JP3034165B2 - Method of determining rice cooking capacity in rice cooker - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for determining the cooking capacity of a rice cooker.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a rice cooker, the capacity of rice and water put in a pot is automatically determined during a rice cooking process, and the amount of heat is supplied according to the capacity to cook the rice deliciously. I have to. Such capacity determination is
It has been performed using either the amount of power consumed in a certain section or the time required for a certain temperature section in any one of the intermediate and preheating steps. For example, the power amount is calculated in the preheating step, and the larger the power amount, the larger the capacity, and the smaller the power amount, the smaller the capacity. Also. In the intermediate step, the time required for the temperature to rise from, for example, 50 ° to 80 ° was measured, and the longer the time, the larger the capacity, and the shorter, the smaller the capacity.

[0003]

However, the conventional method is inaccurate because the capacity is determined based on either the electric energy or the time in one section.
Also, when the capacity is determined in the middle and middle steps, it is possible to supply power according to the capacity in the latter half of the middle and middle steps, or later, but there is a problem that an appropriate power cannot be set in the first half of the middle and middle steps. is there. Furthermore, although the conventional method is suitable for the rice cooking process of white rice, accurate volume discrimination cannot be performed with rice porridge, brown rice, a small amount of rice, etc. in different rice cooking processes. Further, in an induction heating rice cooker (so-called IH type rice cooker), the pot itself generates heat, so that the temperature change taken by a temperature sensor provided at the bottom of the pan shows the same tendency regardless of the rice cooking capacity. For this reason, the conventional capacity discrimination method is not suitable for an induction heating rice cooker.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem, and it is possible to accurately determine the capacity at the beginning of a rice cooking process, and to set an appropriate electric power in a rice cooking process. It is an object of the present invention to provide a determination method. Another object of the present invention is to provide a capacity discrimination method suitable for rice cooking processes other than white rice, such as rice porridge, brown rice, and small-quantity rapid cooking, and also suitable for induction heating rice cookers.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a rice cooking process, as shown in FIG.
The first to raise the pot temperature to a predetermined preheating temperature with constant power
A preheating step and a second preheating step of maintaining the preheating temperature for a predetermined time by controlling the temperature, a capacity discriminating section is provided between the first preheating step and the second preheating step, and an electric power of the capacity discriminating section is provided. The sum of the amount and the elapsed time of the capacity determination section is used as a capacity determination value, and the capacity determination value is compared with a predetermined threshold to determine the rice cooking capacity. The rice cooking process may be any of rice porridge, brown rice, and rapid small-amount cooking. Further, the rice cooker may be an induction-cooked rice cooker.

[0006]

When the initial pan temperature is high, the pan temperature in the first preheating step reaches the predetermined preheating temperature quickly, as indicated by the one-dot chain line in FIG. 3 (A). When the determination is made, an error is likely to occur. Also, as shown in FIG. 3B, when the capacity is small, the constant power in the first preheating step causes an overshoot in the second preheating step, so that no electricity is supplied in the second preheating step and the second preheating step is performed. If the capacity determination is performed only in the process, an error is likely to occur.

In the present invention, since the capacity is determined in the section between the first preheating step and the second preheating step, the capacity is accurately determined regardless of the initial pan temperature and the capacity. In addition, the capacity is accurately determined because the determination is made in consideration of the binary element of the power amount and the time, instead of the determination based on the single element of the power amount or the time as in the related art. As described above, since the capacity is determined in the preheating stage, it is possible to supply appropriate power in the following steps.

[0008]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a rice cooker to which the capacity discrimination method according to the present invention is applied, and the rice cooker includes a container body 1 and a lid 2. The container main body 1 generally includes an outer shell 3, a bottom 4, an inner shell 5, a heating plate 6, and a pan 7. At the upper end of the outer trunk 3, a shoulder 8 extends inward. A display operation panel 9 is provided on the upper part of the front surface of the outer body 3. A control board including a power supply circuit and a microcomputer in addition to a liquid crystal display and switches is provided on the back side of the display operation panel 9, that is, inside the outer body 3. 10 is attached. Inside the outer body 3, four heating plate fixing pillars 11 hanging downward from the shoulder 8 are protruded.

The bottom 4 is fitted to the lower end of the outer shell 3 so as to cover the outer shell 3 from below. The inner trunk 5 has a cylindrical shape, and its upper end is in contact with the shoulder 8 of the outer trunk 3,
The lower end is in contact with the outer peripheral edge of the heating plate 6.
A body heater 12 is provided on the upper outer periphery of the inner body.
A side sensor 1 made of a thermistor is provided below the inner body 5.
3 is mounted.
The side sensor 13 is urged inwardly of the inner shell 5 by a coil spring (not shown), and comes into pressure contact with the side near the bottom of the pan 7 when the pan 7 is accommodated in the inner shell 5. ing.

