JP2000308572A - Rice cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress steam generation and to make cooked rice delicious by heating the water in an inner pan to a boiling point or below and fluidizing the water. SOLUTION: Rice cooking is started by setting the inner pan 2 containing rice and water into a rice cooker main body and driving an inner pan heating means 5 to heat the inner pan 2. The temperature in the inner pan 2 is detected by an inner pan heating means 4 and is sent to a heating control means. As a result, the inner pan heating means 5 is so controlled that the temperature in the inner pan 2 attains the boiling point of the water or below. Further, a water flow generating means 3 is driven to fluidize the water while the water still exists during rice cooking. As a result, the generation of the steam is suppressed and the heat transfer to the rice is accelerated by the water flow. Accordingly, the heat quantity for rice cooking can be sufficiently imparted to the rice and the delicious cooked rice can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a rice cooker.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a rice cooker has a problem in that water is heated and boiled during cooking to generate water vapor and to cause dew condensation around the rice cooker. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, a conventional rice cooker controls the heating of water in the inner pot to be lower than the boiling point to suppress the generation of steam. Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 11, the temperature of the inner pot is detected by the inner pot temperature detecting means 4, and the detected temperature is input to a heating control means (not shown) to discharge water in the inner pot. The generation of water vapor was suppressed by controlling the heating so as to be lower than the boiling point.

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional rice cooker, since the water in the inner pot is controlled to be heated to a temperature lower than the boiling point, strong convection generated at the time of boiling does not occur, so that heat from the water flow to the rice is not generated. There is a problem that the transmission becomes small, and so-called poorly cooked rice, which is not delicious, is produced.

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a cooked rice that suppresses the generation of water vapor and is delicious.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a heating control means for driving an inner pot heating means so that water stored in the inner pot becomes lower than a boiling point; A water flow generating means for flowing the water stored therein.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the convection performance of the water in the inner pot can be maintained even when the water in the inner pot is controlled not to boil.

According to the invention described in claim 2, in particular,
Since the water flow in the vertical direction is also generated, the unevenness of the water flow in the inner pot can be further reduced.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the water flow can be reversed, so that the water flow can be turbulent.

According to the invention described in claim 4, the water flow generating means can be detached from the inner pot or the rice cooker main body.

[0010] According to the invention described in claim 5, the motor can be stopped when there is no water in the inner pot.

[0011]

(Embodiment 1) A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

1 is a rice cooker main body, 2 is an inner pot, and 3 is a water flow generating means. In this embodiment, a blade 33 is provided at the bottom of the inner pot 2 and its axis is passed through the inner pot 2 so as to be outside the inner pot 2. The shaft is rotationally driven from the outside of the inner pan to generate a water flow in water (not shown) in the inner pan.

Hereinafter, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
An inner pot 2 containing rice and water is installed in a rice cooker body 1. When rice cooking is started, the inner pan heating means 5 is driven to heat the inner pan 2. The temperature of the inner pot is detected by the inner pot temperature detecting means 4 and input to a heating control means (not shown), and the inner pot heating means 5 is driven so that the temperature in the inner pot is lower than the boiling point so as not to boil. Further, when water is still present during cooking, the water flow generating means 3 is driven. This suppresses the generation of water vapor and forcibly generates a water flow in the inner pot, transfers heat from the water flow to the rice, and gives enough heat to the rice to make the rice a delicious rice rice Is what you can do.

In this embodiment, the blade 33 is not provided with a cover, but a cover may be provided in order to prevent rice from hitting the blade 33.
In addition, as the rice cooking process progresses, more components dissolve in water from rice, and as a result, the boiling point of water in the inner pot gradually increases. Therefore, the control temperature upper limit value of the heating control means can be increased as the rice cooking process proceeds.

Embodiment 2 A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

1 is a rice cooker main body, 2 is an inner pot, and 3 is a water flow generating means. In this embodiment, a blade 33 is provided at the bottom of the inner pot 2 and its axis passes through the inner pot 2 so as to be outside the inner pot 2. The shaft is rotationally driven from the outside of the inner pan to generate a water flow in water (not shown) in the inner pan. A water flow control plate is provided around the blades constituting the water flow generation means, and the water flow control plate has a water inlet 31 near the blade axis and a water outlet 32 provided in a direction perpendicular to the blade axis.

