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JP-7854622-B2 - rice cooker

JP7854622B2JP 7854622 B2JP7854622 B2JP 7854622B2JP-7854622-B2

Inventors

  • 中島 弘貴
  • 紺ノ 説三
  • 梛木 隆
  • 高 雅菲
  • 両角 英樹

Assignees

  • パナソニックＩＰマネジメント株式会社

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20220328

Claims (12)

  1. A pot and A housing having a storage area for detachably housing the aforementioned pot , A heating unit is provided inside the housing and below the housing area for heating the pot housed in the housing area, A weight detection unit is provided below the storage area and detects the weight of the object stored in the storage area, A rice supply unit that supplies rice into the pot located in the aforementioned storage area, A water supply unit that supplies water into the pot located in the aforementioned containment area, A control unit that performs a rice cooking process including a rice supply process that controls the rice supply unit to supply rice into the pot, a water supply process that controls the water supply unit to supply water into the pot, and a heating process that controls the heating unit to heat the pot, A storage unit that stores a first set time, which is set in advance as a time when the rice cooking process is not being performed, and the weight corresponding to the first set time , It includes a notification unit that provides notifications , The control unit controls the notification unit according to the comparison result between the weight obtained from the weight detection unit at the first setting time and the weight corresponding to the first setting time .
  2. The memory unit further stores a second setting time that is different from the first setting time, and the weight corresponding to the second setting time. The second setting time is any of the following: the time when the rice cooking process begins, the time when the rice supply process is completed, the time when the water supply process is completed, and the time during the heating process. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the control unit stops the ongoing rice cooking process according to the result of comparing the weight obtained from the weight detection unit at the second setting time with the weight corresponding to the second setting time.
  3. The rice cooker according to claim 2 , wherein when rice is supplied into the pot, the weight at the time of the execution among the second set time points is the weight before the execution plus the weight of the rice supplied into the pot by the execution.
  4. The rice cooker according to claim 2 or 3 , wherein when water is supplied to the pot, the weight at the time of the execution among the second set time points is the weight before the execution plus the weight of the water supplied to the pot by the execution.
  5. The rice cooker according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the weight at the setting point during the heating process among the second setting points is the weight obtained by subtracting the amount of water evaporated in the pot during the heating process, which is set in advance, from the weight before the execution of the heating process.
  6. The rice cooker according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the comparison result is whether or not the weight obtained from the weight detection unit at a set time stored in the memory unit is outside a certain weight range that includes the weight corresponding to the set time .
  7. The housing is further provided with a storage detection unit that detects the presence or absence of an object to be stored in the storage area, The rice cooker according to any one of claims 1 to 6 , wherein the control unit stops the cooking process if the storage detection unit detects that the contents to be stored are not stored in the storage area during the cooking process.
  8. The rice cooker according to any one of claims 1 to 7 , wherein the water supply step is performed after the rice supply step.
  9. It is further equipped with rice tanks to store rice, The rice supply unit supplies rice from the rice tank into the pot, according to any one of claims 1 to 8 .
  10. It also has a water tank for storing water, The rice cooker according to any one of claims 1 to 9 , wherein the water supply unit supplies water from the water tank into the pot.
  11. A pot container that allows the aforementioned pot to be removed, The pot container comprises a lid that covers the upper opening, The memory unit stores the weight of the pot, the weight of the pot container, and the weight of the lid, The rice cooker according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the control unit determines whether the pot, the pot container, and the lid are each housed in the storage area based on the weight of the pot, the weight of the pot container, and the weight of the lid stored in the storage unit.
  12. A pot container that allows the aforementioned pot to be removed, The pot container comprises a lid that covers the upper opening, The aforementioned storage area is designed to removably house the pot, the pot container, and the lid. The weight is the sum of the weight of the pot, the weight of the pot container, and the weight of the lid, plus the weight of rice and water that is pre-set to be contained in the pot at the corresponding setting time, according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

Description

This disclosure relates to a rice cooker. Patent Document 1 discloses a steam rice cooker comprising a main body (also referred to as a housing) and a pot that can be housed within the main body. In this steam rice cooker, rice cooking is performed with the pot housed within the main body. Utility Model Publication No. 3226192 A perspective view of a rice cooker according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.Exploded perspective view of the lid, pot, and pot container.A perspective view showing the lower part of the rice cooker in Figure 1.A cross-sectional view showing the line A1-A1 in Figure 1.An enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion of the cross-sectional view in Figure 4, showing the state in which the connecting member is located at the first connecting position.An enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion of the cross-sectional view in Figure 4, showing the state in which the connecting member is located at the second connecting position.Plan view of the enclosure.A block diagram illustrating the hardware configuration of a rice cooker.A flowchart to explain the rice cooking process.A flowchart to explain the heating process. (Background leading to this disclosure) In the steam rice cooker disclosed in Patent Document 1, the pot can be removed from the main unit during cooking. In this case, there is a risk that foreign matter may be added to the pot that has been removed from the main unit. Here, foreign matter includes not only things other than rice and water, but also any extra rice and water that has been added. Also, there is a risk that some or all of the rice and water in the pot that has been removed from the main unit may be removed from the pot. In the steam rice cooker disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is possible to reattach the pot that has been removed from the main unit during cooking. Therefore, there is a risk that the pot with foreign matter added or the pot from which the rice and water have been removed may be reattached to the main unit and cooking may be resumed. Furthermore, there is a risk that a pot without a lid may be attached to the main unit. In this case, there is a risk that the rice cooking process may start with the pot uncovered. Some rice cookers have a detection unit that detects whether a pot is attached to the main unit. However, while such rice cookers can detect whether a pot is attached to the main unit, they cannot detect whether there are foreign objects inside the pot, or whether the pot is properly attached to the main unit. Therefore, the present inventors have discovered a rice cooker configuration that can suppress the execution of rice cooking in abnormal conditions, such as when part or all of the contents, such as a pot, are not placed in the casing, or when foreign objects are present in the contents, and have come to this disclosure. A rice cooker according to a first aspect of this disclosure is A pot and A pot container that allows the aforementioned pot to be removed, A lid that covers the upper opening of the aforementioned pot container, A housing having a storage area for removably accommodating the pot, the pot container, and the lid, A heating unit is provided inside the housing and below the housing area for heating the pot housed in the housing area, A weight detection unit is provided below the storage area and detects the weight of the object stored in the storage area, A rice supply unit that supplies rice into the pot located in the aforementioned storage area, A water supply unit that supplies water into the pot located in the aforementioned containment area, A control unit that performs a rice cooking process including a rice supply process that controls the rice supply unit to supply rice into the pot, a water supply process that controls the water supply unit to supply water into the pot, and a heating process that controls the heating unit to heat the pot, The system includes a storage unit that stores the total weight corresponding to each of a set of preset time points during and outside the rice cooking process, The total weight corresponding to each of the multiple setting points is the sum of the weight of the pot, the weight of the pot container, and the weight of the lid, plus the weight of the rice and water that are pre-set to be contained in the pot at the corresponding setting point. If the control unit determines that the weight obtained from the weight detection unit at one of the multiple set time points is different from the total weight at that set time point, it will either not execute the rice cooking process or stop the rice cooking process that is currently in progress. This configuration allows for the detection of abnormal conditions, such as the absence of part or all of the pot, pot container, and lid in the casing, or the presence of foreign objects in the pot, by comparing the weight detected by the weight detection unit with the total weight stored in the memory unit. Furthermore, if such