Radio frequency treatment to phytosanitize wood packaging materials used in international shipping
OwnerJohn J. Janowiak, Karolina Szymona +3inventors
InventorsJohn J. Janowiak, Karolina Szymona, Kelli Hoover, Ronald G. Mack, Mark Hamelin
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Abstract
A method for treating wood packaging materials using Radio Frequency heating includes the steps of heating wood packaging materials using RF heating and applying a pressure before the heating or incrementally applying a pressure during the heating. The wood packaging materials are heated in a RF operating unit that has a sealed chamber with an inner surface and a liner cover a majority of the inner surface, the liner having a heat-reflective inner face and an insulation layer between the inner face and the inner surface.
Claims16
A method of treating wood packaging materials (WPMs) using Radio Frequency (RF) heating, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a RF operating unit including:
- a sealable chamber having an inner surface,
- a liner covering a majority of the inner surface, the liner having a heat-reflective inner face and an insulation layer between the inner face and the inner surface of the sealable chamber,
- a RF generator connected to the chamber for applying RF heating rea ent to the WPM,
- a pressurization system for controlling the pressure inside the chamber, loading the chamber with a workload of the WPMs;
- applying a pressure to the chamber during the treatment, the pressure being at least 5 psi greater than atmospheric pressure;
- treating the WPMs using RF heating until a temperature of the WPMs reaches a predetermined temperature not more than 100° C.;
- and
- maintaining the predetermined temperature for at least 1 minute.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.