JPH0332619A - Automatic bread baking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically bake satisfactory bread by detecting gas concentration generated from a bread material, and controlling the baking time in accordance with the quantity of bread. CONSTITUTION:A control part 25 brings the lower heater 3, a motor 11, a fan heater 43, a fan motor 47 and a chopper to driving control, based on a result of detection from a gas detecting means 23 and a temperature detecting means 27. In a baking process after molding and fermentation, a state deciding part 29 starts to bake in a state that a temperature of the lower heater 3 is maintained and controlled at a prescribed baking temperature. Immediately after the start, gas concentration drops once, therefore, a first minimum value VA at this time is derived. Thereafter, the state deciding part 29 starts to drive the fan heater 43 and the fan motor 47 and detects gas concentration VB (maximum value) in a container 1 at that time. Thereafter, the gas concentration drops again, therefore, a second minimum value VC at this time is derived. The state deciding part 29 calculates a difference of both of them, and when it exceeds a set value Vx, the baking time is set to 60 minutes, and when it does not exceed, the baking time is adjusted to 65 minutes, and the subsequent baking is brought to continuous control.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Purpose of the invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to an automatic bread maker.

(Prior Art) With the increase in bread consumption in recent years, various types of bread makers have become increasingly popular in the market.

In a bread maker, bread is made by kneading the ingredients such as flour, yeast, a small amount of butter, sugar, etc. with water, allowing it to undergo primary fermentation, degassing, then secondary fermentation, and further degassing. After shaping and fermenting, finish by baking.
This is done through the conventional bread-making process.

By the way, in the bread manufacturing process, especially the baking process,
This is an important final step in properly completing bread from bread ingredients that have gone through the kneading and fermentation steps. Therefore, the baking process needs to be controlled in consideration of various influencing factors such as the amount of bread to be manufactured, the season, and regional differences in temperature and humidity.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, it is difficult for humans to appropriately adjust the temperature and time in the baking process based on the above-mentioned factors, and it is difficult to always make bread with a uniform finish. It took a lot of time.

In addition, in automatic bread makers, the baking process is generally performed at a fixed temperature and time, and the above-mentioned factors are not taken into account, so there is a risk that the quality of the bread will not be good.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object thereof is to provide an automatic bread maker that can appropriately control the baking process and contribute to good bread making.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problem) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an automatic bread maker that automatically produces bread from bread ingredients through at least a baking process. a gas concentration detection means for detecting the concentration of gas emitted from the material; a quantity calculation means for calculating the quantity of bread to be manufactured based on the state of change in the gas concentration detected by the gas concentration detection means during the baking process; (Function) The automatic bread maker according to the present invention has a control means for controlling the baking process according to the amount of bread to be produced and the ingredients of the bread in the baking process. By focusing on the fact that there is a correlation between the amount of bread and the amount of bread that is generated based on the amount of bread that is generated from the gas concentration, To perform optimal baking considering the amount of bread.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a cross section of an automatic bread maker according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a container into which various ingredients for making bread are put and bread is made through predetermined steps to be described later, and a lower heater 3 is placed at the bottom of the container for heating t! 5 , it is fixedly installed on a support stand 7 provided at the bottom of the heating tank 5 . The bottom of the container 1 is connected via a transmission mechanism 14 and a coupling device 16 to a rotating shaft 12 of a motor 11 installed in the main body 9 in parallel with the container 1, and is rotated as the motor 11 is driven. A blade 13 is provided for stirring the material. Furthermore, a circulation heater section 41 is provided on the upper outer wall of the heating tank 5 . This circulation heater section 41 includes a fan heater 43.degree. fan 45.degree. The configuration includes a fan motor 47, and when the fan motor 47 is driven, a heat circulation process is created in the heating tank 5 from the air outlet 49 formed in the heating tank 5 to the suction port 51. On the other hand, this container 1
An inner cover 15 is placed on the top of the inner cover 15, which forms a sealed space when the inner cover 15 is closed. This inner lid 15 is connected to an outer lid 17 constituting the main body 9 by a gas detection chamber 19, which will be described later, and is opened when the outer lid 17 is opened. Further, a hole 21 for exhaust is formed in a part of the inner lid 15, and a gas detection chamber 19 that also serves as a passage to the hole 22 of the outer lid 17 communicating with the outside is connected to the hole 21. It is formed.

