Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Keiko Isoda

Hiroshi Tominaga

Fumitaka Ogasawara

Masamichi Komada

Kuniaki Sakakibara

Tamotsu Izutani

Sadatoshi Tabuchi

Kenji Watanabe

Izuo Hirota

Tsuyoshi Inada

Ryuuji Nagata

Chikashi Satou

Yuji Fujii

Hidekazu Suzuki

Tomoya Fujinami

Yoshiaki Ishio

Shintaro Noguchi

Taihei Oguri

Hideaki Kobayashi

Daisuke Sawada

Koji Niiyama

A conventional induction heating cooker which operates two inverters at the same time, with only one input current detecting circuit provided, cannot measure each of input currents to each of the plurality of inverters, and cannot control input powers by feedback control on input currents. In the induction heating cooker which has a plurality of inverters, when the input power varies to the inverter which has less input power supplied, the variation hardly influences the cooking. The induction heating cooker according to the present invention fixes the operating frequency for the inverter which has less input power supplied and performs the feedback control of the input current for the inverter which has bigger input power supplied.

Induction heating cooker

Operability of a heating cooker having a heating unit in a top plate is improved. After power-on, a light emission control unit causes the operation unit light-emitting element of an operable operation inhibition releasing key to be lit so that only the key is displayed and the other keys are less visible. Thus, the heating cooker is changed into a lock state. When the operation inhibition releasing key is operated in the lock state, at least one electrostatic touch key other than the operation inhibition releasing key is made operable and the operation unit light-emitting element is lit. Alternatively, in the above structure, the operation unit light-emitting element of the operable operation unit is lit in a first light-emission color, and the operation unit light-emitting elements of the inoperable operation units are lit in a second light-emission color different from the first light-emission color. Thus effective operation can be guided.

Heating cooker having touch control

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

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

There is provided an induction cooker capable of detecting failures in an infrared ray sensor with excellent accuracy. The induction cooker includes an infrared-ray detection unit () which includes an infrared-ray incidence section () to detect an infrared ray entering the infrared-ray incidence section, the infrared ray being radiated from a bottom surface of a pan, passing through a top plate, and entering the infrared-ray incidence section; a infrared-ray temperature calculation unit () operable to calculate a temperature of the bottom surface of the pan based on an output of the infrared-ray detection unit; a light emitting unit () which is provided below the top plate and emits light with a first luminance for indicating a position of the infrared-ray incidence section (); and a failure detection unit () operable to detect failures in the infrared-ray detection unit based on an amount of a change of an output of the infrared-ray temperature calculation unit which is based on an output of the light emitting unit. The failure detection unit () controls the light emitting unit to emit light with a second luminance higher than the first luminance and detects failures in the infrared-ray detection unit based on whether or not an amount of an increase in the output of the temperature calculation unit falls within a predetermined range.

Induction cooker

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.

A cooking device includes a control mode switch selecting a control mode for controlling a heating operation; a setting switch for selecting a set value in each control mode; a heating control unit for controlling a heating unit based on the control mode and the set value inputted through the control mode switch and the setting switch; and a selection switch for selecting the operation mode. The operation modes include a first operation mode in which all of the plurality of control modes are set to be selectable and a second operation mode in which only part of the control modes are set to be selectable. The heating control unit disables at least one control mode switch when the second operation mode is selected by the selection switch.

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.

There is provided a cooking device that prevents an electricity conduction setting to a heating source from fluctuating when a user is not intending to operate a touch key. The cooking device includes a heating source for heating an object to be heated; a top plate provided on an upper surface of the device; a touch key that is provided on the top plate and is operable to input a control command by being touched with a finger; a cancel electrode provided at a periphery of the touch key; and a control unit for controlling an electricity conduction to the heating source based on the control command. When detecting that a portion of the top plate near the cancel electrode is touched with the finger, the control unit maintains a condition of electricity conduction to the heating source in time of the detection, and limits an operation based on the control command input to the touch key while detecting that the portion of the top plate near the cancel electrode is being touched with the finger.

An induction heating cooker includes a cooking container heating coil, an inverter circuit to supply high-frequency current to the heating coil, an infrared ray sensor to detect radiation from the container, an electric power integrating section to integrate heating electric power from the inverter circuit, and a heating control section to control an inverter circuit output. If the power integrating section has less than a predetermined value when an increase in the output of the infrared ray sensor has a first value after start of heating, the cooker shifts to a first heating control mode and, if equal to or more than the predetermined value, shifts to a second heating control mode. The power, in the first heating control mode, is reduced to a second amount of power lower than the first amount and, in the second heating control mode, is a third amount larger than the second amount.

An infrared sensor includes an infrared detection element which is provided on a lower side of a top plate to detect an amount of infrared light radiated from a heated object and an amplifier to amplify a signal detected by the infrared detection element. The infrared sensor outputs an initial detection value having a substantially constant magnitude with respect to the temperature of the heated object when the temperature of the heated object is lower than a detection lower limit temperature, and outputs a detection signal having a magnitude and a rate of increase which become larger as the temperature of the heated object becomes higher in the vicinity of a control temperature range in which the control unit controls the output of the induction heating coils to perform temperature control of the heated object. The control unit includes a storage unit to measure and store the initial detection value, and reduces the output of the induction heating coils or stops the heating when an increased amount of the output value of the infrared sensor with respect to the initial detection value stored in the storage unit becomes greater than or equal to a predetermined value.

An appliance including a top plate has its operability improved and prevents an operation error. The appliance includes electrostatic touch keys provided on a lower surface of the top plate, the electrostatic touch keys including electrodes made of conductive films having predetermined light-blocking property, respectively, operation-unit illuminators emitting light toward the electrodes, which are partially cut, from a direction opposite to the top plate, respectively, and an illumination controller controlling illumination of the operation-unit illuminators. The illumination controller changes the illumination state of the shapes of key indicators above the electrodes to allow a user to identify function and validity of the electrostatic touch keys. The illumination controller controls the illumination state of operation-unit illuminators, such as lighting-on, blinking, lighting-off, and adjusting the brightness, to provide information required for operation.

Growing community of inventors

Hyogo, Japan

Keiko Isoda