An Electric Household Appliance with Maintenance Data Storage Unit

Abstract

 An electrical household appliance integrally embedded with an electronic circuitry comprising an electronically writable and unerasable memory medium (1) which is suitable for storing electronic records of maintenance and repairing history of an electrical household appliance is disclosed. The household appliance further comprises a communication port (3) which is suitable for connecting said memory medium (1) to an external input device (2) that is capable of reading said electronically writable and unerasable memory medium (1) and writing new data on the same. The manufacturer of the household appliance is provided with the information to trace back and monitor repair register of said household appliance so as to carry out further repair actions based on the data stored on said electronic memory medium (1).

Description

Technical Field of the Invention

[0001] The present invention relates to an electronic module embedded in electrical household appliances in order to provide the manufacturer or the vendor with the information to trace back and monitor repair register of a specific device so as to carry out further repair in conjunction with the information already stored on said electronic module in an unchangeable manner.

Background of the Invention / Prior Art

[0002] Storage mediums embedded in various kinds of electronics and data processing technologies have long been practiced and largely diversified so as to meet various needs specific to practice areas in the technical field of the present invention. It is also known to those in the art that any electronics devices including electrical household appliances incorporate in the present time electronic storage mediums to process and display data if not to store it in long term in an unchangeable manner.

[0003] Since electrical household appliances incorporating electronic circuitry with data processing capabilities on memory mediums have come to become largely consumed goods and have also been usually covered with long-lasting guarantee as well under certain policies to enhance consumer rights, it is crucial to implement an effective system to keep record of any repair action taken to fulfill routine maintenance or to simply repair in case any malfunctioning appears. In the present conditions, keeping record of such repairing activities simply relies on the manner that such cases are treated by the vendor or the end-user seller. Further, it is always up to the retailer's initiative to follow necessary steps and instructions provided by the supplier. In other words, it may not be always possible to oversee follow-up of all the goods present in the production chain for a nationwide supplier with regard to the repairing data including repair actions taken and specific dates relating to those in a wide-spread distribution line.

[0004] Accordingly, the present invention is aimed at reducing all the repairing data including taken repairing actions, replaced spare-parts and specific dates in relation to each repair in a wide-spread distribution line to a simple system arranged in an unchangeable manner by unauthorized people.

Objects of the Invention

[0005] One of the objects of the present invention is to store maintenance and repairing data of an electrical household appliance.

[0006] Another object of the present invention is to store maintenance and repairing data of an electrical household appliance in a secure manner.

[0007] Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic storage means storing repair data of electrical household appliances in an unchangeable manner.

[0008] A further object of the present invention is to provide startup information prior to take future repair actions.

[0009] Yet another object of the present invention is to remove risks such as those originating from retailer initiative so as to falsify guarantee certificate expiry date and/or data.

[0010] Yet another object of the present invention is to prevent intervention of incompetent and unauthorized people to repair an electrical household appliance.

Summary of the Invention

[0011] The present invention relates to an electronic module embedded in electronics devices in order to provide the manufacturer or the vendor with the information to trace back and monitor repair register of a specific device so as to carry out further repair in conjunction with the information already stored on said electronic module in an unchangeable manner. The present invention accordingly proposes use of an electronic medium embedded in electrical household appliances so as to allow authorized people to write and read information with regard to all the repairing data including taken actions, replaced spare-parts and specific dates in relation to each repair.

Brief Description of the Figures

[0012] Accompanying drawings are given solely for the purpose of exemplifying an electrical plug pin terminal whose advantages over prior art were outlined above;

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0013] According to the present invention, electrical household appliances are provided with an electronic data storage medium to store repair data in an unchangeable manner so as to prevent unauthorized access, addition of new information and/or change or falsification of the information. The data storage medium (1) is designed with means such as a compact keyboard (4) embedded in an external and portable input device (2) provided to authorized users to add information. Said data storage medium (1) is connected to a communication port (3) in order for the input device (2) to access said electronically writable and unerasable memory medium. According to the present invention, the input device (2) access said memory medium (1) through said communication port (3) to read or write information. In another embodiment of the present invention, the stored information may be read using a cable connection such as for instance one realized according to RS32 standard. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, said external input device (2) comprises a personal activation card (7) secured to a card slot on said input device (2) and peculiar to each member of the service team, which is used to activate the input device (2) in order for the microprocessor (5) to access said electronically writable and unerasable memory medium (1).

