JP2007075412A - Rice cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rice cooker including a valve hole-opening/closing device having a simple structure and securely locking a lid body when closing a valve hole. <P>SOLUTION: The rice cooker has: a pressure control ball 91 for opening/closing a valve hole 89 provided in the middle of a steam passage of a lid body 10; the valve hole-opening/closing device 40 provided at the lid body 10, opening the valve hole 89 by moving the pressure control ball 91 when not operated, and closing the valve hole 89 by the pressure control ball 91 when operated; a hook 55 provided at the lid body 10 and locking the lid body 10 to a main body case 1; and a lid-opening/closing button 23 provided at the lid body 10 and releasing the locked hook 55. When the valve hole 89 is closed by the operation of the valve hole-opening/closing device 40, the lid-opening/closing button 23 is locked by the valve hole-opening/closing device 40. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a rice cooker, and more particularly to a rice cooker that cooks rice under pressure.

  It is well known that rice is cooked by increasing the pressure in the inner kettle containing rice and water, but in such rice cookers (hereinafter sometimes referred to as pressure-type rice cookers) If the lid open / close button is squeezed down for some reason and the lid is opened, the pressure in the inner pot may drop and rice cooking may not be possible. In order to avoid such a problem, an invention has been proposed in which the lid is locked and cannot be opened during cooking.

  In such a pressure rice cooker, a pressure adjusting ball is placed in a valve hole provided in the middle of the steam passage of the lid, and the valve hole is closed by the pressure adjusting ball when the automatic opening device of the valve hole is operated. In a rice cooker in which the pressure adjusting ball is moved to open the valve hole during operation, the automatic opening device is provided with a lock piece that engages with the lid hook, and the automatic opening device is controlled by a signal from the control device. In some cases, the lock piece is engaged with the lid hook during the operation so that the lid cannot be opened, and the lock piece is released from the lid hook when the opening device is not operated to allow the lid to be opened ( For example, see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent No. 3529346 (page 2-3, FIG. 1-4)

In the pressure rice cooker of Patent Document 1, the lock piece of the automatic opening device is engaged with the lid hook, so that not only the structure is complicated, but also a gap is formed between the lid hook and the front hook. Since the engagement is unstable, the front hook sways, and the front hook may be deformed when the user presses it strongly because it is considered to be incompletely closed.
In addition, if the engaging portion of the lid hook is not formed horizontally due to processing failure or the like, there is a problem that the lock piece meshes with the lid hook and does not engage reliably.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides a rice cooker having a valve hole opening and closing device that has a simple structure and can reliably lock the lid when the valve hole is closed. It is aimed at.

  A rice cooker according to the present invention includes a pressure-control ball that opens and closes a valve hole provided in the middle of a vapor passage of a lid, and the pressure-control ball that is provided in the lid and moves the pressure-control ball when not in operation. A valve hole opening and closing device that opens and closes the valve hole with the pressure adjusting ball when operated, a hook that is provided on the lid body and locks the lid body to a main body case, and a hook that is provided on the lid body and And a lid opening / closing button for releasing the lock. When the valve hole is closed by the operation of the valve hole opening / closing device, the lid opening / closing button is locked by the valve hole opening / closing device.

  In the present invention, when the valve opening / closing device is operated and the pressure adjusting ball closes the valve hole, a part of the valve hole opening / closing device is positioned under the lid opening / closing button to lock the lid opening / closing button. Therefore, the lid 10 can be reliably locked with a simple structure, and the lid does not open during cooking.

  1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a rice cooker according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a top view of the inner lid of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an external perspective view of the rice cooker of FIG.

  One end of the rice cooker main body 1 having an open top is pivotally supported by a hinge portion 2 provided on the rear side (in the following description, the left side in FIG. 1 is referred to as the front and the right side as the rear). A lid 10 made of synthetic resin having a plate is provided so as to cover the upper opening of the rice cooker body 1 in an openable and closable manner.

A substantially deep dish-shaped coil base 3 is installed in the lower part of the rice cooker body 1, and an electromagnetic induction coil 4 is disposed on the lower surface and the corner surface thereof. A temperature sensor 5 is provided near the center of the bottom of the coil base 3 and is biased by a spring and protrudes upward from the bottom of the coil base 3.
Reference numeral 6 denotes an inner pot in which a flange 6a provided on the outer periphery of the upper opening is locked to the rice cooker body 1 and accommodated in the rice cooker body 1, and its lower part is located close to the coil base 3 and its bottom surface. The temperature sensor 5 biased by the spring comes into contact.

