TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a multi-functional food cooker having water purification function, and more particularly, to a multi-functional food cooker having water purification function that is capable of supplying purified water or hot water to food according to cooking methods for the food, heating a cooking container in which the food is put, and cooking the food in the cooking container.

BACKGROUND ART

So as to cook food, generally, the food and water are put into a cooking container, and then, the cooking container is heated to cook the food put therein. However, there is no separate food cooker at convenience stores, large-scale discount stores, supermarkets and so on. In most cases, accordingly, instant food products to which water is poured are cooked, and food products are heated up and cooked through a microwave oven.

Since no separate food cooker is prepared at convenience stores, large-scale discount stores, supermarkets and so on, that is, no food except the instant food products can be cooked and sold there.

So as to solve the above-mentioned problems, an automatic ramen (a kind of instant noodles) cooker having a form of a vending machine is disclosed in Korean Patent Nos. 0318063 and 0325418.

The conventional automatic ramen cooker is very convenient in use, but it is complicated in configuration and also very expensive. Moreover, the conventional automatic ramen cooker makes users become passive. That is, the conventional automatic ramen cooker can cook only the ramen selected by the users, which causes many limitations in selecting various kinds of ramen noodles supplied in a wide range.

Further, the automatic ramen cookers, which have been developed up to now, have the limitations in cooking using the addition of various materials. That is, the automatic ramen cookers developed up to now are difficult to cook the ramen by addition of an egg, leek and so on according to the user's preference.

Accordingly, he or she adopts a conventional manner wherein general ramen, not instant ramen like cup ramen, is selected and various materials like an egg, leek and so on are added to the ramen, according to his or her preference. According to the conventional ramen cooking manner, that is, water is poured into a pot, and ramen cooking is carried out through a gas range.

In the conventional ramen cooking manner, however, it is necessary to pour water into the pot, heat the water, and cook ramen in the pot, which makes the cooking very inconvenient, and especially, it is hard that the conventional ramen cooking manner is adopted in a public place such as PC rooms, stores and so on.

So as to solve the above-mentioned problems, an easy cooker for ramen as first prior art is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 0580150 (dated on May 15, 2006), which includes: a preheated water tank for receiving preheated water needed for cooking ramen from a preheater to store the preheated water therein; a heater unit having a cooking heater adapted to seat a cooking container in which ramen and powder are put thereon, a fixing bracket disposed on one side of the cooking heater, a pressing member rotatably disposed with respect to the fixing bracket and having a portion protruding toward the top of the cooking heater, and a switch disposed between the fixing bracket and the pressing ruler in such a manner as to be turned on according to the rotation of the pressing member; water supply means for feeding the stored water in the preheated water tank to the cooking container seated on the cooking heater and having a water supply valve; a ramen water temperature controller for sensing the temperature of the water stored in the preheated water tank and controlling the preheater according to the sensed temperature to allow the temperature of the water stored in the preheated water tank to be maintained at a ramen water preheated temperature; and a cooking heater temperature for sensing the temperature of the cooking heater, controlling the cooking heater according to the sensed temperature to allow the temperature of the cooking heater to be maintained at the ramen water preheated temperature, and if the pressing member is rotated to turn on the switch after the cooking container in which the ramen and powder are put is seated on the cooking heater, raising the temperature of the cooking heater to a ramen cooking temperature to maintain the raised temperature by the time adequate for the ramen cooking.

According to the first prior art, a main water tank is located on the upper portion of the easy cooker for ramen, and accordingly, the center of gravity of the cooker is on the upper portion of the cooker, so that if the cooker is touched by a user while the ramen is being cooked, it may fall forward or backward.

Further, water vapor is generated from the ramen cooked through the heater unit and is raised toward a water supply faucet, so that dust or foreign matters sticking to the water vapor may be attached to the water supply faucet, thereby making it inconvenient to often clean the water supply faucet. Of course, the dust or foreign matters may enter the water supply faucet, thereby causing the ramen cooking to be carried out in an unsanitary state.

