KR20210109481A - Portable Induction Thermostat Operates on DC Power from Rechargeable Batteries - Google Patents

Abstract

A portable induction warming device to operate on direct current (DC) power from a rechargeable battery is provided. The device includes: a detachable DC power pack which includes an overheat prevention sensor for safety and is configured to supply power; a rated output control unit which is connected to the DC power pack and is configured to control the power supplied from the DC power pack by rated power; a low-power high-frequency inverter unit which is configured to receive DC output from the rated output control unit; a resonant coil (111) which is connected to a switching FET circuit and is configured to receive a current; and a bridge whose height can be adjusted by extension and support.

Description

Portable Induction Thermostat Operates on DC Power from Rechargeable Batteries

The present disclosure relates to an induction warming device, and more particularly, to a portable induction warming device operated by DC power of a rechargeable battery.

In Western countries where party culture is well developed, the market size of related products is considerable, and as of 2018, the Serveware market in the United States was worth $12.3 billion. In the market in this field, bowls and platters as well as chafing dishes, which are cooking containers, account for 25% of the market, accounting for about $3 billion. Butane gas, alcohol, solid fuel, etc. were used as fuel for the conventional chafing dish, and since these fuels directly transmit thermal energy through a flame, there is a high risk of fire. Accordingly, the market demand for a new type of chafing dish warmer is continuously increasing, and tableware companies are increasing interest in the electric chafing dish.

Electric chafing dishes can be generally classified into heaters and induction dishes. In terms of energy efficiency, induction chafing dishes have recently been attracting attention. A cooktop with induction technology (hereafter referred to as induction cooktop) does not generate a flame unlike gas or solid fuel, so it can reduce the risk of fire, and even while heat is being generated in the cookware, the ceramic glass on the top of the induction cooktop The surface itself does not heat up, and it is preferred because it heats up quickly and has high energy efficiency compared to other cooking methods.

On the other hand, in the case of the conventional induction cooktop, since power must be connected, there is a limitation in using several cooktops on one table, and there is a problem in that the view is not good if the wires are not arranged.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a device in which the electric wire, which is a fundamental problem of the electronic chopping dish warmer, is removed without using butane gas, alcohol, or solid fuel, which is a high risk of fire.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a charging dish warmer with high energy efficiency that can be used independently anytime, anywhere, and can use a DC independent power source with limited power.

The present disclosure intends to supply a low-power constant power of around 300Wh that is optimal for keeping warm by applying a voltage switching technology by a switching FET (Field effect transistor) dp to a DC input current.

According to one feature of the present disclosure, there is provided a portable induction warming device operated by DC power of a rechargeable battery. The apparatus includes a direct current power supply unit (102) configured to supply power; a rated output control unit 107 configured to control the power supplied from the DC power pack 105 in the DC power supply unit to a rated power; a low-power high-frequency inverter unit 110 configured to receive a direct current (DC) current output from the rated output control unit; and an induction heating unit 116 of a resonant coil 111 connected to the low-power high-frequency inverter unit 110 and configured to receive a current.

In an embodiment, the DC power pack includes a protection circuit module 101 that prevents overdischarge and overcharge of an electronic device, a battery management system 103 that monitors cell balancing, and an overheat protection to prevent explosion due to overheating of the battery. It may be operably connected to the sensor 119 .

In one embodiment, the device is connected to the DC power pack, and measures the voltage and current of the DC power pack and includes an auxiliary power 117 that assists the DC power to supply DC power to the induction component. can

In one embodiment, the DC power pack may be configured to directly supply DC power that has passed through the EMI filter 106 without being connected to a bridge rectifier to allow a high-frequency current of 20 to 90 kHz to flow through the coil.

In one embodiment, the rated voltage control unit 107 measures the voltage and current output from the DC power pack 105 through the voltage-current compensator 109 and the thermal insulation measurement sensor 123 for measuring the temperature of the induction cooktop. The rated output may be controlled through the PWM output controller 108 according to the measured temperature.

