JPH067244A - Heat-retaining pot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent cooked rice from drying due to reheating and inform the users of what the cooked rice has not yet loosened when the rice is in the above-mentioned condition by reheating the cooked rice after it has been confirmed at the time of reheating as to whether the cooked rice was already loosened or not in the past. CONSTITUTION:When a heat-retaining/reheating for heat-retaining switch is pushed on during heat-retaining, if the temperature went down more than 10 deg.C per 10 sec. in the past 5 min. or went up more than 3 deg.C per sec. according to the second thermal sensor, it is judged that the cover was opened and the cooked rice was loosened and the rice is reheated, and if the temperature did not go down more than 10 deg.C per 10 sec. in the past 5 min. or did not go up more than 3 deg.C per sec., reheating for heating-retaining is made invalid and it is alarmed B by a buzzer and returned to heat-retaining motion.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a warming pot for performing a rice cooking operation by closing an opening of a rice cooking pot containing rice cooked food with a lid, and performing a heat retaining operation after the completion of the rice cooking operation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional rice cooker, for example, a rice cooker having a rice cooker, a body heater and a lid heater, heats a rice cooker containing white rice and water with the rice cooker and the lid heater to perform the rice cooking operation. It is known that when the rice cooking operation is completed, the rice cooking pot is heated by a body heater and a lid heater to perform a heat retaining operation. In this heat retaining operation, the rice cooked in the rice cooking operation is kept warm in the range of 70 ° C to 76 ° C.

By the way, it is known that such a warming pot has a reheating function of heating the cooked rice after finishing the cooking operation to a temperature of about 90.degree.

[0004]

During the heat retaining operation, for example, in the above-mentioned example, the rice cooker containing rice is heated by the lid heater and the body heater. The part that is in contact with the rice cooking pot is overheated, and the rice in that part is completely dry when kept warm for a long time.

Therefore, if the reheating operation is performed by the rice cooking heater as it is, the rice in a dry state which is in contact with the rice cooking pot is further heated and further dried to become a strong dry state.

In order to prevent the rice from being strongly dried, it is stated in the instruction manual etc. that the user should loosen the rice in the rice cooker beforehand when using this reheating function. There is a problem that a person may reheat the rice in the rice cooker without loosening it.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the rice from drying due to the reheating by confirming whether or not the rice in the rice cooker has been loosened in the past during the reheating operation and performing the reheating. Moreover, it aims at providing the warming pot which can notify a user when rice is not loosened.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, an opening of a pot body containing a rice cooking pot is closed by a lid, the rice cooking pot is heated by a rice cooking heater to perform a rice cooking operation, and the rice cooking operation is completed. In a warming pot that heats a pot with a warming heater to perform a warming operation, a reheating instruction input unit for inputting a reheating instruction, and a preset setting when the reheating instruction is input by the reheating instruction inputting unit A lid opening / closing confirmation means for confirming the history of whether or not the lid has been opened / closed from the time before
When the lid opening / closing confirmation means confirms that the lid opening / closing operation is performed, the reheating means for heating the rice cooking pot by the rice cooking heater to perform the reheating operation, and the lid opening / closing confirmation means confirming that the lid opening / closing operation is not performed. In this case, the reheating operation is prohibited, and the reheating invalidation means for notifying the reheating invalidity is provided.

[0009]

In the present invention having such a structure, when a reheating instruction is inputted by the reheating instruction inputting means, the lid opening / closing confirming means confirms the history of the lid opening / closing operation from a preset time. To be done.

When it is confirmed by the lid opening / closing confirmation means that the lid is opened / closed, the reheating means heats the rice cooking pot by a heater whose current is controlled to perform a reheating operation. When the lid opening / closing confirming unit confirms that the lid is not opened / closed, the reheating invalidating unit prohibits the reheating operation and notifies the reheating invalidation.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In addition, this embodiment is a rice cooker according to the present invention,
The present invention is applied to a heat retaining pot provided with a body heater and a lid heater, and FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of this heat retaining pot.

Reference numeral 1 is a main body of the vessel, and the main body 1 of the vessel is an upper frame body 2.
The outer case 3 and the inner case 4 are joined together by the above. A rice cooking heater 5 is provided on the inner bottom portion of the inner case 4, and a body heater 6 is provided on the side portion thereof. Reference numeral 7 denotes a rice cooking pot that is detachably housed in the inner case 4, and contains white rice or brown rice and water as rice to be cooked.

The cup-shaped first heat-sensitive portion 8 is elastically pressed against the outer bottom portion of the rice cooking pot 7 to form the inner case 4 therein.
A first temperature sensor 9 composed of a thermistor for detecting the temperature of the rice cooking pot 7 is provided inside the first heat sensitive portion 8 by a heat conductive mold member 10.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a lid pivotally installed so as to open and close the upper opening of the vessel body 1. The lid 11 has a hollow structure and is provided with a steam outlet portion 11a. A lid heater 12 is provided in the. 13 is the lid 1
1 is a cylindrical stud provided at the center of the lower surface of the inner lid 15. An inner lid 15 is suspended from the stud 13 via a bush 14 made of an elastic member such as silicon rubber. A packing 16 is provided so that the upper opening of the rice cooking pot 7 can be elastically closed. The inner lid 15 is elastically pressed against the upper surface opening of the rice cooking pot 7 via the bush 14 so as to maintain a sealed state by the packing 16, so that the steam pressure in the rice cooking pot 7 increases. When it passes, the inner lid 15 is pushed up against the pressing force of the bush 14 by the steam pressure, and the steam is discharged from the gap between the inner lid 15 and the rice cooking pot 7. There is. In this case, instead of the bush 14, a stainless spring or the like may be used.

Reference numeral 17 denotes a cup-shaped second heat-sensing portion provided at the lower end of the stud 13 so as to face the rice-cooking pot 7. Inside the heat-sensing portion 17, the temperature inside the rice-cooking pot 7 is detected. Second temperature sensor 1 consisting of a thermistor for
8 is enclosed by a mold member 19 having heat conductivity.

Reference numeral 20 denotes an electronic circuit unit provided at the bottom of the container body 1, and as shown in FIG. 2, based on temperature information from the first temperature sensor 9 and the second temperature sensor 18, etc. The rice heating heater 5, the body heater 6, the lid heater 12 and the like are controlled.

That is, reference numeral 21 is a microcomputer which constitutes the main body of the control unit.
The temperature detection signals from the first temperature sensor 9 and the second temperature sensor 18 are input to the.

A constant voltage direct current is supplied to the microcomputer 21 from a commercial alternating current power source 22 via a transformer 23 and a constant voltage circuit 24, and charging is performed when the constant voltage direct current is supplied. A backup power supply 25 that supplies electric power to the microcomputer 21 and the like for a predetermined time in the event of a power failure is connected to the microcomputer 21.

The commercial AC power source (100V) 22 has
The rice cooking heater (1200W) 5 is connected via a normally open contact 26a of a relay 26, and the series circuit of the rice cooking heater 5 and the body heater (50W) 6 is connected via a first triac 27. Further, the lid heater (30 W) 12 is connected via the second triac 28.

The microcomputer 21 has an exciting coil 26b of the relay 26 via a relay drive circuit 29.
Is controlled to supply an ON / OFF signal to the gate terminal of the first triac 27 via the first triac drive circuit 30, and the second triac drive circuit 31 outputs the ON / OFF signal. ON to gate terminal /
It is designed to output an off signal. A thermal fuse 34 that interrupts the circuit at an abnormal temperature of 188 ° C. is inserted in a connection line from the AC power source 22 to the rice cooking heater 5 and the lid heater 12.

Further, the microcomputer 21 is connected to a memory 32 for storing data such as the cooked-up time set by the user, an operation panel 33 operated by the user, and an alarm. A buzzer device 35 for notifying such as is connected.

