Collapse-A-Pan

Megan Vivian

Summary:

The goal of this design project, to create a collapsible pan, has been inspired by a baking need. The problem is that oftentimes, after baking brownies or cakes in common pans, it is difficult to remove the first piece of dessert without distorting it. Therefore, the purpose of this design project is to create a pan that will allow easy removal of dessert.

Difficulties arise because the sides of current pans disrupt removal. There are several benchmarks that fail in this way yet are suitable for most other baking needs. There is only one current benchmark that does overcome the problem, yet it is only for circular items, and therefore is not useful for brownies or cakes.

Current pans do not allow easy dessert removal as they are designed, and so the key goal of this project is to create a pan with sides that can be removed. Other possible ways to easily remove the baked goods from the pan without having detachable or collapsible sides were heavily considered, but did not result in the best design. The best design was a pan style in which the sides would fall flat and be level with the bottom of the pan.

This design was chosen due to the compactness, the convenience of serving dessert, and how well the design requirements were met. Also, this concept maintained the feature of a leak-proof pan, which was easy to clean and did not compromise existing characteristics of a baking pan. The main requirements for the design materials focused on high oven temperatures and safe use with food. Keeping the design simple, five aluminum sheets were adhered with a heat resistant sealant to strips of silicone rubber. These sheets were arranged in such a way, that using the silicone rubber as live hinges, the aluminum folded up and formed an open topped box. This resembled current benchmarks while the sides of aluminum were folded up, yet also could lay flat unlike other baking pans.

Silicone rubber strips prevented any leaking in the pan, yet because of their flexibility they would cause the pan to remain in the flat position. Therefore draw latches were attached at each corner. Operating easily around corners, these latches catch the edge of the perpendicular aluminum sheet and pull the corners tightly together. Due to the design of attaching a latch at each corner, it is possible to release one, two, or all four sides of the pan to provide easy removal.

The features of this design met the requirements and provided a unique baking pan that completely fulfilled the original need. Testing of the prototype proved the convenience of this pan and the success of the design, as the goal of easy dessert removal was met.