Gas detection means 2 is located in the middle of this gas detection chamber 19.
3 is arranged to detect the concentration of a predetermined gas generated in the bread manufacturing process and output the detection result to the control section 25 provided in the main body 9. In particular, usually hole 22
Since a chopper 52 is provided which covers the hole 22 and releases steam from the hole 22 in an open state during baking, the gas detection means 23 can detect the concentration of gas generated during fermentation without being diluted by external air. The gas detection means 23 is, for example, a semiconductor gas sensor, which is particularly sensitive to ethyl alcohol, carbon dioxide, and the like. In addition, in FIG. 1, 27 is a temperature detection means for detecting the temperature inside the container 1, and the detection result is output to the control section 25.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the control section 25 and its peripheral circuit blocks. The control unit 25 controls the lower heater 3. based on the detection results from the gas detection means 23, the temperature detection means 27, etc.
Motor 11. Process control is performed by driving and controlling the fan heater 43, fan motor 47, and chopper 52.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 29 denotes a status determination unit that receives detection results from the gas detection means 23 and the like and determines the progress status of the process, that is, the fermentation status in the fermentation process and the baking status in the baking process. It is configured. Further, 31 is a temperature control section that controls the temperature of the lower heater 3 based on the detection result from the temperature detection means 27 under the control of the state judgment section 29 . Further, reference numerals 33 and 34 are motor control sections that respectively control the driving of the motor 11 and the fan motor 47 under the control of the state judgment section 29.

Next, the control principle of the raising process in this embodiment will be explained.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing changes in the detection results (voltage value output) of the gas detection means 23 over time in the baking process. The solid line and the broken line indicate the amount of bread to be manufactured is 1 loaf and 1.5 loaves, respectively. This is the case. As is clear from FIG. 3, the change in gas concentration is that immediately after the start of baking when the lower heater 3 starts driving, it decreases, then increases, then decreases again, then increases, and then slowly decreases. Tend. The decrease immediately after the start of baking is due to the fact that the chopper 52, which had been closed until the end of the fermentation process, was opened to release steam from the holes 22 at the start of baking. Further, the subsequent decrease in gas concentration is due to gas leakage from the hole 22 when the fan heater 43 and fan motor 47 start driving after a certain period of time has passed since the dough surface is heated. .

In such a change trend, when the amount of bread to be manufactured, that is, the amount of ingredients for the bread is different, the rate of change in gas concentration also decreases because the larger the amount of ingredients, the larger the heat capacity. Here, if we pay attention to the first minimum value due to the decrease immediately after the start of baking and the second minimum value due to the decrease again, as shown in Figure 3, the first minimum value is independent of the amount of bread. Almost the same (VAI, VA2) (
However, when the gas concentration at the end of fermentation is almost constant. ), whereas for the second minimum value, the value for one loaf (M
CI) exceeds the value (VC2) for 1.5 loaves.

This is because the fan heater 43 and the fan motor 47 start driving after a certain period of time has passed from the start of baking, but the fan heater 43 and the fan motor 47 start from the first minimum value due to the influence of the heat capacity of the one with a larger amount of material. This is because the rate of change in gas concentration during the time until the start of driving is slow. Therefore, the difference between the first minimum value and the second minimum value is smaller when the amount of material is larger ((VcI V^
1)〉(vc2-VA2))

FIG. 4 shows a histogram of the difference between the first minimum value and the second minimum value, and the white frame and the diagonally shaded frame are for the case where the amount of material is 1 catty and 1.5 catty, respectively. As is clear from FIG. 4, the difference is larger when the amount of material is smaller, and it is possible to distinguish using a predetermined threshold value (Vx).

From this, there is a correlation between the amount of material and the difference, and the amount of material can be calculated based on the difference. Therefore, in this example, if the amount of material is 1° 5 lbs., 1 lb. The optimal baking time is set according to the determined amount of material, such as extending the baking end by the time tx for the case of .

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained using FIGS. 5 and 6. In addition, FIG. 5 shows the lower heater 3 as the bread manufacturing process progresses. Morri 11. Fan heater 43. 5 is a diagram illustrating the state of energization to the fan motor 47 and the state of change in the detection result of the gas detection means 23. FIG. Further, FIG. 6 is a processing flowchart of the state determining section 29 in the baking process.

First, at the start of bread making, when the required bread ingredients are put into the container 1 and a predetermined start switch (not shown) is operated, the state determining section 2 starts driving the lower heater 3 and By driving the motor 11, the blades 13 are rotated to knead this bread material for a predetermined period of time to form bread dough.

This is the so-called kneading process. In this kneading process, the fan heater 43 and fan motor 47 are driven under the control of the two condition determining units to adjust the ambient temperature. Furthermore, during the kneading process, the motor 11, fan heater 43, and fan heater 47 are stopped for a predetermined period of time, except for the lower heater 3.
This is the so-called aging process.

The two state determining units enter the primary fermentation process after detecting the gas concentration at the end of the kneading process. - In the next fermentation process, the state determining unit 29 controls the power supply to the lower heater 3 via the temperature control unit 31 so that the temperature is higher than that in the kneading process, and the temperature in the container 1 is adjusted to a predetermined fermentation temperature ( For example, the temperature is maintained at 28° C.), and monitoring of the gas concentration within the container 1 is started based on the detection result by the gas detection means 23.