The operation panel 33 has a switch section, L
A display unit including an ED (light emitting diode) and a display unit including an LCD (liquid crystal display) are provided.

As the switch section, the timer rice switch 41 is operated when the timer rice is cooked when the rice is cooked at the set cooking time, and the timer rice switch 41 is operated when the warming is started and when the warming and reheating is performed during the warming. Set the heat retention / heat retention / reheat switch 42 as the reheating instruction input means, the rice cook / off switch 43, which is operated when starting the rice cooking and when stopping the operation during the rice cooking, heat retention, and reheating, and the cooking time. A timer setting switch 44 that is operated at any time, and a menu selection switch 45 that switches the rice cooking mode in order of white rice, brown rice, and porridge each time it is operated are provided.

As the LED display unit, a timer lamp 46 that lights up when the rice is cooked by a timer, and a heat-retaining lamp 4 that lights up during heat retention and reheat, and blinks during heat retention in the porridge mode.
7. A rice cooking lamp 48 is provided which is turned on during the rice cooking process at the time of rice cooking and blinks during the steaming process and during heat retention and reheating.

As the LCD display unit, an LCD display unit comprising a timer display unit for displaying the present time and the cooking time, and a menu display unit for displaying which one of the rice cooking modes, white rice, brown rice and porridge is selected. 49 are provided. FIG. 4 shows a flow of heat retention control processing performed by the microcomputer 21.

First, it is confirmed from the detection signal from the first temperature sensor 9 whether the detected temperature Ta is 71 ° C. or higher,
If the detected temperature Ta is 71 ° C. or higher, the first triac 27 is turned on and the second triac 28 is controlled to repeat the cycle of 4 seconds on and 2 seconds off. If the detected temperature Ta is less than 71 ° C. For example, heat retention control is performed to turn off both the first triac 27 and the second triac 28.

Next, it is judged whether or not the heat retention / heat retention / reheat switch 42 is turned on, and if it is not turned on, the process returns to the first process of the heat retention control process. When the heat retention / heat retention reheat switch 42 is turned on, it is determined whether the temperature Ta detected by the first temperature sensor 9 is less than 85 ° C. If the detected temperature Ta is 85 ° C or higher,
The buzzer alarm 35 is controlled by controlling the buzzer device 35 to cycle the alarm sound for 0.5 seconds on and 0.5 seconds off five times, and the buzzer notification A is performed, and the process returns to the first process of the heat retention control process. .

If the detected temperature Ta is lower than 85 ° C., it is judged whether or not the detected temperature Ta by the first temperature sensor 9 is 65 ° C. or higher. If the detected temperature Ta is less than 65 ° C., the buzzer device 35 is controlled to perform the above-mentioned buzzer notification A, and the process returns to the first process of this heat retention control process.

If the detected temperature Ta is 65 ° C. or higher,
Based on the detection signal from the second temperature sensor 18, it is determined whether or not the detected temperature Tb has dropped by 10 ° C. or more within 10 minutes in the past 5 minutes. (Lid open / close check method)

The detected temperature Tb is 10 within the last 5 minutes.
If there is no temperature drop of 10 ° C or more per second, the buzzer device 3
5 is controlled and the buzzer alarm B is performed by controlling the alarm sound to be turned on for 0.25 seconds five times and turned off for 0.25 seconds (reheating invalidating means) to return to the first processing of this heat retention control processing again. It has become.