[0014] The input device (2) reading or writing information on said memory medium is explicitly kept by the manufacturer, the retailer or authorized members of the service team. According to the present invention, the information provided to the system may not be changed after approval of the data being submitted. To read or write data, an authorization card (7), peculiar to each service member is assigned to service staff to activate data processing properties of the input device (2). Accordingly, every electrical household appliance, prior to be delivered to the retailer by the manufacturer, is provided with an input device (2) capable of programming said electronic storage medium (1) connected to said communication port (3) of the electrical household appliance. Said digital identification and activation card (7) being assigned to each service member to enable tracing back all the repair activities carried out on a given electrical household appliance prevents intervention of unauthorized and unskilled people in order to repair the appliance..

[0015] The stored information, according to the present invention, may comprise taken repair actions, replaced spare-parts, specific dates in relation to each repairing and product guarantee certificate validity period. Said information may also comprise special notes taken by the repairer. However, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a pre-defined table comprising data fields such as product name, product serial number, production date and model. In addition, the authorized retailer fills in the data fields such as name, address and invoice data of the product buyer on the electronic memory medium (1). On the day which any malfunctioning appears, maintenance service member adds relevant information such as type and date of failure, actions done/to be done to fix that failure, spare parts replaced etc. to the memory medium. All this type of information may be considered as a detailed technical report of a breakdown. On the other hand, since data submitted to the system also includes time information and is only provided by authorized staff, it also carries juristic implication with regard to consumer and manufacturer rights such as right to take advantage of guarantee certificate for the end-user and right to close validity of the guarantee certificate on a predefined expiry date for the manufacturer.

[0016] The electronic storage medium (1) may also be designed to count time itself. On the day after the guarantee certificate expired, the electronic storage medium (1) is still active and all the repair and maintenance record of an electrical household appliance is still accessible to authorized staff. Since this information is confidential to the manufacturer and its maintenance service, the manufacturer is per se free to provide the same to others or to keep it to itself.

[0017] The electronic storage medium (1), according to the present invention, is also advantageous in that it provides detailed statistical data with regard to all the products within the product chain of a given manufacturer and all the breakdown types concerning those products. The data collected by many electronic storage modules (1) will eventually lead to the formation of a database in relation to each product model and its most probable weaknesses. This statistical data is useful in assessing relatively weaker features of the products and taking necessary measures to improve future goods.

[0018] The electronic storage medium (1), since storing all the contact and payment information of a specific buyer, may also be resorted in case a guarantee certificate or payment receipt is lost, which is a fairly encountered situation for a customer.

[0019] Eventually, according to the present invention, since the most correct repair record is kept within said storage medium (1), intervention of incompetent and unauthorized people to repair an electrical household appliance is mostly avoided.

Claims

1. An electrical household appliance integrally embedded with an electronic circuitry characterized in that said electronic circuitry comprises
   an electronically writable and unerasable memory medium (1) suitable for storing electronic records of maintenance and repairing history of said electrical household appliance,
   a communication port (3) which is suitable for connecting said memory medium (1) to an external input device (2) that is capable of reading said electronically writable and unerasable memory medium (1) and writing new data on the same,
whereby the manufacturer or the vendor of the household appliance is provided with the information to trace back and monitor repair register of said household appliance so as to carry out further repair actions based on the data stored on said electronic memory medium (1).

2. A household electrical appliance according to Claim 1 wherein said household electrical appliance is a white good selected from the group consisting of refrigerator, washing machine, deep freeze, dishwasher and oven.

3. A household electrical appliance according to Claim 1 or 2 wherein the data stored on said memory medium (1) comprise a table having one or more of the data field entries corresponding to taken repair actions, name and code of replaced spare-parts, dates in relation to each repair action, product guarantee certificate validity period, guarantee coverage, product name, product serial number, production date and model and buyer's name, address and payment information.

4. A household electrical appliance according to Claim 3 wherein said household electrical appliance further comprise an external input device (2) capable of accessing said memory medium (1) through said connection port (3) for reading said electronically writable and unerasable memory medium (1) and writing new data on the same.

5. A household electrical appliance according to Claim 4 wherein said input device (2) comprises a microprocessor (5) which is capable of detecting inputs given by an operator and reading and writing data on said memory medium (1) of the household appliance.

6. A household electrical appliance according to Claim 5 wherein said input device (2) comprises a display means (6) for displaying the data stored on said electronic memory medium (1).

7. A household electrical appliance according to Claim 1 wherein said external input device (2) comprises a display unit (6) to demonstrate the data read on said electronically writable and unerasable memory medium (1).

8. A household electrical appliance according to Claim 4 wherein said external input device (2) comprises a personal activation card (7) secured to a card slot on the input device (2) and peculiar to each member of the service team, which is used to activate the input device (2) in order for the microprocessor (5) to access said electronically writable and unerasable memory medium (1).

9. A household electrical appliance according to Claim 4 wherein said external input device (2) comprises a compact keypad (4) to enter data.

Drawing