CN117752211A - Cooking apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a cooking apparatus, comprising: a body; the transmitting part is arranged on the body; the storage box is connected with the body and comprises a cavity; the reflecting part is arranged on the body or the storage box, the cavity is positioned between the transmitting part and the reflecting part, and the transmitting part is used for transmitting incident light rays to the reflecting part; the receiving part is arranged on the body, the transmitting part and the receiving part are positioned on the same side of the storage box, and the receiving part is used for receiving the reflected light of the reflecting part. Therefore, the cooking equipment can judge the material quantity through the reflected light by arranging the detection mechanism consisting of the emission part, the reflection part and the receiving part, the reflected light cannot be influenced by the color of the material, and the transmission of the reflected light is influenced by the existence of the material in the preset path. Therefore, the technical problems of mismatching of the attribute of the received diffuse reflection light ray and the actual material quantity, poor material quantity detection precision and high automatic cooking failure rate in the related technology are solved.

Description

Cooking apparatus

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of household appliances, in particular to cooking equipment.

Background

In the related art, on the cooking equipment, the rice bin can be dismantled through diffuse reflection detection device adaptation more, but when dark material such as storage minor cereals in the rice bin, the detection result of diffuse reflection detection device can receive the interference, leads to cooking equipment unable accurate judgement rice incasement material volume.

Therefore, how to design a cooking apparatus capable of overcoming the above technical drawbacks is a technical problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention aims to solve at least one of the technical problems existing in the prior art.

To this end, an aspect of the present invention proposes a cooking apparatus.

In view of this, the present invention provides a cooking apparatus, comprising: a body; the transmitting part is arranged on the body; the storage box is connected with the body and comprises a cavity; the reflecting part is arranged on the body or the storage box, the cavity is positioned between the transmitting part and the reflecting part, and the transmitting part is used for transmitting incident light rays to the reflecting part; the receiving part is arranged on the body, the transmitting part and the receiving part are positioned on the same side of the storage box, and the receiving part is used for receiving the reflected light of the reflecting part.

The present application defines a cooking apparatus capable of cooking a material into a finished food by a heating and humidifying process or the like. For example, the cooking device may be an electric rice cooker, which can automatically cook foods such as rice, coarse cereal rice, rice porridge, etc.

The cooking apparatus includes a body and a storage bin. The body is the main body frame structure of cooking equipment, and the body is used for locating and supporting other structures on the cooking equipment. The storage box is installed on the body, is formed with the cavity in the storage box, and this cavity is used for storing the required material of culinary art. Specifically, the body includes a pot body and a cover body, the pot body is internally provided with an inner container, a cooking cavity is formed in the inner container, and the cover body is arranged on the pot body in an openable manner and is used for covering an opening of the inner container. The storage box is connected with the pot body, and materials stored in the storage box can be transmitted to the cooking cavity through the conveying device so as to complete automatic cooking.

In the related art, in order to improve the automation degree of the cooking equipment, the material quantity in the rice bin needs to be detected by arranging various detection devices. On the basis, the detachable requirement of the rice bin is matched, and the structure of the rice bin assembly is simplified. The diffuse reflection detection device is arranged to detect the material quantity in the rice bin. In the detection process, the diffuse reflection detection device emits light to materials in the rice bin, and the light is received by the diffuse reflection detection device again after being subjected to diffuse reflection of the materials, so that the height of the materials in the rice bin is judged through the received diffuse reflection light. But the diffuse reflection detection device is only suitable for materials with lighter colors such as rice. If dark materials such as black rice, red bean exist in the rice bin, partial light emitted by the diffuse reflection detection device can be absorbed by the dark materials, so that the attribute of the received diffuse reflection light is not matched with the actual material quantity, and the technical problems of poor material quantity detection precision and high automatic cooking failure rate of the cooking equipment exist.

In this regard, the cooking apparatus defined herein further includes an emitting portion, a reflecting portion, and a receiving portion. The transmitting part is arranged on the body and positioned on the first side of the cavity, the reflecting part is arranged on the body or the storage box and positioned on the second side of the cavity, and the first side is opposite to the second side. Specifically, when the storage box adopts a hanging installation mode, the reflecting part is arranged on the storage box, and after the storage box is hung at a preset position of the body, the cavity is arranged between the emitting part and the reflecting part. When the storage box adopts a plugging installation mode, the reflecting part can be arranged on the body, the emitting part and the reflecting part are positioned on two opposite sides of the preset installation position, and after the storage box is plugged to the preset installation position, the cavity can be arranged between the emitting part and the reflecting part. The receiving portion is mounted on the body and is also located on the first side of the cavity. The transmitting end of the transmitting part faces the reflecting part, and the receiving part is arranged corresponding to the reflecting part. The transmitting part is used for transmitting incident light rays to the reflecting part, the incident light rays are reflected to obtain reflected light rays after reaching the reflecting part, and the reflected light rays are transmitted to the receiving part according to a preset path and are received by the receiving part.

When the material exists on the preset path, the material can block the transmission of the reflected light, so that the receiving part cannot receive the reflected light on the preset path. Otherwise, if no material exists on the predetermined path, the receiving part can receive the reflected light on the predetermined path. The cavity comprises a plurality of preset paths, the heights of the preset paths are different, and the cooking equipment can analyze the height of the materials in the cavity according to the receiving condition of the incident light on the receiving part. Taking three predetermined paths with different heights in the cavity as an example, the cavity is divided into a first path, a second path and a third path from top to bottom. When the receiving part can receive the reflected light rays corresponding to the first path and the second path and can not receive the reflected light rays corresponding to the third path, the height of the material in the cavity is judged to be between the second path and the third path. When all three paths cannot receive the reflected light, judging that the material height is higher than that of the first path, and indicating that the storage box is full.

