JP2016198175A - rice cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rice cooker using a vacuum insulation material that does not require high heat-resisting properties.SOLUTION: A rice cooker includes: a body 1; an outer container 7 accommodated in the body 1; an inner pot 2 accommodated in the outer container 7 so as to be taken out freely; bottom heating means 5 provided on the bottom face of the outer container 7 for heating the inner pot 2; an outer frame side face 1e made of a metal plate constituting an outer frame of the body 1; a bottom container 1a constituting the bottom of the body 1 and having an air inlet and an air outlet 1b where ambient air gets in/out on the bottom face side; a vacuum insulation material 71 provided so as to cover the inside of the outer frame side face 1e, separately from the outer container 7; and a cooling fan provided in the bottom container 1a for sucking ambient air from the air inlet, and discharging exhaust heat that has cooled the bottom heating means 5 from the air outlet 1b. An air layer 10 which has no opening communicating with ambient air above is provided by the outer container 7 and the vacuum insulation material 71.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a rice cooker, which improves the heat insulation of a main body that houses an inner pot and improves energy saving.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a rice cooker in which a vacuum heat insulating material using a heat resistant film is disposed near an inner pot as a rice cooker with improved energy saving.

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 2001-299575

  Refrigerators have been using vacuum insulation since early on. Refrigerators need to operate the compressor for a long time to keep the inside at a low temperature, and the significant improvement in heat insulation performance through the use of vacuum insulation material is advantageous for shortening the operation time of the compressor, that is, reducing power consumption. Influence. As a result, development of vacuum heat insulating materials for low temperature regions premised on use in refrigerators has been actively conducted, and the unit price of vacuum heat insulating materials for low temperature regions has been lowered due to mass production effects accompanying the spread.

  On the other hand, vacuum heat insulating materials with high heat resistance temperature have been slow to be developed and spread, and the unit price remains high due to the structure that forms a vacuum layer between two metal plates. The adoption of was limited to some high-end models. Due to the adoption of vacuum insulation materials for popular models, the advent of technology that can be used in high-temperature environments has been awaited even for vacuum insulation materials that do not have high heat resistance.

  An object of this invention is to provide the rice cooker which can respond also to use of the vacuum heat insulating material whose heat-resistant temperature is not high.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and includes a main body, an outer container accommodated in the main body, an inner hook that is removably accommodated in the outer container, and the outer container. A bottom heating means provided on the bottom surface for heating the inner pot, an outer side surface made of a metal plate constituting the outer shell of the main body, and an inlet and an exhaust port that constitute the bottom of the main body and allow outside air to enter and exit from the bottom surface side A bottom container provided with a vacuum insulating material provided so as to cover the inside of the outer side surface away from the outer container, and provided in the bottom container to suck outside air from the inlet and cool the bottom heating means And a cooling fan for discarding the exhausted heat from the exhaust port, and an air layer not provided with an opening communicating with the outside is provided above the outer container and the vacuum heat insulating material.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, provision of the rice cooker which enabled use of the vacuum heat insulating material which does not require high heat resistance can be enabled.

It is sectional drawing of the rice cooker of one Example. It is explanatory block diagram of the control system of the rice cooker of one Example. It is an operation | movement figure of the rice cooker of one Example.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  In the cross-sectional view of the rice cooker in FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a main body of the rice cooker, which includes an inner pot 2 that is detachably stored in an outer container 7 provided in the main body 1.

  The inner hook 2 is formed with an inclined portion 2f and an inner hook lower portion 2c so that the diameter of the upper upper opening 2e becomes a maximum diameter and the diameter decreases toward the inner hook bottom portion 2a on the bottom surface. Further, a flange portion 2d is provided on the entire circumference of the upper opening 2e.

