Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., Ltd.

Hiroshi Tominaga

Keiko Isoda

Kenji Watanabe

Kuniaki Sakakibara

Izuo Hirota

Fumitaka Ogasawara

Tamotsu Izutani

Tomoya Fujinami

Yoshiaki Ishio

Masamichi Komada

Shintaro Noguchi

Sadatoshi Tabuchi

Akio Kurobe

Hideki Sadakata

Masaharu Ohashi

Naoaki Ishimaru

Takahiro Miyauchi

Kiyoyoshi Takada

Teruo Hayashinaka

Keiji Ogawa

Takahiro Teramoto

Chika Mae

Kohji Niiyama

Junichi Minatodani

Takuya Kimura

Contactless power receiverincludes power reception unit having a contactless power reception function using electromagnetic induction; communication unit separately transmitting a plurality of data items in the vicinity of a zero cross point of an alternating current voltage from commercial power supply; and power reception side message division unit dividing a transmission message into a plurality of data items. Contactless power feeder includes power feeding unit having a contactless power feeding function using electromagnetic induction; communication unit separately receiving a plurality of data items in the vicinity of a zero cross point of an alternating current voltage from commercial power supply; and power feeding side message combination unit generating a reception message by combining a plurality of data items. Each of the plurality of data items which are divided by power reception side message division unit and are combined by power feeding side message combination unit has a size transmittable in the vicinity of the zero cross point. According to this configuration, it is possible to accurately perform communication having a large amount of information without being affected by a noise due to contactless power transmission.

Contactless power receiver, contactless power feeder, and contactless power transmission system provided with same

Non-contact power supplying appliance includes a plurality of power supply units, communication unit that sends and receives a communication packet, and controller that controls the power supply units and the communication unit, in order to contactlessly transmit power to non-contact power receiving appliance. Communication unit sends a response-request message for placement detection, and thereafter receives a corresponding response message, so that communication unit completes placement detection of non-contact power receiving appliance. After sending a response-request message for identifying a placement location of the non-contact power receiving appliance, communication unit receives a corresponding response message, so that controller identifies a combination of non-contact power receiving appliance and some of power supply units. Controller controls power supply unit in accordance with a corresponding response message received by communication unit after communication unit sends a response-request message for power control. According to the present aspect, high-precision communication and safe power transmission become possible.

Non-contact power supplying appliance and non-contact power receiving appliance, and non-contact power transmitting system provided therewith

The present invention provides an induction heating cooker, which is structured to cut off visible light being incident upon an infrared sensor, yet being capable of more accurately sensing any abnormality of the infrared sensor before heating is started. To this end, the induction heating cooker includes a sensor failure sensing-purpose light emitting portion that emits visible light for sensing any failure of an infrared sensor, a visible light cutting filter provided on a surface of a printed circuit board holding the infrared sensor so as to cover the field of view of the infrared sensor, and a control unit that limits the output of an inverter circuit supplying a high-frequency current to a heating coil when the output of the infrared sensor is equal to or less than a threshold value in a situation where the sensor failure sensing-purpose light emitting portion is lit up. The infrared sensor receives the visible light from the sensor failure sensing-purpose light emitting portion to irradiate inside the visible light cutting filter.

Induction heating cooker

An induction heat cooking device is provided that finishes preheating in a short time and maintains the temperature obtained at the finish of the preheating. The induction heat cooking device includes a heating coil for heating a cooking container by induction, an inverter circuit for providing a high frequency current to the heating coil, an operation unit including an operation mode setting unit for setting an operation mode of the inverter circuit, an infrared sensor for detecting an infrared light that is emitted from a bottom surface of the cooking container, a control unit for controlling an output of the inverter circuit based on an output of the infrared sensor and a setting inputted to the operation unit, and a notification unit.

Induction heat cooking device

An induction heat cooking device is provided that finishes preheating in a short time and maintains the temperature obtained at the finish of the preheating. When a preheating heating mode is selected as an operation mode, a control unit () arranged in the induction heat cooking device starts operation in a preheating mode in which a cooking container is heated with a first heating output. When an increment of an output value of an infrared sensor exceeds a first predetermined increment since the heating starts with the first heating output, the control unit causes a notification unit to notify a user that the preheating is finished, and the operation mode is changed to a waiting mode for performing heating with a second heating output that is lower than the first heating output. Further, when the user sets a heating power by means of a heating power setting unit in the preheating mode, the control unit prohibits changing to the heating power set by the user. When the user sets a heating power by means of a heating power setting unit in the waiting mode, the control unit permits changing to the heating power set by the user, and the operation mode is changed to a heating mode for performing heating with a third heating output corresponding to the heating power set by the user.

Induction heat cooking device capable of preheating object using an output value of an infrared sensor

An induction cooking device includes a heating coil performing induction heating of a cooking container placed on a top plate, an inverter circuit supplying high frequency current to the heating coil, an infrared sensor detecting an amount of infrared light radiated from the cooking container and outputting a detection signal based on the detected amount, a temperature sensor detecting a temperature of the cooking container by thermal conduction through the top plate, and a control unit controlling an output of the inverter circuit so that the outputs of the infrared and temperature sensors do not exceed the respective control temperature. The control unit judges whether or not the infrared sensor is normally detecting the temperature of the cooking container, and when it is judged that the infrared sensor is normally detecting the temperature of the cooking container, the control unit raises the control temperature of the temperature sensor.

