JP5443332B2 - Gas cooker - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a gas rice cooker, and more particularly to a gas rice cooker that can detect the tilt of a rice cooker body and an upper lid.

  A conventional gas rice cooker has a gas burner located below the inner pot. During cooking, the lower surface of the inner pot is uniformly heated by the combustion flame of the gas burner, so that stable heat convection in the inner pot is achieved. To achieve a uniform cooked rice as a whole (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

JP 2007-215945 A JP 2004-208806 A

  However, in the above conventional gas rice cooker, if the rice cooker body is installed in a tilted state, the combustion flame of the gas burner heats the biased position of the lower surface of the inner pot during cooking. Stable heat convection does not occur inside, and the cooked rice is uneven.

  In addition, in the above conventional gas cooker, if the upper lid is not completely closed, the heat in the inner pot escapes from the gap between the upper lid and the rice cooker body during rice cooking, so the inner pressure of the inner pot rises sufficiently Without causing unevenness in the cooked rice.

  This invention is made | formed in view of the above-mentioned situation, and makes it a subject to provide the gas rice cooker which can avoid the rice cooking in the incorrect use condition.

This onset Ming,
In a rice cooker comprising an inner pot for storing rice and the like, and a gas burner for heating the lower surface of the inner pot from below,
An acceleration sensor that is arranged on an upper lid that is pivotally supported so as to be rotatable up and down with respect to the rice cooker body, and detects an inclination with respect to the horizontal;
An inclination determination means for determining whether or not the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor is within a horizontal reference range indicating that the rice cooker body is installed substantially horizontally;
An informing means for informing when the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor when a rice cooking start operation is performed is outside the horizontal reference range ;
A motor for automatically opening and closing the upper lid;
Open / close determining means for determining whether the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor is within a closed reference range indicating that the upper cover is closed;
When the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor is outside the closing lid reference range, an automatic closing operation executing means for driving the motor to rotate the upper lid in the closing direction is provided (first configuration) ).

  According to the above configuration, when the rice cooker body is installed at an angle with respect to the reference, the fact is notified to the user, so the user installs the rice cooker body horizontally before starting rice cooking. You can take measures such as reworking.

Also, in this case, when the upper lid is opened from the reference, the closing operation for automatically rotating the upper lid in the closing direction is executed, so that rice cooking is performed in a state where the upper lid is not completely closed. Can be avoided in advance.

Further, by adopting the above Ki構 formation, since it is possible to monitor the opening and closing state of the rice cooker main body of the slope and the upper cover at one acceleration sensor, it can be simplified overall structure of a gas cooker.

The present invention
In a gas burner having an inner pot for storing rice and the like, and a gas burner for heating the lower surface of the inner pot from below ,
Disposed axially supported by the upper cover in the vertical rotatable state with respect 炊 rice body, an acceleration sensor for detecting an inclination relative to the horizontal,
An inclination determination means for determining whether or not the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor is within a horizontal reference range indicating that the rice cooker body is installed substantially horizontally;
An informing means for informing when the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor when a rice cooking start operation is performed is outside the horizontal reference range;
A motor for automatically opening and closing the upper lid;
An automatic opening operation execution means for driving the motor to rotate the upper lid to the set open position when the upper lid is opened;
An open / stop determining means for determining whether or not the change in the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor during execution of the automatic opening operation has become less than a predetermined value;
The change amount is characterized in that for storing the detected position of the predetermined angle closing side from the slope of the acceleration sensor when it becomes less than a predetermined value as the set open position (second configuration).

In the first configuration, the present invention provides the following :
An automatic opening operation execution means for driving the motor to rotate the upper lid to the set open position when the upper lid is opened;
An open / stop determining means for determining whether or not the change in the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor during execution of the automatic opening operation has become less than a predetermined value;
The change amount is characterized in that for storing the detected position of the predetermined angle closing side from the slope of the acceleration sensor when it becomes less than a predetermined value as the set open position (third configuration).

According to these second and third configurations, when the upper lid comes into contact with the top plate or obstacle of the cabinet during the automatic opening operation of the upper lid, the position closer to the predetermined angle than the contacted position is When the upper lid is automatically opened again the next time, the opening operation of the upper lid is stopped at the memorized set opening position. Contact can be prevented.

  As mentioned above, according to this invention, it can avoid that rice cooking is performed in the incorrect use condition.

