top of page
Data
Our own scientific research
We founded BakePlateâ„¢ with one goal in mind: giving our customers a product that really works. We value being open and honest about our product - and invite you to see our research conducted below explaining the development of our product and its design features.
​
The Science: Store Policies
Hours of testing and tweaking in order to perfect the design.
Upon our research into ovens we came to the conclusion that cooking is ultimately about heat and how that heat enters the food. When coming up with the design of the MiraclePlate there were two main aspects that were critical to the success of our product; thermal conductivity and heat capacity. The Thermal conductivity describes how readily a material will give or take heat from coming into contact with its surroundings. Heat capacity was also another important aspect as this refers to the material’s temperature changes with the addition of heat – a material with high heat capacity requires more energy to change temperature than one with low heat capacity.Â
Once we outlined what the plate had to be capable of, we then looked at the conduction, convection and radiation aspects of an oven. Conduction is due to a contact of molecules i.e. when you touch a hot pan, your hand gets hot too. Convection is due to the bulk of movement in molecules. Molecules move and change places, not just vibrating in place and take their heat with them i.e. in your cup of coffee, hot less dense water rises (steam) from your cup. Radiation is heat being transferred due to energy waves being emitted by another object – our bake plate will be in the oven used to radiate the oven creating effectively a battery with the steel plate conducting heat optimizing the outcome of your cooking.
The Science: About Us
How do ovens work?
Temperature cycles - Ovens temperatures fluctuate while in use. Different ovens will fluctuate by different amounts, but each one will fluctuate around the desired temperature.
This happens because it is difficult to control the heating element within the oven. Instead, ovens will heat up to a certain temperature above the desired temperature and then switch off, allowing the temperature of the oven to to reduce beyond the desired temperature. Eventually, the oven will reach a low enough temperature that causes the oven to switch back on the heating filament. This cycle continues throughout the cooking process.
Location dependant temperature within an oven - Each oven will contain a thermostat within the cooking area at a different location. Its purpose is to detect changes in the oven temperature in order to decide when the heating filament switches on or off.
However, most ovens will only contain a single thermostat. Therefore, it will only be detecting the temperature at one position. This causes problems because the temperature by the thermostat might not be representative of the temperature across the oven. Therefore, the temperature of the oven might not be consistent which can affect cooking quality.
Cooking food - In order to cook food within the oven, the hot air transfers energy to the food. However, if the temperature isn’t the same throughout the oven, the food will not cook evenly. Generally, the temperature towards the edge of the oven is higher than that in the centre. This leads to the outsides of the food to cook faster than the centre. Food can also cook faster on one side than the other, therefore the user has to rotate the food within the oven to acquire an even cook.
​
Oven data:
​
Position of temperature probe
Reading 1 high/low
Reading 2 high/low
Reading 3 high/low
Average high/low
Top:
230.4/196.2
230.5/195.4
232.1/194.9
231/195.5
​
Bottom:
213.4/194.4
213.2/193.5
213.7/194.6
213.4/194.2
Centre:
206.8/191.1
206.1/190.9
205.3/190.2
206.1/190.7
​
Right Side:
210.2/194.2
210.5/193.5
210.1/193.4
210.3/193.7
​
Left Side:
210.1/194.2
210.5/193.4
210.2/193.5
210.3/193.7
​
This first set of data shows the temperature cycle variation from an empty oven with two metal racks. It shows the maximum and minimum temperature of individual cycles within the oven.
​
This shows that the temperature in the centre of the oven is always lower than that around the edges of the oven.
​
Plate Type:
Reading 1 high/low
Reading 2 high/low
Reading 3 high/low
Average high/low
​
Solid aluminium plate:
195.9/185.9
196.3/186
196.1/185.6
196.1/185.8
​
Aluminium plate with cut outs:
198.4/188.7
198.3/188.7
199.3/188.6
198.7/188.7
No additional plate:
206.8/191.1
206.1/190.9
205.3/190.2
206.1/190.7
​
The second data set shows the temperature cycle variation of an oven containing different designs of metal plate.
This shows that while potentially a solid plate blocks out heat from the heating filament and prevents the circulation of air around the oven, the plate with holes cut out allow for better circulation of air and therefore better heat distribution.
​
Material research:
Heat capacity - The primary function of the BakePlate is to store and distribute heat. In order to do this, the specific heat capacity of the metal we use is crucial. The two materials considered were steel and aluminium.