Therefore, the cooking equipment can judge the material quantity through the reflected light by arranging the detection mechanism consisting of the emission part, the reflection part and the receiving part, the reflected light cannot be influenced by the color of the material, and the transmission of the reflected light is influenced by the existence of the material in the preset path. Therefore, the technical problems of mismatching of the attribute of the received diffuse reflection light ray and the actual material quantity, poor material quantity detection precision and high automatic cooking failure rate in the related technology are solved. And then realize optimizing material detection structure, promote material detection precision, promote cooking equipment practicality and reliable technical effect.

On this basis, under the detachable circumstances of storage case, through setting up transmitting portion and receiving portion on the body, can avoid transmitting portion and receiving portion to dismantle along with the storage case to save complicated electrical interface structure, be favorable to reducing the storage case dismouting degree of difficulty, and can effectively reduce the dismouting fault rate. Thereby make the material volume detection mechanism that this application proposed more adapt to can dismantle the storage case.

In addition, the cooking device provided by the invention can also have the following additional technical characteristics:

in this technical solution, the emitting portion includes a plurality of emitting pieces distributed along a height direction of the cooking apparatus.

In this embodiment, the structure of the emitting portion will be described. Specifically, the emitting part includes a plurality of emitting members, each of which can emit light, and the plurality of emitting members are distributed in a height direction of the cooking apparatus. The emitting part can be selected as an infrared emitter so as to detect the height of the material through infrared rays. Each emitting piece corresponds to a preset path, and a plurality of preset paths distributed at different heights can be formed in the cavity by arranging a plurality of emitting pieces in the height direction. The number of the preset paths is related to the size of the height interval and the total height of the cavity, and the number of the detection pieces is not rigidly limited in the technical scheme. Correspondingly, the reflecting part is a plate which extends in the height direction of the cooking equipment so as to ensure that the reflecting part can receive a plurality of incident light rays emitted by a plurality of emitting parts and avoid omission.

In any of the above technical solutions, in the height direction of the cooking apparatus, the range of the distance between two adjacent emitting members is: 30mm or more and 150mm or less.

In this solution, a further limitation is made to the distribution of the plurality of emitters. Specifically, in the height direction of the cooking apparatus, the height difference between two adjacent emitting members is a first distance. Wherein the first distance is greater than or equal to 30mm and less than or equal to 150mm. By limiting the first distance to be more than or equal to 30mm, two adjacent preset paths can be effectively distinguished, mutual interference of incident light rays and reflected light rays corresponding to the two adjacent preset paths is avoided, and therefore reliability of the emitting part is improved, and measurement errors are avoided. Through prescribing a limit to first distance less than or equal to 150mm, can avoid the too big predetermined route of difference in height can't satisfy the measurement demand of material height in the cavity, guarantee that the automatic culinary art demand of cooking equipment can be matchd to the detection mechanism that this application proposed.

In any of the above technical solutions, the receiving portion includes a plurality of receiving members, and the plurality of receiving members are disposed in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of transmitting members.

In this aspect, the receiving portion includes a plurality of receiving pieces, which receives the foregoing aspect. Specifically, the number of the receiving pieces is the same as that of the transmitting pieces, one transmitting piece and one receiving piece are combined into one measuring group, and the plurality of transmitting parts and the plurality of receiving parts are arranged in a one-to-one correspondence manner so as to form a plurality of measuring groups, wherein the plurality of measuring groups are distributed in the height direction of the cavity. Each measuring group corresponds to a preset path, and incident light rays emitted by the emitting elements in the same measuring group contact the reflecting part to form reflected light rays which are received by the receiving elements in the same group. Compared with the technical scheme that a single receiving piece is arranged to simultaneously receive the reflected light rays corresponding to a plurality of transmitting pieces, the possibility of mutual interference of the reflected light rays can be reduced by correspondingly arranging one receiving piece for each transmitting piece, and the measurement accuracy is improved. On the other hand, the signal discrimination of the receiving parts is facilitated, so that the controller can directly judge the height of the material according to the signal combination output by the plurality of receiving parts, and complex signal analysis steps are omitted. And further, the structure of the receiving part is optimized, the material detection precision is improved, and the technical effect of detecting flow information processing burden is reduced.

In any of the above technical solutions, the transmitting member and the receiving member that are correspondingly disposed are located at the same height.

In the technical scheme, the transmitting piece and the receiving piece in the same measuring group are positioned at the same height, namely the transmitting piece and the receiving piece in the same group are transversely arranged on the body. The light beam is reflected to be converted into reflected light beam, and then the reflected light beam is emitted to the receiving part along the horizontal direction. The incident light and the reflected light are V-shaped in a top view. Through setting up same group's transmitting part and receiving part at same height, can avoid the incident light of adjacent two sets of and reflected light mutual interference, ensure that the source of the reflected light that receiving part received is the transmitting part of same group. And further, the technical effects of optimizing the layout of the transmitting piece and the receiving piece and improving the height detection reliability of the material are achieved.

In any of the above technical solutions, the range of the distance between the transmitting member and the receiving member that are correspondingly set is: 15mm or more and 35mm or less.

In this technical solution, the horizontal distance between the emitting element and the receiving element of the same group is the second distance. The second distance is in a range of 15mm or more and 35mm or less. The second distance is limited to be more than or equal to 15mm, so that the receiving part avoids the diffuse reflection coverage area, and the diffuse reflection light generated after the incident light irradiates the material is prevented from being received by the receiving part, so that the detection result of the height of the material is ensured not to be interfered by the diffuse reflection effect. Therefore, the technical effects of improving the detection precision and reducing the possibility of detection misjudgment are achieved. Through inject the second distance less than or equal to 35mm, can avoid the too big transmitting member of interval and receive the structural layout on the piece influence body on guaranteeing to receive the piece to avoid diffuse reflection coverage area's basis, and make this measurement group can adapt to more small-size storage case to promote the size interval of measurable storage case. And further, the technical effects of widening the application range of the measurement set and improving the structural compactness of the cooking equipment are achieved.

