Matsushita's New IH Cooking Utensil Shakes Pans

Jun 26, 2007 15:49 Mayuko Uno, Nikkei Electronics

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. will release a built-in electromagnetic induction heating (IH) cooking utensil, KZ-VSW33D, that shakes a pan for stir-frying and so forth, in addition to other eight types of utensils.

KZ-VSW33D was developed by mounting infrared temperature sensors and shortening the time to detect temperature of the bottom of the pan.

In the case of IH cooking utensils, pans detach from the coils while being shaken, lowering the temperature of the pans.

For the newly-developed utensil, the time between a landing of a pan on the burner and detection of temperature is shorter, though the details were not revealed, according to the company. Therefore, input power to the coils can be minutely controlled, and, as a result, it is easier to keep the temperature of the pan constant.

With conventional IH cooking utensils with a thermistor, it is difficult to measure temperature in such a short period of time. So, the company used to recommend the users to avoid shaking a pan as far as possible.

The infrared temperature sensor adopted in this time can detect temperature with high accuracy in high temperature range (around 300°C) to be used for cooking in high heat such as stir-frying. The sensors are installed both in the right and left coils whose maximum thermal power is 3 kW.

Also, noise can be reduced to as small as 28 dB by switching the four types of cooling fan operation modes according to the thermal power. The price of KZ-VSW33D, the top-of-the-line model, is 409,500 yen (USD 3,318), and it will be released on Sept. 1, 2007.

24 Hours | 7 Days