In one embodiment, the low-power, high-frequency inverter unit 110 further includes a switching field effect transistor (FET) 111 and a FET driver 115, and the switching FET 111 has zero power at the resonant switch at the switching moment. It may be adjusted so that the current passing through the low-power high-frequency inverter unit 110 passes through the resonance coil 113 of the induction heating unit 116 to generate a magnetic field by a magnetic induction phenomenon.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, since the portable induction warming device operated by the DC power of the rechargeable battery does not use solid fuel, it is possible to prevent fire hazard, smoke, pollution, and odor.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the portable induction warming device operated by the DC power of the rechargeable battery may not use a complicated and messy power cable, which is a fundamental problem of the electric induction cooktop, by using an independent power source.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the portable induction warming device operated by the DC power of the rechargeable battery may directly use the DC current of the removable battery pack without a bridge rectifier.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, it is possible to reduce overheating by using a switching FET instead of an IGBT used for conventional induction, and it is possible to remove the FAN, and thus, it is possible to increase the thermal efficiency.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, by adopting a low-power, high-frequency inverter circuit with reduced power consumption in order to solve the biggest problem of battery capacity, which is the biggest problem of portable induction, it is possible to optimize thermal efficiency compared to capacity by reducing heat generation and increasing heat dissipation efficiency.

According to the implementation of the present disclosure, the efficiency of the battery pack 105 can be maximized by measuring the heating temperature of the cooktop and controlling the rated output according to the rated temperature according to the US federal government regulations.

In addition, according to the present disclosure, it is possible to optimize the battery usage time by closely measuring the temperature of the cookware and supplying the optimum power required to maintain the temperature.

In addition, according to the present disclosure, by changing the length of the bridge and the support, the induction and the cooktop are closely contacted, so that thermal efficiency can be increased.

1 is a block diagram illustrating DC power induction according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
2A and 2B are views illustrating an external view of a DC power pack, a bridge, and a support of a device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter, when it is determined that there is a risk of unnecessarily obscuring the subject matter of the present disclosure, detailed descriptions of already known functions and configurations will be omitted. In addition, it should be understood that the contents described below are only related to one embodiment of the present disclosure, and the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

The terms used herein are used only to describe specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. For example, an element expressed in a singular should be understood as a concept including a plurality of elements unless the context clearly means only the singular. In addition, in the specification of the present disclosure, terms such as 'comprise' or 'have' are merely intended to designate that the features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof described in the specification exist, and such The use of the term is not intended to exclude the possibility of the presence or addition of one or more other features or numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.

In the embodiments described in the present specification, 'unit' means a functional part that performs at least one function or operation, and may be implemented as hardware or software, or a combination of hardware and software. In addition, the plurality of 'units' may be integrated into at least one software module and implemented by at least one processor, except for 'units' that need to be implemented with specific hardware. In addition, unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It should be noted that commonly used terms defined in the dictionary should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the related art, and should not be construed as unduly limited or expanded unless explicitly defined otherwise in the specification of the present disclosure. should know

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail.

Induction technology is based on electromagnetic induction technology discovered by Michael Faraday in 1831. Electromagnetic induction refers to a phenomenon in which an electric current is generated in a closed circuit due to a change in current in another adjacent circuit. That is, when a conductive metal is placed in a magnetic field generated when a high-frequency current flows in the heating coil, an eddy current is induced on the surface of the metal, and Joule heat is generated by skin resistance.

The resonance coil inside the induction has a driving system inside that heats a cookware cooking container such as a pot by a magnetic field generated by magnetic induction and generates a magnetic field in this induction heating unit.

Conventional alternating current (AC) induction converts alternating current (AC) power input as power through a rectifier called a bridge rectifier into direct current (DC) power and controls the entire drive system with noise filtering at 18V. and 5V (recently, the voltage has been lowered to 3.2V), etc., to output DC voltage.

The general induction cooktop system is controlled by an MCU (Micro Control Unit) and instructs an IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) that applies a high frequency through an L-C series resonance circuit to an optimal resonant frequency condition. The resonance frequency is converted according to the L-C resonance converter principle, and there is a difference depending on the size and material of the cookware container as well as the resonance tank circuit. MCU adjusts the switching frequency to control the power of the system transmitted to the cookware container and can monitor the input main voltage and current flowing through the IGBT. has been A typical induction cooktop provides heat by converting it into high frequency through IGBT based on high voltage AC power. Since this method causes high heat generation and consequent energy loss, the basic structure of AC power induction cooktop is direct current with limited capacity. It is not suitable for power supply.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a portable induction warming device based on a switching FET, which operates with DC power of a rechargeable battery according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the portable induction warming device 100 based on a switching FET includes a DC power supply unit 102 , an overheat prevention sensor 119 , an EMI filter 106 , an auxiliary power unit 117 , and a rated output control unit ( rated power control; 116 , an auxiliary power unit 117 , a thermal insulation measurement sensor 123 , a Micro Control Unit (MCU) 121 , an LED display 125 , and a user interface 129 .