In any of the above embodiments, the reflecting portion is provided in the storage tank, and a reflecting surface of the reflecting portion faces the emitting portion.

In this embodiment, the reflecting portion is mounted on the storage tank. Specifically, the reflecting portion includes a reflecting surface, and when the reflecting portion is mounted on the outside of the storage tank, the reflecting surface faces the outer surface of the storage tank, and incident light rays need to penetrate through the whole storage tank to be transmitted to the reflecting surface. But when the reflection part is arranged in the storage box, the reflection surface deviates from the inner wall of the cavity and faces the first side of the storage box, and incident light rays can be transmitted to the reflection surface through the outer wall of the first side of the storage box and the cavity. The reflecting part is arranged on the storage box, so that the relative positions of the reflecting part and the storage box cannot be changed due to factors such as assembly errors, vibration dislocation and the like, the receiving part can receive corresponding reflected light rays, and the misjudgment probability is reduced.

In any of the above embodiments, the storage bin comprises a light transmissive region; the light transmission area is positioned between the reflecting surface and the transmitting part and between the reflecting surface and the receiving part and is used for allowing incident light rays and reflected light rays to pass through.

In the technical scheme, a light-transmitting area is arranged on the storage box, and the light-transmitting area is arranged corresponding to the transmitting part, the receiving part and the reflecting part. Through setting up the printing opacity region, make light can pass the storage case smoothly to guarantee that the storage case can not influence the normal transmission of incident light and reflection light. Wherein, the light-transmitting area can be made of transparent glass or transparent acrylic material. On the basis, other areas on the storage box are shading areas except the light-transmitting areas. Through setting up the shading region, on the one hand can avoid outside light to be received by receiving part misreception, guarantee that the measuring result of material height can not receive external environment's interference. On the other hand, the shading is favorable for keeping the materials, and the rate of the spoilage of the materials can be reduced. And further, the material height measurement precision is improved, the material storage time is prolonged, and the technical effect of user health is guaranteed.

In any of the above embodiments, the range of the distance between the reflecting surface and the emitting portion is: 30mm or more and 150mm or less.

In this embodiment, the distance between the reflecting surface and the emitting portion in the horizontal direction is a third distance. Wherein, the range of the third distance is: 30mm or more and 150mm or less. By limiting the third distance to be greater than or equal to 30mm, the light received by the receiving part can be ensured to be reflected light, and diffuse reflection light or refraction light is prevented from interfering with the measurement result. By limiting the third distance to 150mm or less, the loss of light in the transmission process can be reduced by shortening the length of the preset path, and the influence of the transmission loss on the measurement structure is avoided. Therefore, the distance interval is favorable for improving the measurement accuracy of the material height, and further the technical effect of improving the reliability of the cooking equipment is achieved.

In any of the above solutions, the cooking apparatus further includes: the shading piece is arranged between the transmitting part and the receiving part and used for blocking incident light.

In this technical scheme, the cooking apparatus further includes a light shielding member. The light shielding piece can block transmission of light, and the specific light shielding piece is installed on the body, and the light shielding piece is located between the transmitting part and the receiving part. By arranging the shading piece, light rays emitted by the emitting part can be prevented from directly entering the receiving part under the condition of a cavity which does not pass through the light rays. Thereby further improving the detection precision and reducing the false judgment probability of the material height. Specifically, the light shielding member is a light shielding plate, which may be laterally disposed between the transmitting portion and the receiving portion.

Wherein can set up first light screen and second light screen, first light screen laminating transmitting part sets up, and second light screen laminating receiving part sets up to promote the light and block the effect.

In any of the above technical solutions, the body includes a groove, and the transmitting portion and the receiving portion are disposed in the groove.

In this technical scheme, the body is provided with the recess towards the surface of storage case, and the recess is used for holding transmitting part and receiving part. Through setting up the recess, make transmitting part and receiving part can be embedded on the body, avoid transmitting part and receiving part of evagination to influence the dismouting of rice case, make rice case can laminate and set up on the surface of body to promote rice case location effect. And moreover, the transmitting part and the receiving part are embedded in the groove, so that the transmitting part and the receiving part can be prevented from being crashed and damaged by the rice box, and the failure rate of the transmitting part and the receiving part is reduced.

In any of the above solutions, the cooking apparatus further includes: the light-transmitting plate is connected with the body and covers the opening of the groove.

In this technical scheme, cooking equipment still is provided with the light-transmitting plate, and the light-transmitting plate is connected with the body, and the opening of recess can be closed to the light-transmitting plate. Through setting up the light-transmitting plate, can play the effect of protection recess internal emission portion and structure portion, avoid emission portion and receiving portion by external structure collision damage on the one hand, on the other hand can avoid outside dirt erosion emission portion and receiving portion. The light-transmitting plate is embedded in the opening inner side of the groove, and the outer surface of the light-transmitting plate is flush with the outer contour surface of the body, so that the abrupt sense of the light-transmitting plate is reduced, and the consistency of the outer contour of the body is improved.

In any of the above technical solutions, the receiving portion outputs an electrical signal according to a receiving condition of the reflected light, and the cooking apparatus further includes: and the controller is connected with the receiving part and used for determining the height of the materials in the cooking cavity according to the electric signals.

In this embodiment, the receiving unit can output a corresponding electrical signal according to the reception of the reflected light. On the basis, the cooking equipment further comprises a controller, and the controller is connected with the receiving part to judge the corresponding height of the materials in the cavity through the received electric signals.

