JPH05253050A - Rice cooking appliance - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate 'insufficient cooking' of rice which is caused due to quality of rice or others. CONSTITUTION:A heating means 2 is provided to heat a pot 1, a control means 4 to control the power of the heating means 2, a temperature detection means 3 to detect the temperature of the pot 1 and an inputting means 5 for inputting the start of cooking rice. The time which passes after the starting of a specified rice cooking process (process of maintaining a boiling) is counted. In addition, a first timer means 6 to produce an output when a fixed time passes, a second timer means 7 to count a specified time after the reaching of a specified temperature is detected by a temperature detection means 3 and a heating stopping means 8 which outputs a stop signal to a heating means 2 until the counting of the time ends from the start of counting the time by the second timer means 7 are provided. Thus, the cooking of rice continues interposing the stoppage of heating of a fixed time properly even when the temperature of the pot 1 raises abnormally during the cooking of rice, thereby accomplishing the cooking of rice normally without causing 'insufficient cooking'.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rice cooker with a built-in microcomputer mainly used at home.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, needs for diversification and sophistication of consumers' tastes have become stronger, and rice cookers controlled by a microcomputer have become popular in order to cook more delicious rice.

Conventionally, the rice cooking process of this type of rice cooker is generally as shown in FIG. That is, in the rice cooker process, when the rice absorbs water and gelatinizes during the cooking process and the boiling maintaining process, and the water in the pot is not absorbed by the rice, the temperature of the pan rises sharply and When the temperature is reached, the boiling maintenance process is completed and the steaming process is started.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional rice cooker, when the convection of the water in the pan is hindered during rice cooking due to the quality of the rice, only a part of the rice is abruptly increased. When it is heated, and the temperature of the pan rises sharply and becomes higher than the end temperature of the predetermined boiling maintenance process, the rice finishes cooking there even though the rice is not yet gelatinized, and "I cannot cook rice" There was a problem that the so-called early disconnection phenomenon occurred.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a rice cooker which does not cause a premature cutting phenomenon due to the quality of rice or the like.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems To achieve the above object, a rice cooker according to the present invention comprises a pot for putting cooked rice, a heating means for heating the pot, and an electric power of the heating means for controlling rice. In the pre-cooking process, the cooking process, the boiling maintenance process, the control means for carrying out the rice cooking process in the order of the steaming process, the temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the pot, the input means for inputting the rice cooking start, The first timer means for measuring the elapsed time after the start of a predetermined rice cooking process (boiling maintenance process) and outputting when a certain time has elapsed, and the temperature detection device have reached a predetermined temperature near the boiling maintenance process end temperature. The operation of measuring a predetermined time from the time when it is detected is repeated any number of times during the time measurement of the first timer means, and the predetermined temperature at the time of starting the time measurement is stopped at the first heating and heating at the second time and thereafter. Can be changed with stop And second timer means, during the period from the start of counting time by the second timer means until the count end, is provided with a heating stopping means outputs a stop signal to the heating means.

[0007]

According to the present invention, when the temperature of the pan suddenly rises during cooking and the boiling maintaining process is started and the predetermined boiling maintaining process end temperature is reached within a certain time after the rice is cooked, the cooking is not completed. After stopping heating for a certain period of time, restart heating,
Further, when the temperature around the predetermined boiling maintaining process end temperature is detected again, the process of stopping the heating for a certain period of time and then restarting the heating is repeated. By controlling to restart heating after stopping this heating, the temperature of the pan is not only lowered to the level of normal rice cooking to heat it again, but it also stimulates the convection in the pan and restores the convection that has stagnated to normal. be able to. Then, after a lapse of a predetermined time after entering the boiling maintaining process, the above control is not performed and normal rice is cooked, so that convection of water in the pot is prevented due to the quality of rice in the cooking process. In fact, even if the rice has not gelatinized yet, even if the temperature of the pan suddenly rises and becomes higher than the predetermined temperature, rice cooking will continue and prevent rice from being cooked due to premature cutting. .
In addition, the length of this heating stop time is set to be reasonably short so that it does not affect the temperature rise of rice and water in the kettle, so it does not adversely affect the quality of rice and is delicious as usual. You can cook rice.

[0008]

[Embodiment] The rice cooker according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below.
A description will be given with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a rice cooker according to an embodiment, in which heating means 2 for heating the pot 1, temperature detecting means 3 for detecting the temperature of the pot 1, and signals of the temperature detecting means 3 are shown. Is input to control the electric power of the heating means 2, the input means 5 for inputting the start of rice cooking, and the elapsed time after the start of a predetermined rice cooking process (boiling maintenance process) is measured, and when a certain time has elapsed, First timer means 6 for outputting and temperature detecting means 3
The operation of measuring a predetermined time from the time when it detects that the temperature reaches a predetermined temperature is repeated any number of times during the time measurement of the first timer means 6, and the predetermined temperature when starting the time measurement is stopped for the first time. And a second timer means 7 that can be changed by stopping the heating after the second time, and a heating stop means 8 that outputs a stop signal to the heating means 2 from the time when the second timer means 7 starts the time measurement to the time when the time measurement ends. It is composed by.

FIG. 2 shows a partial cross section of the rice cooker, in which the temperature detecting means 3 for detecting the temperature of the pot 1 is composed of a temperature resistance element for converting the amount of change in temperature into a resistance value, and is movable up and down. It is configured so as to be in contact with the bottom surface of the pot 1. The input means 5 (switch) is connected to the control means 4. A microcomputer (not shown) including the control means 4, the heating stop means 8 for outputting a heating stop signal, the first timer means 6, and the second timer means 7 is incorporated in the circuit board 9 and the rice cooker main body 10 It is attached to the bottom. FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the temperature and the time when rice is cooked, when the rice is cooked normally and when the pot temperature rises sharply during cooking.

