Heating apparatus with char detecting and heating controller
AssigneeHitachi Heating Appliances Co., Ltd.
InventorsHajime Tachikawa, Mitsuru Watanabe, Kenjiro Yokoyama
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heating apparatus capable of heating an article to be heated accommodated within a heating chamber to a degree that the article becomes charred. Illumination intensity of reflected light from the surface of the article illuminated with visible light rays from a light source is detected by an optical sensor, to thereby identify the degree of charring produced in the article, wherein heating operation is controlled on the basis of the identified degree of charring.
Claims30
In a heating apparatus provided with a heating chamber and heating means capable of heating an article accommodated within said heating chamber to such a degree as to produce charring, the improvement comprising:
- light source means for illuminating a surface of said article accommodated within said heating chamber with visible light rays;
- optical sensor means for sensing the illumination intensity reflected from the surface of said article;
- means for actuating said heating means and said light source means to initiate a heating cycle;
- means for detecting the output of said optical sensor means at an initial heating phase in every heating cycle subsequent to operation of said actuating means and for generating a reference value which is proportional thereto;
- memory means for storing said reference value;
- comparing means for comparing the content of said memory means with the output of said optical sensor means which varies with time as the heating proceeds;
- and
- control means for controlling the heating operation of said heating means in response to an output signal from said comparing means.
In a heating apparatus provided with a heating chamber and heating means capable of heating an article accommodated within said heating chamber to such a degree as to produce charring, the improvement comprising:
- light source means for illuminating a surface of said article accommodated within said heating chamber with visible light rays;
- optical sensor means for sensing the illumination intensity reflected from the sensor of said article and for producing an output signal representative thereof;
- means for actuating said heating means and said light source means to initiate a heating cycle;
- means for detecting the output signal of said optical sensor means immediately after operation of said actuating means and for generating a reference signal which is proportional thereto;
- comparing means for comparing the output of said optical sensor means to said reference signal;
- and
- control means for controlling said heating means in response to the output of said comparing means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.