JPH038449B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Application Field The present invention measures the weight of the object to be heated and automatically controls the heating time, heating temperature, heating output, heating pattern, etc. according to the weight. This invention relates to a cooking device that enables cooking.

Conventional configuration and its problems In conventional cookers, the weight of the food to be heated is measured using a scale, etc., and the heating time and heating output are set based on the weight using a rotary timer or output setting key. etc.
Therefore, cumbersome operations such as measuring, heating time, and heating output settings are required before starting cooking, and improvements in usability have been desired.

Furthermore, in recent years, infrared sensors that detect the surface temperature of food, and temperature and gas sensors that detect water vapor, alcohol, etc. generated from food, have been installed to detect the heating state and doneness of food and automatically cook the food. Automatic cooking devices have been developed. However, in these automatic cookers, the sensor mainly detects the heating state of the surface of the food. Therefore, the heating conditions differ depending on the weight of the food, and especially in large foods, there is a large temperature difference between the center and the surface, resulting in a difference in the finished product.

Therefore, it is necessary to improve these problems, and it has also been desired to automatically measure the weight of foods.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and is capable of automatically measuring the weight of food, and controlling the heating output.
The purpose is to be easy to use and improve the quality of cooking by automatically controlling heating time, heating style, etc.

Composition of the Invention In order to achieve the above object, the cooking device with a weight detection function of the present invention is provided with a heating chamber for storing food, a heat source for heating the food in the heating chamber, and a stand for the object to be heated, The placing table includes an upper table on which the object to be heated is placed, and supports the upper table via a leaf spring.
and a rotatable lower table, and the leaf springs are arranged such that a plurality of leaf springs are arranged parallel to each other at intervals, one end is fixed to the lower table, the other end is fixed to the upper table, and the leaf springs are tilted away from the horizontal plane. so that the upper table to which the leaf spring is connected vibrates due to the force of the drive unit when starting or stopping;
The structure includes a circuit that detects the weight of the object to be heated by detecting the frequency of the upper table, and controls the output of the heat source, heating style, and heating time in accordance with the detected weight. It is.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an inclined view of a microwave oven as a cooking device. In the figure, 1 is a display section that displays the weight, heating time, heating output, etc. of the food to be heated, and 2
3 is an operation input unit for selecting the type of cooking, heating output, and setting the heating time; 3 is a door that can be opened and closed to take food in and out of the heating chamber 5; 4 is the main body. .

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the microwave oven. In the figure, 6 is a magnetron for supplying high frequency energy to the heating chamber 5, and 7 is food as an object to be heated. Reference numeral 28 is a turntable on which the food 7 is placed and which is rotatable and is supplied with a spring whose frequency changes depending on the weight of the food 7 and serves as a stand for the object to be heated; 9 is for driving the turntable 28 in rotation; This is a turntable motor. The turntable 28 vibrates when an object to be heated is placed on it, and this vibration is used as a vibration of a magnet, and a detection coil 10 is provided to extract it as an electric signal. 11 is a plate serving as a food container.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of the turntable 28 and the frequency transmission and detection section. turntable 2
8 is composed of two upper and lower tables, that is, an upper table 8 and a lower table 18, and these two upper and lower tables 8 and 18 are connected via two leaf springs 13. The two leaf springs 1
3 is sandwiched between a spring holding fitting 16, an upper table receiving fitting 12, and a lower table receiving fitting 17 with a spring spacer 14 in between, and is fixed with a bolt 23. The upper table holder 12 at one end is connected to the upper table 8, and the lower table holder 17 at the other end is connected to the lower table 8 by spot welding or the like.
The lower table 18 is supported by rollers 19 and is rotatable. Reference numeral 9 denotes a turntable motor for rotating the turntable 28, and incorporates a gear to adjust the rotation speed. The center of the lower table 18 is engaged with the rotating shaft 21, and the rotational force is transferred to the turntable motor 9.
The signal is transmitted from the turntable 28 to the turntable 28.

With the above configuration, the portion connected to the upper table 8 with the leaf spring 13 as a boundary vibrates. This frequency changes depending on the weight of the food 7. That is, if the food 7 becomes heavier, the frequency of vibration becomes smaller, and if the food 7 becomes lighter, the frequency of vibration becomes larger.

Furthermore, magnetism is used as a means for transmitting the frequency as weight information to the outside of the heating chamber 5. That is, a magnet 15 is provided on the spacer 14 to which the vibrating upper table 8 is coupled, and a detection coil 10 corresponding to the magnet 15 is provided on the heating chamber bottom plate 22. That is, as the magnet 15 vibrates, its positional relationship with the detection coil 10 changes. As the positional relationship changes, the magnetic field strength in the detection coil 10 changes, and in response to the change in magnetic field strength, the detection coil 1
Therefore, an electromotive force is generated at zero. Then, this electrical signal may be processed by an electronic circuit.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing the structure of the turntable 28 shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows an example of an electronic circuit that processes electrical signals converted by the detection coil 10. That is, the turntable 28 vibrates and the magnet 15 also vibrates. Then the magnet 15 and the detection coil 10
Since the distance L between the two ends changes, an electromotive force is generated in the detection coil 10. Since this electromotive force signal is small, it is amplified by the amplifier circuit 24, and is further amplified by the waveform shaping circuit 25.
Shapes it into a square wave. The frequency of this signal may then be processed by the microcomputer 27.

FIG. 6 shows changes in the distance L between the magnet 15 and the detection coil 10, and the output waveform D of the waveform shaping circuit 25 at that time. A shows the output waveform when a light food is placed on it, and b shows an output waveform when a heavy food is placed on it. If it is light, the vibration force will be slow.

