Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided for operating a self cleaning oven wherein the monitoring of exothermic chemical reactions within a catalyst can be used to determine when the combustion of food material is complete, in order to terminate a self cleaning cycle. During a self clean cycle, an oven cavity is heated to and maintained at an oven clean temperature suitable for oven cleaning. A catalyst is disposed within an exhaust passage of an oven cavity and the amount of heat generated within the catalyst is sensed. The self clean cycle is terminated a predetermined time after heat generation within the catalyst ceases.

Abstract: An electric oven includes a front door, upper and lower heating tubes mounted in the oven near a top and a bottom thereof, respectively, an oven rack fixed between the upper and the lower heating tubes, a grease drip tray removably fixed below the lower heating tubes for catching dropped grease drips, a frying pan fixed above the upper heating tubes, and a top lid that may be pivotally and upward turned open for access to the frying pan. The top lid is provided on an inner surface along outer edges thereof with a perpendicular and continuous flange, such that when the top lid is in a closed position, the flange tightly contacts with top edges of the frying pan to seal the same. The oven is further provided on two lateral inner wall surfaces with two sliding channels, so that the grease drip tray may be removed from its lower position in the oven to fix in and between the two sliding channels for catching grease drips dropped from the frying pan.

Abstract: A ventilation system for electrical food-cooking appliances comprising a cooking hob and an oven with a fan positioned in a compartment between the two in order to generate air flow for cooling electronic components controlling the oven operation, in which the fan is of variable speed, its speed being gauged on the basis of the appliance use.

Abstract: A browning grill is arranged for use in a high power density radiant oven. The oven includes a cooking enclosure having a ceiling and a floor, upper radiant energy sources located near the ceiling, and lower radiant energy sources located near the floor. The browning grill has a grilling surface and a debris collector. The grilling surface has a plurality of grill tines. The grilling surface is located between the upper and lower radiant energy sources, and the grilling surface establishes a cooking plane to the upper radiant energy sources. The debris collector catches food debris from food being grilled on the grilling surface. The debris collector is located between the grilling surface and the lower radiant energy sources, and the debris collector is arranged to permit heating of the cooking plane by the lower radiant energy sources.

Abstract: In a method for the arc-like shaping of an extruded profiled strand of plastic material at least a section of the strand is heated in a hot air chamber together with a support ledge disposed in spaced relationship from the profiled strand to a temperature permitting the bending of the profiled strand and the strand is then firmly engaged between a support ledge at the inner compression side and a support profile at the other, that is the tension side of the profile strand to form a package, which is then bent while the temperature at the compression side of the profile strand is higher than the temperature at the tension side thereof to prevent the formation of waves in the profile strand walls. The invention also resides in a heating apparatus, which provides for the temperature difference at opposite sides of the profile strand and includes means for engaging the profile strand during bending.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a device for removing dampness form a cooking space (3) of a steam cooking device or a pressure cooker (1). The cooking space is at least partially filled with steam. The steam or the mixture of hot air and steam, respectively, is circulated in the cooking space (3) by means of a ventilating wheel (9) or a radial fan. The gas mixture to be circulated is sucked in substantially axially in the central area (10) of the ventilating wheel (9) and is drawn off to the outside substantially radially, with superfluous steam or superfluous mixture of hot air and steam, respectively, being removed from the cooking space (3) through a waste air opening (11) and dry fresh air being supplied from the outside for removing dampness. The dry fresh air is supplied at the rear, is sucked in through an opening (27) provided in the rear front end (25) of the ventilating wheel (9) and is deflected to the outside of the ventilating wheel (9) by way of a deflecting device (29).

Abstract: A cooking appliance includes a hotplate disposed above heating elements fixed to a frame, the hotplate including one or more openings for fat to pass through during cooking, and a container for collecting fat and juice during cooking disposed substantially in line with the opening(s) in the hotplate. The collecting container and the heating elements are in substantially the same plane substantially parallel to the hotplate. A free space between the plane and a base of the appliance accommodates a cooking container under the heating elements.

Abstract: A furnace comprises an enclosure, a hearth plate within the enclosure for supporting combustible material, a first heater element adjacent the hearth plate for initial combustion of the combustible material, a filter disposed above the hearth plate for filtering uncombusted products of combustion of the combustible material, and a second heater element adjacent the filter for final combustion of the uncombusted products of combustion filtered by the filter. A controller controls the first and second heater elements independently.

Abstract: A prepared meals system has at least one food container and cooking unit. The food container has at least two compartments for different foods to be heated at different temperatures and/or times. The cooking unit has at least one cooking station having two or more heating zones on a lower surface and at least one grilling element above the heating zones. The user selects one of several preprogrammed cooking procedures according to the indicia on a selected container having the desired food. A heat controller operates to control the times and temperatures of the heating zones and grilling element to appropriately cook the food in the container.