When the state determining unit 29 detects that the gas concentration in the container 1 has increased by a predetermined amount ΔD compared to the time when the primary fermentation started, the state determining unit 29 stops energizing the lower heater 3 to terminate the primary fermentation, while the motor 11 The gas venting operation is performed for a certain period of time by driving the

After this degassing operation, secondary fermentation and molding fermentation are sequentially performed, but the end of the fermentation operation is the same as the primary fermentation, when the gas concentration increases by a predetermined amount (ΔD2, ΔD3) during each fermentation operation. By detection of. The temperature of the lower heater 3 during molding fermentation is set to a slightly higher temperature (for example, 38° C.) than during the second and second fermentations.

In the baking process after forming and fermenting, the state determining unit 29 opens the chopper 52 and starts baking while controlling the temperature of the lower heater 3 to be maintained at a predetermined baking temperature (for example, 160° C.) higher than that during the fermentation process (step 100 ).

Immediately after the start of baking, as mentioned above, the gas concentration decreases, so the first minimum value V^ at this time is set at step 11.
0 to step 140. After that, CO2 is generated inside the dough due to baking using only the lower heater 3.
The gas concentration rises due to the generation of gas and ethyl alcohol, and the dough expands (approximately 2 degrees of openness). Baking using only the lower heater 3 is carried out for a certain period of time (approximately 15 minutes), after which the state determining unit 29 starts driving the fan heater 43 and fan motor 47 to start baking from the surface of the bread dough as described above. At the same time, the gas concentration VB (maximum value) in the container 1 at that time is detected (steps 150 to 170). After this, the gas concentration decreases again as described above, so the second minimum value VC at this time is determined in steps 180 to 200.

When the first and second minimum values vA and vo are determined in this way, the state determining unit 29 calculates the difference (VC-V^) between the two.
is calculated, and the calculated difference is compared with the set value V8 (steps 210 and 220). As a result of the comparison, if the difference (VC-V^;) is greater than or equal to the set value Vx, the state determining unit 29 determines that the amount of bread is 1 loaf and sets the baking time to 60 minutes (Steps 230 and 240). On the other hand, the difference (VC-V^
) does not exceed the set value vX, the amount of bread is 1°5
After determining that it was a loaf, I adjusted the baking time to 65 minutes (
Steps 250 and 260) continue to control subsequent baking.

Note that the reason why the fan heater 43 and fan motor 47 are not driven from the start of the baking process is to prevent the dough surface from browning and hardening, which will prevent the dough from expanding, thereby preventing baking defects inside the dough. It's for teaching purposes.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, since the baking time is optimally adjusted according to the amount of bread to be produced, it is possible to make different types of bread with less effort than in the past. be.

In this embodiment, the amount of bread is determined based on the difference between the first minimum value vA and the second minimum value vc, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the difference between the first minimum value vA and the maximum value VB, or the difference between the maximum value VB and the second minimum value V. It may also be based on the difference between In addition, the time t and tc (see Figure 3) from the start of baking at which the first minimum value V8 and the second minimum value Vc are obtained are determined empirically, and the gas concentration at each time t and t6 is determined empirically. the first minimum value vA and the second minimum value v
It may be used as c, and processing can be simplified.

Further, in this embodiment, the baking time is adjusted according to the amount of bread, but the baking temperature may also be adjusted in other ways.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, attention is paid to the fact that there is a correlation between the amount of bread to be manufactured in the baking process and the state of change in the gas concentration generated from the bread ingredients. By controlling the baking process according to the amount of bread determined based on the change in gas concentration, the baking process can be executed in an optimal way, taking at least the amount of bread to be manufactured into consideration. can be appropriately controlled and contribute to good bread making.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a control circuit block in the embodiment, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams for explaining the control principle in the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a control flowchart of the embodiment. 1... Container 3... Lower heater 5... Heating tli 7... Support stand 9... Main body
11...Motor 3...Blade 15.
...Inner cover 7...Outer cover 19...Gas detection chamber 1.22...Hole 23...Gas detection means 5...
-Control section 27...Temperature detection means 9...Status judgment section 31...Temperature control section 3.34...Motor control section 1...Circulation heater -Lid 43...Fan heater 5.
...Fan 47...Fan motor 2...Chopper ('S;'!! to 'fr'+'!-1 Hidekazu Miyoshi 4 Figure 2

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An automatic bread maker that automatically manufactures bread from bread ingredients through at least a baking process, including a gas concentration detection means for detecting the concentration of gas generated from the bread ingredients, and a gas concentration detection means in the baking process. An automatic manufacturing method characterized by having a quantity calculation means for determining the quantity of bread to be manufactured based on the change in gas concentration detected by the means, and a control means for controlling the baking process according to the determined quantity. Bread utensil. (2) The quantity calculation means calculates the quantity of bread based on the magnitude of the difference between the minimum value due to a temporary decrease in gas concentration immediately after the start of baking and the minimum value due to a subsequent decrease in gas concentration. The automatic bread maker according to claim 1, characterized in that: