JPH0274217A - Automatic rice-cooking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To lower the level of a device main-body and make compact a device by moving the rice-cooking device itself horizontally to a position for enabling rice and water to be received, for preparation, when the rice and the water are received from a rice-washing device. CONSTITUTION:In a main body 1, a rice-washing device 5 and the upper cover 20 of a rice-cooking device 16 are respectively arranged, and a rice-cooking pot 15 is contained in the rice-cooking device 16. Besides, by a driving means 46, the rice-cooking device 16 is controlled on the horizontal movement to a position for enabling the upper cover 20 to be fitted and rice to be cooked, and to a rice-washing position for enabling the rice and water to be received from the rice-washing device 5. Besides, when the rice-cooking device 16 is taken out of the main body 1, then the device 16 is contrived to be taken out by covering the upper surface opening of the rice- cooking pot 15 with an internal cover 19. As this result, a great force is not required for opening or closing the cover of the rice-cooking device, and its opening or closing space is reduced, and the whole main body can be compacted, and the cover is set on the side of the main body, and so when the rice-cooking device is taken out, even if the whole rice-cooking device is not moved, a device excellent in using convenience for helping themselves to rice on removing the section of the internal cover is set.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an automatic rice cooker that automatically performs the processes of washing rice, preparing rice, cooking rice, and keeping the rice warm.

(B) Conventional technology Conventionally, automatic rice cookers have been removably placed on a slide plate for pulling out the rice cooker, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 58-105724, and the lid of the rice cooker is attached to a hinge shaft. After opening the lid by rotating it in the center, move the rice washing device there, add rice and water, put it back again, close the lid and start cooking. Only after pulling out the slide plate, removing the rice cooker from the slide plate, and moving it to another location, could the lid be opened and the rice cooked.

(c) Problems to be solved by the invention However, in the device shown in the above publication, the rice washing device is moved above the rice cooker, so the lid must be opened wide so as not to interfere with its movement. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a corresponding space above the lid. Therefore, the height of the main body of the rice cooker increases, resulting in an increase in the size of the device. Furthermore, since the lid is opened wide, the motor required for this purpose requires a large amount of power, and the opening/closing mechanism is complicated, making the lid expensive as a whole.

Also, pull out the slide plate to read the rice.

When I tried to open the lid, the lid got stuck to the main unit, and I was unable to open the lid more than 90 degrees.In the end, I was able to open the lid only after removing the heavy rice cooker from the sliding plate and moving it to another location. Therefore, the rice cooker had to be moved every time it was used, which was troublesome and very inconvenient for housewives.

The present invention was created in view of the above points, and does not require a large amount of power to open and close the lid of the rice cooker, and the space required for opening and closing the rice cooker is reduced, making the entire main body more compact.Moreover, the lid is located on the main body side. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an easy-to-use automatic rice cooker that can cook rice by removing the inner lid without moving the entire rice cooker when the rice cooker is pulled out.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The automatic rice cooking device according to the present invention includes a rice cooker housing a rice cooking pot in the main body, a device for receiving rice and water from a rice washing device, and a rice cooker installed in the main body. The lid of the rice cooker is installed at the position where the lid of the rice cooker is attached and the rice is cooked, so that the movement can be controlled freely by a driving means.
When the rice cooker is pulled out from the main body, the inner lid covers the rice cooker and can be pulled out.

(e) Open the rice cooker lid inside the rice cooker a little, move it to the rice washing device, collect the rice and water, move it to the rice cooking position, close the rice cooker lid and start cooking the rice. conduct. When rice cooking is finished, the inner lid covers the rice cooker and the rice cooker can be pulled out from the main unit.
Remove the inner lid and pour the rice directly from the rice cooker pot.

(f) Example Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

Figure 1 is a front sectional view of the entire automatic rice cooking device, Figure 2 is a side sectional view of the device, Figure 3 (a) is a sectional view of the main part showing the vertical movement of the lid, and Figure 3 (b) is a sectional view of the main part showing the vertical movement of the lid. 4) is an operational plan view of one component of the lid vertical movement mechanism, FIG.
) is a plan view of the operation of one component of the lid body vertical movement mechanism;
The figure is a plan view in the same state as Fig. 4, Fig. 6 (a) is a sectional view when the rice cooker body is pulled out after rice cooking is completed, and Fig. 6 (b) is an operational plan view of one component of the vertical movement mechanism. , FIG. 7 is an external fR perspective view of an assembled component of a mounting table on which a rice cooker is placed and moved, and its driving means, and FIG. 8 is an external view of the structure of a lid vertical movement mechanism.