Taking the cooking equipment as an example, three measuring groups are arranged, wherein three receiving parts from top to bottom are a first receiving part, a second receiving part and a third receiving part, when the receiving parts receive reflected light rays, a first signal is output, hereinafter denoted by 1, when the receiving parts do not receive the reflected light rays, a second signal is output, hereinafter denoted by 0, and the combination of the signals output by the three receiving parts is arranged from left to right. On the basis, when the combination of the output signals is 111, the height of the material in the representing cavity is higher than the height of the first path corresponding to the first receiving piece, and the controller can output the information that the storage box is full. When the output signal is 011, the height of the material in the representing cavity is between the first path and the second path. When the output signal is 001, the height of the material in the representing cavity is between the second path and the third path. When the output signal is 000, the height of the material in the cavity is lower than the height of the third path, and the controller can output the information that the material needs to be added to the material storage box.

Therefore, the real-time detection of the material height in the material storage box is realized by the controller, the corresponding actual material quantity can be determined according to the material height before the automatic cooking process is executed by the cooking equipment, and whether the material needs to be added is judged by comparing the size relation between the required material quantity and the actual material quantity. When the actual material quantity is smaller than the required material quantity, prompt information or pushing information is sent out to remind a user to add the material in time. Thereby realizing the intelligent degree of the cooking equipment, improving the quality of food obtained by cooking and improving the technical effect of user experience.

In any of the above solutions, the cooking apparatus further includes: the circuit board, the transmitting part, the receiving part and the controller are all arranged on the circuit board.

In this technical scheme, cooking equipment still includes the circuit board, and transmitting part, receiving portion and controller all are connected with the circuit board, and cooking equipment passes through the circuit board and supplies power to transmitting part, receiving portion and controller. And the receiving part can output an electric signal to the controller through the circuit board. Specifically, the transmitting portion and the receiving portion may be provided on the same circuit board, and two circuit boards may be provided for the transmitting portion and the receiving portion, respectively. A circuit board may also be provided for each receiving element and for each transmitting element. In this regard, the technical scheme does not rigidly limit the specific number and connection relationship of the circuit boards. The requirements of power supply and signal transmission are met.

In any of the above technical solutions, the storage tank is detachably connected with the body.

In this technical scheme, the storage box is connected with the body can dismantle. Through setting up detachable storage case, make the user when needs add the material, can tear down the material case and accomplish the material with simple convenient and fast and add, remove the operation of user's transport bulk material or whole cooking equipment from, and then realize reducing the technological effect that the material added the degree of difficulty. Meanwhile, when a user needs to clean the storage box, the storage box can be detached from the body, and then the storage box is independently cleaned at the faucet, so that the user does not need to carry the whole cooking equipment to clean, on one hand, the cleaning difficulty is reduced, and on the other hand, the electric appliance structure inside the cooking equipment is prevented from being damaged due to water flow penetrating into the cooking equipment. Thereby realizing the technical effects of providing convenience conditions for users and reducing the failure rate of cooking equipment.

Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

Drawings

The foregoing and/or additional aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and may be better understood from the following description of embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 shows one of schematic structural views of a cooking apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a partial enlarged view of the cooking apparatus in the embodiment shown in fig. 1 in the region a;

fig. 3 shows a second schematic structural view of a cooking apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Wherein, the correspondence between the reference numerals and the component names in fig. 1 to 3 is:

100 cooking equipment, 110 body, 120 transmitting part, 122 transmitting part, 130 storage box, 132 cavity, 140 reflecting part, 150 receiving part, 152 receiving part, 160 shading part, 170 light transmitting plate, 180 circuit board.

Detailed Description

In order that the above-recited objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to the appended drawings and appended detailed description. It should be noted that, in the case of no conflict, the embodiments of the present application and the features in the embodiments may be combined with each other.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, however, the present invention may be practiced in other ways than those described herein, and therefore the scope of the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed below.

A cooking apparatus according to some embodiments of the present invention is described below with reference to fig. 1 to 3.

Example 1

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, an embodiment of a first aspect of the present invention proposes a cooking apparatus 100, the cooking apparatus 100 comprising: a body 110; a transmitting part 120 provided on the body 110; a storage tank 130 connected to the body 110 and including a cavity 132; the reflecting part 140 is arranged on the body 110 or the storage box 130, the cavity 132 is positioned between the emitting part 120 and the reflecting part 140, and the emitting part 120 is used for emitting incident light rays to the reflecting part 140; the receiving portion 150 is disposed on the body 110, the transmitting portion 120 and the receiving portion 150 are disposed on the same side of the storage box 130, and the receiving portion 150 is configured to receive the reflected light of the reflecting portion 140.

The present application defines a cooking apparatus 100, which cooking apparatus 100 is capable of cooking a material into a finished food by a heating and humidifying process or the like. For example, the cooking apparatus 100 may be an electric rice cooker capable of automatically cooking foods such as rice, coarse cereal rice, rice porridge, etc.

Cooking apparatus 100 includes a body 110 and a storage bin 130. The body 110 is a main frame structure of the cooking apparatus 100, and the body 110 is used to position and support other structures on the cooking apparatus 100. A storage tank 130 is mounted on the body 110, and a cavity 132 is formed in the storage tank 130, and the cavity 132 is used for storing materials required for cooking. Specifically, the body 110 includes a pot body and a cover body, the pot body is internally provided with a liner, a cooking cavity is formed in the liner, and the cover body is arranged on the pot body in an openable manner and is used for covering an opening of the liner. The storage bin 130 is connected with the pot body, and materials stored in the storage bin 130 can be transmitted into the cooking cavity through the conveying device so as to complete automatic cooking.

