North America Edition
A team of researchers from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) has developed an ultra-compact microwave oven, with a height of just 9 centimetres, designed to heat up food trays in a different manner while saving space.
This new microwave includes two compartments, one for soup, meat, fish and other foods suitable for heating, and another for products and objects that cannot be heated, such as fruit, salads or cutlery. It will be marketed for its use in hospitals, hotels and nursing homes.
Improvements have been made to the traditional filters of industrial microwave ovens by means of new internal geometries. They are also significantly smaller than regular microwave ovens. According to Francisco Javier Clemente, their main advantages are their size, energy efficiency and the addition of cold compartments where foods are not heated.
The thesis involves three patents exploited by two companies. The one corresponding to the microwave oven is available worldwide and exploited by the companies Shieltronics and Halm HBVA. The other two are used by a Spanish firm, RBT Sistemas de Nueva Automatización. These two patents should lead to a reduction of microwave emissions by all kinds of materials as a result of the change in the geometry of the filters.
The research project has also been dealt with in six articles published by international magazines and presented at thirteen international conferences.
Source: hortoinfo.es
