JPH02119091A - Cooking appliance - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent food from becoming rotten owing to being left over and improve reliability of cooking appliance by installing a means to detect whether food exists in a cooking chamber or not and a means to alarm that food is left in the chamber after food is detected and not cooked for a prescribed period. CONSTITUTION:When food F is placed on a turn-table 2 in a cooking chamber and a door is closed, the existence of the food is detected by a control part 30 with a weight sensor 5 and then a timer 30a is operated. In the case that an operation part 33 starts cooking operation before a prescribed time passes, the control part 30 stops the timer and a magnetron 8 is oscillated so as to cook the food. If the prescribed time passes while the food is left as it is, the operation part 33 sounds a buzzer 36 and an error display is shown by a display apparatus 35. As a result, even if a user leave there because of whatever a reason and forget to cook the food, the alarm reminds that and the food F is prevented from becoming rotten beforehand.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Object of the invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a cooking appliance such as a microwave oven.

(Prior Art) Cooking appliances such as microwave ovens have recently become extremely popular, and are now widely used not only in restaurants but also in ordinary households.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) By the way, when using a microwave oven, people put food in the heating chamber and try to start cooking, but then leave the place due to a call or other call and forget about cooking. Sometimes I put it away.

In this case, the food remains in the heating chamber, and in the case of fresh food, it spoils and becomes inedible.

This invention has been developed in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to prevent food from being left in a heating chamber, thereby preventing food spoilage and providing excellent reliability. Our goal is to provide cooking utensils.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) A heating chamber, a detection means for detecting the presence or absence of food in the heating chamber, and a period of time after the detection means detects the presence of food without starting cooking for a certain period of time. and a means for notifying that when the period has elapsed.

(Function) If a certain period of time elapses without starting cooking after food is placed in the heating chamber, a notification to that effect is provided.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a heating chamber, and a turntable 2 for placing food F on the bottom of the heating chamber 1 is provided.

The turntable 2 is mounted on a shaft 3, which passes through the bottom of the heating chamber 1 and is connected to a turntable drive motor 4.

The motor 4 has a built-in weight sensor 5, and when food F is placed on the turntable 2, the load is applied to the weight sensor 5.

A high-frequency radio wave irradiation port 6 is formed on the ceiling surface of the heating chamber 1,
One end of the waveguide 7 is communicated there. Then, a magnetron 8 is attached to the outer periphery of the other end of the waveguide 7, and the antenna 8a of the magnetron 8 is introduced into the waveguide 7.

Furthermore, a light irradiation port 9 is formed in the upper part of the side surface of the heating chamber 1,
A lamp 10 for illuminating the heating room is provided on the outside thereof.

The control circuit is shown in FIG.

20 is a commercial AC power supply, and the door switch 2 is connected to the power supply 2o.
1a, 21b and relay contact 31a.

The primary coil 22a of the high voltage transformer 22 is connected via 32a.

The anode and cathode of the magnetron 8 are connected to the secondary coil 22b of the high voltage transformer 22 via a half-wave voltage doubler rectifier circuit consisting of a high voltage capacitor 23 and a high voltage diode 24. The anode of the magnetron 8 is grounded, and the heater (cathode) is connected to the secondary coil 22e of the high voltage transformer 22.

The lamp 10 is connected to a power source 20 via door switches 21a, 21b and a relay contact 31a. Furthermore, a turntable drive motor 4 and a magnetron cooling fan motor 25 are connected in parallel to the lamp 10, respectively.

A control unit 30 is connected to the power supply 20 via a step-down transformer 26 .

The control section 30 performs overall control of the microwave oven, and is composed of a microcomputer and its peripheral circuits.

This control section 30 includes relays 31 and 32, an operation section 33, a sensor circuit 34, a display section 35, and an alarm such as a buzzer 36.
Connect.

Furthermore, the control unit 30 has a built-in timer 30a for counting the passage of time.

The sensor circuit 34 performs signal processing of the output of the weight sensor 5.

Therefore, the control unit 30 uses a detection means to detect the presence or absence of food in the heating chamber 1 using the weight sensor 5, and after this detection means detects the presence of food, a timer 30a is activated for a certain period of time without starting cooking. A buzzer 36 and a display 35 are provided to notify the user that the time has elapsed.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained with reference to FIG.

Food F is placed on turntable 2 in heating chamber 1, and a door (not shown) is closed.

At this time, when the weight sensor 5 detects ff1ffi of the food F, the control 7930 detects that there is food in the heating chamber 1.

When detecting the presence of food, the control unit 30 operates the timer 30a to count the elapsed time.

The count time T of the timer 30a is a certain period of time, for example, 10
If a cooking start operation is performed on the operation unit 33 before the time reaches the minute, the control unit 30 stops the operation of the timer 30a and starts cooking.

That is, by energizing relays 31 and 32, magnetron 8
to operate in oscillation.

When the magnetron 8 operates in oscillation, high-frequency radio waves are irradiated into the heating chamber 1, and the food F is dielectrically heated.

During this cooking, the control section 30 sets the cooking time according to the weight detected by the weight sensor 5, that is, the weight of the food F, and the type of cooking set using the operation section 33. Then, when the set cooking time has elapsed, the relays 31 and 32 are deenergized and the oscillation operation of the magnetron 8 is stopped. In other words, cooking is finished.

During cooking, the control unit 30 turns on and off the relay 32 depending on the type of cooking, etc., and controls the heating output.

By the way, after the control unit 30 detects the presence of food, the count time T of the timer 30a continues without the cooking start operation being performed.
When the time reaches 10 minutes, the operation unit 33 immediately sounds the buzzer 36 and displays an error message on the display 35.

By making such a notification, the user can
It is possible to easily and reliably detect that food F is still in the container and that cooking has not yet started.

]7 Therefore, even if the user leaves the place and forgets about cooking, he can immediately remember it again and prevent food F from spoiling. .

In the above embodiment, the buzzer 36 and the display 35 are used as the notification means, but there is no limitation thereto, and for example, a voice synthesizer, a lamp, etc. may be used.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and various modifications can be made without changing the gist.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, there is a heating chamber, a detection means for detecting the presence or absence of food in the heating chamber, and cooking starts after the detection means detects the presence of food. The system is equipped with a means to notify you if a certain period of time has passed without being cooked, so it is possible to prevent food from being left in the heating chamber, thereby providing highly reliable cooking that can prevent food from spoiling. We can provide equipment.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a control circuit in one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the heating chamber and its surrounding area in the same embodiment, and FIG. 3 is an explanation of the operation of the same embodiment. This is a flowchart for 1... Heating chamber, 5... Weight sensor, 8... Magnetron, 30... Control unit, 36... Buzzer Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 1 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] The cooking method comprises a heating chamber, a detection means for detecting the presence or absence of food in the heating chamber, and a means for notifying when a certain period of time has elapsed without starting cooking after the detection means detects the presence of food. A cooker featuring: