CN1044558C

CN1044558C - Device for adjusting hinge spring force for electric jar having push-button ltd

Info

Publication number: CN1044558C
Application number: CN94115359.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李基成
Original assignee: Gold Star Co Ltd
Current assignee: LG Electronics Inc
Priority date: 1993-09-17
Filing date: 1994-09-16
Publication date: 1999-08-11
Anticipated expiration: 2014-09-16
Also published as: GB9418338D0; CN1103571A; GB2281939A; JPH07163457A

Abstract

An adjustable spring hinge for the lid 14 of an electric cooking vessel comprises a hinge pin 15 for pivotally coupling the lid 14 to the base of the vessel and a plurality of springs 16 mounted on the hinge pin for supplying an opening torque for the lid 14. The springs 16 are coil springs having one arm 16a contacting the lid 14 and a second arm 16b contacting the base. The adjustment device comprises a screw 35 mounted to a support 32 on the base. The screw 35 engages with a lever plate 33 which in turn engages with the am 16b of the spring 16. The screw 35 is moved in or out to tighten or loosen the spring 16 thus adjusting the spring force.

Description

Device for adjusting spring force of electric cooker hinge with button type cover

The present invention relates to an electric cooker capable of opening a button type cover by pressing a button, and more particularly, to a hinge elasticity adjusting member of a button type cover of an electric cooker, which is used for restoring the elasticity of a hinge spring of the cover to a predetermined elasticity level after repeating opening and closing operations of a cover, thereby maintaining a desired smooth opening and closing operation of the button type cover for a long period of time.

Typical rice cookers are equipped with a hand-operated lid or a push-button lid. Rice cookers with manually operated lids or lids that can be opened manually are so-called manual rice cookers, while rice cookers with a push-button lid that can be opened automatically by pressing a push button are so-called push-button rice cookers.

Fig. 1 is a rear perspective view of a push button type rice cooker (hereinafter, referred to as "rice cooker") with a typical push button type lid. As shown in the figure. The rice cooker denoted by reference numeral 11 includes: an upper case 13 is disposed on top of a regular hexahedral body 12. The top of the upper housing 13 is covered by a push button lid 14. the push button lid 14 is pivotally connected to the upper housing 13 by a biased spring hinge structure. In order to allow the cover 14 to be opened at a predetermined angle with respect to the upper case 13 while the cover 14 is coupled to the upper case 13, a hinge shaft 15 is inserted into a hinge shaft hole (not shown) of the cover 14 and a hinge shaft hole (not shown) of the upper case 13, so that the rear center of the cover 14 is coupled to the upper case 13 in a pin manner. A pair of hinge springs 16 are mounted about the hinge axis 15 such that the springs 16 are spaced apart to maintain the desired balance of the lid 14 relative to the upper housing 13 during the lid opening actuation. A lid opening button (not shown) is provided at the center of the top of the upper housing 13 at the front of the rice cooker 11.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the biasing spring hinge structure of the rice cooker 11 with the lid 14 fully opened, taken along the line of fig. 1A-a. The top arm 16a of each spring 16 is elastically caught by the arm stopper 18 of the cover 14, thus elastically holding the cover 14 in an open state with respect to the upper case 13. Here, the arm stopper 18 is disposed inside the cover 14 such that the arm stopper 18 is perpendicular to the inner surface of the cover 14 or perpendicular to the vertical plane in fig. 2. The arm restrictor guide 17 is vertically placed on the top surface of the body 12 inside the hinge shaft 15 as shown in fig. 1. On top of the stopper guide 17, there is provided an inclined guide portion adapted to guide the arm stopper 18 of the cover 14 whenever the cover 14 is opened or closed with respect to the upper case 13. A recess 19 is formed inside the arm-limiter guide 17 for accommodating the arm-limiter 18 when the cover 14 is closed with the arm-limiter 18 guided by the guide 17.

A spring support block 20 is vertically formed on the top surface of the body 12 outside the arm restraint guide 17 and below the hinge shaft 15. The support block 20 is disposed outside the guide 17 at the two portions of the arm restrictor guide 17. The two portions are horizontally separated by a distance. The lower arms 16b of the hinge springs 16 are seated in the support blocks 20 such that the lower arms 16b are horizontally spaced apart by a distance. Mounted on the inner surface of the support block 20 is an arm limiting shoulder 21 adapted to limit the lower arm 16b of the hinge 16 seated in the support block 20.