It is side view partial sectional drawing of the gas rice cooker which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is an operation | movement flowchart which shows the inclination determination operation | movement and opening / closing determination operation | movement of the gas rice cooker which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is an operation | movement flowchart which shows the upper cover opening / closing operation | movement of the gas rice cooker which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is an operation | movement flowchart which shows the inclination determination operation | movement and opening / closing determination operation | movement of the gas rice cooker which concerns on other embodiment of this invention.

  Next, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a gas rice cooker 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an inner pot 2 that contains rice and the like, an external flame type gas burner 3 that heats the lower surface of the inner pot 2 from below, And a control circuit 4 for controlling the heating operation of the inner pot 2 by the gas burner 3.

  The inner pot 2 is a circular container that opens upward, and is housed in the rice cooker body 10 in a state of being dropped from above the upper surface opening 100.

  The gas burner 3 is incorporated in the rice cooker main body 10 and slightly below the center of the lower surface of the inner pot 2, and when rice cooking is started, the gas supplied from a gas injection nozzle (not shown) is burned together with air. The inner surface of the inner hook 2 is heated uniformly by the combustion flame F formed above the flame hole 30 by being led to 30 and ignited thereabove.

  An upper lid 11 that opens and closes the upper surface opening 100 is provided on the upper portion of the rice cooker body 10. The rear end of the upper lid 11 is connected to the rear shaft portion 12 of the rice cooker body 10, and the upper surface opening 100 is completely closed by the driving force of the stepping motor 13 incorporated in the shaft portion 12. It is configured to automatically rotate within a range from a position (fully closed position) to a fully opened position opened approximately 100 degrees.

  An inner lid 14 for covering the upper opening 20 of the inner hook 2 is attached to the rear surface side of the upper lid 11. When the upper lid 11 is in the fully closed position, it is provided around the periphery of the inner lid 14. The packing 140 is in close contact with the periphery of the upper opening 20 of the inner hook 2.

  In the upper lid 11, based on the magnitude of the X-axis direction component (the left-right direction component of the gas rice cooker 1) and the magnitude of the Y-axis direction component (the front-back direction component of the gas cooker 1) of gravitational acceleration, An acceleration sensor 15 for detecting the inclination of the main body 10 and the upper lid 11 with respect to the horizontal is incorporated.

  Moreover, the audio | voice output part 16 for alert | reporting to a user that the rice cooker main body 10 is inclined and installed from the reference | standard and the upper cover 11 is not closed is incorporated in the inside of the rice cooker main body 10. FIG. Yes.

  The control circuit 4 includes a valve mechanism (not shown) that supplies and shuts off the gas to the gas injection nozzle, the stepping motor 13, the acceleration sensor 15, the audio output unit 16, and the rice cooker provided on the top front of the rice cooker body 10. The switch 17, the open / close switch 18 and the like are connected through electric wiring.

  Although not shown, the control circuit 4 includes a point fire extinguishing control unit for igniting and extinguishing the gas burner 3, an upper lid opening / closing control unit for automatically opening and closing the upper lid 11, and an inclination with respect to the horizontal detected by the acceleration sensor 15 (hereinafter, “ An inclination determination unit that determines whether or not the detection angle is equal to or smaller than a predetermined reference value, that is, whether or not the detection angle is within a range from 0 degree to the predetermined reference value. An open / stop determining unit that determines whether or not the amount of change per unit time of the detected angle is less than a predetermined value, and calculates a value obtained by subtracting the predetermined angle from the detected angle when the amount of change is less than the predetermined value. The open position calculating unit is configured by a memory or the like that stores the calculated value as a set open position of the upper lid 11. The control circuit 4 controls the rice cooking operation, the tilt detection operation of the rice cooker body 10, the upper cover. 1 open detection operation, the automatic opening stop of the upper lid 11 is executed.

[The actual state of tilt detection and opening detection]
Next, the inclination detection operation of the rice cooker body 10 and the opening detection operation of the upper lid 11 by the control circuit 4 will be described according to the operation flowchart of FIG.

  When the rice cooking switch 17 is pressed to start rice cooking, it is determined whether or not the detection angles in the front-rear and left-right directions of the acceleration sensor 15 are each equal to or less than the reference value (for example, 10 degrees) (ST1 to ST2).

  And in step ST2, if each said detection angle is all below a reference value, it is the state where the rice cooker main body 10 was installed substantially horizontally, and the upper cover 11 was also closed, ie, the correct use state. If there is, the gas burner 3 is ignited and rice cooking is started (ST3).

