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.

Date of Patent:
Mar. 19, 2002

Filed:

Dec. 16, 1999
Applicant:
Inventors:

Michele L Groen, Piscataway, NJ (US);

Mark T. Grace, Bridgewater, NJ (US);

David G. Wardle, Walton-on-the-Hill, GB;

Assignee:

The BOC Group, Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01K 7/00 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G01K 7/00 ;
Abstract

In the processing of an item, particularly a food item, where the final equalized temperature is important to the processing a method and apparatus for predicting the equalized temperature is disclosed. A series of infrared sensors is used to measure the rate of change of the surface temperature of an item after the item is exposed to a known thermal shock such as heating or cooling. The predicted equalized temperature can be calculated from the series of surface temperatures using least squares, non-linear regression techniques. One means for applying a thermal shock to an item would be the use of cryogens such as liquid nitrogen, carbon dixoide snow or synthetic liquid air (SLA).


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