So as to solve the above-mentioned problems the first prior art has had, a ramen cooker as second prior art is disclosed in Korean Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 2008-0000250 (dated on Mar. 3, 2008), which includes: a water tank for supplying water; a hot water tank for storing high temperature water and having a heater attached thereto; a nozzle for supplying the high temperature water to a ramen container according to the opening and closing of a solenoid valve; a heating plate for heating the ramen container; a sensor for sensing the existence and non-existence of the ramen container; a sensor for sensing the operation of an auxiliary base; an external structure for attaching steel plates as a front surface and side surfaces to a support as an aluminum profile in such a manner as to be easily exchanged or changed; a display for displaying a ramen cooking state; buttons for selecting ramen cooking processes; and a printed circuit board for controlling the ramen cooking, wherein the auxiliary base has a spring attached thereto to separate the ramen container in which no water is put from the heating plate and operates according to the gravity of water in the ramen container.

According to the second prior art, also, the water vapor generated while the ramen is being boiled is introduced into the nozzle from which water is supplied, and dust and foreign matters are attached to the water vapor introduced into the nozzle, thereby undesirably causing the water supply in an unsanitary state.

Besides, even the surrounding portions around the nozzle may be contaminated with the dust and foreign matters attached to the water vapor or the soup spattering during the ramen cooking, thereby undesirably causing the ramen cooking to be carried out in a more unsanitary state.

So as to solve the above-mentioned problems the second prior art has had, a cooker combined with a cold/hot water dispenser as third prior art is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-0077402 (dated on Jul. 7, 2011), which includes: filtering means for receiving raw water to purify the raw water; a purified water tank for storing the purified water passing through the filtering means; a cold water tank for receiving the purified water from the purified water tank and cooling the purified water through a cooler to store the cold water therein; a hot water tank for receiving the purified water from the purified water tank and heating the purified water through a heater to store the hot water therein; a purified water unit connected to the cold water tank and the hot water tank, respectively, and having cold and hot water valves for discharging the cold water and hot water; a cooking unit disposed below the front side of the purified water unit and having a cooking plate located on top thereof to heat a cooking container coming into contact therewith and an electric heater as a heating source located at the inside thereof; a ventilation fan located on the front surface of the purified water unit to convey the heat and water vapor generated upon the food cooking in the cooking unit to the outside; and heat insulating members located on the edges of the cooking plate of the cooking unit to block heat transfer and having a shock absorbing function.

According to the third prior art, the electric heater is located in the cooking unit on which the cooking container is placed, and the heating for the cooking container is carried out by the electric heater, so that the transfer of the heating source is blocked by means of the heat insulating members. Since the thicknesses of the heat insulating members are relatively low, however, it is impossible to completely block the transfer of the heating source.

After the cooking, further, the heat generated from the electric heater still remains, and if no cover is placed on the cooking unit, a burn may be caused by the residual heat of the electric heater.

In the state where the cover is not placed on the cooking unit, also, power is continuously applied to the electric heater, thereby undesirably causing the electric heater to be overheated, and so as to prevent the application of power from being kept, accordingly, the cooker should be checked carefully whenever it is used, thereby making a user feel inconvenient in use.

According to the third prior art, moreover, it is hard to install the cooker at a place where a water supply line for supplying water cannot be connected to the cooker.

DISCLOSURE

Technical Problem

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-functional food cooker having water purification function that is capable of supplying water from a water supply line or water bottle according to surrounding environments thereof to cook food with the supplied water.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a multi-functional food cooker having water purification function that is capable of preventing a user from being burned due to residual heat after food cooking.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a multi-functional food cooker having water purification function that is capable of allowing food cooking to be continuously carried out for a given period of time through reheating in the state where the cooking time set therein is exceeded.

Technical Solution

To accomplish the above-mentioned objects, according to the present invention, there is provided a multi-functional food cooker having water purification function including: a water supply unit for feeding the water supplied from a tap or water bottle as hot water or purified water according to a user's selection to allow food to be cooked with the hot water or purified water; a cooking unit adapted to cook the food with the water fed to a cooking container and located on the underside of the water supply unit to prevent the user from being burned due to residual heat after food cooking; and a control unit disposed on the water supply unit and the cooking unit to control water supply and heating time and temperature for cooking the food in the cooking container, wherein the cooking unit includes: a cooking unit body having a shape of a flat plate to locate the food cooker's body on top thereof, having tempered glass or heat resistant glass disposed on one side thereof to place the cooking container thereon, having a given space formed at the inside thereof, and being open on one side thereof; a cooking unit cover detachably disposed on the open portion of the cooking unit body; and a heating part disposed inside the cooking unit body and having a circular support plate disposed under the cooking unit body and having support pieces, fixing pieces, and coupling grooves, and coil fixing holes, coils located on top of the support plate to cook the food in the cooking container through electromagnetic induction heating, fixing plates located on tops of the coils in such a manner as to be coupled to the support plate, and ferrite cores insertedly disposed on the underside of the support plate.

