JPH10328020A - Constant pressure cooking apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve a better cooking regardless of difference in the capacity of cooking material. SOLUTION: The body 1 of a container is provided with a container heating means 6 and a control means 5 for controlling the container heating means 6 to heat a cooking container 3 housed therein. A lid body 2 is provided with a lid heating means 8, a lid temperature detecting means 9 to detect the temperature of the internal surface of the lid body 2 and a pressure sensor 10 to detect an internal pressure of the cooking container 3. An upper opening part of the body 1 of the container is closed. The control means 5 stops the heating of the cooking container 3 by the container heating means 6 as the detected temperature by the lid temperature detecting means 9 exceeds a set value.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a constant-pressure cooking apparatus, and more particularly to a constant-pressure cooking apparatus having a function of detecting the end of cooking.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a constant-pressure cooking apparatus, heating control is performed so that the internal pressure (or temperature) of a cooking vessel is kept constant, and cooking is terminated after a lapse of a predetermined time. If the capacity of the food to be stored in the cooking container is different, cooking is performed in a cooking time corresponding to each capacity.

[0003]

However, the constant-pressure cooking apparatus has a trouble that a user has to set a cooking time for each food. In addition, there is a case where the cooking time is forgotten to be reset, or even if it is set, an appropriate time cannot be set. In particular, since the finished state of the food is affected by differences in cooking conditions such as the ambient temperature of the surroundings, it is difficult to always perform preferable cooking only by changing the cooking time as described above.

[0004] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a constant-pressure cooking device that can always perform preferable cooking irrespective of the difference in the capacity of the food.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a container main body provided with a container heating means for heating a cooking container and containing the cooking container, and an upper opening of the container main body. A constant-pressure cooking apparatus comprising: a closed body having a lid heating means, a pressure sensor for detecting an internal pressure of the cooking vessel, and control means for controlling the vessel heating means based on a pressure detected by the pressure sensor. A lid temperature detecting means provided on the lid body, and if the temperature detected by the lid temperature detecting means is equal to or higher than a set value during the heating control by the container heating means and the lid heating means, the container heating is performed by the control means. The heating of the cooking container by the means is stopped.

[0006] The set value may be set at a predetermined temperature higher than the temperature of the food at the end of cooking. This value is, for example, 110 to 120 ° C. for a rice cooker, preferably 1 to 120 ° C.
The temperature may be set to 15 ° C.

[0007] According to the constant-pressure cooking apparatus having the above-described configuration, when the container is filled with steam, the cooling by steam is superior to the heating by the lid heating means, and the temperature detected by the lid temperature detecting means is equal to or higher than a certain value. However, when the excess water contained in the food is removed and the water vapor in the container decreases, the heating by the lid heating means prevails, and the temperature detected by the lid temperature detecting means becomes higher than the set value. Thus, when the cooking is completed, the heating of the cooking container by the container heating means can be accurately stopped.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a constant-pressure cooking apparatus according to the present invention. This constant-pressure cooking device has a configuration in which a lid 2 is rotatably attached to a container body 1 and accommodates a cooking container 3, and can be used as a rice cooker or a steamer.

[0010] The container body 1 is a bottomed cylindrical shape provided with an accommodating recess 4 in which the cooking container 3 is removably accommodated. The control unit 5 and the induction heating coil 6 are disposed in the internal space of the container body 1. The induction heating coil 6 includes the accommodation recess 4.
Is located on the lower surface of the bottom. A through hole 4a is formed in the center of the bottom of the accommodation recess 4, and a container temperature sensor 7 is provided therein. The container temperature sensor 7 detects the temperature at the center of the bottom surface of the cooking container 3 and outputs a detection signal to the control unit 5. The control unit 5 receives an input signal from the container temperature sensor 7 or the like, and controls the conduction of the induction heating coil 6.

The lid 2 is rotatably and detachably connected to the container body 1. The lid 2 has a hermetically sealed structure, and a lid heater 8, a lid temperature detection sensor 9, a pressure sensor 10, and a pressure adjusting unit 11 are provided in the internal space.

The lid heater 8 is disposed so as to be in contact with the inner surface of the lid 2, and directly heats the inner surface of the lid 2 with power supplied from the container body 1.

The lid temperature detecting sensor 9 is disposed on the inner surface of the lid 2 and directly detects the inner surface temperature of the lid 2. As the lid temperature detection sensor 9, a thermistor that changes an electric resistance value according to a change in the inner surface temperature of the lid 2 is used. The pressure sensor 10 is disposed inside the lid 2, and has a pressure detection unit facing the internal space of the cooking container 3. As the pressure sensor 10, a semiconductor sensor using a “piezoresistance effect” in which an electric resistance value changes when a strain is generated by pressure is used.

The pressure adjusting section 11 has a ball 13 disposed in an air passage 12 communicating the inner and outer surfaces of the lid 2.
In the pressure adjusting unit 11, the ball 13 is lifted by the internal pressure rising to a predetermined value while the lid 2 is closed, and the air is discharged to the outside. However, when using for constant-pressure cooking, heating control is performed so that the internal pressure is maintained constant by the pressure sensor 10. Therefore, the pressure adjusting unit 11 attempts to adjust the internal pressure only when the pressure sensor 10 is out of order. It plays a role in preventing an abnormal rise in pressure significantly.

