Abstract: A pressure regulator and steamer oven for cooking food at low pressure is provided which conserves water and space. The oven includes heating elements and a cooking cavity having a pool for holding water to be turned into steam. A pressure regulator mechanism attached to the rear of the steamer includes a reservoir and a float switch. A steam outlet conduit connects the cooking cavity to the reservoir and extends below the normal water level in the reservoir. The lower end of the conduit is blocked by water in the reservoir. The float switch is operable to turn off the heating elements when the pressure in the conduit exceeds a pre-determined level. Thus, the pressure regulator employs a water seal and float switch to help indirectly measure the pressure in the cooking cavity and control the heating elements accordingly. The reservoir is connected to the pool via an overflow which allows condensate to be recirculated to the cooking cavity.

Abstract: A thermal processor and method for using the same which is particularly useful for developing a sheet of imaging material, such as photothermographic film. The thermal processor including means for heating the imaging material which include a plurality of heated surfaces within the thermal processor. The thermal processor also includes means for transporting the imaging material through the thermal processor and means for bending the imaging material a plurality of times to have a plurality of curvatures and for positioning the imaging material adjacent to the plurality of heated surfaces when the imaging material is heated by the heating means.

Abstract: A thermal conductive roller for use in copying machines, steam-heated and induction-heated applications includes a ceramic heating layer formed by plasma spraying a ceramic material to form an electrically conductive heating layer of preselected and and controlled resistance. Several methods of controlling the resistance of the ceramic heating layer are disclosed. The ceramic heating layer is sealed with a solid, low viscosity sealer such as Carnauba wax to protect the ceramic layer from moisture penetration. Electrical current is applied at or near the core and is conducted radially outward through the heating layer to an outer grounded metallic layer. An outer contact layer of metal, ceramic, or polymeric material can be added.

Abstract: The present invention is related to a fixing device for fusing and fixing an unfixed toner image on a recording sheet. In the fixing device, a heating member such as rollers and endless belts and the like, is heated to a fixing temperature. An endless belt is provided opposite the heating member and is pressed against the heating member by a pressure member provided inside the endless belt. The heating member is driven in rotation in a transport direction of the recording sheet and the endless belt is driven in conjunction with the rotation of the heating member. The recording sheet bearing a toner image passes between the heating member and the endless belt while in this state, and the toner image is heated by the heating member so as to be fused onto the recording sheet under the pressure produced between the heating member and endless belt while the recording sheet is transported therebetween.

Abstract: An electric oven including a base formed with a shoulder surrounding circumference of a top thereof, a disk fixedly mounted on the base, an electric heater fixedly mounted the disk, an annular member having a plurality of rollers at a circumference thereof and disposed on a top of the disk, a tray disposed on the annular member and having a tubular portion at a center thereof, a plug fixedly fitted within the tubular portion of the tray, a motor arranged within the base and having an output shaft extending upwardly out of the base and the annular member to engage with the plug, an outer housing fixedly mounted on a top of the base and surrounded by the shoulder of the base, an outer cover snugly fitted on a top of the outer housing and provided with a cylindrical protuberance having two opposite lugs at an upper end thereof and two opposite projections at a lower end thereof, an inner cover fixedly mounted on a bottom side of the outer cover, and a door having a flange at a lower edge thereof which is rotatab

Abstract: A kettle includes a water tank, an electrical element under the bottom of the tank, connecting members to be connected to an electrical power supply and arrangements for regulating the operation of the element. The regulator arrangements and the connecting members include pins to be inserted in a connection module. Electrical connecting wires for connecting the pins are accommodated inside the connection module.

Abstract: An infrared conveyor furnace with controllable point source radiation elements incorporating a clean room internal environment. The conveyor transports moieties in an indexed manner through multiple heating zones heated by arrays of lamps. The lamps of each array are divided into a plurality of groups which are separately controlled to maintain a constant temperature across the surface of the moiety. The control of the lamp groups is accomplished through the use of a controller utilizing data from FTIR sensors mounted in a fused quartz barrier which is permeable by infrared radiation but which seals the lamp arrays from the heating zones.

Abstract: A convection oven includes a plurality of modular control panels which can be interchanged with one another to change the functional capability of the oven. The base unit contains the basic structural and mechanical components of the convection oven including a heating element and blower. Each of the individual control panels can control the operation of the heating element and blower in the base unit. Each control panel will include a different group of controls. All of the available control panels plug into a standard interface on the base unit. Therefore, the functional capabilities of the oven can be changed by removing the existing control panel on the base unit and reinstalling a different control panel.

Abstract: A thin visible and near IR absorbing plate is placed between the radiation source and the object to be processed in a rapid thermal processing system. The object is heated in part by the near IR and far IR radiation from the thin plate, and the material and optically induced heating inhomogeneities are reduced.

