JPS61186725A - Heater - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide with a heater capable of setting a height of a heater automatically and correctly so as to obtain an appropriate height in correlation to various kinds of heating objects having a different height individually by a method wherein a height detecting sensor is employed for detecting a height of a heating object placed on a metal tray in a heating chamber. CONSTITUTION:A height detecting sensor 11 for detecting a height of a heating object 7, material to be heated, are arranged with a plurality of units longitudinally along the wall of the heating chamber 5, by which the height of the heating object, placed on the rotating tray 3, is detected, then outputs a signal for controlling an adjustable and driving device 2. Subsequently, the said device 2 drives to rotate DC motor 24, by which the heater 1 is moved vertically and is stopped at the nearest position to the heating object 7. In next stage, a main control circuit 21 actuates a heater relay coil 31b to make a relay switch 31a to close for the heater 1 on, thereby a grill heating to bake the heating object 7 is proceeded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field> The present invention relates to a heater such as a microwave oven with a heater, and in particular, the height of the heater is set to the height of the object to be heated. This is related to positive position control.

<Prior art> Conventionally, in a microwave oven equipped with a heater, when performing grill heating (the menu for browning fish, gratin, etc. is generally referred to as grill heating), the heater 1 must be manually moved up and down, or the heater 1 must be turned up and down as shown in Figure 7. By changing the voltage of the electric motor 2A connected to the electric motor 1 or by changing the polarity, the user moves the heater position according to the height of the object to be heated 7 on the mounting plate 3 in the heating chamber 5. The heater position was set appropriately. However, since the user sets the heater position, the user may forget to bring the heater 1 close to the object to be heated 7 and the object to be heated 7 may not be scorched, or the heater may be positioned inappropriately and the object to be heated 7 may be charred and not overheated. The finished product of the object to be heated 7 was highly uneven, and the heater position setting operation was troublesome.

Purpose 〉 In view of the above, the present invention uses a height detection sensor to detect the height of the object to be heated on the mounting plate in the heating chamber, and automatically operates the heater according to the height of the object to be heated. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a heater that can be set accurately and accurately.

<Example> An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a schematic structure of a microwave oven which is an embodiment of the present invention. In this microwave oven as a heater, a heater 1 is installed in a heating chamber 5 so that the height can be adjusted freely, an adjustment drive device 2 for adjusting the height of the heater 1 is provided, and a heated object is placed in the heating chamber 5. A mounting plate 3 for placing an object 7 is rotatably installed around a rotating shaft 8, and a rotation drive device 9 for rotationally driving the mounting plate 3 is provided, and the adjustment drive device 2 and the rotation Control device 1 that controls drive device 9
0 is provided, a plurality of height detection sensors 11 for detecting the height of the object to be heated 7 in the heating chamber 5 are arranged in the vertical direction on the wall of the heating chamber, and the control device 10 controls the rotational drive. The device 10 is driven to rotate the mounting plate 3 by 180 degrees or more, the height of the object to be heated 7 is detected based on the output signal of the height detection sensor 11, and a signal for controlling the adjustment drive device 2 is output. The plurality of height detection sensors 11 are arranged in a geometric progression so that the intervals between them are sparse in the upper part of the heating chamber 5 and denser in the lower part of the heating chamber 5. be.

The height detection sensor 11 is a light sensor, and the light emitting element 1
The light emitting elements 12 are interposed between one side wall of the heating chamber 5 and the heater main body 14 housing the heating chamber 5, and arranged in a geometric progression in the vertical direction. Also, a plurality of small holes 15 are formed in the side wall of the heating chamber 5 at the same position as the light emitting element 12. The light receiving elements 13 are arranged in a geometric series on the outside of the side wall of the heating chamber 5 facing the light emitting element 12 in correspondence with the position (height) of the light emitting element 12, and on the side wall of the heating chamber 5. A small hole 16 is formed.

