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US 6,350,973 B2Granted
Radio-frequency and microwave-assisted processing of materials
AssigneeEA Technology Limited
InventorsFiona Catherine Ruth Wroe, Andrew Terence Rowley
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AssigneeEA Technology Limited
InventorsFiona Catherine Ruth Wroe, Andrew Terence Rowley
Estimating the term…
There is described a hybrid furnace comprising a microwave source, and an enclosure for the confinement of both microwave and RF energy for containing an object to be heated. The microwave source is coupled to the enclosure. The furnace further includes an RF source coupled to the enclosure, and a controller for controlling the quantity of microwave energy and RF energy to which the object to be heated is exposed. There is also described a method of operating a furnace of the above type to the heat an object. The microwave source is actuated to induce an electric field to heat the object and the RF source is controlled to selectively provide an oscillating electric field within the object to be heated at a location at a temperature where the field strength of the microwave-induced electric field falls below a predetermined threshold value.
A hybrid furnace comprising a microwave source, an enclosure for the confinement of both microwave and RF energy and for containing an object to be heated, means for coupling the microwave source to said enclosure, an RF source adapted to dielectrically heat the object to be heated, means for coupling the RF source to said enclosure, and a controller for simultaneously applying both microwave energy and RF energy, and for controlling the quantity of microwave energy and RF energy to which the object to be heated is exposed.
A method of operating a furnace of the type comprising a microwave source, an enclosure for the confinement of both microwave and RF energy and for containing an object to be heated, means for coupling the microwave source to said enclosure, an RF source adapted to dielectrically heat the object to be heated, and means for coupling the RF source to said enclosure, the method comprising the steps of actuating the microwave source to heat the object and actuating the RF source to provide an oscillating electric field within the object to be heated to dielectrically heat the object to be heated at at least one of a location and a temperature where the field strength of the microwave-induced electric field falls below a predetermined threshold value such that both microwave energy and RF energy are applied simultaneously.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.