Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system – Temperature measuring system
Patent
1997-03-26
1999-04-06
Shah, Kamini
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system
Temperature measuring system
70252834, 219710, 374142, G01K 300, G01K 1100, F24C 100
Patent
active
058930515
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method of estimating the temperature or temperature changes inside a material subjected to radiation heating, convection heating, high frequency heating or the like, particularly, inside a material cooked in a microwave oven, an oven, etc. The present invention also relates to a cooking apparatus for effecting this method.
BACKGROUND ART
A conventional high frequency cooking apparatus which is a kind of the aforementioned cooking apparatus, namely, a microwave oven, has a construction as shown in FIG. 22. A main body 1 of the cooking apparatus has a door 2 at a front face thereof. A material to be cooked is brought in and out of a chamber 3 of the main body by opening and closing the door 2. A high frequency generation device 4 is installed inside the main body 1 and, an emission opening 5 is formed at a top or ceiling face of the chamber 3 to emit high frequency waves into the chamber. The emission opening 5 or a plurality of emission openings 5 are formed in some apparatuses at a rear face or a side face of the chamber other than the top face. A moisture sensor 6 detects the generation of moisture subsequent to cooking, which is utilized to find the progress of cooking. A weight sensor 7 detects the weight of the material to be cooked and is used to adjust the cooking time. These sensors are not always used together, but may be used separately or in combination with other sensors.
During cooking with the use of the thus-constructed high frequency cooking apparatus, there are ways of cooking, e.g., in one way the material is heated only for a preset time; in a different way the cooking is controlled based on values of the humidity and weight detected by the above sensors, that is, the cooking is carried out automatically; in another different way, program cooking is executed, specifically, a heating output and an emission time can be minutely programmed beforehand, so that the cooking is controlled automatically every moment as set by the program. For example, when a frozen meat is to be defrosted and cooked, the meat should be first heated quickly, then moderately, and considerably softly last so as not to be overheated. The meat is properly cooked in the program cooking once the heating intensity and the heating time in each heating state or stage are programmed beforehand. The above-described cooking ways are selected in accordance with the kind of material to be cooked or how to cook the material, resulting in sufficiently satisfactory effects under certain conditions. Optimum cooking conditions for various kinds of materials and cooking ways have been determined from experiments and offered in the form of cookbooks and the like.
Nevertheless, the way of high frequency cooking is unable to control temperatures minutely and delicately, because every material generates a different amount of heat and is greatly influenced by its shape during high frequency heating. Each material cannot be heated uniformly, either. Due to such characteristics of high frequency heating as above, a satisfactory temperature control cannot be achieved when the progress of cooking is indirectly detected by way of the above-described sensing, not by directly detecting the temperature of the material. Meanwhile, if the temperature of the material is to be directly detected, a sensor which does not include metallic parts generating heat by themselves when influenced by high frequency waves or a sensor designed to be resistant to influences by electric waves is needed, although there has been hardly any sensor meeting this requirement put in practical use. In other words, a delicate temperature control based on a temperature change of the material detected during high frequency heating/cooking has never been carried out heretofore. Nor has a control to improve the nonuniform heating state been realized because of the reason that the temperature of the material cannot be detected during cooking. As such, cooking requiring a sensitive temperature control, e.g., vacuum cooking at
REFERENCES:
patent: 5389764 (1995-02-01), Nishii et al.
patent: 5491323 (1996-02-01), Mori et al.
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Shah Kamini
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