Abstract: The invention relates to a process for a uniform and fast heating of products by microwaves that are pulsed and introduced intermittently into the products, with the products to be treated, such as chemical or pharmaceutical products or foodstuffs, particularly ready-cooked meals, being conveyed by a continuously working endless conveyor belt through a treatment chamber in open or closed microwave-permeable trays and with the treatment chamber being equipped with microwave generator supply channels that are arranged in a vertical or inclined position relative to the conveyor belt. The line is operated at a microwave power profile that shortens the build-up time and breaking time of the microwave pulses, at a working frequency of 50 kHz that has an edge steepness of 2 microseconds, and with pulses the amplitudes of which have a rectangular form and the length of which is in the microseconds or milliseconds region.

Abstract: An appliance for the continuous treatment of foodstuffs or the like by means of microwaves in a treatment chamber, which allows individual adaptation to different product-pack heights and geometrical product forms, while at the same time ensuring the best possible utilization of the microwave energy supplied. The arrangement of an adjusting device outside the treatment chamber for axially adjusting the microwave feed ducts along their longitudinal axes and for rotating of the feed ducts about their longitudinal axes ensure that the product to be treated is subjected to the microwave energy as efficiently as possible, without the treatment process having to be interrupted by stopping it and opening the treatment chamber.