U.S. patent application number 11/641177 was filed with the patent office on 2007-06-21 for two-in-one steam and roast cooker.
Invention is credited to Wah Hing Cheung.
Application Number | 20070137637 11/641177 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 37779625 |
Filed Date | 2007-06-21 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070137637 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Cheung; Wah Hing |
June 21, 2007 |
Two-in-one steam and roast cooker
Abstract
A novel two-in-one steam and roast cooker includes a food
chamber with steam holes on its bottom; a steam chamber capable of
storing water under the food chamber; and a heater in the steam
chamber under the food chamber. In this simple and compact cooker,
the heater not only produces steam to allow food to be fully
cooked, it also produces high temperature (up to 200-300.degree.
C.) for roasting food like in an oven. Furthermore, the cooker
components can be simply put together to make the cooker easy to
assemble, disassemble and clean.
Inventors: |
Cheung; Wah Hing; (New
Territories, CN) |
Correspondence
Address: |
ALIX YALE & RISTAS LLP
750 MAIN STREET
SUITE 1400
HARTFORD
CT
06103
US
|
Family ID: |
37779625 |
Appl. No.: |
11/641177 |
Filed: |
December 19, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
126/369 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47J 27/04 20130101;
A47J 36/20 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
126/369 |
International
Class: |
F24D 1/00 20060101
F24D001/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Dec 19, 2005 |
CN |
200520145102.9 |
Claims
1. A two-in-one steam and roast cooker comprising: a food chamber
with steam holes on the bottom; a steam chamber capable of storing
water under said food chamber; and a heater in said steam chamber
under said food chamber.
2. The two-in-one steam and roast cooker of claim 1, wherein said
heater lies above the water level of said steam chamber, or
comprises of an upper heating element and a lower heating element
which is set below said water level of said steam chamber.
3. The two-in-one steam and roast cooker of claim 2, wherein said
heater is inclined-spiral in shape.
4. The two-in-one steam and roast cooker of claim 1, wherein said
heater is provided with a plug for connecting to a power plug
outside said steam chamber.
5. The two-in-one steam and roast cooker of claim 1, wherein the
bottom of said steam chamber has a ladder structure with an upper
and a lower flat surface, and the height of the upper flat surface
is set as the water level mark.
6. The two-in-one steam and roast cooker of claim 1, wherein a
water-input hole is provided at the water level position of said
steam chamber connects to a water tank.
7. The two-in-one steam and roast cooker of claim 1, wherein said
steam chamber is provided with a temperature control device.
8. The two-in-one steam and roast cooker of claim 1, wherein said
steam chamber nests in a heat isolation shell.
9. The two-in-one steam and roast cooker of claim 1, wherein a tray
with a handle to hold said food chamber is provided under said food
chamber.
10. The two-in-one steam and roast cooker of claim 1, wherein an
upper-coverage component with a seal ring is provided to cover said
food chamber and steam chamber.
Description
FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY
[0001] This present invention relates to steam and roast
cookers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] It is well known that steam cooking may keep food's original
tastes and roast cooking may increase their flavors. Among the
steam or roast cookers currently available in the market, they
either apply electric heating or apply gasoline heating; however,
they cannot make it possible to steam and roast food in the same
cooker. Usually, users have to steam or roast food separately,
which is high-cost, space consuming and inconvenient. Furthermore,
complicated heating device for existing steam or roast cooker makes
installation and dissembling and cleaning difficult.
SUMMARY
[0003] An objective of the present inventions is to overcome the
above shortcomings and provide a novel simple two-in-one steam and
roast cooker, which is easy to clean and saves energy.
[0004] In order to achieve the above objective, the steam and roast
cooker includes: (1) a food chamber with steam holes on its bottom;
(2) a steam chamber, capable of storing water under the food
chamber, has its ladder-structure bottom with upper and lower flat
surface, and height of its upper flat surface is set as the water
level; and (3) an inclined-spiral heater, which is in the steam
chamber under the food chamber, and lies above the water level of
steam chamber, or includes an upper heating element and a lower
heating element which is below the water level of steam
chamber.
[0005] In this simple and compact cooker, the heater not only
produces steam to allow food to be fully cooked, it also produces
high temperature (up to 200-300.degree. C.) for roasting food like
in an oven. Furthermore, the cooker components can be simply put
together to make the cooker easy to assemble, disassemble and
clean.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0006] FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded view of components for the
cooker.
[0007] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional schematic view of the assembly
of the cooker.
