MICROWAVE DEVICE

Abstract

The invention relates to a microwave oven for material to be heated, in particular food material (40). The microwave oven (10) has an oven housing (12), to the housing cover (14) of which a number of microwave radiation sources (18) is coupled by means of microwave coupling elements (16). The microwave coupling elements (16) protrude from the housing cover (14) and are distributed in the peripheral direction. At least one material holding device (22) for the material (40) is provided in the oven housing (12), which material holding device can be rotated about a central axis (26) by means of a drive device (24). The at least one material holding device (40) is formed by a rotary plate (28) for holding the material (40) in a defined, positionally accurate manner.

Claims

1. Microwave oven, comprising: an oven housing, at least one microwave radiation source being coupled to its housing cover by means of a microwave coupling element, the microwave coupling element projecting away from the housing cover distributed in the circumferential direction, and at least one material holding device for a material to be heated being provided in the oven housing, which is rotatable about an axis by means of a drive device, the at least one material holding device being formed by a rotary plate which is provided for holding the material to be heated, in particular material to be thawed, in exact positions.

2. Microwave oven according to claim 1, characterized in that in that at least two, preferably three or four microwave radiation sources with their microwave coupling elements are provided on the housing cover of the oven housing axially offset from one another.

3. Microwave oven according to claim 1, characterized in that the housing cover of the oven housing has a heating device for preventing the formation of condensation water.

4. Microwave oven according to claim 1, characterized in that the rotary plate can be removed from the cylindrical oven housing for loading with material to be heated, in particular material to be thawed.

5. Microwave oven according to claim 1, characterized in that the respective microwave coupling device is formed by a waveguide.

6. Microwave oven according to claim 1, characterized in that the rotary plate is formed with material holding means which are provided equidistantly spaced apart along at least one pitch circle concentric with the central axis and/or in that the material holding means are formed by holes, recesses, cavities, loop elements and/or clamping elements.

7. Microwave oven according to claim 6, characterized in that, in that the material holding means are designed with spaced apart, partial contact surfaces in order to allow a discharge of steam and/or moisture between the rotary plate and the material to be heated, in particular material to be thawed.

8. Microwave oven according to claim 1, characterized in that in that a collecting device made of microwave-permeable material is provided in the oven housing for collecting moisture and/or dirt particles.

9. Microwave oven according to claim 1, characterized in that in that the drive device provided for the at least one holding device is arranged in the region of the base of the cylindrical oven housing.

10. Microwave oven according to claim 9, characterized in that the drive device is surrounded by a microwave reflecting cap element, and/or in that the microwave apparatus has a weighing device for determining the loading of the material holding device.

11. Microwave oven according to claim 10, characterized in that, in that the cap element is provided immovable and/or in that the cap element is provided to rotate about the central axis and is designed for dispersing microwave reflection with a non-smooth, ribbed, nubby, corrugated and/or dented surface.

12. Microwave oven according to claim 1, characterized in that the oven housing is cylindrical and has a housing top cover with a protective device against leakage radiation and/or in that the housing top cover has a suction device.

13. Microwave oven according to claim 1, characterized in that the respective microwave radiation source is formed by a magnetron to which a fan is connected for cooling, and in that the respective magnetron is fluidically connected to the cylindrical housing cover by means of a pipeline, through which the heat loss generated in the magnetron is introduced into the interior of the cylindrical oven housing.

14. Use of the microwave oven according to claim 1 for food material to be heated, in particular food material to be thawed, which has a defined shape and which is inserted into a conformal receiving shell body, for heating, in particular thawing, in the microwave oven.

15. Use according to claim 14, the respective receiving shell body for the material to be heated, in particular the material to be thawed, being formed from a dough material which has no or a certain taste, in particular a waffle.

Description

[0033] FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of the microwave oven from above,

[0034] FIG. 2 shows a schematic section along the intersection line 11-11 in FIG. 1, and

[0035] FIG. 3 shows a section by section of the microwave ovensimilar to the section shown in FIG. 2, in particular to illustrate the microwave reflecting cap element.

[0036] FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of the microwave oven 10, which has an oven housing 12 with a cylindrical housing cover 14. A number of microwave coupling elements 16 are coupled to the housing cover 14, which project tangentially from the cylindrical housing cover 14, preferably evenly distributed in the circumferential direction. The microwave coupling elements 16 are used to couple associated microwave radiation sources 18 to the cylindrical oven housing 12 of the microwave oven 10.

[0037] As can be seen in FIG. 2, the microwave radiation sources 18 are axially equidistantly offset from one another by means of the associated microwave coupling elements 16. FIG. 2 illustrates four microwave coupling elements 16, whereby only the two microwave coupling elements at the end are shown in the drawing. The two middle microwave coupling elements are only indicated by dashed lines 20.

[0038] It is understandable for a person skilled in the art that any number of microwave radiation sources can be used, depending on their output and the volume of space to be heated.

[0039] According to the invention, it is also possible that a number of microwave radiation sources 18 with their associated microwave coupling elements 16 are arranged in a common plane distributed in the circumferential direction and not axially offset.

[0040] In the cylindrical oven housing 12, a material holding device 22 is provided axially centrally, which can be driven about a central axis 26 by means of a drive device 24.