If the detected temperature Tb drops by 10 ° C. or more within 10 seconds within the past 5 minutes, the first triac 27 and the second triac 28 are turned off, and the relay 23 is turned off. The control of repeating the cycle of on for 6 seconds and off for 6 seconds is performed to start heat retention and reheating. Therefore, the temperature Ta detected by the first temperature sensor 9 is from 85 ° C to 9 ° C.
Count the time it takes for the temperature to rise to 5 ° C.
If it is 5 seconds or more, the relay 23 is controlled to repeat a cycle of 5 seconds on and 6 seconds off, and the relay 23 is turned off when the detected temperature Ta is 130 ° C. If the time is less than 45 seconds, the relay 23 is controlled to repeat the cycle of turning on for 4 seconds and turning off for 6 seconds.
Turn off. In either case, 10 minutes after the heat retention / heat retention / reheat switch 42 is turned on, the control of the heat retention / reheat ends. (Reheating means)

When the heat retention / reheating is completed, the detected temperature Ta is 71 ° C. by the detection signal from the first temperature sensor 9.
Check if it is above, and if the detected temperature Ta is 71 ° C or higher,
When the first triac 27 is turned on and the second triac 28 is controlled to repeat a cycle of 4 seconds on and 2 seconds off, and if the detected temperature Ta is less than 71 ° C., the first triac 27 and the second triac 27 are turned on. Triac 2
Insulation control for turning off both 8 is performed.

In the heat retention control process shown in FIG. 4 described above, it is detected whether the temperature Tb detected by the second temperature sensor 18 has dropped by 10 ° C. or more within 10 seconds within the past 5 minutes. The microcomputer 21 may perform the heat retention control process shown in FIG. 5 for determining whether or not the temperature Tb has risen by 3 ° C. or more within 1 second within the past 5 minutes. In this embodiment having such a configuration, the rice cooking operation is performed in the white rice mode or the brown rice mode as shown in FIG.

That is, in hot water cooking (up to time A) as a rice cooking process, the rice cooking heater 5 is energized by the relay 23 for 3 minutes, 6 minutes, 100 seconds and 260 seconds.

Next, main cooked rice as a rice cooking process (time points A to C)
In (between), the relay 23 continuously energizes the rice cooking heater 5 until the boiling is detected under the condition that the temperature rise rate of the temperature detected by the first temperature sensor 9 falls below a certain value, and the second triac 28 2 to lid heater 12
Energize for 0 minutes. When boiling is detected (time B), the first temperature sensor 9 causes a predetermined cooking temperature T to rise.
c (105 ℃ -116 ℃ for white rice, 105 for brown rice)
The rice-cooking heater 5 is intermittently energized by the relay 23 until it detects (° C to 114 ° C). Further, when the energization of the lid heater 12 has passed for 20 minutes, energization control is repeated by the second triac 28 to repeat the cycle of energizing the lid heater 12 for 10 seconds and non-energizing for 10 seconds until the cooked temperature is detected.

When the cooked-up temperature Tc is detected (time point C), the second triac 28 is first used as a purging process.
Thus, the lid heater 12 is energized for 3 minutes. When the energization for 3 minutes is completed, the second triac 28 controls the energization of the lid heater 12 by repeating the cycle of energizing for 10 seconds and non-energizing for 10 seconds so that the first temperature sensor 9 keeps a predetermined temperature (about 71 ° C.). Do until detected. In addition, at a predetermined timing, the rice cooker heater 5 is turned on for 6 seconds or 9 by the relay 23.
Energize once per second.

When the heat retention temperature is detected by the first temperature sensor 9 (time point E), as a heat retention step, the relay 23 is completely turned off and the temperature detected by the first temperature sensor 9 falls below 71 ° C. The first triac 27 energizes the body heater 6, and while the body heater 6 is energized, the second triac 28 energizes the lid heater 12.
Then, the energization control for repeating the cycle of 4 seconds on and 2 seconds off is performed to control the temperature at 71 ° C. In porridge mode, see Figure 7.
As shown in, the rice cooking operation is performed.

That is, in hot water cooking (up to time F) as a rice cooking process, the rice cooking heater 5 by the relay 23 is energized for 3 minutes, deenergized for 6 minutes, energized for 100 seconds, and deenergized for 260 seconds.