The rice cooker 11 further includes a button-type cover (not shown) movably installed outside the supporting block 20 on the upper housing 13.

When the lid opening button of the rice cooker 11 is pressed, the lid 14 is elastically rotated about the hinge shaft 15 due to the elastic force of the hinge spring 16, and thus the lid is opened. At this time, the arm stopper 18 is guided from the notch 19 to a predetermined point or to the top surface of the arm stopper guide 17, at which point the total elastic force of the hinge spring 16 will be balanced by the weight of the opened lid 14 and will be weakened in correspondence with the opening action of the lid 14. When the arm restraint 18 reaches a predetermined point, the predetermined angle at which the lid 14 maintains its open position relative to the body 12 is approximately in the range of 90 to 100.

When the cover 14 is closed, the opened cover 14 is pressed with force to rotate the cover 14 about the hinge shaft 15 in a direction to close the cover 14. When the user presses down the open lid 14, the balance between the total elastic force of the hinge spring 16 and the weight of the lid 14 is no longer maintained, so that the open lid 14 is closed.

However, repeating the opening and closing action of the lid 14 necessarily results in weakening the spring force inherent to each hinge spring 16, which results in the weight of the lid 4 balancing the total spring force of the hinge springs 16 below the point that it is desired to reach or below the top surface of the arm-restraint guide 17. Since the elastic force of each hinge spring is weakened by repeating the opening and closing action of the lid 14, the lid 14 cannot be completely opened when the lid starts its opening action, and is often shaken. The push button type cover 14 is manually opened whenever the contents of the inner pot (not shown) need to be taken out or the inner pot needs to be taken out or mounted from the main body 12 before or after cooking. This adds to the user's hassle. In addition, the opening and closing action may cause considerable noise due to the cover 14 being shaken due to the weakened elastic force.

In addition, the elastic force of each hinge spring 16 exceeding a predetermined level causes another problem. That is, excessive hinge spring force will exceed the weight of the lid 14 and cannot be balanced by the weight of the lid during the opening action of the lid, even when the arm restraint 18 has been guided by the hinge spring force from the notch 19 to the top of the arm restraint guide 17. This causes considerable vibration of the cover 14. With such an excessive elastic force, the hinge spring 16 will lose its inherent elastic force in a short period of time.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a means for adjusting the hinge elastic force of a button-type lid of a rice cooker. The above problems can be overcome using a member which adjusts the elastic force of the hinge spring to a predetermined elastic force level, maintains a desired smooth opening and closing action of the push button type cover for a long period of time, and reduces noise generated in the opening action.

In order to achieve the above objects, an apparatus for adjusting a hinge elastic force of a button type cover of a rice cooker according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: an upper housing disposed on the top of the main body of the rice cooker; a button cover covering the upper case, the button cover being connected to the upper case in a pin shaft manner; a hinge shaft for connecting the push button cover to the upper housing in a pin-like manner, the hinge shaft being inserted into a hinge hole formed at a lower edge of the push button cover and a hinge hole formed at a top edge of the upper housing at a rear surface of the upper housing; a pair of hinge springs for biasing the push button type cover and providing an elastic opening force of the push button type cover, the pair of hinge springs being fitted over the hinge shaft and spaced apart from each other, an upper arm of the hinge springs being stopped by an arm stopper provided in the push button type cover; means for adjusting the weak force of the hinge spring by pressing or releasing the hinge spring around the hinge axis.

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Wherein,

FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of a rice cooker having a typical push button lid;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the biasing spring hinge structure of the rice cooker with the push button type lid in the fully opened state, taken along the line A-A of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the electric rice cooker having a button type cover according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the biasing spring hinge structure of the rice cooker with the push button type lid in the fully opened state taken along the line B-B of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the spring force adjustment member of the encircled portion C of FIG. 4;

fig. 6 is a front view of the elasticity adjusting part of fig. 5.

