Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – Intercontrol or safety control
Patent
1997-08-09
1998-06-23
Simone, Timothy F.
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
Intercontrol or safety control
99403, 220316, 220296, 220325, A47J 2708, A47J 2709, B65D 4500, B65D 4534
Patent
active
057689768
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates in general to a device for automatically locking or unlocking the pressure lid of an electric pressure cooker relative to the lock ring by automatically rotating the lock ring relative to the pressure lid.
BACKGROUND ART
In typical electric pressure cookers, a lock ring with a rubber pressure packing is mounted to the top lid of a cooker, while a handle lever is exposed outside the cooker. In order to lock or unlock the lid relative to the cooker body, the lock ring is operated by manually handling the lever outside the cooker. However, it is somewhat difficult to manually handle the lever as the lever must be handled by force. In addition, the above lid must be forcibly removed under the condition of the interior of the cooker with the pressure packing being highly pressurized. The above cooker thus fails to achieve operational stability and is inconvenient to users. Another problem of the above cooker resides in that the handle lever exposed outside the cooker not only causes a difficulty in packing the cooker, it also spoils the appearance of the cooker.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a device for automatically locking or unlocking the pressure lid in electric pressure cookers in which the above problems can be overcome and which automatically locks or unlocks the inward protrusions of the lock ring relative to the outward protrusions of the pressure lid, thus being convenient to the users. The above device does not have any handle lever exposed outside the cooker in difference to the prior art device, thereby neither causing a difficulty in packing the cooker nor spoiling the appearance of the cooker.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a device for automatically locking or unlocking a pressure lid in an electric pressure cooker, comprising the pressure lid mounted to the bottom side of a cooker's top lid with a gap therebetween. The pressure lid has a plurality of outward protrusions radially extending outward from the peripheral edge of the pressure lid. A lock ring is movably placed on the lower guide rail and positioned around the peripheral edge of the pressure lid. The ring has a plurality of inward protrusions radially extending inward from the top of the side wall of the ring. The inward protrusions selectively engage with the outward protrusions of the pressure lid to lock the pressure lid to the ring. A plurality of guide rollers are mounted to the bottom of the lock ring and roll on the guide rail when the lock ring is rotated. The above device further comprises a spur gear carrier extending downward from a part of the outside bottom portion of the lock ring. The spur gear carrier passes downward through a guide slit in the guide rail and has a spur gear part on its outside surface. A drive gear gears into the spur gear part. The drive gear is fixed to the output shaft of a reversible motor which is connected to a microcomputer through a motor drive integrated circuit. A lock sensing switch and an unlock sensing switch are placed around the lock ring in close vicinity to the ring. A contact protrusion is provided on the peripheral edge of the lock ring and selectively comes into contact with one of the sensing switches in accordance with a rotating motion of the lock ring, thereby turning on the one switch and automatically locking or unlocking the inward protrusions of the lock ring relative to the outward protrusions of the pressure lid.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the coupling structure between the pressure lid and the lock ring in an electric pressure cooker with an automatic lid locking device in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view
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