Heather Miller
With sustainable options needed now more than ever, the appliance industry is ripe for disruption. The transition from gas stoves is accelerating, not only due to health concerns but also as part of a larger effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. One company is tackling these challenges head-on. Meet Copper, the world’s first battery-equipped induction range that is heating up the ultimate blend of sustainability, high-end design, and accessibility to consumers.
Designing for energy efficiency
Besides Copper’s eye-catching design, one of its biggest appeals is its consumer-friendly option for energy efficiency. “Many people don’t realize how expensive and difficult it is to retrofit their home for a traditional electric stove,” says Mitch Heinrich, principal designer, Copper. “With Copper, you can just plug it in, and you don’t have to rewire your house.”
Elevate your design and manufacturing processes with Autodesk Fusion
Unlike traditional electric ranges that rely on an intermittent significant power draw, Copper is energy storage equipped, storing power in an internal battery and using it strategically. Copper charges its battery when electricity is cheapest and cleanest, typically during midday when solar or wind power is abundant. Then, during peak hours, the stove runs entirely off its stored energy without any sacrifice to performance. This intelligent system is controlled onboard the range once users connect their stove to Wi-Fi and let it automatically manage energy use. The Copper range can cook 4-6 meals on battery power if the power goes out and has been tested to cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal for dozens of people while plugged in.
“There are grid utility data resources that show where the energy is coming from at any given time,” Heinrich says. “By analyzing these trends, we ensure that Copper is charging only when it makes sense, reducing both costs and carbon footprint.”
Creating Copper’s signature look
For the design of Copper, Heinrich enlisted the help of Michael DiTullo, who is renowned for his more than 20 years of industrial design work for companies as large as Nike, Intel, Honda, and Google and for small, innovative start-ups. They took a collaborative approach for the design of Copper, focusing on crucial details like the brow plate, knobs, and oven handle brackets to create a signature look.
“We felt like the brow plate [the front leading edge of the stove] was an area with an opportunity to provide a little bit more character,” Heinrich says. “As a single component, it sets the tone for the whole product. If you look at most ranges, it’s a stainless steel, rectangular box. That was the first meaty industrial design project that Michael and I collaborated on using Fusion.”
For these design components, the workflow process between Heinrich and DiTullo was dynamic and highly iterative—all with the use of Autodesk Fusion.
“Normally, there’s a rigid process with statements of work, but with Mitch, it was just like, ‘Hey, we need to look at this knob again,’ and I’d send 20 new ideas in a couple of days,” DiTullo says. “Then, Mitch added four more in the same file in Fusion to collaborate. Tools such as Fusion are enabling designers to work in a more organic way.”
They also took a unique approach to materials, opting for knobs made from black walnut wood reclaimed from a barn in Sonoma, California. Reclaimed wood reduces the need for new lumber and deforestation, minimizes waste, and lowers the carbon footprint. Heinrich personally machined the first 150 wooden knobs using Fusion’s CAM tools, after struggling to find manufacturers willing to take on the complexity of his design.
“Most CNC shops wouldn’t take on the project,” Heinrich says. “But with Fusion, I was able to machine them myself before working with a trusted partner who now manufactures them.”
“Fusion is like a Swiss Army knife. You can have this interchange between numerous stakeholders on any given project. It’s this translator and central hub taking files to import or export from any program. Fusion is super valuable.”
—Mitch Heinrich, Principal Designer, Copper
Using Fusion end-to-end
Throughout the design and engineering process, Fusion played a critical role in allowing the team to work quickly and efficiently.
“For me as a designer, a core part of who I am and how I work is based on physicality and making things real in the world,” Heinrich says. “A key element of Fusion is the parametric CAD coupled with CAM functionality. I can work very fluidly from concept to physical prototype, make a tweak, and then go back to physical prototype. That back-and-forth allows me to end up with the best solution. The friction is so low to make those tweaks and to really find that optimal endpoint.”
“Fusion has a bit of everything—solid modeling, surface modeling, CAD/CAM tools,” DiTullo adds. “It’s not about being locked into one rigid software. It’s about flexibility, which is exactly what we needed to make Copper a reality.”
“With the ability to have a shared workspace and pass files back and forth, the cloud-based nature of Fusion easily allows that collaboration to happen across locations and to be iterative with each other.”
—Michael DiTullo, Founder and Chief Creative, Michael DiTullo LLC
Moving forward
As Copper makes its way into homes across the country and with a new version underway, it’s redefining what an electric range—and appliances—can be.
“The future isn’t about some impersonal, high-tech kitchen full of gadgets like The Jetsons,” Heinrich says. “It’s about making the home better in ways that are meaningful, practical, and sustainable. And that’s exactly what Copper is all about.”