The heating plate 6 is formed by integrally forming a rice cooker 15 composed of a sheathed heater, and its upper surface is curved upwardly convex so as to match the bottom surface of the pan 7. Heating plate 6
The lower end of the inner body 5 is mounted on the outer peripheral edge of the inner body 5. Eight legs 16 are provided near the outer periphery of the lower surface of the heating plate 6.
Are provided, and two bosses 17 are protruded at the center. Reference numeral 18 denotes a heat shield plate, which is applied to the leg 16 of the heating plate 6 from below, and is attached by screwing a mounting screw 19 into the boss 17.

As described above, the heating plate 6 and the inner body 5 integrated with the heat shield plate 18 are fixed to the fixing screw S from the outside of the bottom 4.
Is screwed into the tip of the fixing column 11, so that the outer pillar 3 is firmly held between the shoulder 8 and the bottom 4 via the heat shield plate 18. On the other hand, the lid 2 is attached to the container body 1 so as to be openable and closable with the hinge shaft 20 as a fulcrum. A radiator plate 22 having a lid packing 21 on the outer periphery is attached to the inside of the lid. A lid heater 23 and a lid sensor 24 composed of a thermistor are disposed on the upper surface of the heat sink 22.

FIG. 2 shows an electric circuit of the rice cooker. The rice cooking heater 15 and the body heater 12 are connected in series and connected to an AC power supply 26 via a triac 25. An intermediate point between the rice cooking heater 15 and the body heater 12 is bypass-connected to a power supply 26 via a relay 27. The lid heater 23 is also connected to a power supply 26 via a triac 28. On the other hand, the side sensor 13 is connected to the Vcc line via a resistor 29, and the lid sensor 24 is similarly connected via a resistor 30. The partial pressure between the side sensor 13 and the resistor 29 and the partial pressure between the lid sensor 24 and the resistor 30 are input to the microcomputer 31 as temperature detection signals of the pan 7 and the radiator plate 22, respectively. The microcomputer 31 executes a program stored in its memory in advance, and executes the relay 27 and the triac 2
Operation signals are output to 5, 28 to cook rice.

Hereinafter, the rice cooking process and the method for determining the rice cooking capacity will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.
FIG. 4 shows a rice cooking process when rice porridge is selected, and FIG. 8 shows a change in side sensor temperature in that process. In this process, when the rice cooker switch is turned on, first, Step 10
In step 1 and 102, preheating 1 is performed to maintain the initial pot temperature for one minute without turning on the rice cooker 15. Next, in step 103, the rice cooker 15 is turned on, and 1200 until the side sensor temperature reaches the preheating temperature of 50 ° C.
Preheating 2 is performed by continuously supplying w power. This preheating 2
At the same time as the start, the capacity determination is started in step 104. The capacity determination is performed according to a flow described later.

Next, when it is detected in step 105 that the side sensor temperature has become 50 ° C. or more,
At 06, the rice cooker 15 is turned on and off, and 1200 W of power is intermittently supplied to perform preheating 3. In this preheating 3, 13 minutes have passed since the start of the preheating 2 step.
When the time is measured in step 107, the capacity determination ends in step 108.

In the capacity determination, as shown in FIG. 5, the electric energy W is temporarily set to zero in step 201, a first capacity determination timer is started in step 202, and the time (t) from the start of the two preheating processes is started. Is counted, and in step 203, the output number P of the power is fetched. The output number P of this power is
The power consumption from 0 w to 1200 w is divided to 1200
W is preset to be 23 in hexadecimal.

Subsequently, in step 204, the second timer for capacity determination is started to count the time (t ') while the rice cooker 15 is on. Then, when it is detected in step 205 that the rice cooker 15 has been turned off, in step 206,

[Mathematical formula-see original document] W '= Pt' is calculated. Here, W 'is the subtotal of the electric energy, P is the output number of the electric power taken in step 203, and t' is the elapsed time of the capacity determination second timer. Next, step 207
so,

[Mathematical formula-see original document] W = W + W 'is calculated. Here, W is the total amount of power.

Thereafter, it is determined in step 208 whether or not an instruction to end the capacity determination has been issued. If there has been no instruction, the process returns to step 203 and the same steps are repeated.

Calculate V = Wα + tβ. Here, W is the sum of the power amounts, that is, the sum of the output numbers, t is the elapsed time of the first capacity determination timer, that is, the elapsed time of the capacity determination section, and α and β are coefficients.
Next, the capacity is determined in step 210 and subsequent steps. In addition,
The instruction to end the capacity determination is issued in step 108 of the flowchart shown in FIG. Determination of volume, first determines whether the capacitance discriminating value V is the threshold value V ₁ or less is determined in step 210, if V ₁ or less A rank (small volume), if beyond the V ₁ step capacitance discriminating value V at 211 it is determined whether the threshold value V ₂ less. Where V ₂
If less is B rank (medium volume), and C rank (large) if beyond V _2.

The following table shows specific numerical values for capacity determination.
Here, the coefficients α and β and the threshold values V ₁ and V ₂ are as follows.