  The outer container 7 is composed of three pieces: an outer container bottom 9 on the bottom side to which a bottom heating means 5 to be described later is attached, an outer container 11 provided in a cylindrical intermediate portion, and an upper outer container upper 6. The bottom 9 of the outer container is provided with a temperature sensor 19 for detecting the temperature of the inner pot 2 at the flat bottom surface to which the bottom heating means 5 is attached and substantially at the center, and the side wall is raised in accordance with the outer shape of the inner pot lower part 2c. A portion 9a and an overhanging portion 9b for stacking the outer container 11 and a dew receiving portion serving as a combination of the overhanging portion 11a and the outer lid 3 for stacking the upper outer container 6 stacked in the same manner. 6c. The overhanging portion 9b and the overhanging portion 11a cover the abutting portion of the component that is overlaid by the overhanging portion of the component arranged on the lower side, and the gap of the butting faces upward, which will be described later. The air that flows from below in the air layer 10 is prevented from flowing into the air layer 8 from the gap between the butted portions. Further, the outer container 6 includes a holding part 6a for holding the flange part 2d of the inner pot 2 and a hanging part 6b for holding a vacuum heat insulating material 71 (to be described later) and sandwiching the outer side face 1e. By holding the entire circumference of the flange portion 2d with the holding portion 6a, the heated air is prevented from rising from the air layer 8 between the inner hook 2 and the outer container 7 and leaking outside. The outer container 7, the hanging part 6 b, and the vacuum heat insulating material 71 form an air layer 10 that is sealed in a substantially U-shape and does not have an opening communicating with the outside air.

  The main body 1 includes an outer lid 3 that covers the upper portion of the main body 1, is attached to the inner side of the outer lid 3, covers the upper opening 2 e of the inner hook 2, and keeps the inside of the inner hook 2 in a substantially sealed state. 4 is provided at the top of the main body 1 so as to be openable and closable. The lid 31 is provided with a flat lid heater 30 that heats the inner lid 4 and is used to prevent dew condensation by heating the upper portion of the inner hook 2 and the inner lid 4 when keeping warm. Further, on the upper surface of the outer lid 3, an operation unit 38 for operating and a display unit 32 for displaying the state are provided, connected to the control unit 50 (FIG. 2).

  Reference numeral 5 denotes a heating coil in which a litz wire is wound to inductively heat the inner pot 2 by a bottom heating means.

  Below the main body 1, an inverter circuit (not shown) for generating electric power to be supplied to the bottom heating means 5 and a control for controlling the electric power supplied to the lid heater 30 and the bottom heating means 5 based on the information of the temperature sensor 19 and the like. The control part 50 (FIG. 2) which is a means, the bottom part heating means 5, and the cooling fan 18 (FIG. 2) which cools an inverter circuit are provided.

  In addition, an air inlet (not shown) for sucking air from the outside of the main body 1 and an exhaust port 1b for discarding exhaust heat are provided on the hand surface side of the bottom container 1a. For example, an intake port 1b is provided on the front side and an exhaust port 1b is provided on the front side, air sucked from the front side is blown to the bottom heating means 5 and the inverter circuit, and heat exchanged waste heat is provided from the exhaust port 1b provided on the rear side. By providing the air path for exhausting air, the cooling air can be efficiently exhausted through the main body 1 by providing a straight air path.

  The main body 1 is provided with an outer side surface 1e made of a metal plate on the outer periphery between the resinous bottom container 1a and the dew receiving portion 6c. Since the outer side surface 1 e is an external part, it has a design such as gloss, and a joint is provided so as to surround the main body 1 so as to be positioned at the rear part of the main body 1. Since the outer side surface 1e uses a metal plate in order to enhance the design, there is a drawback that the thermal tradition is good. Therefore, the vacuum heat insulating material 71 is provided on the inner side in order to improve the heat insulating performance.

  The vacuum heat insulating material 71 is provided with a size that covers the entire inner surface of the outer side surface 1e in order to prevent heat dissipation from the inner side of the outer side surface 1e.

  A sponge-like urethane foam 70 serving as a heat insulating material having many granular air layers containing air is attached below the outer container 7. The pasting range is provided so as to cover the range of the height when the maximum amount of rice and water is put into the inner pot 2 from the bottom where the bottom heating means 5 is provided.

  A block diagram of the control system will be described with reference to FIG. The conditions input to the control unit 50 include a temperature sensor 19 that is a temperature detection unit that detects the temperature of the inner pot 2 and inputs temperature information, and an operation unit 38 that includes various setting buttons. Further, what is controlled by the control unit 50 in response to the input includes the bottom heating means 5, the lid heater 30, the cooling fan 18, and the display unit 32. Note that the control unit 50 is an electronic control unit mainly composed of a microcomputer, and an application for executing various control functions by software is given to the control unit 50. Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.

  FIG. 3 shows a case where a rice cooking operation and a heat retaining operation are executed. When cooking rice, the user puts rice and an appropriate amount of water into the inner pot 2, accommodates them in the main body 1, and closes the lid 31. Next, the “ON” switch of the operation unit 38 arranged at the upper part on the front side of the main body 1 is operated to start cooking rice. When the signal of the “ON” switch is input to the control unit 50, the dipping process is started. In this soaking process, the bottom heating means 5 is energized with a small electric power to heat the rice efficiently. At this time, the cooling fan 18 operates.