Abstract: A heat insulating member is disposed, enclosing a reaction tube, and a heat source is provided through a heat linearing member disposed above the reaction tube and between the reaction tube and the heat insulating member. The reaction tube is made of quartz and has a transparent portion formed in the top thereof and its neighboring thereof, and an opaque portion in the rest part of the reaction tube. In a heat treatment, when heat rays are radiated from the heat source through the heat linearing member, the heat rays pass through the transparent portion of the reaction tube to heat a wafer, but those of the heat rays reflected on the heat insulating member are blocked by the opaque portion of the reaction tube. A heat ray quantity to be passed into the reaction tube can be controlled, whereby high intra-surface temperature uniformity of the wafer can be secured, and as a result high processing yields can be obtained.

Abstract: Support 7 is uniformly heated from underneath by an annular heater 8 having a vertically adjustable cooling disc 20 in the middle. This arrangement gives a very uniform temperature profile diametrically across the top of the support 7, useful in the production of semiconductor components 10 which are consistently heat treated wherever they are placed on the support 7.Support 7 is rotated and may be subjected to microwave irradiation from an overhead generator 3.

Abstract: An oven for testing the quality of a peripheral storage devices including an aging room, configured to receive a plurality of peripheral storage devices to be tested therein, with upper and lower mixing rooms in fluid communication therewith. A support duct, having a circulation cavity, is in fluid communication with the upper and lower mixing rooms and has a plurality of discharge openings to the circulation cavity. Ducts draw in outside air while hot air is discharged.

Abstract: A terminal frame used to manufacture electronic devices, the terminal frame having a metal strip and a plurality of stick-like metal terminals. The metal terminals are joined to the metal strip by resistance welding. A manufacturing system of such terminal frames includes a device used for resistance welding, where the device has an electrode which holds each terminal at a portion near a joint portion, and a current is supplied to the terminal through the electrode.

Abstract: A method of cleaning a media preheater that is positioned in the media path of a printer is disclosed. The media preheater has a fixed heater and a movable plate array biased toward the heater such that printer media passing between the plate array and the heater is compressed therebetween and heated. The preheater may be positioned upstream of a print head and downstream of a media advancing mechanism in the media path. More than one plate may be provided in the plate array to accommodate non-planarity of the heater or the printing media. The method elevates the temperature of the contact surface of the preheater to a cleaning temperature that is greater than the operating temperature and then passes a chase sheet over the surface to remove contamination from the preheater surface.

Abstract: A container with a compartment into which a container of cosmetics is placed, and a heating element in the walls of the container. The heating element is connected to a source of electricity which heats the heating element which in turn heats a fluid within the walls of the container. The heated fluid warms the cosmetics which will make it usable once again.

Abstract: In a thermal printing device for an image forming apparatus, a heat generating member is implemented as a hollow heat roller having a heating layer thereon. A first member is disposed in the hollow heat roller while. A press roller or second pressing member is located outside of the heat roller while at least partly corresponding to the heat roller. A biasing mechanism biases at least one of the pressing member and press roller toward the other, so that the heat roller is pressed against the pressing member o r the press roller. The device reduces a warm-up time and generates a desired amount of heat with a minimum of power.

Abstract: A hair removal wax device comprising at least one tank (9) linked to a heating means (11) and a detachable instrument, independent from the tank (9), designed for sampling from the tank (9) a quantity of molten wax, with a means (12) for transferring of a quantity of hair removal wax from the tank (9) to the detachable instrument, where the detachable instrument is a ductile vessel (1) whose inside volume is variable.

Abstract: A belt fixing system includes a rotatably supported belt, a heating member for heating the belt, a pressure member which contacts with a circumference of the belt to form a nipping region therewith where a toner image supported on a sheet member is fixed onto the sheet member. The system further includes a first detector for detecting a portion of the belt where it has touched with the sheet member at the nipping region, and a controller for controlling the heating member so that an amount of heat supply to the belt is changed in response to an detecting result of the first detector.

Abstract: An paperboard making apparatus includes at least one heating plate having opposing first and second surfaces; at least one electrically powered heater positioned adjacent the first surface of the heating plate; and a take-up for advancing a corrugated paperboard sheet along a path of travel adjacent the second surface of the heating plate so that heat is transferred to the advancing corrugated paperboard sheet. The electrically powered heater preferably includes a base, and an electrical heating element on the base. The base is preferably mounted so that the electrical heating element is positioned in closely spaced relation from the first surface of the heating plate so that the electrical heating element radiates heat to the heating plate. Accordingly, conventional steam heating chests are not used and their associated drawbacks are overcome. Method aspects of the invention are also disclosed.

Abstract: A resistance welding electrode for supplying a current to metal workpieces to weld the workpieces to each other includes an electrode body as an electrode matrix of a copper alloy and a plurality of filamentary members embedded in the electrode matrix parallel to the direction in which a current flows therethrough. The filamentary members have respective tip ends exposed as lands on a surface of a tip end of the electrode body. The filamentary members are made of a material having an electric conductivity different from that of the electrode matrix. The exposed tip ends of the filamentary members having a total area which is in the range of 0.5 to 40% of the entire area of the tip end of the electrode body.