Abstract: An oven for heating food includes a refractory slab for placing a food item to be heated thereon. The refractory slab is preheated to a preselected temperature by a first electric resistance heating element disposed below the slab. The oven also includes a second electric resistance heating element and circulating fan disposed above the food to be heated. When food is cooking, electrical power is switched from the first heating element to the second heating element so that both heating elements are never operated at the same time. Food is cooked by the dual action of conduction from the slab and convection from the second heating element and fan. After the food is cooked, power is switched back to the first heating element to maintain the slab at the preselected temperature.

Abstract: A cooking appliance is disclosed which comprises an oven intended to be built into a space of predetermined volume in a kitchen unit. Controls for the oven are mounted externally of the space in order to maximise the volume available for the oven cavity. In preferred embodiments, the oven has a partition to divide its cavity into a plurality of cooking spaces. In a further preferred embodiment, the oven has a door assembly having a plurality of leaves which can be opened individually or together to give access to the whole cavity.

Abstract: A pyrolytically cleaned oven includes an upper broil element and a lower bake element, the broil element is energized until the oven temperature reaches a trigger temperature, well below the glass transition temperature point of the oven porcelain enamel; then the bake and broil elements are alternately energized in a cyclical manner until an off temperature, somewhat above the trigger temperature but still below the transition temperature, is reached. Thereafter one or both of the elements are cycled to maintain the temperature with a range between the off temperature and a lower on temperature, also within the effective self cleaning range.

Abstract: A vapor humidification component with a disposable water source for a medical instrument sterilization system that utilizes ozone as a sterilization agent. The humidification component of the invention receives a measured input of water that is vaporized therein and injected into an ozone-oxygen mixture flow for passage into a primary sterilization chamber wherein the humidified ozone-oxygen mixture is circulated to scour and sterilize, during a sterilization cycle, medical instruments contained therein, whereafter the ozone-oxygen mixture is passed to a destruction chamber for heat destruction and venting to atmosphere.

Abstract: An oven (1800) for use in conjunction with a dynamic thermal-mechanical testing system that exhibits both self-resistive and self-inductive heating whenever a sufficiently large alternating (AC) electrical current is passed through the oven. In one embodiment, the oven is fabricated from a material which undergoes self-resistive heating to radiantly heat an internal volume of the oven. The oven also includes appropriately shaped heating sections (1830), which undergoes self-resistive and self-inductive heating to compensate for heat losses into a support for the oven.

Abstract: A device enabling liquid-phase thin film epitaxial growth is disclosed wherein yield and quality of semiconductors in the fabrication sequences are improved. The device comprises an electric furnace which is disposed outside a quartz tube, a plurality of boats which are disposed within the quartz tube in accordance with a sort of melting liquids and a plurality of auxiliary heating devices are disposed around the boats with a power source independent from the electric furnace.

Abstract: A self-cleaning type cooking oven with a cooking chamber which has a function to pyrolytically eliminate food soils accumulated on walls of the cooking chamber. The cooking oven includes a heater for supplying heat into the cooking chamber so as to allow to pyrolytically degrade the food soils and an exhausting passage coupled to the cooking chamber to exhaust gases generated due to the pyrolytical degradation to an ambient atmosphere. In the exhausting passage is provided an oxidizing catalyst which oxidizes the gases introduced thereinto for exhausting and also provided a gas sensor to detect a gas component therearound. Also included in the cooking oven is a heat control unit electrically connected to the heater for controlling heat supply into the cooking chamber, the heat control unit being responsive to a gas signal therefrom to determine a heating time period for chamber cleaning.

Abstract: A reflow soldering method and the apparatus thereof is disclosed, wherein an air flowing fan is provided at the bottom of the apparatus, that is, below a work transporting conveyor so as to produce a minus pressure to draw or pull air into the apparatus in a manner that the drawn air may flow in a constant volume and at a constant speed from up to down through a predetermined path and flow down through a heater provided in the path to be heated up substantially to a set temperature of the heater. The heated air further flows down to contact a work such as a base board having electronic parts mounted thereon and transported by the conveyor and heat up the work.

Abstract: Below a hob (2) with at least one cooking point (3), a cooker has a baking oven muffle (7), which can be upwardly vented by a venting duct (10) through the hob (2), at least at one cooking point (3). Cooking point (3) is formed by a sealed electric hotplate (4) having a hotplate body (11) with a closed cooking point heating surface (13) and carries below the surface the electric heating elements (20) in a completely sealed form. In the center (14), which is free from heating elements, hotplate body (11) has a through opening (27) which traverses the heating surface (13) and which forms the upper end of venting duct (10). Electric hotplate (4) can be raised upwards from hob (2), which also breaks the connection between hotplate body (11) and baking oven muffle (7) formed by the venting duct (10).

