JPH0531021A - rice cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] Even if the operating body for releasing the lock mechanism is accidentally operated with the rice cooker lifted, the lock is inadvertently released. Try not to. [Structure] The lid member 2 is provided with an engaging claw 11, and the rice cooker main body 1 is provided with a lock piece 12 that engages with the engaging claw 11 in a disengageable manner to form a locking mechanism 10. The locking projection 15 is formed, and the rice cooker main body 1 is provided with a locking piece 26 that is displaced downward when the rice cooker main body 1 is lifted from the mounting surface a, and the locking piece 26 is displaced downward. When this is done, the wall portion of the locking piece 26 is locked to the locking projection 15 of the locking piece 12.
And the release action of the lock piece 12 is blocked by this opposite state, and the engagement claw 11 of the lid 2 and the lock claw 14 of the lock piece 12 cannot be disengaged.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rice cooker having a safety function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a rice cooker has a lid body pivotally attached to an upper portion of a rice cooker body in a vertical direction. Then, a rice cooker such as a pan storage unit and a rice cooker is provided in the rice cooker body, and a pan for cooking rice is stored in the pan storage unit.

When cooking rice, the lid is opened and the pot is taken out from the pot storage portion. A predetermined amount of washed rice and water is stored in the pot storage portion, and the pot is stored in the pot storage portion. The lid is closed, and in this state, the pan is heated by the rice cooking means to cook rice.

Between the rice cooker body and the lid body, when the lid body is closed on the upper surface of the rice cooker body, the lid body and the rice cooker body are locked to open the lid body to the rice cooker body. A locking mechanism is provided to prevent it. An operating body for unlocking the lock mechanism is provided for this lock mechanism. When this operating body is operated with a fingertip, the lock mechanism is unlocked and the lid body is automatically rotated upward by the biasing force of the spring. And then open.

[0005]

However, in such a conventional rice cooker, the user holds the handle on the upper surface of the lid body and lifts the rice cooker to move the rice cooker from, for example, the kitchen cooktop to the table for the table. When carrying the lock mechanism, the lock mechanism may be released by accidentally touching the operating body for releasing the lock mechanism or by hitting another object. In such a case, the rice cooker may be placed below the lid body. The main body rotates, and as a result, there is a risk that the pan falls from the inside of the rice cooker main body to stain the surroundings and the user is injured unexpectedly.

There is a case where the rice cooker main body is lifted and moved by both hands, but in such a case, the lock is released by hitting another object with the operating body for releasing the lock mechanism. There is a danger that the lid automatically rotates upward, and such a rotation operation causes the lid to hit the face of the user who is lifting the rice cooker body, resulting in unexpected injury.

The present invention has been made by paying attention to such a point, and an object thereof is to erroneously operate the operating body for releasing the lock mechanism while the rice cooker is being lifted. Even if there is such a case, it is to provide a safe rice cooker whose lock will not be accidentally released.

[0008]

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has a rice cooker body and a rice cooker body pivotally rotatably mounted on an upper portion of the rice cooker body. A lid that opens and closes the upper surface, a spring that elastically biases the lid in the opening direction, a lock mechanism that locks the lid and the rice cooker body to prevent the lid from opening, and unlocking the lock mechanism. In the above-mentioned operation body, a safety mechanism for disabling the lock of the lock mechanism is provided in association with the operation of lifting the rice cooker body from the mounting surface.

[0009]

[Operation] When the rice cooker is placed on the placing surface and the operating body for releasing the lock mechanism is operated, the lock of the lock mechanism is released and the lid is automatically opened by the biasing force of the spring. To do.

