JPH0452564Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a microwave oven equipped with a microcomputer that controls heating operation based on an input heating program and a turntable in the heating chamber.

(Prior Art) Demand for microwave ovens has been rapidly increasing in recent years, especially with the spread of microwave foods. However, even amid this growth, low-priced, single-function types are by far the most popular.

That is, the conventional types that require many button operations are gradually becoming unable to satisfy the needs of consumers.

Reflecting this situation, in recent years, cooking information such as heating mode and heating time is printed in barcodes on cooking instructions, and this is scanned with a barcode reader (light pen, hand scanner) connected to the microwave oven. A system has been proposed in which the reading information is input into a microcomputer to control heating (for example,
No. 9287, No. 31372, No. 33441, Utility Model 61-
No. 96206). Others have been proposed that control the heating operation by voice input (for example,
No. 51721, No. 61-17005).

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, among the above-mentioned conventional techniques, the former requires preparing a cooking book every time cooking, opening it, and then scanning it with a barcode reader. It's time consuming and troublesome. In addition, the latter method has a complicated control structure and cannot satisfy the needs of consumers in terms of cost.

By the way, when heating food in a microwave oven, the container used to store the food (generally ceramic or heat-resistant glass tableware is often used)
It is known from experience that the size, shape, etc. of a dish are generally determined by the type of food. Furthermore, in recent years, point-of-sale information sheets, or so-called barcodes, that record information such as product price, product number, size, date of manufacture, product classification number, etc. Designed to save labor and accurately grasp sales information
POS systems have been introduced, and microwave foods are no exception; each packaging container has a barcode attached to it.

Therefore, after considering the individual factors mentioned above, the inventor of the present invention came up with the idea of displaying cooking information directly on barcodes on vessels, containers, etc. that contain food, and after various studies and ideas, We previously proposed a microwave cooker with barcode display of cooking information such as heating mode and heating time on its outer surface.

An object of the present invention is to provide a microwave oven with a turntable that is most convenient to use when cooking information is displayed in a barcode directly on a container for storing food.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The structure of the present invention for achieving the above object will be explained according to the parts shown in FIGS. 1 to 5 corresponding to the embodiments. An optical information reading device 9 is provided under the front bottom wall 7 of the chamber 1, and furthermore, at least the outer peripheral portion of the turntable 19 is made transparent, so that the light emitted from the light source 14 of the information reading device 9 is transparent. The irradiated light L is transmitted through the transparent member 11 and the transparent outer circumferential portion 19A of the turntable 19, and is scanned over the barcode B displayed on the device P carried into the heating chamber 1 to be read. It is something.

(Function) With the device configured as described above, the user only has to insert the device P, on which the cooking information is displayed in a barcode on the back, into the heating chamber 1 and place it on the turntable 19 to read the cooking information. The information reading device 9 automatically reads the information and inputs the read information into the microcomputer to perform heating control.

(Example) Next, one embodiment of the present invention will be described.

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of the microwave oven of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view illustrating the structure of the reading device, where 1 is a heating chamber, 2 is a magnetron that irradiates microwaves, 3 is a waveguide, and 4 is a high-voltage transformer, 5 is a door, 6 is a housing forming a heating chamber, 7 is its bottom wall,
Reference numeral 8 denotes a housing housing an optical information reading device 9 disposed below the front of the bottom wall 7, and its top plate 10 is provided in close contact with the lower surface of the bottom wall 7.

As shown in FIG. 2, the top plate 10 is provided with an opening 11, and a transparent member 12 such as glass or heat-resistant glass is provided below the top plate 10 to cover the opening 11. Further, an opening 13 is provided in the bottom wall 7 at the same position as the opening 11.

The optical information reading device 9 includes, for example, a laser tube 14, a disk 15 having a deflection member such as a hologram plate, a motor 16 for rotating the disk, a reflecting mirror 17, and a bar code of the device P by scanning. A detector 18 consisting of a photoelectric conversion element or the like that detects reflected light from B is configured.

19 is a turntable made of a transparent and heat-resistant synthetic resin material, and an electric motor 2 is mounted on the bottom center of the turntable.
It is integrally provided with a boss 22 that is removably fitted into the output shaft 21 of 0. Output shaft fitting hole 23 of this boss 22
are formed to have different diameters, and the upper end 21A of the output shaft 21 is also formed to have different diameters corresponding to this different diameter,
This prevents relative rotation between the two.

