Drawer apparatus for radio frequency heating and defrosting
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional capacitive food defrosting systems face challenges with cleaning due to drip and condensation accumulation, which can lead to bacterial growth, and are inefficient as they often require fixed-sized compartments that may not accommodate loads of varying sizes or shapes, leading to suboptimal power usage.
Innovation Solution
The development of a defrosting system with removable containment structures and modular resonance cavities that can adjust impedance matching during the defrosting process to accommodate different load sizes and shapes, using RF energy to efficiently heat loads while allowing for easy cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional capacitive food defrosting systems use fixed electrodes in a heating compartment, then the system structure is simple, but cleaning becomes difficult due to drip and condensation accumulation
Solution Approach 1:
The heating compartment is divided into a stationary housing and a removable drawer assembly. The drawer can be extracted from the housing for easy cleaning of the compartment interior, while the drawer itself can be rinsed separately. This segmentation allows both components to be cleaned independently, resolving the cleaning difficulty without complicating the overall system structure.
2Device complexity
If conventional systems use a fixed-size heating compartment, then the device complexity is low, but efficiency decreases when the compartment size does not match the food load size
Solution Approach 1:
The drawer assembly is designed to be removable and replaceable, allowing the heating compartment configuration to be dynamically adjusted by inserting drawers of appropriate sizes. This enables the system to adapt to different food load sizes and shapes, improving defrosting efficiency without requiring complex adjustable mechanisms within a fixed compartment.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the heating compartment is significantly larger than the food load, then all food loads can be accommodated, but power usage becomes inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
By providing multiple removable drawers of different sizes, the system segments the heating space into smaller, more manageable compartments. Each drawer can be selected to closely match the size of the food load, reducing the amount of air space that needs to be heated and thereby improving power efficiency while maintaining adaptability to various load sizes.
4Use of energy by stationary object
If the heating compartment is too small for large food loads, then power usage is optimized, but the system cannot accommodate larger loads
Solution Approach 1:
The system achieves universality by providing multiple drawers of different sizes that can be interchanged. A single defrosting device can handle both small loads efficiently using smaller drawers and large loads using larger drawers, thereby maintaining both power efficiency and adaptability to different load capacities without requiring a single oversized compartment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively addresses cleaning challenges and improves efficiency by allowing for easy cleaning of removable components and optimizing RF energy absorption across varying load sizes and shapes, ensuring even heating and reduced power consumption.
Implementation Method 1
a first electrode (770) arranged within a cavity (310) defined by interior surfaces of bottom, side, and back cavity walls (111-115) and a door (116). An RF amplifier arrangement (344, 346) is coupled to an input of the impedance matching network (360)
Implementation Method 2
An impedance matching network (360) is coupled between an output of the RF amplifier arrangement (344, 346) and the first electrode (770)
Implementation Method 3
supply RF energy to efficiently heat loads while allowing for easy cleaning
Data Source
AI summary
A radio-frequency (RF) heating system may include a removable drawer, which may be inserted under a fixed shelf of the RF heating system to form an enclosed cavity. The drawer may include conductive channels or side rails that may interface with the shelf of the defrosting system in order to electrically couple the drawer to the RF heating system. The drawer may include an electrode that is electrically coupled to ground or to a RF signal source when the drawer is inserted beneath the shelf. The shelf may include selectable electrodes of varying sizes. The RF heating system may use identification circuitry to recognize the type of drawer that has been inserted beneath the shelf. RF energy may be applied to the electrode of the drawer or the shelf to heat a load in the enclosed cavity.