Referring to fig. 3, there is shown a rear perspective view of a rice cooker having a button type cover and an elastic force adjusting unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the rice cooker, designated by the reference numeral 11, comprises an upper casing 13 disposed on the top of a regular hexahedral body 12. The top of the upper housing 13 is covered by a push button lid 14. the push button lid 14 is pivotally connected to the upper housing 13 by a biased spring hinge structure. In order to allow the cover 14 to be opened at a predetermined angle with respect to the upper case 13 while the cover 14 is coupled to the upper case 13, a hinge shaft 15 is inserted into a hinge shaft hole (not shown) of the cover 14 and a hinge shaft hole (not shown) of the upper case 13, so that the rear center of the cover 14 is coupled to the upper case 13 in a pin manner. A pair of hinge springs 16 are mounted about the hinge axis 15 such that the pair of springs 16 are spaced apart to maintain the desired balance of the connection of the cover 14 relative to the upper housing 13. The hinge spring 16 always biases the lid 14 and provides a resilient opening force to the lid 14. A lid opening button (not shown) is provided at the center of the top of the upper housing 13 in front of the rice cooker 11.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along line B-B of fig. 3, showing the coupling parts of the cover 11 with the cover 14 fully opened, and the top arm 16a of each spring 16 is elastically caught by the arm stopper 18 of the cover 14, thus elastically maintaining the cover 14 in an opened state with respect to the upper housing 13. Here, the arm restraint 18 is disposed inside the cover 14 such that the restraint 18 is perpendicular to the inner surface of the cover 14. The arm restrictor guide 17 is vertically placed on the top surface of the body 12 inside the hinge shaft 15 as shown in fig. 4. On top of the arm-restrainer guide 17, there is provided an inclined guide portion adapted to guide the arm-restrainer 18 of the cover 14 whenever the cover 14 is opened or closed with respect to the upper case 13. A notch 19 is formed inside the arm-limiter guide 17, and when the lid 14 is closed, the arm-limiter 18 is guided by the guide to place the arm-limiter 18 in the notch 19.

Fig. 5 shows the spring force adjustment element according to the invention in more detail. The elasticity adjusting member has an elasticity adjusting means 30. The elasticity adjusting device 30 includes: a pair of lever-type first supporting bodies 31, the supporting bodies 31 vertically extending from the outer surface of the arm-restraint guide 17 below the hinge shaft 15. The first supports 31 are horizontally spaced apart at a distance. The elastic force adjusting means 30 further includes a plate-shaped second supporting body 32, and the supporting body 32 is vertically disposed on the top surface of the main body 12, outside the arm stopper guide 17 and below the hinge shaft 15. The lower arms 16b of the hinge springs 16 are placed in a predetermined space between the first supporting bodies 31, and thus, the lower arms 16b are horizontally spaced apart from each other. The wall of the second support 32 has a pair of screw holes 34. The threaded holes 34 are horizontally spaced apart a distance. A pair of elastic force adjusting screws 35 are screwed into the screw holes of the second support body 32 from the outer surface of the second support body 32, respectively.

In the elasticity adjusting means, a space 31a is formed between the first support body 31 and the second support body 32 so as to movably receive the elasticity adjusting lever plate 33. The top of the lever plate 33 is bent to form a bent portion that can be suspended on the top of the second support 32. Below the lever plate 33 is a flat portion, the inner surface of which is in contact with the lower wall 16b of the spring 16. The outer side surface of the lower portion of the lever plate 33 is in contact with the inner end of the elastic force adjusting screw 35.

At this time, the lever plate 33, which is in contact with the lower arm 16b of the hinge 16, has a width slightly wider than the distance between the lower arms 16b of the spring 16, as shown in fig. 6. Due to the wide width, the lever plate 33 can reliably transmit the biasing force to the lower arm 16b of the hinge spring 16 caused by the tightening action of the adjustment screw 35 without fail. The first supports 31 are spaced apart from each other by a sufficient space so that there is no interference between the lower arm 16b of the spring 16 and the first supports 31 when the lower arm 16b is inserted into the elasticity adjusting means 30 through the space between the first supports 31. In other words, the first supports 31 are respectively located outside the insertion positions of the lower arms 16 b. However, the second support body 32 has a width similar to that of the lever plate 33 so that the second support body 32 reliably supports the wider lever plate 33.

The coil part of the hinge spring 16 is fitted over the hinge shaft 15 inserted into the hinge hole of the cover 14 and the upper case 13. The upper section of the lower arm 16b is tightly supported by the fixed hinge shaft 15. The lower section of the lower arm 16b is placed in the spring force adjusting device 30 between the pair of first supports 31. In this regard, the lower arm 16b of the hinge spring 16 is often in elastic contact with the inner surface of the lever plate 33.

The rice cooker 11 further comprises a snap-type cover (not shown) movably mounted on the upper housing 13 outside both the first and

second supports

31, 32.