Abstract: An electrical baking and roasting oven defining a cooking chamber which can be closed by a door, the oven having side walls bounding the cooking chamber and the oven being composed of an upper heating element and a lower heating element for heating upper and lower regions, respectively, of the chamber, an insertable partitioning member carraying the lower heating element and equipped with a plug-in connection, for partitioning off a lower part of the volume of the cooking chamber, and guide elements mounted on the side walls for supporting the partitioning member, wherein the partitioning member includes a heat insulating body disposed below the lower heating element for thermally shielding the lower part of the cooking chamber, and the oven side walls are provided with breaks at the height of the guide elements for reducing thermal conduction through the side walls to the lower part of the cooking chamber.

Abstract: A high frequency heating apparatus wherein oven heating and grill heating are performed by means of a flat heating element, and no heater and projections such as an insulator for holding a heater are provided, whereby, when high frequency microwave energy is supplied to the heating chamber with an oven plate placed in the heating chamber, abnormal heating such as local heating and sparks do not occur. Also, with the oven plate placed in the heating chamber, heating can be performed by means of high frequency microwaves and a heater which can be used alternately or in combination depending on situations to obtain the most preferably heating condition.

Abstract: A convection cooking apparatus including an oven temperature sensing element and a food temperature sensing probe. In response to an output signal from the oven temperature sensing element, the oven temperature is maintained at a desired value. When the food temperature reaches a desired value, a control system develops a control signal to terminate the cooking operation. That is, the cooking operation is performed under a desired oven temperature, and the cooking completion is determined in accordance with the actual food temperature.

Abstract: A domestic combination microwave and electric self-cleaning oven of the type providing a plurality of operating modes including a microwave mode and a self-cleaning mode is provided with an arrangement for preventing an undesirable buildup of humid air in the cavity when operating in the microwave modes. The venting arrangement includes a restricted air inlet passageway provided to allow outside air to enter the cavity. Air is vented from the cavity through an air exhaust passageway. A catalytic oxidation unit is provided in the air exhaust passageway to decompose gases generated when the oven is operating in the self-cleaning mode. The restricted air inlet passageway is configured to limit unaugmented air flow into the cavity to a level sufficient to facilitate the proper operation of the oxidation unit during operation in the self-cleaning mode.

Abstract: A high gradient directional solidification furnace is disclosed which includes eight thermal zones throughout the length of the furnace. In the hot end of the furnace, furnace elements (25, 26, and 40) provide desired temperatures. These elements include Nichrome wire (28) received in a grooved tube (30) which is encapsulated by an outer alumina core (32). A booster heater (40) is provided in the hot end of the furnace which includes toroidal tungsten/rhenium wire (42) which has a capacity to put heat quickly into the furnace. An adiabatic zone is provided by insulation barrier (62) to separate the hot end of the furnace from a cold end. The cold end of the furnace is defined by heating elements (80 and 90). A heat transfer plate (70) provides a means by which heat may be extracted from the furnace and conducted away through liquid cooled jackets (72).

Abstract: The oven includes a muffle 1 in which are mounted at least one upper heating element 11b, 11b, at least one lower heating element 14, an air circulating fan 4 provided in the rear wall 3 of the muffle 1, a heating element 6 placed in the current of air produced by the fan 4, a device 8 for ducting the air in such manner that the air blown by the fan is directed in roughly horizontal streams in the chamber defined by the muffle 1, and an electric switching device. The latter selectively connects the heating elements and the fan to a power supply. This switching device has a given position in which it is capable of connecting the heating element 6 associated with the fan in series with the upper heating element or elements 11a, 11b while connecting the fan 4 and the lower heating element 14 to the supply.

Abstract: A microwave oven having a cooking cavity for receiving objects to be heated during the oven cooking cycle arranged to permit continuous circulation of air through the cavity during the cooking cycle, an exhaust flow path to the oven exterior formed externally of the cavity for circulating air exiting the cavity, and sensing means responsive to vapors and/or gases carried by the exiting air positioned in the exhaust flow path, is provided with a pyrolytic converter positioned in the exhaust flow path upstream of the sensing means for converting non-gaseous contaminants carried by the exiting air during the cooking cycle to gaseous form. Removal of non-gaseous contaminants from the air exiting the cooking cavity upstream of the sensor prevents accumulation of such contaminants from interferring with proper sensor operation without interrupting the cooking cycle and without requiring periodic manual cleaning of the sensor device.

