Abstract: An envelope stuffer has a carrousel with opposed first and second side walls and a plurality of envelope receivers. A pair of opposed abutments are supported inwardly of the first and second carrousel side walls and extend along an arc of the first and second carrousel side walls. An upstream end of at least one abutment of the pair of abutments flare outwardly away from the other abutment of the pair. An envelope flap folder has a plough and a pivoting plate upstream of the plough. The pivoting plate has a first position establishing a first flap feed path which bypasses the plough and a second position establishing a second flap feed path which incorporates the plough. An actuator is also provided for pivoting the plate between the first position and the second position.

Abstract: A cooking appliance includes a heating system capable of combining radiant, convection, microwave and conduction heating techniques to perform a cooking operation. The cooking appliance includes a cooking chamber and a bifurcated air plenum having an angled divider that defines a tapered air delivery portion and a tapered exhaust portion. The tapered air delivery portion actually guides a convective air flow through an air emitter plate positioned at a top of the cooking chamber. The air emitter plate includes a recessed, serpentine-like channel having a plurality of openings that lead to the air delivery portion. A radiant heating element is nested within the recessed channel. The cooking appliance further includes a convection fan, as well as a magnetron having a rotatable antenna positioned below the cooking chamber and a conductive plate upon which food to be cooked is supported.

Abstract: A microwave intensification system includes a base frame having a plurality of support members, a microwave transparent, central vessel, and at least one dielectric unit positioned within the central vessel. A cooking surface is formed by covering the dielectric unit with a protective covering. In operation, a food item is placed within a processing container and positioned on the cooking surface over the dielectric unit. The processing container is sized such that an overlap exists between the container and the dielectric unit in order to balance the exposure of the food item to a microwave energy field. With this arrangement, the food item can rapidly undergo a cooking process in a manner wherein central and edge portions of the food item are exposed to a uniform cooking process thereby increasing the quality of the final product.

Abstract: An electrostatic precipitator is provided comprising a plurality of spaced apart vertically extending collector plates with an array of vertically extending ionizer wire rods disposed in a space between each of the collector plates. The improvement resides in an ionizer wire rod construction made of a heat resistant alloy, one end portion of which terminates into a plurality of closely packed helically formed loops. The size of the loops as a unit is sufficient to hook onto and freely hang from a connecting portion of an ionizer frame, the other end portion of the rod being also helically formed into a plurality of closely packed loops which are coupled as a unit to an end loop of a helically and tightly wound coil spring of a heat-resistant alloy.