In the related art, in order to improve the automation degree of the cooking equipment, the material quantity in the rice bin needs to be detected by arranging various detection devices. On the basis, the detachable requirement of the rice bin is matched, and the structure of the rice bin assembly is simplified. The diffuse reflection detection device is arranged to detect the material quantity in the rice bin. In the detection process, the diffuse reflection detection device emits light to materials in the rice bin, and the light is received by the diffuse reflection detection device again after being subjected to diffuse reflection of the materials, so that the height of the materials in the rice bin is judged through the received diffuse reflection light. But the diffuse reflection detection device is only suitable for materials with lighter colors such as rice. If dark materials such as black rice, red bean exist in the rice bin, partial light emitted by the diffuse reflection detection device can be absorbed by the dark materials, so that the attribute of the received diffuse reflection light is not matched with the actual material quantity, and the technical problems of poor material quantity detection precision and high automatic cooking failure rate of the cooking equipment exist.

In this regard, the cooking apparatus 100 defined herein further includes an emitting portion 120, a reflecting portion 140, and a receiving portion 150. The emitting part 120 is mounted on the body 110 at a first side of the cavity 132, and the reflecting part 140 is disposed on the body 110 or the storage tank 130 at a second side of the cavity 132 opposite to the first side. Specifically, when the storage case 130 is mounted in a hanging manner, the reflecting portion 140 is disposed on the storage case 130, and the cavity 132 is interposed between the emitting portion 120 and the reflecting portion 140 after the storage case 130 is hung to a predetermined position of the body 110. When the storage box 130 is mounted in a plugging manner, the reflecting portion 140 may be disposed on the body 110, and the emitting portion 120 and the reflecting portion 140 are located at opposite sides of the predetermined mounting position, and after the storage box 130 is plugged into the predetermined mounting position, the cavity 132 may be interposed between the emitting portion 120 and the reflecting portion 140. The receiving portion 150 is mounted on the body 110, and the receiving portion 150 is also located on a first side of the cavity 132. The transmitting end of the transmitting portion 120 faces the reflecting portion 140, and the receiving portion 150 is disposed corresponding to the reflecting portion 140. The emitting portion 120 is configured to emit an incident light to the reflecting portion 140, and the incident light is reflected after reaching the reflecting portion 140 to obtain a reflected light, and the reflected light needs to be transmitted to the receiving portion 150 according to a predetermined path and received by the receiving portion 150.

The predetermined path penetrates the cavity 132, and when the material exists on the predetermined path, the material blocks the transmission of the reflected light, so that the receiving portion 150 cannot receive the reflected light on the predetermined path. Otherwise, if no material exists on the predetermined path, the receiving portion 150 can receive the reflected light on the predetermined path. The cavity 132 includes a plurality of predetermined paths, and the heights of the predetermined paths are different, so that the cooking apparatus 100 can analyze the material height in the cavity 132 according to the receiving condition of the incident light on the receiving portion 150. Taking three predetermined paths with different heights as an example, the cavity 132 is divided into a first path, a second path and a third path from top to bottom. When the receiving portion 150 can receive the reflected light corresponding to the first path and the second path and cannot receive the reflected light corresponding to the third path, it is determined that the height of the material in the cavity 132 is between the second path and the third path. When all three paths cannot receive the reflected light, the material height is determined to be higher than the first path, which indicates that the storage tank 130 is full.

Therefore, by providing the detecting mechanism consisting of the transmitting part 120, the reflecting part 140 and the receiving part 150, the cooking apparatus 100 can determine the amount of the material by the reflected light, the reflected light is not affected by the color of the material, and the transmission of the reflected light is affected by the presence of the material in the predetermined path. Therefore, the technical problems of mismatching of the attribute of the received diffuse reflection light ray and the actual material quantity, poor material quantity detection precision and high automatic cooking failure rate in the related technology are solved. And then realize optimizing material detection structure, promote material detection precision, promote cooking equipment 100 practicality and reliable technical effect.

On this basis, in the case that the storage tank 130 is detachable, by arranging the transmitting part 120 and the receiving part 150 on the body 110, the transmitting part 120 and the receiving part 150 can be prevented from being detached along with the storage tank 130, thereby omitting a complicated electrical interface structure, being beneficial to reducing the detachment difficulty of the storage tank 130 and being capable of effectively reducing the detachment failure rate. Thereby making the material quantity detection mechanism proposed in the present application more adaptable to the detachable bin 130.

Example two

As shown in fig. 2 and 3, in the second aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the emitting part 120 includes a plurality of emitting pieces 122, and the plurality of emitting pieces 122 are distributed in the height direction of the cooking apparatus 100.

In this embodiment, the structure of the emitting portion 120 is explained. Specifically, the emitting part 120 includes a plurality of emitting members 122, each of the emitting members 122 may emit light, and the plurality of emitting members 122 are distributed in the height direction of the cooking apparatus 100. The emitting part 120 may be selected as an infrared emitter for material height detection by infrared rays. Wherein each of the emitting elements 122 corresponds to a predetermined path, by arranging a plurality of emitting elements 122 in the height direction, a plurality of predetermined paths distributed at different heights can be formed in the cavity 132. The number of predetermined paths is related to the size of the height interval and the total height of the cavity 132, and in this embodiment there is no hard limit to the number of detectors. Correspondingly, the reflecting portion 140 is a plate, which extends in the height direction of the cooking apparatus 100, so as to ensure that the reflecting portion 140 can receive a plurality of incident light rays emitted by the plurality of emitting elements 122, thereby avoiding omission.

In any of the above embodiments, in the height direction of the cooking apparatus 100, the distance between the adjacent two emitting pieces 122 ranges from: 30mm or more and 150mm or less.

