Patent Application
20060219099
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic cooker, and particularly to an automatic cooker which can be used to knead breadstuff, steam, fry, cook, stew, boil, and bake food.
2. Description of Related Art
Automatic cooker includes micro-wave oven, and automatic bread maker. The micro-wave oven heats food using microwave. Referring to the automatic bread maker, in which a desired menu course is selected from a plurality of bread-making menu courses, after required ingredients being put into a bread vessel, a bread-making process, comprising a kneading step of kneading the ingredients, a fermentation step of fermenting dough, a degassing step of deflating the expanded dough, a shaping-fermentation step of expanding the dough into a shape of the bread, and a baking step of baking the expanded dough, are performed in a sequential manner, thereby automatically making the bread.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,020 disclosed an automatic bread maker comprising an oven chamber having a heater, a kneader and a temperature sensor; a bread vessel detachably mounted within the oven chamber, for charging breadstuff; a steam-producing device for producing steam within the oven chamber; and a controller for controlling the steam-producing device wherein a steaming step of steaming dough is effected before a baking step of baking the dough. This automatic bread maker can produce steam bread to make bagel bread. A heater of this automatic is a heating tube, and is provided within the oven chamber at a lower portion thereof in surrounding relation to the bread casing. A water storage tray with a recess being formed in a peripheral edge of a lower surface of the same so that the water storage tray can be placed on the heating tube, is heated to produce steam. However, an extra water storage tray is necessary for producing steam using this device, thus the structure is relatively complex and not convenient in use. Another structure of the heater is that a recess, defining a water storage portion for holding steam-producing water, is formed in a bottom of an oven chamber at an outer peripheral portion thereof, and the heating tube is provided in this water storage portion to form a steam-producing portion. However, the heating tube directly contact with water when steam is being produced, thus the heater easily rust.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,740 also disclosed an automatic bread maker with a heating tube being provided within the oven chamber at a lower portion thereof in surrounding relation to the bread casing. A steamplate forming groove for containing water is directly placed on the heating tube for producing steam. However, as described above, a water container is necessary for producing steam. Furthermore, the steamplate cannot stably stay on the heating tube.
Additionally, the traditional automatic bread maker has only one heating tube to heat within the oven chamber at a lower portion thereof in surrounding relation to the bread casing, the heating area is relatively small and heating effective is low. Furthermore, the traditional automatic bread maker just has one more function for producing steam.
Therefore, an improved automatic cooker is desired which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.
A main object of the present invention is to provide an multifunctional automatic cooker which has a stable and simple structure with an adjustable and effective heating means, and can be used to knead breadstuff, steam, fry, cook, stew, boil, and bake food.
An automatic cooker comprises a lid, a body, a control system, and a heating means. The heating means comprises a heating tube and a heating plate. The lid and the control system are mounted at a top of the body, the heating tube is configured to have a frame-shape and is substantially horizontally provided within an oven chamber of the body at a lower portion thereof, and the heating plate is mounted within the oven chamber at a bottom thereof.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring now to the drawings in detail,
Referring to
The body 30 has a housing 32 being provided with a plurality of vents on walls thereof, an oven chamber 31, handles 33, big base 34, hot exhausting soleplate 35, and foot slips 36. The oven chamber 31 is mounted in the housing 32, and the handles 33 are fixed on sidewalls of the same. The big base 34 and hot exhausting soleplate 35 are assembled into a bottom base to cover the body 30 on the bottom with four foot slips 36 supporting. A bread vessel, fryer, basket or tray can be detachably mounted within the oven chamber 31.
The control device 20 includes a PCB board 25, a cabinet body 26, an LCD display 27, a motor 21, a big gear 37, and a small gear 22. The PCB board 25, cabinet body 26, LCD display 27 are mounted in a lower cover 24 to form a control cabinet 29 with an upper cover 28 thereon. The control cabinet 29 and the lid 10 are parallelly mounted on the body 30, and the motor 21 is placed within the housing 32 being arrayed with the oven chamber 32. The gears 22, 37 are connected by a belt (not shown), and being driven by the motor 21 in order to drive kneading blade. The PCB board 25 comprises microcomputer and a memory thereof for automatic control and storing executive programs.
The heating means 40 includes a heating tube 41 and heating plate 43. The heating tube 41 is configured to have a frame-shape and is substantially horizontally provided within the oven chamber 32 at a lower portion thereof in surrounding relation to the bread vessel. The heating plate 43 is mounted at the bottom of the oven chamber 31. An adiabatic base 42 is set on the inner surface of the oven chamber 31, and between the heating tube 41 and the heating plate 43.
Referring to
It is understood that some baffles can be set in the recess so that the water storage portion 47 is divided into a plurality of cells.
The body 30 also has a temperature sensor (not shown) mounted therein.
The heating tube 41, 46, and the control device 20 are electrically connected to the PCB board 25.
Referring to
The automatic cooker 100 of the present invention has two kinds of functional groups: one is fixed program group, the other is hand-control program group. Wherein, in the fixed program group, eighteen fixed program courses are available. Users can also set different functions according to their desire.
Referring to the eighteen fixed program courses, for instance, the first to the fourth program courses are used for roasting, cooking, or frying; the fifth program course is used for making candy; the sixth to the fourteenth program courses are used for kneading; the eighteenth is used to making jam, by means of starting the heating tube 41 or the heating plate 43, or both of them at the same time.
The automatic cooker 100 in the present invention can be used to make steamed bread, steamed stuffed bun, boiled dumpling, meat, or vegetable by means of steaming, used to bake bread, or dim sum, roast chicken, fish, or duck; used to fry food; used to boil food; used to knead, or stew. Various delicious Chinese food or western food can be made using the automatic cooker 100.
It is understood that the invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit thereof. Thus, the present examples and embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein.