The reason why the height detection sensors 11 are arranged equally in a series is as follows. When actually grilling an object in a microwave oven, the height of the object can be determined empirically from the menu. Figure 6 (a) shows various grill menus and the height of the heated object at that time as a frequency distribution. The height H is plotted as a frequency distribution for each menu. From this result,
When various objects to be heated are actually placed on the mounting plate 3, the height of the heated object that is frequently used is a portion of the heating chamber close to the mounting plate 3. Therefore, we increased the height accuracy of the heater in that area.
For menus that are rarely used and heater heights that rarely occur, that is, for the upper side of the heating chamber 5, the accuracy of the heater height is reduced.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the microwave oven, in which the light receiving element 13
and the light-emitting element 12 are arranged opposite to each other in point-symmetrical positions with respect to the axis A of the rotating shaft 8 of the mounting plate 3. As the light emitting element 12, an oven lamp or a light emitting diode is used. As shown in FIG. 3, the light-receiving elements 13 are composed of phototransistors (a photodiode or the like can also be used), and the emitter side of each light-receiving element 13 is connected to the base side of the transistor 18. When light enters the light-receiving element 13, the transistor 18 is ONL, the collector voltage of the L transistor 18 becomes L level (Ov), and when no light enters, the collector voltage of the transistor 18 becomes H level (+Vc).
). The signal level of each transistor 18 is then sent to the interface 22 of the main control circuit 21 of the control device 10.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the control device, in which the control device 10
is a main control circuit 21 (microcomputer) that controls the heater heating device B, high-frequency heating device C1, and rotation drive device 9, and a setting that outputs signals such as the selection key 23A and cooking start key 23B to the main control circuit 21. The setting device 23 and the main control circuit 21 are connected via an interface 22.

The adjustment drive device 2 is composed of a DC motor 24 and a motor control circuit (IC) 25 that controls the motor to rotate, reverse, and stop, and receives signals for forward/reverse rotation and stop via an interface 22. Main control circuit 21
is output.

The rotary drive device 9 includes a tray drive motor 26, a relay switch 27a that turns the motor 26 ON and OFF, and a relay filter 27b that activates the relay switch 27a.
, the relay coil 2 is activated by the output signal of the main control circuit 21.
7b, and a transistor 28 that drives the motor 2.
6 and the relay switch 27a are connected to the power plug 30 via the door switch 29. - The heater heating device B includes a heater 1 and an
It consists of a relay switch 31a that performs N/○FF control, a relay coil 31b that operates the relay switch 31a, and a transistor 32 that drives the relay coil 31b by the output signal of the main control circuit 21. is connected to the power plug 30 via two door switches.

The high-frequency heating device C also includes an oscillation circuit 36 including a magnetron 4, a resonant capacitor 33, a diode 34, a transformer 35, etc., a relay switch 37a that conducts to the oscillation circuit, and a relay fill 37b that operates the relay switch 37a. , a transistor 38 that drives the relay coil 37b by the output signal of the main control circuit 21, and the primary side of the transformer 35 and the relay switch 37.
a is connected to a power plug 30 via a door switch 29.

Note that 39 in Figure 4.5.6 is a cooking grate, which is a special accessory used to drain the oil when grilling fish.

Next, the operation will be explained. First, press the selection key 23A of the setting device 23.
When the grill key is pressed, a menu is selected, and the heating start key 23B is pressed, the main control circuit 21 operates the tray drive relay coil 31b, closes the relay switch 27a, and rotates the tray 3.

Next, if the light emitting element 12 is made to emit light and there are a plurality of outputs of the transistors 18 that change according to the input of the light receiving element 13,
Since that many "L" level or rHJ level signals are sent, they are read into the main control circuit 21. If detection is performed without rotating the drying plate 3, detection may not be possible or may occur depending on where the heated object is placed.

4 and 5 are a schematic diagram (each figure (a)) when the object to be heated 7 is actually put on the cooking grid 39 and operated, and a diagram showing the output of the transistor 18 at that time (each figure (a)). Figure (b)
). As shown in FIG. 4, if the heated object 7 reaches the light receiving element 13 without blocking the light from the light emitting element 12, the output of the transistor 18 will be at the rLJ level. As shown in FIG. 5, when the height of the heated object 7 is high, the light does not reach the light receiving element 13, and the output of the transistor 18 in the shaded area is rH.
Become J level. As the mounting plate 3 rotates, the light may or may not be irradiated, so the rLJrHJ level of the output often shifts as shown in FIG. 5(b).