In this embodiment, the distribution of the plurality of emitters 122 is further defined. Specifically, in the height direction of the cooking apparatus 100, the height difference between the adjacent two emitting pieces 122 is the first distance c. Wherein the first distance is greater than or equal to 30mm and less than or equal to 150mm. By defining the first distance to be greater than or equal to 30mm, two adjacent predetermined paths can be effectively distinguished, mutual interference of incident light rays and reflected light rays corresponding to the two adjacent predetermined paths is avoided, and accordingly reliability of the emitting portion 120 is improved, and measurement errors are avoided. Through prescribing a limit to first distance less than or equal to 150mm, can avoid the too big predetermined route of difference in height can't satisfy the measurement demand of material height in the cavity 132, guarantee that the automatic culinary art demand of cooking equipment 100 can be matchd to the detection mechanism that this application proposed.

In any of the above embodiments, the receiving portion 150 includes a plurality of receiving members 152, and the plurality of receiving members 152 are disposed in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of emitting members 122.

In this embodiment, receiving the previous embodiment, the receiver 150 includes a plurality of receivers 152. Specifically, the number of the receiving members 152 is the same as the number of the emitting members 122, one emitting member 122 and one receiving member 152 are combined into one measurement group, and the plurality of emitting portions 120 and the plurality of receiving portions 150 are disposed in one-to-one correspondence to form a plurality of measurement groups, wherein the plurality of measurement groups are distributed in the height direction of the cavity 132. Each measurement group corresponds to a predetermined path, and the incident light emitted by the emitting element 122 in the same measurement group contacts the reflecting portion 140 to form a reflected light, and is received by the receiving elements 152 in the same group. Compared with the embodiment in which a single receiving element 152 is provided to simultaneously receive the reflected light corresponding to the plurality of emitting elements 122, the provision of one receiving element 152 for each emitting element 122 can reduce the possibility of mutual interference of the plurality of reflected light and improve the measurement accuracy. On the other hand, the signal discrimination of the receiving parts 152 is facilitated, so that the controller can directly judge the height of the material according to the signal combination output by the plurality of receiving parts 152, and the complicated signal analysis step is omitted. And further, the structure of the receiving part 150 is optimized, the material detection precision is improved, and the technical effect of detecting flow information processing burden is reduced.

In any of the above embodiments, the corresponding transmitting member 122 and receiving member 152 are located at the same height.

In this embodiment, the emitter 122 and receiver 152 in the same measurement set are located at the same height, i.e., the emitter 122 and receiver 152 of the same set are laterally disposed on the body 110. The emitting element 122 and the receiving element 152 are spaced apart from each other, and the incident light is directed to the reflecting portion 140 in a horizontal direction, and is converted into reflected light by reflection, and is directed to the receiving portion 150 in a horizontal direction. The incident light and the reflected light are V-shaped in a top view. By arranging the same group of emitting elements 122 and receiving elements 152 at the same height, mutual interference between the incident light rays and the reflected light rays of two adjacent groups can be avoided, and the source of the reflected light rays received by the receiving part 150 is ensured to be the same group of emitting elements 122. Thereby realizing the technical effects of optimizing the layout of the transmitting piece 122 and the receiving piece 152 and improving the reliability of the material height detection.

In any of the above embodiments, the distance between the corresponding transmitting member 122 and the receiving member 152 is in the range: 15mm or more and 35mm or less.

In this embodiment, the horizontal distance between the same set of emitters 122 and receivers 152 is the second distance a. The second distance is in a range of 15mm or more and 35mm or less. By limiting the second distance to 15mm or more, the receiving element 152 avoids the diffuse reflection coverage area, and the diffuse reflection light generated after the incident light irradiates the material is prevented from being received by the receiving element 152, so that the detection result of the height of the material is ensured not to be interfered by the diffuse reflection effect. Therefore, the technical effects of improving the detection precision and reducing the possibility of detection misjudgment are achieved. By defining the second distance to be less than or equal to 35mm, the oversized spacing of the emitter 122 and receiver 152 on the basis of ensuring that the receiver 152 avoids the diffuse reflection coverage area is avoided from affecting the structural layout on the body 110, and the measurement set is enabled to adapt to more small-sized storage bins 130 to promote the size interval of the measurable storage bins 130. Further, the application range of the measurement set is widened, and the technical effect of improving the structural compactness of the cooking equipment 100 is achieved.

Example III

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, in the third embodiment of the present invention, the reflecting portion 140 is disposed on the storage tank 130, and the reflecting surface of the reflecting portion 140 faces the emitting portion 120.

In this embodiment, the reflecting portion 140 is mounted on the storage tank 130. Specifically, the reflecting portion 140 includes a reflecting surface facing the outer surface of the storage tank 130 when the reflecting portion 140 is mounted on the outer side of the storage tank 130, and the incident light is transmitted to the reflecting surface by penetrating the entire storage tank 130. However, when the reflecting portion 140 is installed inside the storage tank 130, the reflecting surface faces away from the inner wall of the cavity 132 and faces the first side of the storage tank 130, and the incident light passes through the outer wall of the first side of the storage tank 130 and the cavity 132 to be transmitted to the reflecting surface. By installing the reflecting portion 140 on the storage bin 130, the relative positions of the reflecting portion 140 and the storage bin 130 are not changed due to assembly errors, vibration dislocation and other factors, so that the receiving portion 150 can receive the corresponding reflected light rays, and the misjudgment probability is reduced.

In any of the above embodiments, the storage bin 130 includes a light transmissive region; the light transmitting region is located between the reflecting surface and the emitting part 120 and between the reflecting surface and the receiving part 150 for passing the incident light and the reflected light.

