JP2003153799A - Cooking pot and cooking apparatus using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cooking pot which can be heated by means of a small- sized heating plate. SOLUTION: A plurality of heat pipes 4 whose bottom ends are gathered at the central part of the bottom face of an inner pot 2 and whose top ends are uniformly arranged at equal intervals on the outer periphery of the side face of the inner pot 2 are fitted on the outer face of the bottomed inner pot 2 so as to be heat-conductible and a heat introducing part 5 with heat conductive properties is fitted on the bottom ends of a plurality of the heat pipes 4 so as to be heat-conductible and the inner pot 2 is stored in an outer container 3 in such a way that an thermal insulation space 7 is formed between the inner face of the outer container 3 and the outer face of the inner pot 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a cooking pot used for a rice cooker or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional cooking pot used for a rice cooker is known to have a bottomed shape obtained by drawing a clad material obtained by joining a stainless plate and an aluminum plate. This cooking pot is, for example, an electric heater type or I type.
Used in H type rice cookers.

When used in an electric heater type rice cooker,
The cooking pot is indirectly heated via a heating plate heated by an electric heater. This heating plate is provided on the bottom surface of a housing portion that houses a cooking pot in an electric heater type rice cooker, and an electric heater is provided around the entire outer periphery of the lower surface of the heating plate.

When used in an IH type rice cooker,
The cooking pan is electromagnetically heated by the electromagnetic induction coil.
In the IH rice cooker, this electromagnetic induction coil is arranged along the outer periphery of the bottom of the housing portion that houses the cooking pot, and when a high-frequency current is applied, an eddy current is generated at the bottom of the cooking pot. The cooking pot is designed to be heated by electromagnetic induction.

[0005]

However, in the cooking pan, when used in the electric heater type rice cooker, at least the same as the pan bottom of the cooking pan in order to uniformly heat the contents in the cooking pan. It is necessary to provide a heating plate with dimensions to the rice cooker. Since the heating plate having the same size as the bottom surface of the cooking pot has a large heat capacity and poor thermal responsiveness, there is a problem in that quick heating control is difficult. There is also a problem that the heating efficiency is poor.

On the other hand, in the cooking pan, when used in the IH type rice cooker, since a large electromagnetic induction coil is arranged along the outer periphery of the bottom of the accommodating portion, a large amount of electromagnetic waves are generated during use. There was also a problem. Further, a complicated control circuit, a power transistor for switching a high-frequency current, a cooling fan for cooling the heat generated from the power transistor, and the like are required, which is complicated and the manufacturing cost is high.

Further, the conventional cooking pot cannot positively cool the contents in the cooking pot after cooking.

Further, in a cooking pot in which the height of the pot is higher than the diameter of the cooking pot, temperature unevenness is likely to occur in the upper and lower portions of the pot, and the heat source provided at the lower part of the pot cannot eliminate this temperature unevenness. There was also a problem.

[0009] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cooking pot capable of heating and cooking with a small heating plate.

[0010]

As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is arranged on the outer surface of a bottomed inner pot such that the lower end is gathered at the center of the bottom of the inner pot.
A plurality of heat pipes whose upper ends are arranged on the outer periphery of the side surface of the inner pot at equal intervals are attached to the inner pot so as to be able to conduct heat, and at the lower ends of the plurality of heat pipes, heat introducing parts having heat conductivity are provided. It is attached to the heat pipe of
The inner pot is housed in an outer container and attached so as to form a heat insulating space between the inner surface of the outer container and the outer surface of the inner pot.

In the above invention, when the heat introducing portion is heated, the applied heat is transferred to the lower end of the heat pipe, and the contents of the inner pot are quickly and uniformly heated by the heat transfer action of the working fluid in the heat pipe. To be done. Since an insulating space is formed outside the inner pot, heat loss is reduced and heat retention is improved without radiating heat from the inner pot. Conversely, if you cool the heat introduction part,
Heat moves in the opposite direction to that during heating, allowing the contents of the inner pot to be cooled quickly.

It is preferable that the lower part of the heat introducing portion is exposed to the outside through a fitting hole formed in the bottom surface of the outer container. With this, the lower portion of the heat introducing portion is exposed to the outside from the bottom surface of the outer container through the fitting hole, and thus it becomes easy to directly heat or cool the heat introducing portion.

The heat insulating space is preferably evacuated. Thereby, the heat retaining property is further improved.

It is preferable to provide a heat insulator around the fitting hole to prevent heat conduction from the heat introducing portion to the outer container.

By providing the legs on the bottom surface of the outer container, the heat introducing portion exposed to the outside from the bottom surface of the outer container comes into contact with the top surface of the desk when the cooking pot is placed on the desk, for example. Can be prevented.