  On the other hand, if any one of the above detection angles exceeds the reference value in the step ST2, the upper lid 11 is not completely closed, and the packing 140 of the inner lid 14 and the inner hook 2 Since there may be a gap between the peripheral edge of the upper opening 20, the stepping motor 13 is reversely driven by the number of steps corresponding to the rotation of the upper lid 11 from the fully open position to the fully closed position, An automatic closing operation for forcibly turning in the closing direction is performed (ST4).

  Then, the same determination as in the above-described step ST2 is performed again, and if each of the detection angles is equal to or less than the reference value, the top lid 11 is completely closed and the rice is started to be used correctly (ST5). , ST3).

  On the other hand, if any one of the above detection angles exceeds the reference value in spite of performing the automatic closing operation in step ST4, the rice cooker body 10 is installed tilted from the reference. In this case, the ignition of the gas burner 3 is prohibited and the sound output unit 16 is prevented from igniting because there is a possibility that the upper cover 11 is not completely closed yet, that is, it is in an incorrect use state. A warning sound indicating an abnormality is notified, and the user is prompted to confirm the installation state of the rice cooker body 10 and the open / closed state of the top lid 11 (ST5 to ST6).

  Although not shown in the drawing, a display panel for displaying the operation state, time, and the like is provided on the upper front surface of the rice cooker body 10, and any one of the above detection angles is a reference in step ST5. When it is determined that the value is exceeded, the abnormality notification by the warning display on the display panel is performed together with the abnormality notification by the warning sound described above.

  And if a user installs the rice cooker main body 10 horizontally, or measures, such as closing the upper cover 11 reliably, when all the said detection angles become below a reference value, cancellation | release prohibition of ignition of the gas burner 3 will be cancelled | released. At the same time, the abnormality notification is stopped, and the above-described steps after ST1 are repeated again (ST7).

  Thus, according to the gas cooker 1, when the rice cooker main body 10 is installed tilted with respect to the reference or when the upper lid 11 is not completely closed, the user is informed of that fact. Therefore, before starting rice cooking, by taking measures such as re-installing the rice cooker body 10 horizontally and securely closing the top lid 11, it is possible to avoid rice cooking in an incorrect usage state. Is possible. Thereby, the uniform cooking of the whole cooked rice is realizable.

  Moreover, according to the said gas cooker 1, when the upper cover 11 is not closed completely, before the rice cooking is started, the closing operation for automatically rotating the upper cover 11 to the fully closed position is executed. It is possible to avoid rice cooking in a state where the upper lid 11 is not completely closed. Thereby, the uniform cooking of the whole cooked rice can be realized more reliably.

  Moreover, since the said gas rice cooker 1 is the structure which detects the opening / closing state of the upper cover 11 with the acceleration sensor 15, compared with what detects the opening / closing of the upper cover 11 using a mechanical switch like a contact type switch. High water resistance, stain resistance and durability. Therefore, the open / closed state of the upper lid 11 can be detected over a long period of time.

  Furthermore, since the said gas rice cooker 1 is the structure which monitors the inclination of the rice cooker main body 10, and the open / closed state of the upper cover 11 with the one acceleration sensor 15, the whole structure of the gas rice cooker 1 can be simplified.

[Actual automatic open / close operation]
Next, the automatic opening / closing operation of the upper lid 11 by the control circuit 4 will be described according to the operation flowchart of FIG.

  When the open / close switch 18 is pressed to open the upper lid 11, the stepping motor 13 is driven to rotate forward with the target number of steps for rotating the upper lid 11 from the fully closed position to the fully opened position, and the upper lid 11 is automatically opened. Go. Further, during that time, the detection angle of the acceleration sensor 15 to the rear reaches the set open position (in the initial state, the fully open position rotated by 100 degrees from the horizontal), or the detection angle to the rear per unit time of the detection angle. It is determined whether or not the amount of change, that is, the backward angular velocity is less than a predetermined value (for example, 1 degree / s). The predetermined value is set to a value smaller than a set angular velocity (here, 10 degrees / s) when the upper lid 11 is automatically opened by the stepping motor 13 (ST11 to ST14).