Next, main cooked rice as a rice cooking process (time point F-H
In (between), the relay 23 continuously energizes the rice cooking heater 5 until the boiling is detected under the condition that the temperature rise rate of the temperature detected by the first temperature sensor 9 falls below a certain value, and the second triac 28 2 to lid heater 12
Energize for 0 minutes. When boiling is detected (time point G), the relay 23 causes the rice-cooking heater 5 to perform 4-10 minutes.
When the energization control is repeated by repeating a cycle of 0 second energization and 60 seconds non-energization, and when this energization control has passed for 2 to 10 minutes, the relay 23
Thus, the rice heating heater 5 is energized by repeating a cycle of energizing for 10 seconds for 10 seconds and non-energizing for 100 seconds. Further, when the energization of the lid heater 12 has passed for 20 minutes, the energization control is repeated by the second triac 28 to repeat the cycle of energization for 10 seconds 10 de-energization for the lid heater 12 until shifting to the heat retention step (up to time I). When the energization control of turning on the rice cooking heater 5 for 10 seconds and turning off for 100 seconds has passed for 24 minutes (time point H), the relay 23 is turned off for 6 minutes as a purging process.

When this purging process is completed (time point I),
As described above, the second triac 28 is turned off and the heat retention step is performed. That is, in this porridge mode heat retention step, heating by the heater is not performed.

When the rice cooking operation is completed and the heat retaining operation is started as described above, it is possible to perform heat retaining and reheating in the white rice mode and the brown rice mode. However, in order to perform this heat retention / reheat, the rice in the rice cooking pot 7 must be unraveled before the heat retention / heat retention / reheat switch 42 is turned on (generally about 5 minutes before).

As shown in FIG. 8, the above-mentioned rice cooking process (between time points A and C) and hot rice cooking (between time points A and C) and the Murashi step (between time points C and E) are completed and the heat retention step ( When the rice is loosened after entering (from time point E), the lid 11 is first opened (time point J). Then, the temperature Tb detected by the second temperature sensor 18 rapidly drops, the rice is loosened (according to the survey, the loosening is completed within about 1 minute), and the lid 11 is closed (time K). Then, the temperature Tb detected by the second temperature sensor 18 again rapidly increases.
When the lid 11 is simply opened and closed without loosening the rice, the above-mentioned temperature drop or temperature rise is not detected.

Therefore, when the heat retention / heat retention reheat switch 42 is turned on, the temperature Tb detected by the second temperature sensor 18 drops by 10 ° C. or more within 10 seconds within the past 5 minutes or 3 ° C. or more over 1 second. If the temperature rises, the rice is judged to have been loosened and the heat retention and reheating is started.

However, in the porridge mode, even if the heat retention / heat retention reheat switch 42 is turned on, the heat retention reheat is not performed. Further, also in the white rice mode and the brown rice mode, if the temperature Ta detected by the first temperature sensor 9 is 85 ° C. or higher or the temperature Ta is lower than 65 ° C., heat retention and reheating are not performed. In this case, A buzzer notification A is sounded by the buzzer device 35.

In the heat retention / reheat step, as shown in FIG. 9, when the heat retention / heat retention / reheat switch 42 is turned on in the heat retention step (time L), the rice cooker 7 is heated within the past 5 minutes as described above. If the rice inside has been loosened, first, the body heater 6 and the lid heater 12 are completely de-energized by the first triac 27 and the second triac 28, and the rice cooker heater 5 is turned on for 4 seconds by the relay 23. Energization control is performed by repeating a cycle of energization for 6 seconds and de-energization. Here, the time t required for the temperature Ta detected by the first temperature sensor 9 to rise from 85 ° C. to 95 ° C. is measured.

When the temperature Ta detected by the first temperature sensor 9 reaches 95 ° C. and the time t is 45 seconds or more, the rice cooker heater 23 is operated by the relay 23 until the detected temperature Ta reaches 130 ° C. (Te). The energization control is performed by repeating the cycle of 5 seconds energization for 5 seconds and 6 seconds non-energization, and if the time t is less than 45 seconds, until the detected temperature Ta reaches 120 ° C. (Te),
The relay 23 performs energization control by repeating a cycle of energizing the rice cooking heater 5 for 4 seconds and non-energizing for 6 seconds.