On the other hand, when the rice cooker is lifted from the mounting surface, the safety mechanism operates in conjunction with this operation, and the lock mechanism cannot be unlocked by the operation of this safety mechanism.
Therefore, even if the operating body is operated in this state, the lock of the lock mechanism is not released, and the locked state is maintained as it is.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows the appearance of the whole rice cooker, 1 is a rice cooker main body, and 2 is a lid provided on the upper part of the rice cooker main body 1. The rice cooker main body 1 has a pan storage portion 3 having an open top surface, and a pan 4 for cooking rice is removably stored in the pan storage portion 3. Then, the lid 2 is opened, the pan 4 is taken out from the pan storage part 3, a predetermined amount of washed rice and water are stored in the pan 4, the pan 4 is stored in the pan storage part 3, and the lid is closed. Body 2
Is closed, and in this state, the pan 4 is heated by a rice cooker (not shown) such as a rice cooker provided in the rice cooker body 1 to cook rice.

The lid body 2 is pivotally attached to one edge portion of the upper end of the rice cooker body 1 via a hinge pin 5 so as to be rotatable in the vertical direction. Then, a spring 6 is attached to the hinge pin 5, and the spring 6 elastically biases the lid body 2 in the clockwise rotation direction in the drawing. In addition, 7 is a handle provided on the upper surface of the lid 2.

Between the lid body 2 and the rice cooker body 1, on the side opposite to the hinge pin 5, as shown in FIG. 1, a lock mechanism 10 for releasably locking the lid body 2 and the rice cooker body 1.
Is provided. The lock mechanism 10 includes a hook-shaped engaging claw 11 formed on the inner surface of the lid 2 so as to project, and the rice cooker body 1
It is composed of a lock piece 12 provided inside.

The lock piece 12 is arranged substantially vertically and is rotatably supported via a support shaft 13 provided at the lower end thereof. The lock piece 12 has a hook-shaped lock claw 14 that can be engaged with and disengaged from the engagement claw 11, a locking projection 15 on the back surface, and a receiving portion 16 protruding obliquely to the front surface. They are integrally provided, and the whole is elastically biased in the counterclockwise direction in the figure via a spring 17, and the locking pawl 14 is normally engaged with the engaging pawl 11 by this biasing force. The lid 2 is locked with respect to the rice cooker main body 1 by the engagement, and the opening thereof is blocked.

On the upper part of the front side of the rice cooker body 1, there is provided an unlocking operation body 19 which can be pushed inward, and an operation piece 20 is integrally provided on this operation body 19. The tip edge of the operation piece 20 is in contact with the receiving portion 16 of the lock piece 12. When the operating body 19 is pressed, the lock piece 12 rotates in the clockwise direction in the figure against the spring 17, and this rotation causes the lock claw 14 to be disengaged from the engaging claw 11 and thereby the lid 2 and The lock with the rice cooker main body 1 is released, and in response to this release, the lid body 2 is automatically rotated upward with the hinge pin 5 as a fulcrum by the urging force of the spring 6 to open.

The lock mechanism 10 is provided with a safety mechanism 23. The safety mechanism 23 will be described. 24 is an interlocking shaft that is movably supported in the vertical direction via support metal fittings 25, 25. Locking piece 26
Is attached. This locking piece 26 is a lock mechanism 1.
It is arranged on the back side of the lock piece 12 at 0, and
An escape port 27 facing the locking projection 15 of the lock piece 12 is formed at the upper end portion. A spring 28 is provided at an intermediate portion of the locking piece 26, and the spring 28 elastically biases the locking piece 26 downward together with the interlocking shaft 24.

On the outer bottom surface of the rice cooker body 1, a concave groove 30 having a U-shaped cross section is formed in an annular shape, and an annular rotary base 31 is housed in the concave groove 30. The rotary base 31 is housed in the groove 30 so as to be rotatable with respect to the rice cooker body 1 and vertically displaceable, and the lower end thereof projects downward from the open portion of the lower surface of the groove 30. , And the rail 32 on the upper surface of the rotary base 31
Are formed integrally with each other. When the rice cooker body 1 is placed on the placing surface a such as a table surface via the lower end portion of the rotary base 31, the rice cooker body 1 is rotatably supported by the upper edge of the rail 32, whereby the rice cooker is rotated. The main body 1 can be freely rotated to change its direction arbitrarily. The rotary base 31 is a base holder 3 provided at the open edge of the lower surface of the groove 30.
The separation from the inside of the concave groove 30 is prevented via the grooves 33 and 33.