  If the detected angle to the rear of the acceleration sensor 15 reaches the set open position in step ST13 before the angular velocity becomes less than the predetermined value, the automatic opening operation of the upper lid 11 is terminated, and the next An instruction (for example, an instruction to close the upper lid 11 by pressing the opening / closing switch 18 again) is awaited (ST15).

  On the other hand, if the angular velocity becomes less than a predetermined value before the detection angle to the rear of the acceleration sensor 15 reaches the set open position, the cabinet on which the gas cooker 1 is placed while the upper lid 11 is open. You may have touched the top plate or obstacle. Therefore, in this case, a value obtained by subtracting a predetermined angle (for example, 5 degrees) from the detected angle when the angular velocity becomes less than the predetermined value is calculated, and this calculated value is stored in the memory as a new set opening position. At the same time, the stepping motor 13 is reversely driven by a predetermined number of steps to perform an opening degree adjusting operation for returning the upper lid 11 in the closing direction by the predetermined angle. Thereby, the upper lid 11 is held in an open state up to a position where it does not come into contact with the above-described top plate or obstacles (ST16 to ST18).

  Thereafter, when the open / close switch 18 is pressed to close the upper lid 11, the stepping motor 13 is driven to reversely rotate by the number of steps corresponding to the rotation of the upper lid 11 from the current open position to the fully closed position, and the upper lid 11 is closed. The standby state of the above-described step ST15 is set (ST19 to ST20, ST15).

  As a result, when the opening / closing switch 18 is pushed again to open the upper lid 11 and the automatic opening operation of the upper lid 11 is started again, the time when the new set opening position stored in step ST18 is reached. Since the automatic opening operation of the upper lid 11 is stopped, the upper lid 11 can be prevented from coming into contact with the top plate or obstacles of the cabinet on which the gas rice cooker 1 is placed. Therefore, when used, it is not necessary to move the installation location in order to avoid the above-described contact, and it is possible to continue using the installation as it is.

  In addition, after pressing the open / close switch 18 to open the upper lid 11, the user intentionally stops the opening operation of the upper lid 11 or forcibly rotates it to a predetermined position (for example, a fully opened position). Thus, the open position of the upper lid 11 can be arbitrarily set, so that convenience is good and a narrow space of the kitchen can be effectively used as the installation location of the gas cooker 1.

[Others]
In the above-described embodiment, it is determined in each step of ST2 and ST5 whether or not the detected angles in the front-rear and left-right directions of the acceleration sensor 15 are each equal to or less than a reference value. Only the detection angle may be determined whether or not it is a reference value or less, and in step ST5, it may be configured to determine whether or not the detection angles in the front-rear and left-right directions are each equal to or less than the reference value.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, when the rice cooking switch 17 is pressed to start rice cooking, it is determined whether or not the detection angle to the rear of the acceleration sensor 15 is equal to or less than a reference value. When the detection angle exceeds the reference value, the upper lid 11 may not be completely closed. Therefore, after the automatic closing operation is performed as in step ST4 described above, the front / rear / left / right direction is further increased. It is determined whether or not each of the detected angles is equal to or less than a reference value. On the other hand, if the detection angle to the rear of the acceleration sensor 15 is equal to or smaller than the reference value, it is determined whether or not the detected angles in the front-rear and left-right directions are equal to or smaller than the reference value without performing the automatic closing operation (ST101 to ST102). , ST104 to ST105).

  And in step ST105, if each said detection angle is all below a reference value, rice cooking will be started as the above-mentioned correct use state, and any one of each said detection angle will exceed a reference value. If it is, the rice cooker main body 10 is in a state where it is installed at an inclination from the reference, or the upper lid 11 may not be completely closed yet, so that the gas burner is similar to the above-described step ST6. After performing the ignition inhibition and abnormality notification in step 3, the same operations as those in steps ST7 and ST8 described above are performed (ST103, ST106 to ST108). With this control configuration, the same functions and effects as in the above embodiment can be exhibited.

  In the above embodiment, when the detection angle of the acceleration sensor 15 exceeds the reference value when the operation for starting rice cooking is performed, the upper lid 11 is forcibly rotated in the closing direction and then again. The control configuration for determining whether or not the detection angle of the acceleration sensor 15 exceeds the reference value (see steps ST2 and ST4 to ST5 in FIG. 2), but the acceleration sensor 15 when the operation for starting rice cooking is performed. When any one of the detected angles in the front, rear, left, and right directions exceeds the reference value (No in ST2), the upper lid 11 described above is assumed to be in a state where the rice cooker body 10 is installed tilted from the reference. The control configuration may be such that the ignition of the gas burner 3 is prohibited and the abnormality is notified (ST6) without performing the forced closing operation and the redetermination (ST4 and ST5) of the detection angle.