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the DC power supply unit 102 may supply power to the portable induction warming device 100 . In an embodiment, the DC Power Pack 105 may have higher stability and a higher charge frequency (Life Tme or Life Cycle) by using a lithium ion or lithium iron phosphate battery. In one embodiment, the DC power supply unit 102 is a protection circuit module (PCM; 101) for preventing over-discharge and over-charge of the electronic device and a battery management system (BMS; ) may be included. In one embodiment, the DC power supply unit 102 may include an overheat prevention sensor 119 to prevent overheating and explosion of the battery pack 105 .

In an embodiment, the DC power supply unit 102 may further include an EMI filter 106 for removing electromagnetic waves supplied from the DC power pack 105 .

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the rated power control (rated power control) 107 may further include an output controller 108 and a voltage and current compensator 109 . In one embodiment, the rated output control unit 107 measures the voltage and current of the power supplied from the above-described DC power pack 105 through the voltage-current compensator 109 according to the temperature of the thermal insulation measurement sensor 123 . The PWM output controller 108 may control rated power for achieving the reference temperature of the cooktop.

In an embodiment, the current output from the rated output control unit 107 may be input to the low power high frequency inverter unit 110 .

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the low-power, high-frequency inverter unit 110 may include a switching field effect transistor (switching FET) 111 and a driver 115 . In one embodiment, the switching FET 111 is a semiconductor device for low-power switching made to quickly perform a switching function to block or pass an electric flow. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the switching FET 111 is a switching element of a converter for power conversion, and can be adjusted so that the voltage or current becomes zero in the resonant switch at the switching moment through the 'soft switching' technique. That is, power conversion using the switching FET 111 is the resonance of power. To explain, the conventional rectifier provides an AD conversion function. It converts alternating current (AC) input as power to direct current (DC) through a rectifier called a bridge rectifier and converts the entire drive system along with noise filtering. Direct current is output for control. However, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, it is possible to omit the bridge rectifier circuit and directly supply the DC power stored in the battery to the low-power high-frequency inverter unit 110 . That is, the DC current passing through the rated power control unit 107 is supplied to the low power high frequency inverter unit 110 .

In one embodiment, the high-power high-frequency inverter unit 110 applies the input DC current to the switching FET 111 and applies a voltage (4 times to 5 times) switching technology to supply a low-power constant power of about 300Wh.

The configuration of the low-power, high-frequency inverter unit 110 used in the portable induction warming device is well known to those skilled in the art, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the portable induction warming device 100 based on a switching FET may further include a resonant coil 113 , a warming measurement sensor 123 , and a micro control unit (MCU) 121 . can In an embodiment, the MCU 121 controls the induction cooktop system and instructs the switching FET 111 that applies a high frequency through the FET driver 115 to an optimal resonant frequency condition. The optimal resonant frequency differs depending on the size and material of the cookware container as well as the resonant tank circuit, so the MCU adjusts the switching frequency to control the power of the system transmitted to the resonant coil 113 and the switching FET 111 allows the flow to monitor the input mains voltage and current. Since the MCU 121 and the resonant coil 113 perform the same role as the conventional AC power induction, a detailed description thereof will be omitted in the present disclosure.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, an auxiliary power unit 117 may supply power to the MCU 121 and the user interface 129 . In an embodiment, the auxiliary power unit 117 may provide a voltage (eg, 18V) required for the MCU 121 and supply a voltage (eg, 5V) required for the user interface 129 , respectively.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the overheat prevention sensor 119 may measure and manage the temperature of the DC power pack 105 , and the thermal insulation sensor 123 measures the temperature of the cooktop to measure the temperature of the federal government standard temperature The rated output can be controlled to satisfy In one embodiment, the thermal insulation measuring sensor 123 is inserted into the induction upper tempered glass, and may be in contact with the cookware as much as possible so that the MCU precisely measures the temperature of the food.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the LED display 125 may indicate the status of the device 100 . In one embodiment, the LED display 125 may display the thermal power of the device 100 and display the power on/off of the device 100 .