  Normally, rice absorbs moisture up to about 30% (ratio of water weight in the weight of rice) by soaking in water at a water temperature of 60 ° C. or lower due to its characteristics. . The reason why rice is generally sharpened and soaked in water is to allow the rice to absorb water up to 30% before cooking. Rice has the property of absorbing water faster at higher water temperatures. The time of the immersion process performed by heating to about 40 ° C. to 60 ° C. is about 15 minutes. It is also possible to suppress the power consumption by lengthening this soaking process for about 20 minutes.

  Next, when the dipping process is completed, the heating process is started. In this heating step, the bottom heating means 5 is energized to heat the inner pot 2. At the same time, the cooling fan 18 is operated to cool the bottom heating means 5. Further, the lid heater 30 is not heated.

  The heat generated in the inner pot 2 heats the water in the inner pot 2, the water boils, and eventually, when the rice absorbs water and runs out of water, the temperature of the inner pot 2 rapidly rises to 110 ° C. The temperature sensor 19 that is in contact with the inner pot bottom 2a detects the temperature and sends a signal to the control unit 50. As a result, the energization of the bottom heating means 5 is stopped and the heating ends. This heating step is about 10 minutes. When this heating process is completed, the process proceeds to a steaming process.

  In the steaming process, the bottom heating means 5 and the lid heater 30 are energized to maintain the temperature of the inner pot 2 at 100 ° C. The dew on the inner lid 4 during steaming is heated by the lid heater 30 so that the dew can be removed. The time for the steaming process is about 20 minutes.

  In the heat retaining step, the heat retaining temperature is changed with time by the control unit 50, heated by the bottom heating means 5, and dew on the inner lid 4 is blown away by the lid heater 30 to retain the temperature. The cooling fan 18 is not operated because the bottom heating means 5 has low electric power during the heat retention and cooling is unnecessary.

  Since the urethane foam 70 is covered up to the height of the charged water, it is possible to efficiently heat the water during the dipping process and the heating process.

  Further, the cooling air generated by the cooling fan 18 that operates during rice cooking efficiently cools the bottom heating means 5 and the inverter circuit as described above. However, since the air layer 10 provided by the outer container 7 and the vacuum heat insulating material 71 does not have an opening connected to the outside air as compared to the lower side of the bottom heating means 5 provided with the exhaust port 1b, the cooling fan 18 operates for the first time. Once the cooling air starts rotating, the pressure of the air layer 10 increases, and the air flow in the air layer 10 becomes extremely small. Moreover, it is for preventing the temperature inside the vacuum heat insulating material 71 (side facing the outer container 7) from rising excessively as a reason for maintaining the air flow without making the air layer 10 a sealed space. By doing so, it is not necessary to use a vacuum heat insulating material using a heat resistant film having an excessively high heat resistant temperature, and a rice cooker using a vacuum heat insulating material having low heat resistance can be realized.

  Although not shown, when the side heater is provided on the upper side of the outer container 11 in order to heat the side surface of the inner pot 2, the function of protecting the vacuum heat insulating material 71 by blocking the radiation heat from the side heater is provided. 6b is provided.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, even when a vacuum heat insulating material having no high heat resistance is used for a rice cooker, the heat dissipation to the outside of the main body is suppressed, and electric power can be used without unnecessary heating. It is possible to provide a rice cooker with reduced consumption.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body 2 Inner pot 5 Bottom part heating means 7 Outer container 10 Air layer 70 Urethane foam 71 Vacuum heat insulating material

Claims (2)

The body,
An outer container housed in the body;
An inner pot that is removably stored in the outer container;
A bottom heating means provided on the bottom surface of the outer container for heating the inner pot;
An outer side wall made of a metal plate constituting the outer shell of the main body;
A bottom container having an inlet and an outlet through which outside air enters and exits on the bottom side, constituting the bottom of the main body;
A vacuum heat insulating material provided so as to cover the inner side of the outer side surface away from the outer container;
A cooling fan that is provided in the bottom container and sucks outside air from the air inlet and cools the bottom heating means to exhaust waste heat from the exhaust port;
A rice cooker characterized in that an air layer not provided with an opening communicating with outside air is provided above the outer container and the vacuum heat insulating material.   The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein urethane foam is attached to the lower side of the outer container.

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