Therefore, until the mounting plate 3 rotates 180 degrees, the light receiving element 13
The output is read by the main control circuit 21. Then, it is checked which of the plurality of light receiving elements 13 has reached the rHl level even once, and if there is a light receiving element 13 that has reached the rHJ level even once, the height of that light receiving element 13 is 7 indicates that it is up to the corresponding height. Therefore, if the heater 2 is lowered to the position of the light receiving element 13 that has reached the rHJ level, the heater 2 will hit the object to be heated 7, so the main control circuit 21 lowers the heater 2 to the position of the light receiving element 13 directly above it. , sends a signal to the control circuit 25 of the adjustment drive device 2, rotates the DC motor 24, and lowers the heater 2. At this time, since the height detection sensors 11 are closely spaced near the upper end of the object to be heated, the height of the object to be heated can be detected with high precision.
can be brought closest to When the detected heater height is reached, the main control circuit 21 outputs a stop signal to the control circuit 25 in the same manner as described above, and stops the motor 24.
Next, the main control circuit 21 operates the heater relay coil 31b, operates the relay switch 31a, and turns the heater 2 on.
N, and grill heating is performed to scorch the object 7 to be heated. After a certain period of time has elapsed, the main control circuit 21 sends a signal to the motor control circuit 25 to stop heating and automatically return the heater 1 to its original position (upward).

In addition, in the present invention, the arrangement of the height detection sensors is expressed as a geometrical series arrangement, but the point is that the sensors are arranged densely at a height close to the mounting plate, and arranged at the kneading part close to the ceiling of the heating chamber. It means that. This roughly corresponds to a geometric series, so it is expressed as above. Further, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and it goes without saying that many modifications and changes can be made to the above embodiments within the scope of the present invention. For example, in this embodiment, the sensor is an optical sensor, but the present invention can also be applied to a case in which a plurality of sensors that utilize reflection of light waves or the like are arranged side by side.

Effect> As is clear from the above description, the present invention provides a heater in which a heater is installed in a heating chamber so that its height can be freely adjusted, and an adjustment drive device for adjusting the height of the heater is provided. A plurality of height detection sensors for detecting the height of the object to be heated in the heating chamber are arranged vertically on the wall of the heating chamber, and the height of the object to be heated is detected by the output signal of the height detection sensor. and a control device for controlling the adjustment drive device, and the plurality of height detection sensors are arranged in a geometric series such that the spacing between them is sparse in the upper part of the heating chamber and denser in the lower part of the heating chamber. This invention relates to a heater characterized by the following.

That is, in the present invention, a plurality of height detection sensors are arranged in a geometric series arrangement, and the height of the object to be heated is detected according to the output from the height detection sensors, and the heater is controlled to a predetermined height. Height detection sensors are densely arranged at the height of frequently used objects to be heated, allowing for more accurate detection than when the sensors are arranged evenly, and the number of sensors can be reduced compared to an evenly arranged arrangement, making it possible to reduce costs. It has excellent effects such as:

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a front view showing a schematic structure of a microwave oven which is an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof, Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of a control device, Figs. Figure 5 (a) is a schematic diagram of when the object to be heated is actually placed on the cooking grid and operated;
Figures 4(b) and 5(b) are diagrams showing the output of the transistor at that time, and Figure 6(a) is the degree representing the type of grill menu and the height of the heated object outside. Distribution map, FIG. 6(b) is a schematic front view showing the height H of the heated object,
FIG. 7 is a schematic front view of a conventional microwave oven. 1: Heater, 2: Adjustment drive device, 3: Placement plate, 5: Heating chamber, 7: Object to be heated, 8: Rotation shaft, 9: Rotation drive device, 1
0: Control device, 11: Height detection sensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Height detection for detecting the height of an object to be heated in the heating chamber, in a heater in which a heater is installed in a heating chamber so that the height can be freely adjusted, and an adjustment drive device for adjusting the height of the heater is provided. A plurality of sensors are arranged in the vertical direction on the wall of the heating chamber, and a control device is provided that detects the height of the object to be heated based on the output signal of the height detection sensor and controls the adjustment drive device. A heater characterized in that the plurality of height detection sensors are arranged in a geometric progression so that the intervals between them are sparse in the upper part of the heating chamber and denser in the lower part of the heating chamber.