  In this thing, when the rice cooker body 10 is installed tilted from the reference, the fact is notified to the user, so by re-setting the rice cooker body 10 horizontally before starting the rice cooking, It is possible to avoid cooking rice in the wrong use state. Thereby, the uniform cooking of the whole cooked rice is realizable.

  Further, in the above embodiment, the description has been given of the case where the upper lid 11 is forcibly rotated to the fully closed position by driving the stepping motor 13 in the reverse direction by the instructed number of steps (see step 4 in ST4). In addition, a timing unit for monitoring the driving time of the stepping motor 13 is provided, and the upper lid 11 is forcibly rotated to the fully closed position by driving the stepping motor 13 to rotate reversely for the driving time until the upper lid 11 is fully closed. Alternatively, a rotation angle sensor that detects the rotation angle of the stepping motor 13 may be provided, and the stepping motor 13 may be driven to rotate reversely until the rotation angle matches the rotation angle specified by the control circuit 4. Thus, the upper lid 11 may be forcibly rotated to the fully closed position. Alternatively, the upper lid 11 may be forcibly rotated to the fully closed position by rotating the stepping motor 13 until the forward angular velocity of the upper lid 11 becomes less than a predetermined value.

  In the above embodiment, it is determined whether or not the upper lid 11 is in contact with the top plate or obstacle of the cabinet depending on whether or not the angular velocity toward the rear of the acceleration sensor 15 is less than a predetermined value. A control configuration may be adopted in which the acceleration sensor 15 detects changes in inertial force and acceleration generated by vibration when the 11 comes into contact with the top plate or obstacle of the cabinet.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Gas rice cooker 2 ... Inner pot 3 ... Gas burner 4 ... Control circuit 10 ... Rice cooker main body 11 ... Upper lid 12 ... Shaft part 13 ... Stepping motor (motor )
14 ... Inner lid 15 ... Acceleration sensor 16 ... Audio output unit (notification means)
17 ... Rice cooker switch 18 ... Open / close switch

Claims (3)

In a rice cooker comprising an inner pot for storing rice and the like, and a gas burner for heating the lower surface of the inner pot from below ,
Disposed axially supported by the upper cover in the vertical rotatable state with respect 炊 rice body, an acceleration sensor for detecting an inclination relative to the horizontal,
An inclination determination means for determining whether or not the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor is within a horizontal reference range indicating that the rice cooker body is installed substantially horizontally;
An informing means for informing when the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor when a rice cooking start operation is performed is outside the horizontal reference range;
A motor for automatically opening and closing the upper lid;
Open / close determining means for determining whether the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor is within a closed reference range indicating that the upper cover is closed;
A gas rice cooker comprising: an automatic closing operation executing means for driving the motor to rotate the upper lid in the closing direction when the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor is outside the closing lid reference range. In a rice cooker comprising an inner pot for storing rice and the like, and a gas burner for heating the lower surface of the inner pot from below ,
Disposed axially supported by the upper cover in the vertical rotatable state with respect 炊 rice body, an acceleration sensor for detecting an inclination relative to the horizontal,
An inclination determination means for determining whether or not the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor is within a horizontal reference range indicating that the rice cooker body is installed substantially horizontally;
Informing means for informing when the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor when the operation for starting rice cooking is performed is outside the horizontal reference range;
A motor for automatically opening and closing the upper lid;
An automatic opening operation execution means for driving the motor to rotate the upper lid to the set open position when the upper lid is opened;
An open / stop determining means for determining whether or not the change in the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor during execution of the automatic opening operation has become less than a predetermined value;
A gas rice cooker that stores a position at a predetermined angle closed side as the set open position from the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor when the change amount becomes less than a predetermined value. In the gas cooker according to claim 1 ,
An automatic opening operation execution means for driving the motor to rotate the upper lid to the set open position when the upper lid is opened;
An open / stop determining means for determining whether or not the change in the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor during execution of the automatic opening operation has become less than a predetermined value;
A gas rice cooker that stores a position at a predetermined angle closed side as the set open position from the inclination detected by the acceleration sensor when the change amount becomes less than a predetermined value.

Images