As another means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has a heating means for accommodating the cooking pot inside and heating a heat introducing portion of the cooking pot.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a cooking pot 1 according to the present invention. The cooking pot 1 includes an inner pot 2 and an outer container 3.

The inner pot 2 has a bottomed shape made of stainless steel or a clad material of stainless steel and aluminum. Eight heat pipes 4 are provided on the outer surface of the inner pot 2 as shown in FIG.
They are arranged as shown in (a) and (b). The lower end of the heat pipe 4 is arranged so as to be gathered at the central portion of the bottom surface of the inner pot 2, and the upper ends thereof are arranged on the outer periphery of the side surface of the inner pot 2 at equal intervals. Each heat pipe 4 is attached to the inner pot 2 by brazing so as to be able to conduct heat. At the lower end of the heat pipe 4, a heat introducing portion 5 having a disc shape with a diameter of 50 mm and having heat conductivity is attached by brazing so as to be able to conduct heat.

The heat pipe 4 is lined with a mesh-shaped material called a wick (not shown) in a cylindrical metal tube, and the inside is evacuated to fill a small amount of liquid (for example, water) which is a working fluid. It is a thing. This heat pipe 4
As will be described later, has a function of transferring heat by utilizing latent heat and a capillary phenomenon associated with a phase change between liquid gases.

The outer container 3 has a diameter larger than that of the inner pot 2 and has a bottomed shape made of stainless steel. A flange portion 3 a is provided along the outer periphery of the outer edge of the opening of the outer container 3. A fitting hole 3b having a shape matching the heat introducing portion 5 is formed on the bottom surface of the outer container 3.
A ring-shaped heat insulator 6 is arranged around b.

When the cooking pot 1 is manufactured, the inner pot 2 and the outer container 3 are combined, and the inner pot 2 is housed inside the outer container 3 as shown in FIG. At this time, the flange portion 3a is engaged with the flange portion 2a provided along the outer edge of the opening of the inner pot 2, and a heat insulating space 7 is formed between the outer surface of the inner pot 2 and the inner surface of the outer container 3. . In addition, the lower part of the heat introduction part 5 is
It is fitted into the fitting hole 3b of the outer container 3 and is exposed to the outside of the outer container 3. Further, the flange portion 2a of the inner pot 2 and the flange portion 3a of the outer container 3 are thermally insulated from each other and fixedly attached.

As shown in FIG. 3, the cooking pot 1 having the above structure is used in an electric heater type rice cooker 10 (cooking device). This rice cooker 10 includes a main body 10a and a lid 1.
It consists of 0b. In the main body 10a, an electric heater 11 as a heating means, a heating plate 12 heated by the electric heater 11, a cooling fan 13, and a microcomputer 14 as a control means are arranged inside a body having a bottomed cylindrical shape. There is. The lid 10b is configured to openably close the openings of the cooking pot 1 and the main body 10a.

Next, description will be given of a case where the rice cooker 10 having the above-mentioned configuration is used to perform heating and cooking.

First, the user stores the desired number of cups of rice and the amount of water required to cook the rice in the inner pot 2. As shown in FIG. 3, this cooking pot 1 is set in an accommodation part (not shown) for accommodating the cooking pot 1 inside the rice cooker 10, and then the hardness of the desired cooked rice and the time for cooking rice are set. , Start cooking rice.

When rice cooking is started, the heat introducing portion 5 of the cooking pot 1 is indirectly heated via the heating plate 12 heated by the electric heater 11. The heat applied to the heat introduction part 5 is transferred to the lower end of the heat pipe 4. Further, since the heat insulator 6 is provided between the heat introduction part 5 and the outer container 3,
The heat applied to the heat introduction part 5 does not transfer to the outer container 3.

As a result, the lower end of the heat pipe 4 is heated, and the working liquid sealed inside the heat pipe 4 becomes steam, at which time heat is taken in as latent heat (vaporization heat). Then, when this vapor moves to the upper end of the heat pipe 4 and is cooled at the upper end, the vapor becomes a liquid and releases heat (heat release by latent heat of condensation). Liquid passes through the capillary structure of the wick (or by gravity)
Since it returns to its original location, it transfers heat efficiently and continuously. As a result, uniform and quick heating is performed over the entire inner pot 2. Further, since the inner pot 2 is thermally insulated by the heat insulating space 7, there is no heat radiation or heat loss from the inner pot 2.

The size of the heating plate 12 does not need to be the same as that of the bottom surface of the cooking pan unlike the rice cooker using the conventional cooking pan. Since it suffices to heat only the heat introducing portion 5, it is sufficient that the heat introducing portion 5 has at least the same dimensions. Since the heating plate 12 can be downsized, the heating response can be improved. Further, since heat is transferred by the heat pipe 4, quick heating control can be performed.