The operation of this embodiment is different from that of the first embodiment.
Since the water in the upper part of the blade is drawn downward, the water flow in the up and down direction is also particularly generated, so that the unevenness of the water flow in the inner pot can be further reduced. In the present embodiment, the water intake port and the water discharge port are at the illustrated positions. However, it goes without saying that the water intake port and the water discharge port can be set at arbitrary positions in the inner pot by, for example, extending with a pipe.

(Embodiment 3) A third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

Although the configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment,
In this embodiment, the rotating part of the water flow generating means 3 is configured to be able to reverse the rotating direction. The operation of the present embodiment is such that the water flow can be reversed by reversing the rotation direction of the rotating part of the water flow generation means, so that turbulence can be generated in the water flow and the unevenness of the water flow in the inner pot can be further reduced It is.

(Embodiment 4) A fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

1 is a rice cooker main body, 2 is an inner pot, and 3 is a water flow generating means. In this embodiment, a blade 33 is provided at the bottom of the inner pot 2 and a magnet 34 magnetized in the rotation direction is provided on the shaft thereof. . The inner pan is non-magnetic, and is configured to generate a water flow in water (not shown) in the inner pan by driving a rotating magnetic field generating means 35 provided outside the inner pan 2. With this configuration, the water flow generating means can be attached to and detached from the inner pot or the rice cooker main body, so that maintenance after cooking rice can be simplified.

(Embodiment 5) A fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

Although the configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment,
In this embodiment, the water flow generating means 3 is driven by a motor provided outside the inner pan, and the load current is detected by load current detecting means (not shown). As the cooking process progresses, the water in the inner pot gradually decreases. As a result, the motor load of the water flow generating means 3 also gradually decreases, so that the motor load current decreases. Therefore, when the motor load current falls below a certain value, the rice cooking process proceeds and the water in the inner pot runs out, so that the motor is stopped. With this configuration, the presence or absence of water in the inner pan can be detected, and when there is no water in the inner pan, the motor can be stopped and energy can be saved.

As mentioned above, the example in which the present invention is carried out independently has been described. Needless to say, however, the object of the present invention can be achieved by carrying out a plurality of the second to fifth inventions at the same time. In addition, if the inner pot heating means is an induction heating method, it is needless to say that the inner pot temperature control becomes easier, so that the implementation becomes easier.

[0025]

As described above, the invention described in claim 1 drives the water flow generating means and controls the inner pot heating means so as to keep the temperature in the inner pot below the boiling point so that the water in the inner pot does not boil. By driving, it is possible to suppress generation of water vapor and to make delicious cooked rice.

[0026] The invention described in claim 2 is, in particular,
Since the water flow in the vertical direction is also generated, the unevenness of the water flow in the inner pot is further reduced, the generation of water vapor is suppressed, and delicious rice can be obtained.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the water flow can be reversed, a turbulent flow can be generated in the water flow, the unevenness of the water flow in the inner pot is reduced, and the generation of water vapor is suppressed. And cooked rice can be delicious.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 4, the water flow generating means can be detached from the inner pot or the rice cooker main body, the maintenance after cooking is simple, and the generation of water vapor is suppressed. And it can be delicious rice.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 5, when there is no water in the inner pot, the motor can be stopped, energy can be saved, the generation of water vapor is suppressed, and delicious rice is obtained. be able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a rice cooker according to first, third and fifth embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a rice cooker according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a rice cooker according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a conventional rice cooker.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Rice cooker main body 2 Inner pot 3 Water flow generating means 4 Inner pot temperature detecting means 5 Inner pot heating means 31 Water inlet 32 Water outlet

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hideki Omori 1006 Oaza Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture F-term in Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 4B055 AA02 BA62 BA63 CA02 CA13 CD59

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A heating control means for driving an inner pot heating means so that water stored in an inner pot becomes lower than a boiling point, and a water flow generating means for flowing the water stored in the inner pot. Rice cooker. 2. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the water flow generating means has at least one or more water inlets and water outlets. 3. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the water flow generating means has a rotating part and reverses a rotating direction of the rotating part at least once during rice cooking. 4. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the water flow generating means is detachable from the inner pot. 5. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the water flow generating means is driven by a motor, and stops the motor when a load current of the motor becomes a predetermined value or less.