In the rice cooker configured as described above,
The operation when cooking rice will be described. First, pot 1
The pot 1 is placed on the heating means 2 as shown in FIG. When cooking rice is started, the input means 5
As shown in FIG. 3, the cooking process is started after the process of absorbing water for a certain period of time, and the temperature of the pot gradually rises during the cooking process, so that the rice absorbs water and begins to gelatinize. When the temperature detecting means 3 detects the predetermined temperature θ3, the boiling maintenance process starts, and in the normal case, sufficient convection occurs in the pot 1, so that the temperature of the rice and water rises evenly, and eventually the water absorption of the rice occurs. The gelatinization progresses and the water in the pot 1 disappears, causing the temperature of the pot 1 to rise sharply. When the temperature detecting means 3 detects that the temperature has reached the predetermined temperature θ1, the boiling maintaining process is ended and the steaming process is started. However, if the convection of water in the pan 1 is hindered due to problems such as rice quality (crushed rice, slaughtered rice, etc.), only part of the rice will be rapidly heated and gelatinized at the beginning of the boiling maintenance process. , Therefore, there is no water in that part, and the pot temperature may rise rapidly.

If the boiling maintaining process is started, the temperature of the pot 1 reaches a predetermined boiling maintaining process ending temperature θ1 for a certain period of time T2, that is, while the first timer means 6 measures the time. When the temperature detecting means 3 detects that, the second timer means 7 starts the time measurement, and at the same time, the heating stop means 8 outputs a heating stop signal to interrupt the heating. At the same time when the second timer means 7 finishes measuring the predetermined time T1, the heating stop signal from the heating stop means 8 is released and the heating is restarted. While the heating is stopped, the temperature of the pot 1 drops to near the normal temperature, and when the heating is restarted, the convection of the water in the pot 1 is restored and the normal rice cooking continues after that, and the convection remains suspended. The temperature of the pan 1 may suddenly rise again when the heating is restarted because it has not been recovered, but when the temperature detecting means 3 detects that the temperature of the pan 1 has reached the predetermined temperature θ2, the above-mentioned temperature is again detected. As described above, after the heating is stopped for the fixed time T1, the heating is restarted. The temperature of the rice and water in the pot rises over time, but this control is effective during the initial period of the boiling maintenance stroke,
When the temperature detecting means 3 detects that the temperature of the pan 1 has reached the predetermined temperature θ2, the operation of restarting the heating after stopping the heating for a certain time T1 again as described above is repeated.

After the time counting by the first timer means 6 is finished, the above-mentioned control is not carried out, and during the boiling maintaining process, the water absorption gelatinization progresses and the water in the pan 1 runs out, and the temperature detecting means 3 When it detects that the temperature reaches a predetermined temperature θ1, the boiling maintaining process is ended and the steaming process is performed to complete the rice cooking operation. As shown in FIG. 3, even when the temperature of the pan 1 reaches the predetermined end temperature of the cooked rice at the beginning of the boiling maintaining process, by controlling the heating as described above, the “premature cutting” occurs. The problem is that rice cannot be cooked.

[0014]

As described above, the rice cooker of the present invention detects the temperature of the pan, the pan for putting the cooked food, the heating means for heating the pan, the control means for controlling the electric power of the heating means. A first timer means for measuring the elapsed time after the start of a predetermined rice cooking process (boiling maintenance process) and outputting when a certain time has elapsed, Second timer means for measuring a predetermined time from the time when the temperature detecting means detects that the temperature has reached a predetermined temperature, and the heating means from the start time to the end time of the time measured by the second timer means. Since the heating stop means for outputting a stop signal is provided and configured, even when the temperature of the pan suddenly rises and reaches a predetermined end temperature of the boiling maintaining process at the beginning of the boiling maintaining process of cooking rice, the cooking is terminated. And continue as usual It can be rice with confidence regardless of the rice quality, etc. it is possible to cook.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a rice cooker according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 2] Partial sectional view of the rice cooker

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between the cooking temperature of the rice cooker and time.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a relationship between cooking temperature and time of a conventional rice cooker.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 pan 2 heating means 3 temperature detecting means 4 control means 5 input means 6 first timer means 7 second timer means 8 heating stop means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A pot for putting cooked rice, a heating means for heating the pot, and an electric power of the heating means are controlled to cook the rice in order of a pre-cooking process, a cooking process, a boiling maintaining process, and a steaming process. It is equipped with control means for carrying out the rice cooking process, temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the pan, and input means for inputting the start of rice cooking, and measures the time elapsed after the start of the predetermined rice cooking process (boiling maintenance process) and keeps it constant. A first timer means for outputting when the time has elapsed, and a second timer means for measuring a predetermined time from the time when the temperature detecting means detects that the temperature reaches a predetermined temperature near the boiling maintaining stroke end temperature, A heating stop means for outputting a stop signal to the heating means is provided from the start of time counting by the second timer means to the end of time counting, and the second timer means is provided when the time counting is started by the first timer means. From the end of time Rice cooker, which was configured to operate any number of times during the period. 2. The predetermined temperature when the stop signal is output when detected by the temperature detecting means can be changed to a lower temperature in the second and subsequent heating stops than in the first heating stop. Rice cooker described in 1.