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the user interface 129 may receive an input for an operation of the device 100 from a user. In one embodiment, the user interface 129 may be configured to receive a user's input as a touch input on the LED display 125 .

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the DC power pack 105 directly supplies DC power except for the bridge rectifier and generally converts an intermediate frequency high-frequency current of 20 to 90 kHz, preferably a current converted to 30 to 40 kHz. By flowing through the coil, it is possible to generate a eddy current at the bottom of the cookware by the magnetic force line generated in the center of the coil, and to generate self-heating for thermal insulation by the electric resistance of the cookware. In one embodiment, the DC power pack 105 may be configured to directly supply DC power without being connected to a bridge rectifier to allow a current of about 30 to 40 kHz to flow through the coil.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the low-power high-frequency inverter unit 110 may include a switching FET 111 and a driver 115 . In an embodiment, one or two or more switching FETs 111 may be connected in parallel depending on the required amount of power. In one embodiment, the FET driver 115 may adjust the power to be zero at the resonant switch at the switching instant of the switching FET 111 . In one embodiment, a magnetic field may be generated by the magnetic induction phenomenon while the current passing through the low-power high-frequency inverter unit 110 passes through the resonance coil 113 to heat the cooking vessel.

2 is a diagram illustrating an external appearance of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the device 100 may be configured to detachably attach the DC power pack 105 of the DC power supply unit 102 under the ceramic top plate. In one embodiment, the device 100 may be configured to connect and disconnect the power pack in various ways, such as a magnetic type, a screw type, a hook type, and the like.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the device 100 may be configured in the form of a bridge 201 . In one embodiment, the device 100 may be adjustable in height through the extension of the bridge 201 . In general, since the chaping dishes in the existing market have various sizes and heights, the bridge 201 may be extended to adjust the height of the device 100 according to various chaping dishes heights. For example, the extension bridge may be expanded in 1 cm increments and the foot 202 may be configured to be able to fine-tune up to 1 mm.

According to the present disclosure, the device 100 may omit the FAN by increasing energy efficiency and reducing overheating by using a switching FET instead of an IGBT circuit used for conventional AC current induction.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the present disclosure is not limited to the examples described herein, and various modifications, reconstructions, and substitutions may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. For example, the various techniques described herein may be implemented by hardware or software, or a combination of hardware and software.

A computer program according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a storage medium readable by a computer processor or the like, such as EPROM, EEPROM, non-volatile memory such as flash memory device, magnetic disk such as built-in hard disk and removable disk, magneto-optical disk, and It may be implemented in a form stored in various types of storage media including a CDROM disk. In addition, the program code(s) may be implemented in assembly language or machine language, and may be implemented in a form transmitted through electric wiring, cabling, optical fiber, or any other type of transmission medium. All modifications and variations falling within the true spirit and scope of the present disclosure are intended to be embraced by the following claims.

Claims (5)

A portable induction thermostat that operates on DC power from a rechargeable battery,
a direct current power pack configured to supply power to the device;
a rated output controller connected to the DC power pack and configured to control power supplied from the DC power pack to a rated power;
a low-power high-frequency inverter configured to receive direct current (DC) output from the rated output control unit; and
and a resonant coil (113) connected to the low-power high-frequency inverter circuit and configured to receive current. The DC power pack further includes an overheat prevention sensor configured to sense whether the battery is overheated, and the overheat prevention sensor is detachable. According to claim 1,
A portable induction warming device that increases the efficiency of the battery pack (105) by measuring the warming temperature of the cookware through the warming sensor (123) and controlling the rated output according to the set rated temperature. According to claim 1,
The DC power pack is not connected to a bridge rectifier, but directly supplies DC power to allow a low-power, high-frequency current of 30 to 40 kHz to flow through the coil. According to claim 1,
The device is configured in the form of a bridge (201), and the height of the bridge (201) can be extended and adjustable by using the support (202).

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