Α = 2 ⁻⁹ β = 2 ⁻² V ₁ = 50 (HEX) V ₂ = 6A (HEX)

[Table 1] Cooking rice amount Sum of output numbers Time Capacity judgment value V Capacity rank (total) W = Pt '(HEX) t (HEX) Wα + tβ (HEX) 0.5 46FC CC 41 A 1.0 7494 11C 5E B 1 .5 930A 164 76 C

Returning to the flowchart of FIG. 4, when the capacity determination in step 108 is completed, it is determined in step 109 whether or not the initial pan temperature Ts is lower than 70 ° C. Here, if the initial pan temperature Ts is less than 70 ° C., it is normal, so that the middle step is executed in step 111, and the temperature adjustment controls 1, 2, and 3 are subsequently executed in steps 112, 113, and 114, respectively. . In addition, the initial pan temperature Ts is 70
If the temperature is higher than 0 ° C., it is a special case of cooking rice with hot water, so that data for hot pot is set in step 110, and the steps 112, 11
3 and 114 are performed.

[0020] The above-mentioned step and temperature control 1, 2,
In 3, the power and the process time are set for each of the ranks A, B, and C whose capacity has been determined as described above. The power is
Actually, the duty ratio is set as a ratio of the ON time to the OFF time of the heater. As a result, rice porridge is cooked according to the rice cooking capacity.

FIG. 6 shows a rice cooking process when brown rice is selected, and FIG. 9 shows a change in the side sensor temperature in that process. In this step, preheating 1 to preheating 3 are performed in steps 301 to 308 in the same manner as in the porridge rice cooking step, but preheating 3 is performed for 15 minutes, which is longer than the porridge rice cooking step. Subsequently, steps 309 to 311
Step 312 to 31
In step 6, temperature control is performed at 85 ° C., and in step 317, cooking is performed at a cooking temperature of 100 ° C. Then, in steps 318 to 322, the steaming and cooking twice are alternately performed for 2 times.
Go to the warming step.

FIG. 7 shows a rice cooking process when the small amount rapidity is selected, and FIG. 10 shows a change in the side sensor temperature in the rice cooking process. In this step, in the same manner as in the rice porridge cooking step, in steps 301 to 308, preheating 1 to preheating 3
The preheating 3 is 5 minutes shorter than the rice porridge cooking process. Subsequently, steps 309 to 311
Step 412 to Step 41
In step 3, power control is performed, and in step 414, cooking is performed at a cooking temperature of 100 ° C. And Step 4
From 15 to 419, spots and cooking twice are alternately performed twice, and the process proceeds to the heat retaining step.

In the above embodiment, the capacity discrimination method in the heating plate type rice cooker has been described. However, the capacity discrimination can be similarly performed in the induction heating type rice cooker.

[0024]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the capacity is determined in the two steps of the first preheating step and the second preheating step, and the two elements of the electric energy and the time are used. Therefore, accurate capacity determination can be performed. Further, since the capacity is accurately determined in the preheating step, which is an early stage of the rice cooking step, it is possible to supply appropriate electric power in the intermediate step, thereby making it possible to cook delicious rice.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, as described above, in the rice cooking process such as porridge, brown rice, small amount rapidity, etc., even if the power supply, the control temperature, and the control time are different from those of the white rice cooking process. The capacity can be accurately determined. Further, according to the invention of claim 3, in the induction heating type rice cooker, the temperature of the pot rises irrespective of the cooking capacity, but as described above, the capacity determination of the present invention is performed over two steps of the preheating stage. In addition, since the dual factors of the amount of power and time are taken into account, accurate capacity determination is performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a rice cooker to which a capacity determination method according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an electric circuit diagram of the rice cooker shown in FIG.

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing a change in pot temperature in a preheating step in a case of a large capacity, and FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a rice porridge cooking process.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of capacity determination.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a brown rice cooking process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a small amount rapid rice cooking process.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a change curve of a sensor temperature in a rice porridge cooking process.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a change curve of a sensor temperature in a brown rice cooking process.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a change in sensor temperature in a small amount rapid rice cooking process.

[Explanation of symbols]

6: heating plate, 7: pan, 10: control board, 12: body heater, 13: side sensor, 15: rice cooker, 22:
Heat sink, 23 ... lid heater, 24 ...
Lid sensor, 25, 28 ... triac, 26 ... AC power supply, 27 ... relay, 31 ... microcomputer.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A47J 27/00 109

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] A first preheating step of raising a pot temperature to a predetermined preheating temperature with a constant power in a rice cooking step; and a second preheating step of maintaining the preheating temperature for a predetermined time by controlling the temperature. A capacity discrimination section is provided between the first preheating step and the second preheating step, and the sum of the electric energy of the capacity discrimination section and the elapsed time of the capacity discrimination section is set as a capacity judgment value, and the capacity judgment value is set to a predetermined threshold value. A method for determining the rice cooking capacity in a rice cooker, comprising determining the rice cooking capacity by comparing with the above. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the rice cooking step is any one of rice porridge, brown rice, and small amount rapid. 3. The method for determining rice cooking capacity in a rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the rice cooker is an induction heating type rice cooker.