Now, the weight of food can be detected by converting it into vibration frequency using a spring. Incidentally, it is necessary to generate this vibration, and in this embodiment, the vibration is generated using the force of rotating the turntable 28. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a main part showing a structure for using a part of rotational force to generate vibrations. Figure 7a shows the lower table 18.
FIG. 7B shows a case where the lower table 18 and the leaf spring 13 are fixed at an angle as shown in the figure. The direction of this inclination is perpendicular to the direction of deformation of the leaf spring 13. In conclusion, in case a, it is difficult to use rotational force to generate vibrations, but in case b, vibrations can be generated especially when the motor is started or stopped.

The turntable 28 shown in FIG. 7b in FIG.
2 shows cross-sectional views in two directions. Figure 8 A is the leaf spring 13
A cross-sectional view as seen from a direction perpendicular to the direction of deformation.
FIG. 8B shows a sectional view seen from the same direction as the deformation direction of the leaf spring 13. That is, the leaf spring 13 is
Fix it so that it tilts in the direction shown in Figure B.

FIG. 9 shows a diagram of the principle of vibration generation in the leaf spring 13. FIG. 9A shows the case shown in FIG. 7A, where no vibration is generated due to rotational starting force or stopping force. That is, since the rotational starting force F is only in a direction perpendicular to the vibration direction of the leaf spring 13, no vibration occurs. 9th
Figure b shows the case shown in Figure 7b, where vibrations occur due to rotary machine power or stopping force.

In FIG. 7b and FIG. 9b, the rotary power F of the turntable motor is transmitted from the table holder 17 fixed to the lower table 18 and the spring spacer 14 attached thereto via the two leaf springs 13. , are transmitted to the upper table support fitting 12 fixed to the upper table 8 and the spring spacer 14. At this time, the force applied to the two leaf springs 13 includes components in the following two directions. That is,
The force is divided into a force F2 in the vibration direction of the leaf spring 13 and a force F1 in a direction perpendicular to the vibration direction that does not contribute to vibration. Of these, F1 is unrelated to the vibration perpendicular to the deformation of the leaf spring 13, but F2 is the vibration perpendicular to the deformation of the leaf spring 13.
The force in the deformation direction becomes the vibration direction, and this force generates vibration. Particularly when the rotational state changes, such as when starting or stopping, the rotational force of the turntable motor increases and vibrations with large amplitude occur. Further, this vibration can be effectively generated when the state of the turntable 28 changes, that is, when it changes from a stopped state to a rotating state or from a rotating state to a stopped state.

As described above, the weight of food can be measured. By controlling the output, heating time, etc. of the magnetron 6 as a heat source in accordance with the weight of the measured food, it is possible to create an automatic cooking device that is easy to use and produces good results.

FIG. 10 shows a circuit diagram when the cooker with a weight detection function of the present invention is applied to a microwave oven.
A microcomputer 7 has functions such as calculation, storage, and judgment, and also has input/output control functions. That is, it plays a central role in controlling the display unit 1 and inputting user commands from the operation input unit 2 to perform various controls. Then, the vibration frequency as weight information is counted, the correlation between the counted value and the weight is stored, and the weight is calculated. Then, the heating output and heating time are controlled based on the calculated weight.
It also has a function of controlling the turntable drive motor 9 to start and stop the turntable 28.

In this way, according to this embodiment, the frequency is detected using a spring as a means for detecting weight, and the frequency is further extracted as a magnetic field fluctuation and an electric signal and transmitted to the outside of the heating chamber. A transmission part passing through is unnecessary. Further, since the driving force for rotating the turntable is used to generate vibrations, a new vibration generating device is not required.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the description of the embodiments above, the following effects can be obtained according to the present invention.

(1) Since the rotational driving force for rotating the turntable is used to generate vibrations, a new vibration generator is not required.

(2) Since the leaf spring is provided at an angle as a means for converting rotational driving force into vibration generation, vibration generation is easy.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a microwave oven according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the same microwave oven, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the structure of the turntable and the vibration transmission and detection section. Figure 4 is an exploded perspective view of the turntable, Figure 5 is an electronic circuit diagram for vibration detection and waveform shaping, Figure 6 is a characteristic diagram showing the relationship between weight and frequency, and Figure 7 is A perspective view of the main parts for converting rotational force into generation of vibrations, Figure 8 is a sectional view of the same, Figure 9 is a principle diagram for converting rotational force into generation of vibrations, and Figure 10 is a microwave oven circuit. It is a diagram. 7...Object to be heated (food), 8...Top table,
9... Turntable motor, 13... Leaf spring, 18... Lower table, 28... Stand for placing heated object (turntable).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A heating chamber for storing an object to be heated, a heat source for heating the object to be heated in the heating chamber, a table for placing the object to be heated, and a rotation drive unit for rotationally driving the table for placing the object to be heated. The mounting table includes an upper table on which an object to be heated is placed, and a rotatable lower table that supports the upper table via a leaf spring, and the leaf spring supports a plurality of leaf springs in parallel with each other at intervals. One end is fixed to the lower table and the other end is fixed to the upper table, and the upper table is tilted with respect to the horizontal plane, and the upper table to which the leaf spring is connected vibrates due to the force of the drive unit when starting or stopping. None, a circuit is provided that detects the weight of the object to be heated by detecting the frequency of vibration of the upper table, and controls the output of the heat source, heating style, and heating time in accordance with the detected weight. Cooker with weight detection function.