Next, cooking control by the control unit 5 provided in the container body 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

(Preheating Step) First, when there is an input signal from a cooking switch (not shown) (step S1), energization of the induction heating coil 6 is started (step S2). The induction heating coil 6 performs induction heating on the bottom surface of the cooking vessel 3 at a conduction rate of 7/15. Then, the induction heating of the cooking container 3 is continued by the induction heating coil 6 until the temperature detected by the container temperature sensor 7 exceeds 43 ° C. (step S3).

If the temperature detected by the container temperature sensor 7 exceeds 43 ° C., the induction heating coil 6 is turned on / off (step S4). Here, if the detected temperature is less than 50 ° C., the induction heating coil 6 is turned on at a duty ratio of 7/15, and if it is 50 ° C. or more, it is turned off. This on / off control is performed until 12 minutes have elapsed since the detected temperature exceeded 43 ° C. (step S5).

(Intermediate Step) When the preheating step is completed, the duty ratio of the induction heating coil 6 is set to 100% (step S6). Then, the power supply to the induction heating coil 6 is continued until the temperature detected by the lid temperature detecting sensor 9 exceeds 70 ° C. (step S7).

(Constant Pressure Step) When the temperature detected by the lid temperature detecting sensor 9 exceeds 70 ° C., the lid heater 8 is turned on (step S8), and the power supply to the induction heating coil 6 is continued (step S9).

Here, it is determined whether or not the inner surface temperature Tin of the cover 2 detected by the cover temperature detecting sensor 9 has exceeded the set temperature Th (step S10). Inner surface temperature Tin of lid 2
The temperature gradually rises from the start of cooking and becomes constant at about 100 ° C. when the food is brought to a boiling state because the steam is full while moisture remains. Thereafter, when the food absorbs moisture and the amount of water vapor decreases, the heating by the lid heater 8 prevails, and the inner surface temperature Tin of the lid 2 rises again. Since the temperature rise from the boiling state remarkably appears as shown in the graph of FIG. 3, it can be easily set by setting the set temperature Th to a value higher than the boiling temperature of the food by a predetermined temperature. Thus, if the detected inner surface temperature Tin exceeds the set temperature Th, it can be determined that the cooking is completed after the food is boiled and excess water is removed. In addition, when the temperature of the cooking container 3 is detected, there is no significant change as shown in FIG.

If the detected temperature Tin exceeds the set temperature Th, it is determined that cooking is completed, and the process proceeds to the next step (for example, the temperature is adjusted to a predetermined temperature and the temperature is maintained). If the detected temperature Tin is equal to or lower than the set temperature Th, it is determined whether the pressure detected by the pressure sensor 10 exceeds the set pressure Ph (step S11). If the detected pressure Pin exceeds the set pressure Ph, the power supply to the induction heating coil 6 is stopped to suppress an increase in the internal pressure (step S12). The stop of energization is continued until the detected pressure Pin becomes smaller than the set pressure Ph. If the detected pressure Pin is lower than the set pressure Ph, the process returns to the step S9 to energize the induction heating coil 6 to heat the food.

In the above embodiment, power is directly supplied to the lid heater 8 by a cord. However, the primary coil is provided in the container body 1, while the lid 2 is opposed to the primary coil. By providing a secondary coil, the lid heater 8 may be energized in a non-contact manner. In this case, in order to transmit a detection signal from the lid temperature detection sensor 9 to the control unit 5, it is necessary to provide a sensor signal transmission unit on the lid 2, a signal reception unit on the cooking vessel 1, and the like. is there.

[0023]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the constant-pressure cooking device of the present invention, the lid is provided with the lid temperature detecting means, and the control means sets the temperature detected by the lid temperature detecting means. If the value is equal to or more than the value, the heating of the cooking container by the container heating means is stopped, so that the cooking can be automatically terminated when the cooking is completed, regardless of the difference in the capacity of the food.

In particular, since the end time of the cooking is determined based on the temperature detected by the lid temperature detecting means, the completion of the cooking is utilized by using a larger temperature change rate than in the case of detecting the temperature of the cooking vessel. Can be easily determined.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a constant-pressure cooking device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing cooking control in a control unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a graph showing a relationship between an inner surface temperature of a lid and a surface temperature of a cooking container.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Container main body 2 Lid 3 Cooking container 5 Control part (control means) 6 Induction heating coil (container heating means) 8 Lid heater (lid heating means) 9 Lid temperature detection sensor (lid temperature detecting means) 10 Pressure sensor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A container body in which a cooking container is accommodated and provided with a container heating means for heating the cooking container, a lid body closing an upper opening of the container body and having a lid heating means, A constant-pressure cooking apparatus comprising: a pressure sensor for detecting an internal pressure; and control means for controlling the container heating means based on the pressure detected by the pressure sensor. During the heating control by the means and the lid heating means, if the temperature detected by the lid temperature detecting means becomes equal to or higher than a set value, the control means stops heating the cooking container by the container heating means. Cooking equipment. 2. The constant-pressure cooking device according to claim 1, wherein the set value is set at a predetermined temperature higher than the temperature of the food at the end of cooking.