Sous Vide Spider
Cooking Device for Sous Vide Cooking
2020
A device to assist the user who is experimenting with sous vide cooking and may not own the standard equipment set up that is traditionally used. The Sous Vide Spider consists of a weighted silicone arm piece and interchangeable hub. It is designed to wrap around the food and keep it submerged in a large pot of water. The hub has a thermochromic ring that changes color to show when the water is at the correct temperature and a thermochromic disk embedded in resin which slowly changes color to act as a timer.
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Research
The Sous Vide Spider utilizes thermochromic smart materials called leuco dyes. These materials react to temperature changes by changing their color. Thermochromic pigments are encapsulated within the temperature sensing ring and the timing disk inside the hub.
This is triple thermochromic pigment mixed into resin. While the pigment is in its un heated or cold state it is a dark red color. As it is heated up it changes to yellow and then a neon green.
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Leuco dyes consist of microcapsules that contain a pigment and a solvent. When the leuco dye is in its cold state, the microcapsules appear as an opaque color. Then when in its heated state, the microcapsules appear translucent.
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Leuco dyes have a hysteresis loop like the one above. The material requires more energy to change to its hot state than is required to return it to its cold state.
Leuco dyes can be calibrated to change at specific temperatures.
Leuco dyes change from opaque to translucent. In order to change from one color to another, a regular pigment is added as a base.
In this example, the top row is a leuco dye that changes from blue to translucent when heated. The bottom row is the same lueco dye with a yellow base pigment added. Therefore, the pigment is green when in a cold state and yellow when in a heated state.
Final
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The Sous Vide Spider comes in three arm configurations to accommodate different portion sizes.
The hubs are interchangeable so the consumer can use the one that is calibrated to the food they are cooking.
The arms are made of a stretchy silicone that locks into a groove on the hub.
This animation shows the color changing effect of the hub when used properly.
This animation shows the color changing effect of the hub when when the water is over heated.