  7 is a control unit provided on the front side in the rice cooker body 1, and 8 is an operation unit provided on the front surface of the rice cooker body 1. Reference numeral 9 denotes an engaging portion that is provided on the front side of the upper opening of the rice cooker main body 1 and is engaged with a hook 55 of the lid 10 described later.

The lid 10 includes an upper lid 11, an inner lid 12 disposed on the lower surface thereof, an inner lid 13 made of a metal plate that is detachably attached to the lower surface of the inner lid 12 and covers the upper opening of the inner hook 6. An intermediate lid intermediate member 14 made of a metal plate is fixed to the lower surface of the intermediate lid 12.
A concave portion 15 having an opening 16 and having a rear end opened is provided on the rear side of the upper lid 11, and a cartridge 17 having a bottomed cylindrical portion 18 is provided in the concave portion 15. The cylindrical portion 18 is accommodated by being detachably inserted into the opening portion 16. Reference numeral 19 denotes a vent hole provided at the bottom of the cylindrical portion 18, and 20 denotes a steam port provided on the upper wall of the cartridge 17.

  In addition, a lid opening / closing button 23 is disposed in a horizontally long recess 21 provided on the front side of the upper lid 11. As shown in FIG. 4, the lid opening / closing button 23 has a substantially oval main body 24 having a peripheral wall and a locking claw directed outward at the tip, and is erected along the inner wall in the longitudinal direction. Each pair of left and right locking pieces 25, a pair of lock rods 26a, 26b erected from the top surface in the vicinity of both ends in the longitudinal direction, and a pressing portion 27 erected from the top surface in the center. A spring 28 is interposed between the lock rods 26a and 26b.

  The lid opening / closing button 23 is inserted into the recess 21 of the upper lid 11, the locking piece 25 protrudes from a hole (not shown) provided in the bottom of the recess 21, and the locking claw locks to the bottom surface. 26a and 26b protrude from the hole 22 provided in the bottom part of the recessed part 21, and the press part 27 is located in the vicinity of the opening part (not shown) provided near the bottom center part of the recessed part 21. A spring 28 provided on the lock rods 26a and 26b is interposed between the bottom of the recess 21 and the top surface of the main body 24 to urge the lid opening / closing button 23 upward.

  Near the center of the upper surface of the inner lid 12, a dome-shaped valve chamber 30 having a lower opening and an opening 31 on the front side is provided, and the opening 31 is provided with an elastic body 33 in the center. The ring-shaped sealing member 32 is closed. A steam passage 34 communicates the lower portion of the valve chamber 25 and the vent hole 19 of the cartridge 17.

Reference numeral 41 denotes a slide member that constitutes a valve hole opening / closing device 40 that opens and closes a valve hole 89 to be described later. As shown in FIG. 5, a frame-shaped main body portion 42 having an opening 43 and both sides on the front side of the main body portion 42. The lock portions 44a and 44b provided in the are formed in a substantially character shape. A cylindrical portion 45 having an upper opening and a disc 46 at the tip is provided on the rear side of the main body 42, and a protrusion 47 is provided on the rear side of the disc 46. Reference numeral 48 denotes a flange provided at the lower end on both sides of the main body 42.
In the slide member 41, the flange 48 and the lower surfaces of the lock portions 44 a and 44 b are disposed on the guide portion 35 provided on the upper surface of the inner lid 12 so as to be slidable in the front-rear direction. Although not shown, a plurality of guides are provided on the side portion of the guide portion 35 in order to prevent the slide member 41 from moving in the lateral direction.

  As shown in FIG. 6, a solenoid 50 constituting the valve hole opening / closing device 40 is disposed in the opening 43 of the main body 42 of the slide member 41, and is fixed to the inner lid 12 by screws 51. The movable iron core 52 is fixed to the slide member 41 in the cylindrical portion 45, and in a non-energized state, the movable iron core 52 is in an advanced state as shown in FIG. ing. Reference numeral 53 denotes a return spring interposed in the movable iron core 52 between the case of the solenoid 50 and the disc 46 of the slide member 41, and biases the slide member 41 forward.

