Steam-Assisted Heating Cooker for Moist Bread Reheating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional heating cookers lose moisture and flavor from bread during cooking, leading to texture and taste loss, and often burn the surface before heating the inside, while requiring a water tank that needs regular maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A heating cooker with a box-shaped housing, a cooking cavity, a heater, a steam generator, a water tray, and a control unit that generates steam for the entire cooking time, ensuring all water is used and maintaining hygiene without a separate water tank.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If a heater is used to cook bread, then the bread is heated, but moisture evaporates and texture and taste are lost
Solution Approach 1:
A water tray is introduced as an intermediary component between the heater and the bread. The water tray receives heated air from the heater and converts it into steam through a water guide passage, which then moisturizes the bread during heating. This mediator prevents direct moisture loss from the bread while maintaining heating effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the physical state of water from liquid to steam by heating it in the water tray. This parameter change allows the steam to be delivered to the bread, preventing moisture loss during heating while maintaining the bread's texture and taste.
2Speed
If high temperature heating is applied to bread, then the surface is heated quickly, but the surface burns before the inside is heated
Solution Approach 1:
The steam generated from the water tray acts as a protective intermediary between the high-temperature heating source and the bread surface. The steam provides moisture that prevents surface burning while allowing the inside of the bread to heat up gradually, solving the problem of uneven heating.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces steam (change in moisture parameter) to modify the heating environment. This allows high-temperature heating to proceed without burning the surface, as the steam maintains appropriate humidity levels during the heating process.
3Reliability
If a water tank is used to supply water to a boiler, then steam can be generated, but the tank requires regular cleaning and maintenance
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the water storage function from a separate tank and integrates it directly into the heating chamber through the water tray. This eliminates the need for a separate water tank and its associated maintenance requirements, while still enabling steam generation for reliable cooking operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The water tray serves multiple functions: it acts as both a heating element support and a water reservoir for steam generation. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate water tank components, reducing maintenance effort while maintaining reliable steam generation capability.
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 design prevents moisture loss and surface burning, maintaining the texture and flavor of bread while ensuring all water is used, eliminating the need for a separate water tank and maintaining hygiene.
Implementation Method 1
a steam generator arranged within the cooking cavity; a water guide passage for supplying the water from the water tray to the steam generator
Implementation Method 2
a heater arranged within the cooking cavity; a control unit for causing an operation to generate steam from the steam generator to be performed
Data Source
AI summary
Cooking is performed to serve tasty food by appropriately managing moisture of an object to be cooked without burning the surface thereof. A box-shaped housing, a cooking cavity for accommodating an object to be cooked, the cooking cavity being arranged within the housing, an upper-face heater and a lower-face heater arranged in the cooking cavity, a boiler arranged within the cooking cavity, a water tray formed outside the cooking cavity and into which a given amount of water that is entirely evaporated in a given steaming time is poured, a water guide passage within the housing, the water guide passage into which water is supplied from the water tray to the boiler; and a control unit for causing an operation to generate steam from the boiler to be performed for at least a steaming time from when cooking starts are provided.