When designing today’s household appliances, it often is the lighting element that creates an emotional link to the user. Yet, cooking surfaces with induction technology have been kept in the dark. To that end, product developers at SCHOTT have achieved LED lighting which displays in a variety of colors for induction cooking zones of a CERAN® cooktop panel.

The technology behind the innovation is by no means trivial. The trick is in understanding how the glass-ceramic transmits light. Though in principle the material is translucent, it actually works like a filter. “Red-light displays are easy to implement since the light spectrum is very similar to that of infrared,” explains Marketing Director Björn Weller. Currently, SCHOTT already offers a solution which allows a white-light display under a black glass-ceramic cooktop panel. “We achieved this by brightening the glass-ceramic on the respective areas and then placing a color compensation filter underneath it”, says Weller.

This design diversity is even enhanced by CERAN CLEARTRANS®, a glass-ceramic specifically for induction stoves that comes with a special feature: it is transparent, allowing for even better design options.

SCHOTT has been working on lighting concepts primarily for two reasons: First, it is interesting in terms of the identical design of appliance families. “Many household appliances now come with white or color displays,” states Weller, adding, “And we want to offer that option as well when it comes to our glass-ceramic cooktop panels.” Next, there is the emotional aspect of it. Colored light should bring people closer to the experience of cooking with induction. This is important since, in contrast to an electric cooktop with its typical glowing red cooking zone, induction panels are missing visual feedback. “The trend to switch to induction has been growing steadily,” notes Weller. “In fact, we are seeing an increasing number of cooking appliances with flexible cooking zones as well as full-surface induction. Visual feedback is essential, and that is why we want to utilize lighting within the cooktop panel.”