In these figures, 1 is a main body, and 2 is a rice storage part, the interior of which is formed above a hopper. 3 is a rice measuring device which operates a solenoid 4 for a certain period of time to input a certain amount of rice from the rice storage section 2. Reference numeral 5 denotes a rice washing device, which receives rice input from the rice measuring device 3 and water from a water supply device (not shown), stirs the rice, and washes the rice. At this time, the overflowing water flows out through the wire mesh 6, flows down into the water receiver 7, and is discharged to the outside.

A flap 9, which is controlled to open and close by a solenoid 8, is pivotally attached to the bottom opening of the rice washing device 5, and the flap 9 itself is always biased in the closing direction by a spring member (not shown) or the like. This rice washing device 5 can be horizontally rotated within a range of about 45 degrees. That is, the rice washing device 5 is provided with a protruding arm 10, and the proximal end of the protruding arm 10 is pivotally attached to a fixed shaft 11. And this protruding arm 1o
is connected to the motor 13 via a link mechanism 12.

Therefore, the rotation of the motor 13 rotates the rice washing device 5 through the link mechanism 12 between the solid line position and the dotted line position in FIG. Reference numeral 14 indicates the entire rice cooker, which consists of a rice cooker 16 with a rice cooker 15 inside, and a lid 18 attached to the main body l side. and an upper lid 2o that is vertically movable. Then, the inner cover 19 is attached to the upper cover 2o and becomes integrated with the upper M20, or alternatively, it is separated from the upper cover 20 and the inner cover 19 is attached to the pot 15 side by covering the top opening of the rice cooker I5. is freely available. To explain the structure in this respect, a safety valve 21 for discharging steam is provided at the center of the inner M19.

This safety valve 21 has a neck part 22 formed therein. On the upper lid 20 side, as shown in FIG. A locking plate 24 is attached, and the groove portion 25 of the locking plate 24 and the neck portion 22 of the safety valve 21 are in an engaging relationship.

When the upper cover 20 moves upward, the inner cover 19 rises together with the inner cover 19 attached thereto. Then, when the inner cover 19 is moved laterally, it is separated from the upper cover 20. In this way, the upper cover 20 and the inner cover I9 can be connected and separated by a simple mechanism of engagement between the neck portion 22 of the safety valve and the groove portion 25 of the engagement plate.

Further, a cylinder part 26 for steam venting is provided protruding from one side of the upper M20, and this cylinder part 26 is connected to a steam outlet pipe 27 in a loosely fitted state, so that there is no problem even if the lid body 18 moves up and down. That's how it is.

Next, a mechanism for vertically moving the lid will be explained.

As shown in FIG. 8, the operating rod 28, which stands upright in the center of the upper lid 20, has a horizontally elongated engagement groove 29 approximately at its center.

On the other hand, a drive motor 30 for moving the upper M20 up and down is fixed to a substrate 31, an arm 33 is attached to an eccentric shaft 32 of the motor 30, and an engagement pin 3 at the tip of the arm 33.
4 is engaged with the engagement groove 29. In addition, the operating rod 28
In order to ensure vertical movement, guide pieces 35, 35 provided on the base plate 31 are fitted into the upper and lower parts of the operating rod 28. Therefore, when the arm 33 rotates, the rotation is converted into a rectilinear reciprocating motion, and the upper cover 20 moves up and down.

At this time, the lower part of the inner cover 19 is lifted up by the inner cover holding shaft 23 of the upper cover 20, and when the rice cooker 16 is moved horizontally.

The rice cooker rises by a distance that does not contact the rice cooker 15, as shown in Fig. 3(a).
The vehicle will stop at the position indicated by the dashed line.

By the way, the rice cooker 16 has a mounting table 36 that moves horizontally from side to side.
The mounting table 36 is in the shape of a square box, and a pair of wheels 37 and 37 are mounted on each side of the table 36 as shown in FIG. Reference numeral 38 denotes a rail member having rail parts 39 and 39' having a U-shaped cross section on both sides, into which the wheels 37 and 37 fit, respectively.
．． 39' allows it to slide freely horizontally. This rail member 38 is attached to the handle 4
Three support plates 4 provided at the bottom of the drawer 41 with 0
2, 42, and 42, and is integrated with the drawer 41. Furthermore, the guide collar pieces 43 and 43 provided on the outside of the rail portions 39 and 39' are connected to the bottom plate 1 of the main body case 1.
As shown in FIG. 2, the rollers 45 and 45 are slidably supported on moving rollers 45 and 45 mounted on side wall plates 44 and 44 formed oppositely above each other. Therefore, when the drawer 41 is operated back and forth by the handle 40, the rail member 38 which is in an integral relationship with the drawer 41 also moves together.