  55 is a substantially L-shaped hook provided near the front end portion of the upper surface of the inner lid 12, and as shown in FIG. 7, support arms 58a and 58b having shaft insertion holes 59 are provided on both sides of the horizontal piece 56. A receiving piece 60 that is positioned above the horizontal piece 56 and faces the pressing portion 27 of the lid opening / closing button 23 is provided on the rear side of the substantially central portion in the longitudinal direction. A pair of locking pieces 61 a and 61 b provided with locking claws 62 that are locked to the locking portions 9 provided in the rice cooker body 1 are provided in the vicinity of both ends of the vertical piece 57.

  A support shaft 63 is rotatably fitted in the shaft insertion holes 59 of the support arms 58a and 58b of the hook 55, and the support shaft 63 is supported by front reinforcing bodies 75a and 75b constituting a reinforcing member 70 described later. Both ends are fixed to the inner lid 12. A spring 64 is interposed in the support shaft 63 and has one end attached to the inner lid 12 and the other end attached to the hook 55. The spring 55 is always urged in the arrow direction.

2 and 8, reference numeral 70 denotes a reinforcing member of the lid body 10 provided on the upper surface of the inner lid 12, and includes a pair of rear reinforcement bodies 71a and 71b and front reinforcement bodies 75a and 75b.
The rear reinforcement bodies 71a and 71b are formed by bending a metal plate to have a substantially L-shaped cross section, the rear end portion protrudes from the rear end of the inner lid 12, and the front end portion is near the middle portion of the inner lid 12 in the front-rear direction. The rear side is integrally connected by the connecting material 72 at intervals close to the width direction of the inner lid 12. Near the rear ends of the vertical pieces of the rear reinforcing bodies 71a and 71b, there is provided a hinge shaft insertion hole 73 that is rotatably fitted to the hinge shaft 2a of the hinge portion 2 provided in the rice cooker body 1. Yes. Reference numeral 74 denotes a plurality of screw insertion holes provided in the horizontal piece.

  The front reinforcement bodies 75a and 75b are formed by bending a metal plate in the same manner as the rear reinforcement bodies 71a and 71b so as to have a substantially L-shaped cross section. In addition, the rear side is bent substantially in parallel with the front side, and the rear end is the rear side from the front end of the rear reinforcing bodies 71a and 71b (for example, near the middle part in the longitudinal direction of the rear reinforcing bodies 71a and 71b). It is formed to a length that reaches Reference numeral 77 denotes a flange provided inside the lower end of the vertical piece. A hole 78 through which the support shaft 62 of the hook 55 is inserted is provided near the front end of the vertical piece, and a plurality of screw insertion holes 79 are provided in the horizontal piece.

Next, an example of a procedure for attaching the reinforcing member 70 configured as described above to the inner lid 12 will be described.
First, the rear reinforcing bodies 71a and 71b are placed on the rear upper surface side of the inner lid 12 with the rear end protruding outward from the rear end of the inner lid 12 and are inserted by screws 80 inserted through the screw insertion holes 74. Secure to the lid 12.

  Next, both end portions of the support shaft 63 provided on the hook 55 are inserted into the hole 78 at the front end portion so that the front reinforcement bodies 75a and 75b are substantially collinear with the rear reinforcement bodies 71a and 71b. And the rear side is located outside the rear reinforcement bodies 71a and 71b, and the front surface of the inner lid 12 is separated by a gap g between the front ends of the rear reinforcement bodies 71a and 71b and the bent portions 76. It is placed on the side and fixed to the inner lid 12 with a screw 80 inserted through the screw insertion hole 79.

Thereby, the rear reinforcement bodies 71a and 71b and the front reinforcement bodies 75a and 75b overlap in the vicinity of the middle portion of the inner lid 12 in the front-rear direction. In this case, it is desirable to provide a slight gap g ₁ between the overlap portions of the rear reinforcement bodies 71a and 71b and the front reinforcement bodies 75a and 75b. Further, the support shaft 63 provided on the hook 55 is fixed to the inner lid 12 so as not to rotate by fixing the front reinforcing bodies 75 a and 75 b to the inner lid 12.