[0041] The material holding device 22 has a rotary plate 28, which is designed in particular for temporarily holding food material to be heated or deep-frozen and thawed with material holding means 30. The material holding means 30 are equidistantly spaced along a pitch circle 32 concentric to the central axis 26. For example, the rotary plate 28 is designed with five or six material holding means 30.

[0042] The material holding means 30, for example, are designed as holes; they can also be formed by recesses, cavities, loop elements, clamping elements or the like.

[0043] The drive unit 24 provided for the material holding means 22 formed by a rotary plate 28 is arranged in the area of the base 36 of the cylindrical oven housing 12. For this purpose, the base 36 is designed with a cap-like bulge 37.

[0044] The drive device 24 is located in the space limited at the top by the bulge 37.

[0045] FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment in which the drive device 24 formed by a motor is surrounded by a microwave-reflecting cap element 38, so that the food material 40 to be heated, in particular deep-frozen and thawed, is acted upon with microwaves not only on its radially outer side 42 but also on its radially inner side 44 in order to effect a uniform and rapid heating, in particular thawing of the food material 40.

[0046] The cap element 38 can be immovable and formed with a smooth surface. Another possibility is that the cap element 38 is provided to rotate about the central axis 26 and is formed for dispersing microwave reflection with a non-smooth, i.e. ribbed, knobbed, corrugated and/or dented surface.

[0047] As can also be seen clearly in FIG. 3, the food material 40 to be heated, in particular to be thawed, has a conical shape and is inserted into a dimensionally stable receiving shell body 46. The respective dimensionally stable receiving shell body 46 consists of an edible, tasteless or flavoured dough material, so that the food material 40 after thawing and removal from the microwave oven 10 can be eaten together with the receiving shell body 46

[0048] The receiving shell body 46 can, for example, be formed by a waffle, as it has been used up to now for eating portions of ice cream.

[0049] FIGS. 1 and 2 also show that the respective microwave radiation source 18 formed by a magnetron is connected to a fan 48 for cooling. The respective microwave radiation source 18 is also connected to the cylindrical housing cover 14 by means of a pipeline 50; the respective pipeline 50 opens tangentially oriented into the interior 34 of the cylindrical oven housing 14. The heat loss generated in the microwave radiation sources 18 is introduced through the pipes 50 into the interior 34 of the cylindrical oven housing 12 in order to heat the moisture generated during heating, in particular thawing of deep-frozen food material 40, and to suck it out of the microwave oven 10 by means of a suction device 52. The suction device 52 formed by a fan is arranged on the housing top cover 54 of the cylindrical oven housing 12 of the microwave oven 10.

[0050] The housing top cover 54 is preferably designed with a protective device against leakage radiation, which is designed as an /4 or /2 choke depending on the oven load.

[0051] In FIGS. 1 and 2, a device housing 56 is indicated by a thin dotted line.

[0052] FIG. 2 also illustrates schematically a weighing device 58, which is assigned to drive device 24. With the aid of the weighing device 58 it is advantageously possible to determine the load of the material holding device 22 and to control the power of the microwave oven 10 depending on the respective load. The weighing unit 58 is also suitable for preventing the microwave oven 10 from operating in the event of incorrect loading, e.g. with ham and cheese toast, potatoes or the like.

[0053] FIG. 2 also shows a removable collecting device 60 in the oven housing 12, which is used to collect moisture and/or dirt particles. After removing the collecting device 60 from the oven housing 12, it can be cleaned to remove dirt particles and/or moisture from the collecting device 60. Cleaning can be done manually or mechanically, e.g. by means of a dishwasher.

[0054] The rotary plate 28 is detachably coupled to the drive shaft 62 of drive device 24 by means of a form-fit connection 64. The rotary plate 28 has a rod-shaped handle 66 with which the rotary plate 28 can be separated from the form-fit connection and removed from the oven housing 12 as soon as the housing top cover 54 has been actuated to open the oven housing 12, i.e. swivelled open, for example.

TABLE-US-00001 List of reference numerals: 10 Microwave oven (for 40) 12 Cylindrical oven housing (of 10) 14 Cylindrical housing cover (of 12) 16 Microwave coupling element (from 10 to 14 for 18) 18 Microwave radiation source (out of 10) 20 Dot-dashed line (for 16, 18) 22 Material holding device (from 10 to 12) 24 Drive device (for 22) 26 Central axis (of 10) 28 Rotary plate (of 22) 30 Material holding means (from 28 to 32) 32 Pitch circle 34 Base (of 12) 36 Bulge (from 36 for 24) 38 Microwave reflecting cap element (from 10 for 24) 40 Material to be heated, in particular to be thawed 42 Radial outside (of 40) 44 Radial inside (of 40) 46 Dimensionally stable receiving sleeve body (for 40) 48 Fan (for 18) 50 Pipeline (between 18 and 14) 52 Suction fan (from 10 to 12 or 54) 54 Housing top cover (of 12) 56 Housing (of 10) 58 Weighing equipment (of 10) 60 Collecting device (in 12) 62 Drive shaft (from 24 for 30) 64 Form-fit connection (for 26) 66 Handle (on 28)