At the lower end of the interlocking shaft 24, a ball 36 is rotatably held via a ball holder 35. The lower end of the ball holder 35 has a groove 30.
Of the rotary base 31 is slidably pierced through the upper wall of the rotary base 31 and slightly protrudes inside the concave groove 30.
The ball 36 faces the upper surface of the peripheral side of the rice cooker and the ball 36 is placed on the mounting surface a while the rice cooker body 1 is mounted on the mounting surface a.
1, the interlocking shaft 24 is pushed upward together with the locking piece 26 against the spring 28 by the contact, and the escape port 27 of the locking piece 26 faces the locking projection 15 of the lock piece 12. Is held as. Next, the operation will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, when the rice cooker is placed on the placing surface a, the escape port 27 of the locking piece 26 is provided.
Is opposed to the locking protrusion 15 of the lock piece 12, and therefore, when the operating body 19 is pressed with a fingertip, the lock piece 12 rotates in the clockwise direction in the figure against the spring 17 and the locking projection 1
5 enters the escape port 27, and the lock claw 14 engages with the engaging claw 11
And the engagement is released, so that the lid body 2 is automatically opened by the biasing force of the spring 6.

On the other hand, the rice cooker via the handle 7
Alternatively, when both sides of the rice cooker body 1 are held by both hands and lifted from the placing surface a, the rotary base 31 is displaced downward in the groove 30 by its own weight as shown in FIG. Then, the interlocking shaft 24 and the locking piece 26 are displaced downward by the urging force of the spring 28 so as to follow the displacement of the rotary base 31, and this displacement causes the escape port 27 of the escape port 27 with respect to the locking projection 15 of the lock piece 12. The position shifts downward, and the wall portion around the escape port 27 faces the locking projection 15. Therefore, even if the operating body 19 is pressed in this state, the lock piece 1
The locking projection 15 of 2 abuts on the wall portion of the locking piece 26 to prevent the lock piece 12 from rotating, so that the locking claw 14 and the engaging claw 1
It becomes impossible to separate from 1. Therefore, even if the user accidentally presses the operating body 19 or another object touches the operating body 19 and presses it with the rice cooker lifted from the mounting surface a, the lid is closed. The body 2 does not open carelessly.

When the rice cooker is placed on the placing surface a via the rotary base 31 in such a state, the rotary base 31 is displaced upward, and the interlocking shaft 24 and the locking piece 26 cause the spring 28 to move with this displacement. As a result, as shown in FIG. 1, the escape port 27 of the locking piece 26 again faces the locking projection 15 of the lock piece 12, and accordingly, when the operating body 19 is pressed in this state. , The lock piece 12 rotates, and the lock claw 14 and the engaging claw 11
The engagement with and is released, and the lid body 2 is opened.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, the lock mechanism is automatically unlocked in association with the operation of lifting the rice cooker main body from the mounting surface, and therefore when the rice cooker is carried. Even if the operating body for releasing the lock mechanism is accidentally operated due to, for example, the lock is not accidentally released, which has the advantage of improving safety.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part of a rice cooker according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a state in which a safety mechanism of a relevant part is in operation.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the whole rice cooker according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Rice cooker main body 2 ... Lid body 6 ... Spring 10 ... Lock mechanism 19 ... Operating body 23 ... Safety mechanism

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. A rice cooker body, a lid body which is pivotally mounted on an upper portion of the rice cooker body so as to be rotatable and opens and closes an upper surface of the rice cooker body, and the lid body. In the rice cooker body, a spring that elastically biases the rice cooker in the opening direction, a lock mechanism that locks the lid body and the rice cooker body to prevent the lid body from opening, and an operating body for unlocking The rice cooker is provided with a safety mechanism that disables unlocking of the lock mechanism in association with the operation of lifting the rice from the mounting surface.