  An opening 85 is provided immediately below the valve chamber 30 provided in the inner lid 12 of the inner lid 13. The opening 85 has a cylindrical shape, and its top surface is substantially in the vertical direction of the valve chamber 30. An inner cylinder 86 located at the intermediate portion is attached. An elastic body 87 having a steam passage 88 at the center is attached to the lower opening of the inner cylinder 86, and a valve hole 89 is provided at the center of the top plate. A valve seat 90 whose rear side is inclined upward is formed on the outer periphery of the hole 89. A pressure adjusting ball 91 is located on the valve seat 90.

  The lid 10 configured as described above is supported by the rice cooker main body 1 so that the hinge shaft insertion hole 73 of the rear reinforcing bodies 71a and 71b of the inner lid 12 is fitted to the hinge shaft 2a of the hinge portion 2 so as to be freely opened and closed. The upper lid 11 is coupled to the upper surface, and the inner lid 13 is detachably attached to the lower surface.

Next, the operation of the lid 10 will be described.
When the solenoid 50 provided in the inner lid 12 is in a non-energized state, as shown in FIG. 9, the movable iron core 52 of the solenoid 50 moves forward, and the slide member 41 integrated with the movable iron core 52 is also moved to the rear side. The projecting portion 47 presses and elastically deforms the elastic body 33 provided in the opening 31 of the valve chamber 30 to move the pressure adjusting ball 91 to the rear side of the valve seat 90 to open the valve hole 89. ing.

When the lid body 10 is closed in this state, the engaging claw 62 of the hook 55 engages with the engaging portion 9 of the rice cooker body 1, and the upper opening of the rice cooker body 1 is closed and locked. At this time, the pressing portion 27 of the lid opening / closing button 23 is located in contact with or close to the receiving piece 60 of the hook 55. Moreover, the lock parts 44a and 44b of the slide member 41 are located on the rear side of the lock bars 26a and 26b of the door opening / closing button 23, as shown in FIG.
When the lid opening / closing button 23 is squeezed down, the pressing part 27 squeezes the receiving piece 60 and rotates the hook 55, so that the locking claw 62 is detached from the locking part 9. Can be opened to the shaft.

  When the solenoid 50 is energized by the operation unit in the state of FIG. 9, as shown in FIG. 10, the movable iron core 52 moves backward, the slide member 41 connected thereto moves to the front side, and the elastic body 33 returns to the original state. Returning to the state, the pressure adjusting ball 91 moves by its own weight and closes the valve hole 89. At this time, as shown in FIG. 12B, the slide member 41 moved to the front side has its lock portions 44a and 44b moved below the lock bars 26a and 26b of the lid opening / closing button 23, and the lid opening / closing button. 23 is locked to prevent the descent. As a result, the lid opening / closing button 23 cannot be pressed down, and the lid 10 cannot be opened.

Next, the case where it cooks with the rice cooker comprised as mentioned above is demonstrated.
The inner pot 6 in which predetermined rice and water are put is set in the rice cooker body 1 and the lid 10 is closed. When cooking with pressure, the operation unit 8 is operated to energize the solenoid 50, and the valve hole 89 of the inner cylinder 86 is closed by the pressure adjusting ball 91 as shown in FIGS. Further, as shown in FIG. 12B, the lid opening / closing button 23 is locked by the slide member 41. And the operation part 8 is operated, it supplies with electricity to the electromagnetic induction coil 4 grade | etc., And rice cooking is started.

  During cooking, since the valve hole 89 of the inner cylinder 86 is closed, the steam generated in the inner pot 6 does not leak, so the pressure in the inner pot 6 rises and rice cooking is performed under high pressure. Is called. Although the force which pushes up this acts on the cover body 10 by the rise in the pressure in the inner pot 6, the cover body 10 is fixed to the rice cooker body 1 by the hook 55 and the hinge part 2 at the front and rear. A large pressure acts near the center of the lid 10.

  However, in the present invention, the reinforcing member 70 is disposed in the vicinity of the center portion of the lid body 10 in such a manner that the rear reinforcement bodies 71a and 71b and the front reinforcement bodies 75a and 75b are overlapped. It is possible to reliably prevent the body 10 from being deformed or damaged. Further, since the gap g is provided between the front end portions of the rear reinforcing bodies 71a and 71b and the bent portions 76 of the front reinforcing bodies 75a and 75b, the reinforcing member 70 made of the synthetic resin lid 10 and the metal plate. Since the thermal expansion difference in the front-rear direction can be absorbed, the lid body 10 is not cracked.