Induction cooking device

An induction heating apparatus is capable of stop heating without excessively boosting output voltages of a booster circuit and a power factor correction circuit. The induction heating apparatus includes a boosting function unit, an inverter circuit, and a booster circuit controller. The boosting function unit includes a power factor correction circuit and a booster circuit, and boosts an input direct-current power to a direct-current voltage having a peak value larger than the peak value of the input direct-current power by turning on/off a switching element. The inverter circuit includes a heating coil, and inputs the direct-current voltage output by the boosting function unit to generate a high frequency current in the heating coil by turning on or off a different switching element. The booster circuit controller stops a boosting operation of the boosting function unit without a prescribed delay from the stop of an operation of the inverter circuit.

Induction heating apparatus

There is provided a cooking device that prevents operation based on a control command assigned to a touch key from being executed when a user is not intending to operate the touch key. The cooking device includes an electrode unit which includes a key electrode () provided on the lower surface of the top plate and a contact electrode () electrically connected with the key electrode and inputs the assigned control command; a cancel electrode () provided at the periphery of the contact electrode so that the distance between the contact electrode and the cancel electrode is smaller than the width of the finger of the user; and a control unit () for controlling conduction to a heating source based on the control command assigned to the electrode unit when detecting that the vicinity of the electrode unit is touched. The control unit () limits the operation based on the control command when detecting that the vicinity of the cancel electrode is touched.

Cooking device

An induction heating device according to the present invention includes an infrared ray sensor for detecting infrared rays radiated from a cooking container through a top plate, a light emitting device which is placed near the infrared ray sensor and emits light to the back surface of the top plate, and a heating control unit which controls a high-frequency current through a heating coil for controlling the heating of the cooking container. When the heating control unit has stopped the heating of the cooking container, and a predetermined time elapses at the heating-stopped state, the light emitting device is controlled to stop the light emission therefrom. This can improve durability of the light emitting device, which enables maintaining a function of clearly indicating a position at which the cooking container should be placed and a function of detecting failures in the infrared ray sensor, which are roles of the light emitting device.

Induction heating cooker including an infrared ray sensor and detecting whether there is a failure in the infrared ray sensor

A rear surface of an operating region disposed forwardly of a top plate and colored is coated with conductor detecting units, each slotted to define a command display and a frame display therein and having a light shielding property, and associated conductor connectors, while a light shielding film having an insulating property is formed around them. A planar light emitting member is arranged below the conductor detecting units so as to confront them so that each of the conductor detecting units can be recognized as an operating button when the planar light emitting member emits light, but when the light emitting member is blacked out, such operating button can be made hard for the user to look at, thereby increasing the operability and the design feature of the outer appearance of a cooking appliance.

Heating appliance for cooking

A cooking device, that prevents erroneous operations which are not intended by a user, includes a top plate on an upper surface of a main body, a heating section to perform induction-heating of a bottom surface of an object to be heated that is placed on the upper portion of the main body, a control unit to control heating output of a heating coil, one or more operation switches at the top plate, a light source to illuminate the operation switch, and a connection terminal to electrically connect the operation switch to the control unit. The operation switch includes a conductive detection section to detect that a user touches the conductive detection section based on capacitance change, and a conductive connection section contacted with the connection terminal. The connection section is formed to be directly connected to a portion of an outer edge of the detection section.

An induction cooker includes a top plate () for placing an object to be heated thereon, a heating mode selection key () for allowing the user to select one control mode for heating the object to be heated between a manual heating mode in which the heat output is set by the user by using an output adjusting key () and at least another control mode in which the heat output is controlled automatically, and a heating off/on key () for starting to heat the object to be heated. In the standby mode, the controller starts heating only when the user operates the heating mode selection key () to change the mode to the cooking menu selection mode before operating the heating off/on key (). When a predetermined time has elapsed in the cooking menu selection mode without a change in a selected control mode, the mode is changed to the standby mode. This prevents heating from occurring when the user inadvertently presses the heating off/on key () while the heating is not going on, thus providing the induction cooker with a high degree of safety and increased user-friendliness.

Induction cooker

An induction heating cooker including a top plate where a pan is placed; a heating coil for induction heating the pan; an inverter circuit for supplying a high frequency current to the heating coil; an infrared sensor, which is arranged under the heating coil and detects an infrared light radiated from the pan; a light guiding part including an upper opening formed at an upper end facing the top plate and a lower opening formed at a lower end, and guiding the infrared light from the pan to the infrared sensor; and a control unit for controlling an output of the inverter circuit according to an output from the infrared sensor; wherein the light guiding part includes a nonmetallic material part in which the upper opening is formed upper than a lower surface of the heating coil.

An induction heating cooking device includes a heating coil () that induction-heats a cooking container, an infrared sensor () that detects infrared radiation which is emitted from a bottom surface of the cooking container and that outputs a detection signal based on the quantity of energy of the detected infrared radiation, and a heating control section () that controls supply of electric power to the heating coil based on the detection signal. When the temperature of the bottom surface of the cooking container is equal to or higher than a first predetermined temperature which is higher than 230 degrees C., the infrared sensor () outputs the detection signal, and when the bottom-surface temperature is lower than the first predetermined temperature, the infrared sensor () does not output the detection signal substantially.

Induction heating cooking device

A cooking device includes, on its upper surface, an operation unit and a display unit. The operation unit includes a mode selection key for selecting one of a plurality of control modes, output increasing/decreasing keys for increasing and decreasing a set output and a set temperature, and time increasing/decreasing keys for increasing and decreasing heating. The mode selection key is separated from the time increasing/decreasing keys on the opposite side of the output increasing/decreasing keys. The display unit includes a numerical value display section for displaying a numerical value of a set value in the selected control mode, an output display section for displaying the set value for heating output, and a mode display section for displaying a cooking mode selected by using the mode selection key. The numerical value display section is separated from the mode display section on the opposite side of the output display section.

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Hyogo, Japan

Hiroshi Tominaga