Although the turntable 19 is formed of a single component in the illustrated example, instead of this, as shown in FIG. Multiple jointed arms 2 arranged in a row
A metal support 27 is formed integrally connected with 6..., and a transparent disk 28 made of a heat-resistant synthetic resin material, heat-resistant glass, etc. is placed thereon. It is also fine if it has been done. Further, the central portion 25 is provided with a boss 22, and it goes without saying that the boss 22 is structured to prevent relative rotation with the output shaft 21 in the same manner as described above, and the outer edge 25A of the boss 22 is located at the inner inner edge of the transparent member 11. heating chamber 1 equal to or higher than
It is configured as if it were on the back side.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation and control circuit.
29 is a quantization circuit that converts the output (read information) a from the detector 18 of the information reading device 9 into a quantization pattern of "1" and "0"; 30 is the output b from this quantization circuit 29; A pattern resist is temporarily stored, 31 is a recognition unit that recognizes the output c from the pattern resist 30, and 32 is a microcomputer.

Next, to explain the operation of the above embodiment, there are various types of tableware, containers, and pots made of ceramic, heat-resistant glass, or synthetic resin (mainly polypropylene resin), and even microwave ovens. When the container containing the food is slid onto the bottom wall 7 of the heating chamber 1 from the front end, the transparent member 12 and the turntable 1
The barcode B is scanned by the laser beam L from the laser tube 14 that has passed through the outer peripheral portion 19A of the barcode 9. The reflected light _L1 from the barcode B generated by this scanning is detected by the detector 18, and the detection result (read information) is sent to the quantization circuit 29, the pattern resist 30, and the recognition unit 31.
The data is input to the microcomputer 32 via the microcomputer 32.

After this input is completed, close the door 5,
When the start button (not shown) is set, power is supplied to the motor 20 to rotate the turntable 19, and the magnetron 2 starts the prescribed operation based on the input information to heat the food. be exposed. When the input heating time has elapsed, first the magnetron 2 and the high voltage transformer 4 are de-energized, and then the motor 20 is de-energized, completing one heat treatment operation.

(Effects of the invention) As described above, according to the invention, as long as the container P is placed in the heating chamber 1, the optical information reading device 9 disposed below the front of the bottom wall 7 of the heating chamber 1 is read. Since the cooking information barcode B can be automatically read using the cooking information barcode B, there is no need to prepare a cooking book every time you cook and open it to read the information, which was the case in the past. It has a simple structure and is advantageous in terms of cost. Furthermore, even if a turntable is installed, there is no problem in reading information, which has the advantage of greatly improving the efficiency of using the microwave oven. In addition, if a part of the outer periphery of the turntable 19 is cut out or made transparent to allow the illumination light L from the information reading device 9 to pass through, the part of the turntable 19 that transmits the irradiated light must be correctly positioned on the transparent member 12. A fixed position stop control mechanism is required to stop the rotation of the turntable using a lever, which is disadvantageous in terms of structure and cost. However, according to the present invention, the stop position of the turntable is set at the natural drive stop of the motor 20. It is advantageous in terms of structure and cost, and the efficiency of using the microwave oven can be further improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of the microwave oven according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the optical information reading device, Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the main parts, and Fig. 4 is the operation and control circuit. The explanatory diagram, FIG. 5, is a partially cutaway plan view showing a modification of the turntable. Description of symbols, 1... Heating chamber, 2... Magnetron, 5... Door, 6... Housing forming the heating chamber, 7
...bottom wall of the heating chamber, 8...casing housing the optical information reading device, 9...optical information reading device, 10...top plate, 11...opening, 12... transparent member, 13...Opening in the bottom wall, 14...Laser tube, 15...Disk, 16...Motor, 17...Reflector, 18...Detector, 19...
Turntable, 20... Drive motor, 21...
Output shaft, 22...Boss, B...Barcode, L...
...Laser light, P... device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In a microwave oven equipped with a microcomputer that controls the heating operation based on an input heating program, and a turntable 19 in the heating chamber 1, there is a microwave oven under the front bottom wall 7 of the heating chamber 1.
An information reading device 9 is provided to optically read a barcode B related to cooking information attached to the back surface of a storage container P for food to be carried in, and at least the outer peripheral portion 19A of the turntable 19 is formed transparent. Microwave oven with reader.