In this embodiment, a light-transmitting region is provided on the storage tank 130, and the light-transmitting region is provided corresponding to the emitting part 120, the receiving part 150, and the reflecting part 140. By arranging the light-transmitting area, light can smoothly pass through the storage box 130, so that the storage box 130 can not influence the normal transmission of incident light and reflected light. Wherein, the light-transmitting area can be made of transparent glass or transparent acrylic material. On this basis, other areas on the storage tank 130 than the light-transmitting area are light-shielding areas. By arranging the shading area, on one hand, the external light can be prevented from being received by the receiving part 150 in error, and the measurement result of the material height is ensured not to be interfered by the external environment. On the other hand, the shading is favorable for keeping the materials, and the rate of the spoilage of the materials can be reduced. And further, the material height measurement precision is improved, the material storage time is prolonged, and the technical effect of user health is guaranteed.

In any of the above embodiments, the range of the distance between the reflecting surface and the emitting portion 120 is: 30mm or more and 150mm or less.

In this embodiment, the distance between the reflecting surface and the emitting portion 120 is the third distance b in the horizontal direction. Wherein, the range of the third distance is: 30mm or more and 150mm or less. By defining the third distance to be equal to or greater than 30mm, it is possible to ensure that the light received by the receiving portion 150 is reflected light, and to avoid interference of the diffuse reflected light or the refracted light with the measurement result. By limiting the third distance to 150mm or less, the loss of light in the transmission process can be reduced by shortening the length of the preset path, and the influence of the transmission loss on the measurement structure is avoided. Therefore, the distance interval is beneficial to improving the measurement accuracy of the material height, and further the technical effect of improving the reliability of the cooking device 100 is achieved.

Example IV

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, the cooking apparatus 100 further includes: the light shielding member 160 is disposed between the emitting portion 120 and the receiving portion 150, and is used for blocking incident light.

In this embodiment, the cooking apparatus 100 further includes a light shielding member 160. The light shielding member 160 can block transmission of light, and the light shielding member 160 is mounted on the body 110, and the light shielding member 160 is located between the emitting part 120 and the receiving part 150. By providing the light shielding member 160, the light emitted from the emitting portion 120 can be prevented from directly entering the receiving portion 150 without passing through the cavity 132. Thereby further improving the detection precision and reducing the false judgment probability of the material height. Specifically, the light shielding member 160 is a light shielding plate, which may be laterally disposed between the transmitting portion 120 and the receiving portion 150.

Wherein a first light shielding plate and a second light shielding plate may be provided, the first light shielding plate is attached to the transmitting portion 120, and the second light shielding plate is attached to the receiving portion 150, so as to enhance the light blocking effect.

In any of the above embodiments, the body 110 includes a groove, and the transmitting portion 120 and the receiving portion 150 are disposed in the groove.

In this embodiment, the surface of the body 110 facing the storage tank 130 is provided with a groove for accommodating the emitting part 120 and the receiving part 150. Through setting up the recess, make emitter 120 and receiver 150 can embed on body 110, avoid emitter 120 and receiver 150 of evagination to influence the dismouting of rice case, make rice case can laminate and set up on body 110's surface to promote rice case location effect. Also, embedding the transmitting part 120 and the receiving part 150 in the grooves can prevent the transmitting part 120 and the receiving part 150 from being bumped by the rice box, thereby reducing the failure rate of the transmitting part 120 and the receiving part 150.

In any of the above embodiments, the cooking apparatus 100 further comprises: the light-transmitting plate 170 is connected to the body 110 and covers the opening of the groove.

In this embodiment, the cooking apparatus 100 is further provided with a light-transmitting plate 170, the light-transmitting plate 170 is connected with the body 110, and the light-transmitting plate 170 can cover the opening of the groove. By providing the light-transmitting plate 170, the function of protecting the transmitting portion 120 and the structural portion in the recess can be achieved, so that the transmitting portion 120 and the receiving portion 150 can be prevented from being damaged by the collision of the external structure, and the transmitting portion 120 and the receiving portion 150 can be prevented from being corroded by external dirt. The light-transmitting plate 170 is embedded inside the opening of the groove, and the outer surface of the light-transmitting plate 170 is flush with the outer contour surface of the body 110, so as to reduce the abrupt feeling of the light-transmitting plate 170 and improve the consistency of the outer contour of the body 110.

Example five

As shown in fig. 2 and 3, in the fifth aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, the receiving part 150 outputs an electric signal according to the receiving condition of the reflected light, and the cooking apparatus 100 further includes: and a controller connected to the receiving part 150 for determining the height of the material in the cooking cavity according to the electric signal.

In this embodiment, the receiving section 150 can output a corresponding electrical signal according to the reception condition of the reflected light. On the basis, the cooking apparatus 100 further includes a controller connected to the receiving part 150 to determine the corresponding height of the material in the cavity 132 through the received electrical signal.

Taking the cooking apparatus 100 as an example of setting three measurement sets, three receiving elements 152 from top to bottom are a first receiving element 152, a second receiving element 152 and a third receiving element 152, a first signal is output when the receiving element 152 receives the reflected light, a second signal is output when the receiving element 152 does not receive the reflected light, a combination of signals output by the three receiving elements 152 is arranged from left to right. On this basis, when the combination of the output signals is 111, the height of the material in the representing cavity 132 is higher than the height of the first path corresponding to the first receiving element 152, and the controller can output the information that the storage tank 130 is full. When the output signal is 011, the height of the material in the cavity 132 is between the first path and the second path. When the output signal is 001, the height of the material in the representative cavity 132 is between the second path and the third path. When the output signal is 000, which represents the level of material in the cavity 132 below the level of the third path, the controller may output information that the material needs to be added to the storage tank 130.

Therefore, by setting the controller, the real-time detection of the material height in the storage tank 130 is realized, and before the automatic cooking process is performed by the cooking apparatus 100, the corresponding actual material amount can be determined according to the material height, and whether the material needs to be added is judged by comparing the relation between the required material amount and the actual material amount. When the actual material quantity is smaller than the required material quantity, prompt information or pushing information is sent out to remind a user to add the material in time. Thereby realizing the technical effects of improving the intelligent degree of the cooking equipment 100, improving the quality of food obtained by cooking and improving the use experience of users.