Next, the driving means 46 for sliding the mounting table 36 will be explained with reference to FIG. 7. A plate body 48 having a vertically long sliding groove 47 is fixed to the rear wall 36' of the mounting table 36. On the other hand, a support plate 50 supporting a motor 49 for moving the mounting table is attached to the rear end of one rail portion 39' of the rail member 38 that slidably supports the mounting table 36. A tip pin 53 of a drive arm 52, which is rotated by being attached to an eccentric shaft 51 of this motor 49, is engaged with a sliding groove 47 of the plate 48 to constitute a drive means 46. Then, this motor 49 performs a control operation such that it is driven and stops when it rotates in the opposite direction. 52 is a heat exchanger, one end of which is connected to the steam outlet pipe 27.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained.

First, turn on the power switch and set the amount of rice to be cooked using the rice cooking amount setting switch. When you turn on the start switch, each device operates according to the following steps by a control circuit (not shown).

(2) The solenoid 4 of the measuring device 3 operates for a certain period of time, and an amount determined by this operating time, eg, 1 cup of rice, is weighed from the rice storage section 2 and thrown into the rice washing device 5.

At the same time, the motor 30 for vertically driving the lid 18 is operated, and the arm 34 is moved from the position where the engagement pin 34 of the arm 33 shown in FIG. 33 begins to rotate, the top cover 20 gradually moves from the solid line position in FIG. 1 to the solid line position in FIG. 3.

When the motor 30 further rotates, the top cover 20 rises from the solid line position in FIG. 3 to the position shown by the broken line in the same figure. At this time, since the engagement plate 24 at the lower end of the inner cover holding shaft 23 is connected to the inner cover 19 via the neck part 22 of the safety valve 21, the inner cover 1
When the lower part of rice cooker 9 is lifted and rice cooker 16 is moved, rice cooker 1
5 and stops at the position indicated by the broken line in FIG. 3.

(2) Next, the motor 49 for moving the mounting table 36 is driven, and the rotation of the drive arm 52 moves the plate 48, and the mounting table 36, which is fixed thereto, moves to the left. Then, when the motor 49 rotates in the opposite direction and the drive arm 52 also becomes horizontal in the opposite direction, the motor 49 stops.

Therefore, the rice cooker 16 placed on this mounting table 36 is placed in the third position.
Move from the position shown in the figure to the position shown in Figure 4. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, in a state in which the rice cooker 16 has shifted approximately half of the way from the door cover 18, the motor 49 stops and maintains that state. Therefore, about 172 or more of the top openings 17 of #415 are exposed as shown in FIG.

(2) In order to supply water to the rice that is put into the rice washing device 5 and received by the flap 9 at the bottom, water is flowed in from a water supply device (not shown) and the rice is washed. Incidentally, during this rice washing, overflow water flows down into the water receiver 7 through the wire mesh 6 and is discharged to the outside.

■When rice washing is completed, the motor 13 rotates and the link mechanism 1
2, the rice washing device 5 is connected to the fifth
It is moved from the solid line position to the dotted line position in the figure to the top opening 17 of the pot 15.

- The solenoid 8 is activated, the flap 9 is opened downward, and the rice and water in the rice washing device 5 are thrown into @15 in the rice cooker 16 and dropped.

(2) The motor 13 operates again to return the rice washing device 5 to its original position and prepare for the next rice washing.

In addition, the amount of rice set with the rice amount setting switch is
For example, if it is 5 go, use (1) mentioned above.

■ - You will repeat the action 5 times.

(2) The motor 49 rotates again to move the mounting table 36 to the right, and the rice cooker 16 returns to the position shown in FIG. 3 facing the lid 18, and the motor 49 stops.

(2) The motor 30 operates to lower the upper lid 20 and the inner lid 1i19. Then, the inner lid 19 comes into contact with the upper opening of the rice cooker 15 at the solid line position in FIG. 3, and then only the upper lid 20 descends.
Stop at the position shown in Figure 1.