When the lid opening button pair of the rice cooker 11 is pressed, the lid 14 is elastically rotated about the hinge shaft 15 due to the elastic force of the hinge spring 16, and thus the lid is opened. At this time, the arm stopper 18 is guided to a predetermined point by the notch 19 or to the top surface of the arm stopper guide 17, at which point the total elastic force of the hinge spring 16 will be balanced by the weight of the cover 14, and the total elastic force thereof will be weakened in correspondence to the opening action of the cover 14. Meanwhile, when the opened cover 14 is pressed down with a force, the cover 14 is closed. When such opening and closing actions of the lid are repeated a predetermined number of times, the hinge spring 16 loses its predetermined elastic force as described for the related art rice cooker.

When the hinge spring 16 loses its predetermined elastic force due to the repeated opening and closing actions of the cover, the predetermined elastic force of the hinge spring 16 can be restored by adjusting the elastic force adjusting member of the present invention. In order to adjust the elastic force using the adjusting member of the present invention, the snap-type cover is detached from the upper case 13 so as to expose the head of the screw 35 screwed into the hole 34 of the second support 32. Thereafter, the screw 35 is tightened to balance, so that the lever plate 33 is rotated leftward in fig. 5, which causes the lever plate 33 to press the lower arm 16b of the hinge spring 16 fitted around the hinge shaft 15 toward the left. The lower arm 16b is biased leftward as a result of compressing the hinge spring 16, thus restoring its predetermined elastic force.

Conversely, when the elastic force of the hinge spring 16 exceeds a predetermined elastic force, the cover 14 will open faster. In order to ensure the safe operation of the rice cooker 11, the excessive spring force of the hinge spring 16 should be adjusted or reduced. To achieve the above object, as described above, the buckle-type cover is detached from the upper case 13 so that the heads of the screws 35 are exposed to the outside. Then, the screw 35 is loosened to be balanced, and thus, the lever plate 33 is rotated rightward in fig. 5, which causes the lever plate 33 to move rightward along the lower arm 16b of the hinge spring 16 due to the restoring force of the spring 16. The hinge springs 16 are thus suitably released to restore their predetermined elastic force.

As described above, the elastic force adjusting member according to the present invention enables the opening hinge spring of the cover to maintain a predetermined proper elastic force. In this regard, such a spring force adjustment member can control the biasing force acting on the spring arm limiter during the lid opening actuation event and maintain the proper spring force acting on the spring arm limiter.

The elastic force adjusting component keeps the preset elastic force of the hinge spring of the electric cooker button cover, thus the required smooth opening and closing action of the button cover is kept for a long time, and the noise generated in the opening action is reduced. This feature thus improves the reliability of use of the rice cooker with push-button lid.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

1. An assembly for adjusting a hinge elastic force of an electric rice cooker having a button type lid, comprising:

an upper housing disposed on the top of the main body of the rice cooker;

a button cover covering the upper case, the button cover being connected to the case in a pin manner;

a hinge shaft for connecting the button cover to the upper housing in a pin manner, the hinge shaft being inserted into a hinge hole formed in a lower edge of the button cover and a hinge hole formed at a top edge of the upper housing at a rear surface of the housing;

a pair of hinge springs for biasing the button cover and providing a resilient opening force to the button cover, the hinge springs being fitted around the hinge shaft and spaced apart from each other by a distance, upper arms of the hinge springs being stopped by arm stoppers provided on the button cover; and

a device for adjusting an elastic force of a hinge spring fitted around a hinge shaft by pressing or releasing the hinge spring, the elastic force adjusting device comprising:

a pair of first supports extending vertically from an outer surface of the arm restrictor guide below the hinge shaft, the pair of first supports being horizontally spaced apart by a distance;

a second support body vertically disposed on the top surface of the rice cooker main body outside the arm stopper guide and below the hinge shaft, the second support body defining a space between it and the first support body;

screw holes arranged on the second support body;

a spring force adjusting screw screwed into the screw hole from the outside of the second support member; and

and an elastic force adjusting lever plate for pressing or releasing the hinge spring according to the forward or backward movement of the elastic force adjusting screw, the lever plate being movably disposed in a space defined between the first and second supporting bodies.

2. The component of claim 1 wherein said lever plate comprises:

a curved top portion suspended from the top surface of the second support; and

a flat lower portion, an inner surface of which is in contact with the lower arm of the hinge spring when an outer surface of the lower portion is in contact with an inner end of the elastic force adjusting screw.