for extending and retracting control knobs either individually or collectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2020
    Publication date: November 19, 2020
    Inventors: Richard W. Cowan, Felix Conde Zelocuatecatl, John Hooker, Vern A. Neal, Nathan E. Nelson, Daniel J. Trice