[0008] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing air and steam movements inside
the cooker of the cooker.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0009] Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, in the present invention of
a two-in-one steam and roast cooker, external cover 1, food chamber
12 and heater 4 are inside the steam chamber 6. Steam chamber 6 is
capable of storing water together with external shell 8 and the
foregoing components are set from top to bottom in order. The sizes
of food chamber 12, steam chamber 6 and external shell 8 increase
gradually, and thus they are nested together.
[0010] The upper-coverage component comprises (1) external cover 1,
covering the external shell, from which it is easy to take out all
the inside components for cleaning; (2) internal cover 2, which
covers chamber 6, may prevent heat loss and hold the external shell
8 at lower temperature and keep the temperature of the cooker, as
well as allowing for cleaning; and (3) seal ring 3 of silica gel
embedded in outer edge of internal cover 2 to further hold the
temperature of the cooker. Since a totally sealed upper-coverage
component may cause explosion, the proper number of small gas holes
on external cover 1 and internal cover 2 prevent explosion and keep
temperature to roast food as in oven as well.
[0011] The food chamber 12 with steam holes on its bottom is used
to hold food. Tray 13, holding food chamber 12 under it, connects
with a handle through a perpendicular bracket. The handle extends
outside external shell 8, which makes it easy to take the food
chamber 12 out of steam chamber 6, thus providing a convenient and
safe usage of the cooker.
[0012] The bottom of steam chamber 6 has ladder structure with
upper and lower flat surface, and height of its upper flat surface
is set as water level 10, which is the position of water-input hole
connecting with water tank 7 on the outer side of external shell 8.
Water in this waterproof tank can be taken out freely.
[0013] In this application example, the heater 4 includes plug 41,
upper heating element 42, which produces high temperature for
roasting during suspension at its upper position, and lower heating
element 43 below water level 10 of steam chamber to produce steam
by heating in water. The best compact heater of inclined-spiral
shape not only produces different heating effects but also saves
space maximally. An alternative way is for the heater 4 to only
apply upper heating element 42 to produce steam by heating steam
chamber 6 directly by means of heat radiation. Plug-pull style by
connecting the plug 41 through perpendicular wire, extending
outside of steam chamber 6, to power plug 5 on the external wall of
the steam chamber makes it easy to dissemble and clean the whole
heater 4.
[0014] Temperature-control device on outer wall of steam chamber 6
comprises temperature controller 9 located at its bottom to prevent
water drying up and another temperature controller 11 on the side
wall to control cooking temperature (steam or roast
temperature).
[0015] The assembled cooker is shown as FIG. 2. Upper-coverage
component, food chamber 12, heater 4, steam chamber 6 and external
shell 8 can be simply stacked from top to bottom in the order
shown, which makes it convenient to assemble, dissemble and clean.
The heater 4 and food chamber 12 are sealed in steam chamber 6
which has metal sealed bottom. Space between the opening of steam
chamber 6 and internal cover 2 is sealed by seal ring 3. An
isolation layer between steam chamber 6 and external shell 8
effectively prevent heat leaking and injury. Based on little heat
loss in this system, low power may produce the same temperature as
high power, so energy is saved.
[0016] In this system, water stored in water tank 7 is input to
steam chamber 6 automatically. Referring to FIG. 3, heating from
heater 4 make lower heating element 43 under water level 10 of
steam chamber to heat water into steam, then upper heating element
42 makes steam to higher temperature to resemble oven roasting.
Arrows in FIG. 3 show direction of steam movement in food chamber
12 to steam food inside and finally out from holes of the upper
cover components. Air movement in the isolation layer between steam
chamber 6 and external shell 8 is also shown.
[0017] If water-input hole touches air caused by water of steam
chamber 6 being lower than water level 10, the water in water tank
7 will go into steam chamber 6 through the hole until the water
level is as high as to cover water-input hole, then the water flow
stops. Thus water may move into steam chamber 6 again and again. If
there is no water in steam chamber 6 and the temperature keeps
increasing, for example 120.degree. C., the temperature control
device will interrupt the power to stop the temperature increase to
ensure safety.
[0018] The present invention may have different external designs
with practical requirements, such as different shapes as rectangle,
circle, square, ellipse, etc. In addition, all the internal designs
may be modified correspondingly.
[0019] It is to be understood that the embodiments depicted in the
patent specification herein are not intended to be, nor should it
be deemed to be, limited thereby and such other modifications or
embodiments without departing from the spirit and essential
characteristics of such invention herein are particularly reserved
especially as they fall within the breadth and scope of the claims
here appended.
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