Heating cooker and heating cooking method
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing heating cookers face challenges in appropriately managing the surface temperature and inside temperature of food materials during heating, leading to issues such as excessive drying or burning, as they either require prolonged low-temperature heating or rapid high-temperature heating.
Innovation Solution
A heating cooker with a controller that adjusts the heating process by switching between low-temperature and high-temperature modes, using multiple heaters with adjustable outputs and intermittent driving cycles to control the temperature increase velocity of food materials, ensuring a balanced heating process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If low-temperature heating is used to heat food material, then the food material can be heated without burning, but the heating time becomes excessively long causing excessive drying of the surface
Solution Approach 1:
The heating cooker dynamically adjusts the heating temperature based on the heating phase. During the first phase, low-temperature heating is applied to prevent surface burning. During the second phase, high-temperature heating is applied to rapidly increase inside temperature and reduce total heating time. This dynamic temperature adjustment resolves the contradiction between preventing burning and reducing heating time.
Solution Approach 2:
The heating process is divided into two distinct phases with different temperature characteristics. The first phase uses low-temperature heating for a predetermined period to avoid surface burning. The second phase uses high-temperature heating to rapidly heat the inside of the food. This periodic switching between different heating modes resolves the time-burning contradiction.
2Loss of time
If high-temperature heating is used to heat food material, then the heating time is reduced, but the surface of the food material is burned due to rapid temperature rise
Solution Approach 1:
The first phase of low-temperature heating serves as a preliminary action to prepare the food surface and prevent burning before the high-temperature heating is applied in the second phase. This preliminary low-temperature treatment creates conditions that allow subsequent high-temperature heating without causing surface damage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from static single-temperature heating to dynamic multi-temperature heating. The controller switches between low-temperature and high-temperature modes based on the heating phase, enabling the system to achieve both short heating time and prevention of surface burning through temporal temperature variation.
3Stability of the object's composition
If continuous low-temperature heating is applied, then the food material can be heated evenly, but the total heating duration increases excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The heating process alternates between low-temperature periods (first phase for even heating) and high-temperature periods (second phase for rapid heating). This periodic structure allows the system to achieve both even heating distribution and reduced total heating duration by combining the benefits of both temperature modes.
Solution Approach 2:
The continuous heating process is segmented into two distinct phases: first phase heating for even temperature distribution and second phase heating for rapid temperature increase. This segmentation allows each phase to optimize for its specific function while collectively reducing the total heating time compared to continuous low-temperature heating.
4Productivity
If the heating temperature is increased to reduce heating time, then productivity improves, but the quality of the food material deteriorates due to surface drying and hardening
Solution Approach 1:
The heating system dynamically adjusts temperature based on the heating phase rather than maintaining a constant high temperature. During the first phase, low temperature prevents surface drying and hardening. During the second phase, high temperature improves heating efficiency. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction between productivity and food quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The heating process uses periodic alternation between low-temperature periods (preserving quality by preventing surface drying) and high-temperature periods (improving productivity through rapid heating). This periodic temperature variation allows the system to achieve both high productivity and maintained food quality.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for precise control of surface and inside temperatures, preventing quality deterioration and efficiently achieving target temperatures, thereby effectively managing the heating process.
Implementation Method 1
a heating portion configured to heat inside of the heating space
Data Source
AI summary
A heating cooker to manage surface and inside temperatures of food. A heating portion heats inside of a heating space where the food material is placed. At least one processor controls the heating portion to perform driving for high-temperature heating after performing driving for low-temperature heating. During the driving for low-temperature heating, the heating portion may heat the inside of the heating space such that an average increase velocity of a reference temperature of the food material is lower than an average increase velocity of the reference temperature of the food material during the driving for high-temperature heating. During the driving for high-temperature heating, the heating portion may heat the inside of the heating space such that an average increase velocity of the reference temperature of the food material is higher than the average increase velocity of the reference temperature of the food material during the driving for low-temperature heating.