Abstract: An apparatus in a cooking device, e.g., an oven, is disclosed for enhancing heat and mass transfer during the food cooking process. The apparatus applying differently controlled corona currents to food surfaces in order to reduce cooking times relative to cooking times of conventional ovens. Two low potential electrodes, one fixed and the other movable, are provided in the oven and food, located intermediate the electrodes, is maintained at a high potential. A pair of electrically conductive fields for supporting corona currents at predetermined different corona current densities are defined between each electrode and its nearest food surface. Electrical circuitry is provided for maintaining a constant corona current flow in each one of the two electrical fields and each electrical field is controlled to support corona current flow at a different optimum density found to maximize heat and mass transfer.

Abstract: In a cooking oven which is cleaned by pyrolyzation of soil within the oven cavity and has a smoke eliminator duct extending through the oven wall, with a smoke eliminator heater disposed adjacent to the duct inlet, a reducing gas sensor is mounted either adjacent to the oven end of the smoke eliminator duct or within the smoke eliminator duct near its discharge end. An electrical relay or microcomputer control is coupled between the gas sensor and the heater to initially heat the oven interior and to later deenergize the heater when the reducing gas sensor output indicates a desired oven condition. The oven heaters are temporarily deenergized when the gas sensor output indicate a smoke eliminator overload. If the gas sensor is mounted in the smoke eliminator duct, the smoke eliminator heater may be deenergized toward the end of the cleaning cycle, so that the effluent is not affected by the smoke eliminator heater before reaching the gas sensor.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling the heating of toast in a toaster oven broiler. The adjustment shaft for the thermostat which controls the baking and broiling modes receives a circular dial having toast color indications thereon corresponding to light, medium and dark toast colors. The dial is rotatable on the thermostat shaft under the control of a bimetal strip which responds to temperature changes in the oven cavity. As the oven temperature increases during each successive toasting cycle, the dial rotates and at the end of the cycle indicates the thermostat setting that will achieve the desired toast color for the next toasting cycle.

Abstract: A temperature control system for an electronically-controlled thermal cooking oven having a single oven temperature sensor, which system facilitates varying the calibration set point in the field for normal cooking modes, without affecting the self-cleaning temperature calibration which is factory preset. A sensor-developed analog voltage is employed to control self cleaning temperature in the oven, with the oven temperature during normal cooking modes, such as bake and broil, controlled by the same voltage modified by an independently developed offset value or signal. The required summing of the sensor voltage and the offset voltage preferably is done by means of a suitably-programmed microprocessor-based control system. With this arrangement, the offset can be changed to vary the set point for normal cooking modes without affecting the self-cleaning temperature which is detected solely by the sensor, and cannot be readily varied by field adjustment.

Abstract: A baking oven having a baking chamber preferably divided into a plurality of baking compartments disposed in a vertical stack separated from one another by a deck and enclosed by a cabinet having an access door. Each such deck comprises top and bottom plates with a space therebetween and a heating element therein spaced from said plates. The deck is provided with a narrow vent to said space across its width adjacent the access door. A sensing bulb or other temperature sensing means of a thermostat is located in the said space with the sensing tip of the sensing means being substantially at said vent. The top surface of the bottom plate is selectively blackened and the heating element is located to provide progressively less heating toward the back of the baking compartments. The top side of the baking chamber is defined by a like deck and the bottom side of the baking chamber is defined by a similar deck which does not have a blackened lower plate.

Abstract: An oven with a fixed-elevation single-shelf for uniformly cooking three or more meat roasts to substantially equal, even, and uniform levels of doneness, centering them within an average 10.degree. F. parameter temperature zone under 212.degree.. Apparatus and procedures subject all of the roasts to substantially equal, even, uniform, and low density heat from naturally ambient (non-mechanically-induced movement) air.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for baking food in a closed cooking space in which heated air is circulated. The temperature of this heated air is varied about a predetermined mean temperature value by generating a plurality of sequential heat radiation pulses, by means of electric air heaters or the like, of a predetermined amplitude, frequency, and duration for baking the food with a minimum of soiling of the cooking space.

Abstract: An electric baking and broiling oven with an upper broiling element adjacent the top wall and a lower baking element adjacent the bottom wall. The baking element is of unique design having vertically arranged terminal ends supporting a plug connector. A mating plug receptacle is located in the rear wall of the oven liner slightly below the mid-height to receive the plug connector of the baking element.The baking element is reversible, in that its plug connector may be inserted in the plug receptacle upside down, so the baking element can be inverted and arranged closely spaced from and parallel to the upper broiling element. Both heating elements are to be energized during broiling. A shelf is positioned between the two heating elements so food placed thereon may be broiled on both top and bottom sides simultaneously.