After the rice is cooked, when the rice is cooled to a predetermined temperature and kept warm, the heat introducing section 5 is cooled by a cooling fan 13 of the rice cooker, a Peltier cooler (not shown), etc. Heat moves in the opposite direction to time,
It is possible to quickly lower the temperature of the inner pot 2. In this way, when the rice is cooled quickly, the heat retention state of the rice is improved.

As a modification of the above embodiment, the heat insulating space 7 may be evacuated. Thereby, the heat insulation performance of the cooking pot 1 is further improved.

Although the cooking pot 1 of the above-described embodiment is used for the electric heater type rice cooker 10, when the cooking pot 1 is used for the IH type rice cooker (not shown), the heat introducing portion 5 is formed of a ferromagnetic material. It is preferable. When a high-frequency current is applied to the electromagnetic induction coil of the IH rice cooker, the heat introduction unit 5 is electromagnetically induction-heated by the eddy current generated, and heats the lower end of the heat pipe 4 as described above. Since the electromagnetic induction coil of the rice cooker only needs to generate an eddy current in the heat introduction part 5,
At least the same size as the heat introducing portion 5 may be used. This can reduce the size of the electromagnetic induction coil and reduce the generation of electromagnetic waves when cooking rice.

The cooking pot 1 of the above embodiment may be applied to a deep cooking pot (not shown). At this time, since the heat pipe is provided on the side surface of the cooking pot, the uneven temperature between the upper pot and the lower pot is eliminated.

As another modified example of the above embodiment,
As shown in FIG. 4, a leg portion 3c is provided on the bottom surface of the outer container 3,
It is preferable that when the cooking pot 1 is placed on a flat surface, for example, the upper surface of the desk, the heat introduction unit 5 does not come into contact with the upper surface of the desk. It is also possible to heat and cook this cooking pot with a gas stove or the like. At this time, it is preferable to directly heat the heat introduction part 5 with the flame of the gas stove.

[0034]

As is apparent from the above description, in the cooking pot of the present invention, a plurality of heat pipes are attached to the outer surface of the bottomed inner pot so as to be capable of conducting heat, and the lower end of the heat pipe has thermal conductivity. Since the heat introduction part having a heat transfer is attached so as to be able to conduct heat, the inner pan is housed in the outer container, and it is installed so as to form a heat insulating space between the inner surface of the outer container and the outer surface of the inner pan, the heat introduction part is small. The contents of the inner pot can be quickly and evenly heated by heating with the heating plate of. Further, by cooling the heat introducing portion, the contents of the inner pot can be cooled quickly. Further, since the heat insulating space is formed outside the inner pot, the heat retaining property is improved.

In particular, since the lower part of the heat introducing portion is exposed to the outside through the fitting hole formed in the bottom surface of the outer container, it becomes easy to directly heat or cool the heat introducing portion.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a cooking pot according to the present invention.

2 (a) is a side view of the inner pot of FIG. 1. FIG.
(B) is a bottom view of (a).

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a state in which the cooking pot of FIG. 1 is used in an electric heater type rice cooker.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a modified example of the cooking pot of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Cooking pot 2 ... Inner pot 3 ... Outer container 3b ... Mating hole 4 ... Heat pipe 5 ... Heat introduction part 6 ... Thermal insulator 7 ... Adiabatic space

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 4B002 AA21 BA22 CA32                 4B055 AA03 BA22 BA23 BA25 BA35                       BA63 CA02 CA10 CA71 CB02                       CB04 CB18 CB19 CC17 CC45                       CD60 DA02 DA03 DB02 DB09                       DB14

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of heat pipes are arranged on the outer surface of a bottomed inner pot such that the lower end is gathered at the bottom of the inner pot and the upper end is arranged on the outer periphery of the side surface of the inner pot. Is attached to the lower ends of the plurality of heat pipes so as to be able to conduct heat to the plurality of heat pipes, the inner pot is housed in an outer container, and the outer container is A cooking pot, which is attached so as to form an insulating space between the inner surface of the inner pot and the outer surface of the inner pot. 2. The cooking pot according to claim 1, wherein the lower portion of the heat introducing portion is exposed to the outside through a fitting hole formed in the bottom surface of the outer container. 3. The cooking pot according to claim 1, wherein the heat insulating space is evacuated. 4. The heat insulator for preventing heat conduction from the heat introducing portion to the outer container is provided around the fitting hole, according to any one of claims 1 to 3. Cooking pot. 5. The cooking pot according to claim 1, wherein legs are provided on a bottom surface of the outer container. 6. A cooking apparatus comprising the cooking pot according to any one of claims 1 to 5 therein and a heating unit for heating a heat introducing portion of the cooking pot.