A heater system includes a plurality of heater cores defining zones, a plurality of power pins extending through each of the heater cores and made of different conductive materials, and at least one jumper connected between two of the plurality of power pins being made of dissimilar materials. The jumper is in communication with a controller to obtain a temperature reading of the heater system proximate the jumper.

The invention relates to a method for treating a food product by non-conventional resistive heating using. contact with spaced-apart electrically conductive electrodes connected to a power source that regulates current to the electrodes by pausing heating of the food product to a predetermined temperature. The electrodes are configured into two groups at a first distance from one another. Each electrode group has individual electrodes, similar to a comb-like set of needles, wherein neighboring needles of each group are at a second distance from one another that is greater than or equal to the first distance. Each set of needles penetrates the food product such that points of the needles leave penetration points, wherein the food product is accommodated in a space between two conveyor belts and the individual electrodes extend from at least one of the conveyor belts in the direction of the opposite conveyor belt.

The present invention provides single units that contain a large lower chamber, and one or more display shelves above this chamber on the inside of the unit. A roller grill or other large appliance may be provided in the lower chamber, or the chamber may be left open to display large food products or other items. The shelves may be heated for keeping foods displayed on the shelves warm; however, the shelves need not be heated for food products that do not need to be kept warm. Heating elements, lights and sensors may be adjusted using electronic controls to provide optimum temperatures inside the various chambers of the display units. Display units of the present invention allow store owners to utilize the space above a roller grill or other appliance to merchandise additional food products as opposed to requiring a separate food merchandiser to occupy additional valuable counter space. The performance of the roller grills of the present invention is improved over stand-alone roller grills, thereby reducing the potential for lost sales due to food not being sufficiently heated.

Apparatus for heating a substrate within a substrate processing chamber are described herein. More specifically, possible lamp modules for use within a substrate processing chamber are described. The lamp modules include a reflector body. The reflector body is a reflective material. The reflector body includes grooves disposed in a surface and configured to direct radiant energy towards a substrate. Each ring includes multiple grooves with different cross sections to allow radiant energy to be directed at different radial positions on the substrate from the same ring. The grooves may be either curved or linear grooves.

An apparatus for controlling temperature uniformity of the disclosure includes a heater to supply a heat source to a substrate, a temperature sensor to generate temperature data of the substrate, a heating controller to present a distribution of a heat source based on the temperature data, and a heat source-electricity converter to calculate an amount of electricity to generate a heat source based on the distribution of a heat source and to supply the calculated amount of electricity to the heater. Since a method and an apparatus of the disclosure for controlling temperature uniformity uses a heat source and electricity having a linear relationship, problems of high costs and deterioration of an apparatus may be overcome that a typical method has to control an amount of electricity in a heater by temperature information.

An apparatus for controlling temperature uniformity of the disclosure includes a heater to supply a heat source to a substrate, a temperature sensor to generate temperature data of the substrate, a heating controller to present a distribution of a heat source based on the temperature data, and a heat source-electricity converter to calculate an amount of electricity to generate a heat source based on the distribution of a heat source and to supply the calculated amount of electricity to the heater. Since a method and an apparatus of the disclosure for controlling temperature uniformity uses a heat source and electricity having a linear relationship, problems of high costs and deterioration of an apparatus may be overcome that a typical method has to control an amount of electricity in a heater by temperature information.

There is provided a method of compensating for changes to a solid aerosol-forming substrate during heating of the substrate by a heating element over a period containing a first plurality of user puffs and a second plurality of user puffs, the changes including warming of the substrate and depletion of the substrate, the method including: compensating for the warming of the substrate by reducing heating of the heating element during the first plurality of user puffs; and after compensating for the warming of the substrate, compensating for the depletion of the substrate by increasing heating of the heating element during the second plurality of user puffs. There is also provided a system for compensating for changes to a solid aerosol-forming substrate during heating of the substrate by a heating element over a period containing a first plurality of user puffs and a second plurality of user puffs.

A fluid sensor system detects one or more performance characteristics of a heating system that heats a fluid. The sensor system includes a probe having a finite length a portion of which is to be immersed in the fluid. The probe includes a resistive heating element and a fluid temperature sensor for measuring one or more performance characteristics, wherein the fluid temperature sensor is configured to measure a fluid temperature, and the resistive heating element is operable as a heater to create a temperature differential between the fluid and air to detect the fluid, and as a sensor to measure a fluid level.

A vehicle seat includes a seat portion having a heating element, such as an electrically conductive wire. A sensing structure having a characteristic that is responsive to a temperature of the heating element is provided adjacent to the heating element, such as by being helically wrapped thereabout or extending parallel thereto. For example, the sensing structure may include an optical fiber, and the characteristic of the sensing structure may be an amount of light transmitted through the optical fiber. A controller is responsive to the characteristic of the sensing structure for determining when the temperature of the heating element exceeds a predetermined value.

Disclosed are state monitoring method and system for a heating device including a conductive path that electrically series-connects heating elements. The method includes obtaining a potential difference of a conductive path portion including at least one of the heating elements, obtaining monitoring information used to monitor a state of the heating elements, and determining occurrence of an anomaly in the conductive path portion based on the obtained monitoring information. The step of obtaining the potential difference includes obtaining a first potential difference of a first conductive path portion and obtaining a second potential difference of a second conductive path portion that differs from the first conductive path portion. The monitoring information includes comparison information obtained by comparing potential differences including the first potential difference and the second potential difference.