  When rice cooking is finished, the energization to the solenoid 50 is turned off, the movable iron core 52 and the slide member 40 return to the state shown in FIG. 9, and the valve hole 89 of the inner cylinder 86 is opened. From the valve hole 89 of the inner cylinder 86 through the valve chamber 30, the steam is released to the outside through the steam passage 20 and the vent hole 19 of the cartridge 17. At the same time, since the lid opening / closing button 23 is unlocked, the lid 10 can be opened.

  When cooking rice without applying pressure, the solenoid 50 may be energized without energizing the solenoid 50 in the state shown in FIG. Thereby, the steam generated in the inner pot 6 passes through the valve chamber 30 from the valve hole 89 of the inner cylinder 86, is discharged from the vent hole 20 through the steam passage 34 and the vent hole 19 of the cartridge 17, and is cooked.

  In the above description, the slide member 41 constituting the valve hole opening / closing device 40 is substantially composed of the main body portion 42 that is connected to the solenoid 50 to open and close the valve hole 89 and the lock portions 44a and 44b that lock the lid opening / closing button 23. Although the case where it was formed in the shape of a character is shown, the structure of the slide member 41 is not limited to this, and any other structure may be used as long as it has a connecting portion of the solenoid 50 and a lock portion of the lid opening / closing button 23. There may be.

  According to the present invention, when the lid opening / closing button 23 is provided with the pressing portion 27 for driving the hook 55 and the lock rods 26a, 26b, the valve hole opening / closing device 40 is operated and the pressure adjusting ball closes the valve hole 89. Since the lock portions 44a and 44b provided on the slide member 41 are positioned below the lock bars 26a and 26b of the lid opening / closing button 23 to lock the lid opening / closing button 23, the lid 10 can be configured with a simple structure. Can be reliably locked, and the lid 10 does not open during cooking.

  In addition, the receiving piece 60 of the hook 55 is provided above the horizontal piece 56 of the hook 55 so that when the lid body 10 is closed, the receiving piece 60 is positioned in contact with or close to the pressing portion 27 of the lid opening / closing button 23. The hook 55 does not shake.

It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the rice cooker which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a perspective view of the inner lid of FIG. It is an external appearance perspective view of the rice cooker of FIG. It is a perspective view of the lid | cover opening / closing button of FIG. It is a perspective view of the slide member of FIG. It is a top view which shows the state which attached the solenoid to the slide member. It is a perspective view of the hook of FIG. It is a perspective view of the reinforcement member of FIG. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a slide member. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of a slide member. It is explanatory drawing which shows the positional relationship of a slide member and a lid | cover opening / closing button. It is action | operation explanatory drawing of the slide member with respect to a lid | cover opening / closing button.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Rice cooker main body, 2 Hinge part, 6 Inner hook, 9 Locking part, 10 Lid body, 11 Upper lid, 12 Middle lid, 13 Inner lid, 23 Lid opening / closing button, 26a, 26b Lock rod, 30 Valve chamber, 33 Elasticity Body, 40 Valve hole opening / closing device, 41 Slide member, 44a, 44b Lock part, 50 Solenoid, 52 Movable iron core, 55 Hook, 70 Reinforcing member, 86 Inner cylinder, 89 Valve hole, 90 Valve chamber, 91 Pressure adjusting ball.

Claims (3)

A pressure adjusting ball that opens and closes a valve hole provided in the middle of the vapor passage of the lid, and the pressure adjusting ball that is provided in the lid and moves the pressure adjusting ball when not in operation to open the valve hole. A valve hole opening / closing device configured to close the valve hole with a ball; a hook provided on the lid body for locking the lid body to a main body case; and a lid opening / closing button provided on the lid body for unlocking the hook. Have
A rice cooker configured to lock the lid opening / closing button by the valve hole opening / closing device when the valve hole is closed by the operation of the valve hole opening / closing device. The lid opening / closing button is provided with a lock rod, and the valve hole opening / closing device is constituted by a solenoid fixed to the lid, and a slide member connected to the solenoid and moving in the front-rear direction within the lid,
2. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein when the slide member is moved by the operation of the solenoid, a part of the slide member is positioned below a lock rod of the lid opening / closing button. The slide member is composed of a main body portion that has a protrusion that presses the pressure-regulating ball on the rear side when not operating and is connected to a solenoid, and a lock portion that is provided on the front side of the main body portion. The rice cooker according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by the following.

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