​
Material
Steel
Aluminium
Specific heat capacity / (j/kg - k)
502
921.1
Density / (g/cm^3)
7.38
2.7
​
This data set shows material data for steel and aluminium.
​
By looking at the specific heat capacity of these two material, it can be seen that aluminium requires almost double the energy to heat up per unit mass than steel. However, steel is almost 3 times as dense, therefore it can hold more energy per unit volume.
The weight of the product is very important as the product may need to be moved around in certain situations. Therefore, a lighter product could be a good selling point.
​
Material finish - The surface of the material is important to how the product will function. Both aluminium and steel are safe to cook on. However, there are many other factors that need to be considered.
Mild steel doesn’t provide a non stick surface and will also rust when in contact with water. There are a couple of ways to fix this. By using stainless steel instead of mild steel, you can have a surface finish that doesn’t rust. However, stainless steel is more expensive that mild and there may be cheaper alternatives.
Aluminium, although generally considered food safe, can come into problems when cooking. Mainly when used to cook acidic foods. The acid from these foods can corrode the aluminium which has two effects. Over time, the aluminium product will wear away and the finish will reduce. And some of the aluminium will enter the food. The amount of aluminium found in acidic food after cooking is considered way too low to be of any risk to the eater.
Another finish that can be used is seasoning. This will involve coating the plate with oil and heating it to produce a non stick surface. This will stop the plate from rusting and provide a non stick surface for the product.
​
​
Design choices and functionality:
The MiraclePlate is being designed to fulfil two functions. Reduce the variation in the ovens temperature and cook food more evenly.
In order to reduce the temperature variation, the metal acts as a thermal battery. Absorbing thermal energy when the temperature is too high and releasing energy when the temperature is too low.
The plate will also act to cook food more evenly. Since each of these metals has a much higher specific heat capacity per volume than the air within the oven, they will remain at a much more constant temperature than the air.
The metal is also a good conductor of heat, meaning that its temperature will not vary much as heat will distribute around the material quickly when provided to the plate.
​
Due to the constant temperature throughout the plate, it can even out the energy provided to the food and therefore cook the food more evenly than the oven could by itself.
​
The story:
The BakePlateâ„¢ team set out to solve these problems that have been detected within the oven by using a metal plate to be located within the oven. The initial idea of this plate was that it would absorb and release energy in the oven in order to regulate temperature and cook food more evenly.
However, when we investigated other products that attempted to fulfil similar functions, many of them had flaws and were not user friendly.
While designing the MiraclePlate, our top priorities were that the plate function as intended and that is was easy to use.
Our first task was deciding the material and dimensions of the plate. We measured many ovens and tested lots of shapes in order to find the perfect size that would fit in all ovens, but not be too big that it cannot be manoeuvred easily. We decided on a size of 25 cm x 33m cm.
However, even with a tray this size, larger foods such as pizzas would still not be able to fit onto this tray. So we decided to also design a pizza tray with different dimensions in order to provide options for cooking a wide range of dishes.
Upon testing the first plate prototypes, we found a problem which plagued nearly every similar product within the market. A solid metal plate will act as a heat blocker, stopping the energy from the heating elements within the oven from being dispersed properly, leading to uneven temperatures throughout the oven. We integrated an appealing solution into our design.
​
By inserting a pattern of hexagonal cut outs into our design, we allowed for the circulation of air, and therefore energy around the oven. Not only does this design allow for better heat distribution, but also better absorption and release of the heat. This is because, with these cut outs, the surface area of the plate compared to its volume will be much greater.
​
However, even with this hexagonal pattern, the plate was still difficult to manoeuvre and remove from the oven. We went through many design iterations before we came up with a solution which we deemed both simple and effective. By bending up one side of the plate to form a lip, the user is provided a surface to grip and manoeuvre the tray. This lip allows the tray to be pulled out of the oven and moved around the kitchen with ease. Whilst we explored this design option, we realised that keeping the plate entirely flat made more sense as in reality handling wasn't an issue due to its lighter weight and the additional costs of bending the plate wasn't viable.
​
With the final shape of the product decided on, the final addition to the plate was the material and coating used. We investigated many options to see how each one affected key properties of the plate such as non stick, food safety, scratch resistance as well as the ability to prevent the metal from rusting.
​
The Science: Text
bottom of page