In any of the above embodiments, the cooking apparatus 100 further comprises: the circuit board 180, the transmitting portion 120, the receiving portion 150 and the controller are all disposed on the circuit board 180.

In this embodiment, the cooking apparatus 100 further includes a circuit board 180, and the transmitting part 120, the receiving part 150, and the controller are all connected to the circuit board 180, and the cooking apparatus 100 supplies power to the transmitting part 120, the receiving part 150, and the controller through the circuit board 180. And the receiving part 150 can output an electrical signal to the controller through the circuit board 180. Specifically, the transmitting part 120 and the receiving part 150 may be provided on the same circuit board 180, and two circuit boards 180 may be provided for the transmitting part 120 and the receiving part 150, respectively. A circuit board 180 may also be provided for each receiver 152 and each transmitter 122. In this regard, the embodiment does not rigidly limit the specific number and connection relationship of the circuit boards 180. The requirements of power supply and signal transmission are met.

In any of the above embodiments, the storage tank 130 is detachably connected to the body 110.

In this embodiment, the storage tank 130 is detachably connected to the body 110. Through setting up detachable storage case 130, make the user when needs add the material, can tear down the material case and accomplish the material with simple convenient and fast and add, remove the operation of user's transport bulk materials or whole cooking equipment 100 from, and then realize reducing the technological effect that the material added the degree of difficulty. Meanwhile, when a user needs to clean the storage tank 130, the storage tank 130 can be detached from the body 110, and then the storage tank 130 is cleaned independently at the tap, so that the user does not need to carry the whole cooking equipment 100 for cleaning, on one hand, the cleaning difficulty is reduced, and on the other hand, the electric appliance structure inside the cooking equipment 100 is prevented from being damaged due to water flow penetrating into the cooking equipment 100. Thereby realizing the technical effects of providing convenience conditions for users and reducing the failure rate of the cooking apparatus 100.

Example six

In the sixth embodiment of the present invention, the cooking apparatus 100 is an automatic electric cooker, and the automatic electric cooker has the advantages of the cooking apparatus 100 in any of the above-mentioned embodiments, and can achieve the technical effects achieved by the cooking apparatus 100 in any of the above-mentioned embodiments, so that repetition is avoided and no further description is given here.

It is to be understood that in the claims, specification and drawings of the present invention, the term "plurality" means two or more, and unless otherwise explicitly defined, the orientation or positional relationship indicated by the terms "upper", "lower", etc. are based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, only for the convenience of describing the present invention and making the description process easier, and not for the purpose of indicating or implying that the apparatus or element in question must have the particular orientation described, be constructed and operated in the particular orientation, so that these descriptions should not be construed as limiting the present invention; the terms "connected," "mounted," "secured," and the like are to be construed broadly, and may be, for example, a fixed connection between a plurality of objects, a removable connection between a plurality of objects, or an integral connection; the objects may be directly connected to each other or indirectly connected to each other through an intermediate medium. The specific meaning of the terms in the present invention can be understood in detail from the above data by those of ordinary skill in the art.

In the claims, specification, and drawings of the present invention, the descriptions of terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "particular embodiments," etc., mean that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In the claims, specification and drawings of the present invention, the schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiments or examples. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention, but various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (15)

1. A cooking apparatus, comprising:

a body;

a transmitting part arranged on the body;

the storage box is connected with the body and comprises a cavity;

The reflecting part is arranged on the body or the storage box, the cavity is positioned between the emitting part and the reflecting part, and the emitting part is used for emitting incident light rays to the reflecting part;

the receiving part is arranged on the body, the transmitting part and the receiving part are positioned on the same side of the storage box, and the receiving part is used for receiving the reflected light of the reflecting part.

2. Cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the emitting portion comprises a plurality of emitting members, the plurality of emitting members being distributed in a height direction of the cooking apparatus.

3. Cooking apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the distance between two adjacent emitters in the height direction of the cooking apparatus is in the range: 30mm or more and 150mm or less.

4. The cooking apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the receiving portion includes a plurality of receiving members, the plurality of receiving members being provided in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of emitting members.

5. Cooking apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the corresponding emitter and receiver are located at the same level.

6. Cooking apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the distance between the corresponding emitting element and the receiving element is in the range: 15mm or more and 35mm or less.

7. Cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reflecting portion is provided in the tank with a reflecting surface of the reflecting portion facing the emitting portion.

8. The cooking apparatus of claim 7, wherein the cooking apparatus comprises a cooking chamber,

the storage box comprises a light-transmitting area;

the light-transmitting area is positioned between the reflecting surface and the transmitting part and between the reflecting surface and the receiving part and is used for allowing the incident light and the reflected light to pass through.

9. The cooking apparatus of claim 7, wherein a distance between the reflective surface and the emitting portion ranges from: 30mm or more and 150mm or less.

10. The cooking apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

and the shading piece is arranged between the transmitting part and the receiving part and used for blocking the incident light.

11. Cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the body comprises a recess, the emitting portion and the receiving portion being provided in the recess.

12. The cooking apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

and the light-transmitting plate is connected with the body and covers the opening of the groove.

13. The cooking apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the receiving portion outputs an electric signal according to a receiving condition of the reflected light, the cooking apparatus further comprising:

and the controller is connected with the receiving part and is used for determining the height of the materials in the cooking cavity according to the electric signals.

14. The cooking apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

the circuit board, the transmitting part, the receiving part and the controller are all arranged on the circuit board.

15. Cooking apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the storage tank is detachably connected to the body.