According to the present invention, desirably, the water supply unit includes: a food cooker's body having a given space formed at the inside thereof in such a manner as to be open on one side thereof and having a discharge valve disposed on the front surface thereof to supply water; a body cover detachably mounted on the open portion of the food cooker's body and having a plurality of nipples adapted to couple hoses thereto so as to connect the hoses to the tap or the water bottle; a plurality of filters disposed on one side of the body cover by means of a filter clip to purify the water; a distributor connected to the filters to dividedly supply the water supplied through the filters to the discharge valve to the form of purified water or hot water; a water storage tank located inside the food cooker's body to store the water supplied from the filters through the distributor by a given amount; a hot water tank located under the water storage tank in such a manner as to store the water supplied from the water storage tank by a given amount and having a heater adapted to heat the water stored therein; a first solenoid valve adapted to supply the hot water supplied from the hot water tank to the discharge valve to cook the food; and a second solenoid valve disposed inside the food cooker's body in such a manner as to be located between the discharge valve and the distributor to supply the water from the filters and the distributor to the discharge valve and having a pressure control valve mounted thereon.

According to the present invention, desirably, the filter clip includes: a flat panel fixed to one side of the body cover by means of bolts; and a plurality of ‘Ω’-shaped clip members disposed on one side of the flat panel to fix the filters thereto.

According to the present invention, desirably, the water supply unit supplies the water supplied from the pressure of the tap or from the water bottle by means of a pump to the water storage tank through the filters and the distributor, stores the water by the given amount in the water storage tank, heats the water in the hot water tank, and selectively supplies the hot water fed from the hot water tank to the cooking container through the first solenoid valve and the discharge valve and the water purified through the filters and the distributor and reduced in pressure through the second solenoid valve and the pressure control valve to the discharge valve.

According to the present invention, desirably, the food cooker's body includes a ventilation fan adapted to prevent the water vapor generated from the food during cooking from being introduced into the discharge valve, the ventilation fan being electrically connected to a main controller so that blowing occurs toward the front surface of the food cooker's body only when power is applied to the heating part.

According to the present invention, desirably, the control unit includes: the main controller for carrying out the cooking container existence/nonexistence checking, the control of the first solenoid valve or the second solenoid valve adapted to supply purified water or hot water, and the control of the heater so as to cook the food if a button part disposed on the front surface of the food cooker's body is manipulated by the user; the button part disposed on the front surface of the food cooker's body and having a cooking button, an instant cooking button, a general cooking button, a start/stop button, a hot water button, a purified water button, a time adding button, and a display; a sensor disposed on the front surface of the food cooker's body in such a manner as to be electrically connected to the main controller to check whether the cooking container is located on the heating part and thus to allow the button part to be activated or deactivated; and a heating part controller electrically connected to the main controller to control the heating part for food cooking, wherein the main controller is formed of a PCB located inside the food cooker's body and the heating part controller is formed of a PCB located inside the cooking unit body.

Advantageous Effects

According to the present invention, the water for cooking food is supplied from a tap or water bottle according to surrounding environments of the multi-functional food cooker, and the food is cooked with the supplied water, so that the multi-functional food cooker can be disposed, without any limitation in installation places.

According to the present invention, further, food cooking is carried out through the electromagnetic induction heating so as to prevent the user from being burned due to the residual heat after the food cooking, so that a burn caused by the residual heat cannot be applied to him or her.

According to the present invention, furthermore, the food cooking is continuously carried out for a given period of time through reheating in the state where the cooking time set in the multi-functional food cooker is exceeded, so that there is no need to return to the initial step for the food cooking.

According to the present invention, in addition, the buttons for controlling the multi-functional food cooker are locked during the food cooking, so that no change in the functions of the cooking utensil occurs during the food cooking.

According to the present invention, also, even if the buttons for selecting the functions are pressed in the state where the cooking container is not placed on the multi-functional food cooker, they are in a deactivated state, so that sudden supply of hot water can be prevented.

