The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 26, 2002
Filed:
May. 11, 1999
Fiona Catherine Ruth Wroe, Cheshire, GB;
Andrew Terence Rowley, Cheshire, GB;
EA Technology Limited, Chester, GB;
Abstract
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.