When the time t is 45 seconds or more or less than 45 seconds and the temperatures Ta detected by the first temperature sensor 9 reach 130 ° C. or 120 ° C., respectively, the relay 23 is completely turned off, and thereafter the non-heating is performed. It is designed to continue.

When 10 minutes have passed since the heat retention / heat retention reheat switch 42 was turned on (time M), the first triac 27 and the second triac 28 again operate at 71 ° C. during any operation of the heat retention reheat. Then, the process proceeds to the heat retention step of controlling the energization of the body heater 6 and the lid heater 12.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the heat retention / heat retention reheat switch 42 is turned on during heat retention,
1 second every 10 seconds in the last 5 minutes by the second temperature sensor 18.
Whether or not the rice in the rice cooker is loosened by determining that the lid 11 has been opened and closed and the rice has been loosened when there is a temperature drop of 0 ° C or higher or a temperature rise of 3 ° C or higher in 1 second. Can be confirmed.

Therefore, when there is a temperature drop of 10 ° C. or more in 10 seconds in the past 5 minutes or a temperature rise of 3 ° C. in 1 second, heat retention and reheating are performed, and a temperature of 10 ° C. or more in 10 seconds in the last 5 minutes. When there is no drop or temperature rise of 3 ° C or more in 1 second, heat retention reheating is disabled, buzzer device 35 performs buzzer notification B, and returns to heat retention operation to prevent the rice from drying due to reheating. The user can be informed by the buzzer notification B that the rice has not been loosened.

In this embodiment, the opening / closing of the lid 11 is detected by the change in the temperature detected by the second temperature sensor 18, but the present invention is not limited to this. A sensor that mechanically detects the opening / closing operation is provided.
It is also possible to judge whether or not the rice has been loosened based on whether or not the open state has been maintained for a predetermined period of 1 or longer.

[0052]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
By confirming whether or not the rice in the rice cooker was loosened in the past during the reheating operation and performing the reheating, it is possible to prevent the rice from drying due to the reheating, and the rice is not loosened. It is possible to provide a warming pot that can inform the user at times.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a circuit configuration of a main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a front view of an operation panel of the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of heat retention control processing of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the flow of another example of the heat retention control process of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing various timings when cooking rice in a white rice mode or a brown rice mode of the same embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing various timings when rice is cooked in the porridge mode of the same embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a temperature change when the lid is opened and closed by the second temperature sensor of the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing various timings at the time of heat retention and reheating in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

5 ... rice cooking heater, 6 ... body heater, 7 ... rice cooking pot, 9 ... first
Temperature sensor, 12 ... Lid heater, 18 ... Second temperature sensor, 21 ... Microcomputer, 26 ... Relay, 27
… First Triac, 28… Second Triac, 3
3 ... Operation panel, 35 ... Buzzer device, 42 ... Heat retention / heat retention reheat switch.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An opening of a pot body containing a rice cooking pot is closed by a lid, the rice cooking pot is heated by a rice cooking heater to perform a rice cooking operation, and the rice cooking pot is heated by a warming heater after the completion of the rice cooking operation. In the warming pot that performs the warming operation by
A reheating instruction input means for inputting a reheating instruction, and a history of whether or not the lid has been opened / closed from a preset time when the reheating instruction is input by the reheating instruction input means. The lid opening / closing confirmation means for confirming, and when the lid opening / closing operation is confirmed by the lid opening / closing confirmation means,
Reheating means for heating the rice cooking pot by the rice cooking heater to perform reheating operation, and prohibiting the reheating operation and notifying reheating invalidity when the lid opening / closing confirmation means confirms that there is no opening / closing operation of the lid. A warming pot characterized by being provided with a reheating invalidating means.