[Phase] The heater (not shown) of the rice cooker 16 operates to cook rice and keep it warm.

With the above, rice can be cooked automatically.

When it is time to eat the next meal, the motor 30 is rotated again using a manually operable lid vertical movement switch (not shown).
The upper lid 20 is raised to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. Thereafter, when the user holds the handle 40 and pulls the drawer 41 forward, the rice cooker 6 along with the rice cooker member 38 is pulled out of the main case 1 as shown in FIG. 6. be done. At this time, the inner cover 19 comes off from the upper M2S side engagement plate 24 that is attached to the safety valve 2] and is pulled out while covering the pot 15, so if the inner cover 19 is removed, the rice cooker 1
It is convenient to store rice without having to take it out. When keeping warm again, when the drawer 41 and the main body 1 are returned, the neck part 22 of the safety valve 21 of the inner lid 19 is
This can be done by bringing the upper lid 20 into engagement position with the groove portion 25 of the locking plate 24 of i20@, and operating the lid up/down switch again to lower and close the upper lid 20.

(G) Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, the rice cooker itself is horizontally moved to a position where it can receive rice and water from the rice washing device to prepare the rice and water. Since the body does not need to be opened as wide as in the past, and a large space above the lid is not required, the height of the device body can be reduced, resulting in a compact automatic rice cooking device. In addition, since the top lid is attached to the main body, when you pull out the rice cooker, you can immediately pour rice from the pot by removing the inner lid without having to take out the entire rice cooker and move it, making it easy to use. Since the inner lid is pulled out with the pot, even if it is left pulled out, the rice does not cool down much, and it prevents salt debris from falling into or entering the rice, and when it is returned, the inner lid can be placed on the top lid side. The inner lid can be installed and removed by simply sliding the rice cooker back and forth.

When cleaning it, you only have to wash the pot and inner lid, making it very clean. Furthermore, the inner lid can be opened and closed within the device using a motor that simply moves the upper lid up and down, without using a special motor for that purpose. Compared to the conventional lid opening/closing mechanism, it has fewer parts and has a simpler structure. Therefore, the entire device can be downsized, the floor-standing type can be changed to a table-top type, and there are various remarkable effects such as improved usability.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a front sectional view of the entire automatic rice cooking device, Figure 2 is a side sectional view of the device, Figure 3 (a) is a sectional view of the main part showing the vertical movement of the lid, and Figure 3 (b) is a sectional view of the main part showing the vertical movement of the lid. ) is a plan view of the operation of one component of the lid vertical movement mechanism, Figure 4 (a) is a sectional view of the main part of the rice cooker when changing the rice washing amount to the loading position, and Figure 4 (b) is a top and bottom view of the lid. FIG. 5 is a plan view of the operation of one component of the moving mechanism section, FIG. 5 is a plan view in the same state as FIG. 4, FIG. ) is an operational plan view of one component of the vertical movement mechanism, FIG. 7 is an external perspective view of the assembled component of the mounting table on which the rice cooker body is placed and moved, and its driving means, and FIG. 8 is FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the structure of the lid vertical movement mechanism. 5...Rice washing device, 15...Rice cooking pot, 16...Rice cooker, 17...Top opening of pot, 18...Lid body, 28
... Operating rod, 29... Engagement groove, 30... Drive motor for vertical movement of the lid body, 34... Engagement pin, 36... Mounting table, 37. 37... Wheel, 38...・Rail components,
39.39'...Rail part, 41...Drawer,
45. 45... Moving roller, 46... Drive means for moving the mounting table, 47... Vertical sliding groove, 49...
...Motor, 52...Drive arm, 53...Tip pin. Figure 3 (a) (b) Figure 4 (a) (b) Figure Δ7 Figure

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A main body in which a rice washing device and a top lid of the rice cooker are respectively provided, a rice cooker housing a rice cooking pot, and a position where the top lid is attached and where rice is cooked, and a rice cooking device where rice is removed from the rice washing device. An automatic rice cooking device comprising: a drive means for controlling horizontal movement to a rice washing position where water is received; and an inner lid that is placed over the top opening of the rice cooker and pulled out when the rice cooker is pulled out from the main body. (2) The automatic rice cooking device according to claim 1, wherein the inner lid can be attached and separated to either the rice cooking pot side or the upper lid side by moving the rice cooker in and out from the main body.