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Automatic baby bottle warmer with direct temperature monitoring

Summary

Device. BabyField warmer considerably differs from a domestic microwave oven in following items:
1. about 10 times lower peak power (60-100 W instead of 500-1100 W) with smooth stepless microwave power control. The device controls the microwave power automatically (SmartField technology) depending on volume of contents;
2. forced mixing of content due to slow (4-5 rpm) rotation of the horizontal plastic drum ;
3. direct monitoring of the bottle temperature; heating is automatically stopped at 37±1С.
The device is controlled with only one button and provides the target temperature independently of initial conditions.

Safety. In accordance with majority of latest scientific papers all possible microwave damages of biological fluids such as blood, milk, etc., or even living human tissues have thermal nature. The main problem of microwave heating of baby bottles, as well as donated blood, is local overheating. In contrast to usual domestic microwave ovens, we apply active control of microwave power SmartField™ to prevent overheating. If the load volume is small (30-60 ml), the system keeps microwave power at low level (up to 50-70 W) with 100-kHz PWM control. For large loads about 300-400 ml the power grows up to 100-200 W in contrast to usual domestic MW ovens with power about 500-1100 W.
We have investigated the safety of our technology in collaboration with leading Russian pediatrics institution Federal State Autonomous Institution "Scientific Center of Children's Health" Of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The leading experts in infant feeding participate in the Project. The recent chemical and microbiological studies show that out technology does not damage the donated breast milk as well as infant formulas. Being heated in BabyField warmer the samples of breast milk contain a little bit more lactoferrin and vitamins in comparison with water-bath heating. Moreover, the beneficial lactic acid bacteria demonstrate faster growth. At the same time, the BabyFild warmer has no influence on pathogenic bacteria.

Technology Benefits

• Accuracy. Heating exactly up to the target temperature regardless of initial conditions.The target temperature t=37C is guaranteed.

• Quickness. Baby wants to get the bottle promptly. The warmer heats 2-4 times faster than fastest water-steam competitors thanks to volumetric heating;

• Usability. There is no need to fill the device with water, adjust or service it. User cannot make any mistake. Just put bolttle inside, push one button and wait for sound signal.

• Safety. There is no hot water of steam. There are no any hot parts. Scalds of user or baby are impossible.

• Careful heating. Not merely surface but whole volume is heated under permanent forced mixing. SmartField™technology controls the microwave intensity and keep it at low safe level. The local temperature does not exceed 60°C; all important nutrients survive.

• Tawing of frozen milk.

• No maintenance required.

• Attractive design.

Technology Application

Nurcing. For both domestic and professional use in children's clinics, hospitals, etc. Heating of milk and infant formulas.

Alternative application of the technology is tawing and heating of donated blood (requires some modifications).

Detailed Technology Description

End user of baby bottle warmer wants simultaneously:
1. – to get bottle with preset temperature of the contents, i.e. 37°C (Accuracy);
2. – to get it quickly because warmer is frequently used to the accompaniment of baby cry and by night (Quickness);
3. – to do as few actions as possible (Usability);
4. – to avoid scalds for oneself and baby (Safety);
5. – to avoid nutrient degradation (Careful heating).
There are no warmers completely satisfying all these items at present. Here we explain this step by step:
1. Accuracy. There are no warmers with direct temperature monitoring. The target temperature is usually provided by control of heating time or by control of volume of water, which heats the bottle until total boil off. But in fact the final achievable temperature depends on volume and heat capacity of bottle and contents, on their heat conductivity, on initial temperature, on rest of water inside the device and it temperature, etc. Hence, even if one follows manufacturer instructions carefully the target temperature is not guaranteed. Experienced users feel proper heating time or amount of water and set it “by eye”.
2. Quickness. Water-bath warmers with water temperature of 100°C warm up a bottle with 100 ml of milk for 2.5 minutes but destroy nutrients. Thermostats with 40°C water warm up the same amount during tens of minutes that is usually unacceptable. Warmers with timer and water temperature about 60-70°C save most of nutrients but require 5-10 minutes to warm up 100 ml of milk.
3. Usability. All Water-bath competitors must be filled with water. Warmers with controlled water volume are least usable. User must measure a few ml of water accurate within 0.5 ml. Moreover, user must check tables provided with device to set proper time or measure proper volume of water. For the most advanced models user must set initial temperature, type and volume of milk manually. Besides, distilled water is better to use for all those devices; otherwise, periodical decalcification is necessary, and the warmer's heating parameters fade between decalcifications.
4. Safety. All competitors contain hot water and some of them exhaust flows of steam, which scald users frequently. Moreover, if baby pulls cable it could cause very hard scalds.
5. Careful heating. The more carefully device heats bottle, the more time is required to achieve the target temperature. Moreover, the human factor must be taken into account because often the user is in a hurry, feeling nervous and sleepy, etc., thus the user can make a mistake and very likely to get scalds and/or have got an improper temperature of the bottle.
The BabyField warmer satisfy items 1-5 completely:
In order to reach the exact target temperature it is most reliable and convenient to measure the temperature of the bottle contents directly. It is very undesirable to enter some temperature sensor inside the bottle because it must be sterilized and it is very inconvenient anyway. Therefore, an approximate equality of temperatures of the bottle's surface and of its contents must be provided and the temperature of the bottle's surface must be directly measured. Such equality is impossible if the surface of bottle is heated from outside, e.g. with hot water, steam, air, etc., at least under fast heating. In this case, the surface could be hot while the content is cold. Hence, the direct uniform heating of the contents is necessary. In this case, if the heating is not too fast and the contents is being mixed permanently, the temperatures of contents and surface are almost equal. Only microwaves can provide the direct uniform heating of the contents that has been realized in the BabyField warmer. At that local temperature does not exceed 60°C that allows saving all nutrients.
Effective thermal contact between the bottle surface and temperature sensor is quite difficult because the bottle is permanently rotating to provide mixing. Moreover, sensors operate improperly in strong microwave field. Therefore, we have applied contactless measuring with infrared temperature sensor which is placed outside microwave field. In order to reduce the influence of microwaves on the sensor we separate heating and measuring cycles.
The device operates under control of general purpose controller. At the same time we have achieved unification with commercial microwave ovens' components available on the market, e.g. magnetron, motor, etc.
Thus, the following features have been realized in the BabyField warmer:
1. Microwave heating of contents. At that peak power of microwaves is about 10 times lower than in domestic ovens (60-100 W instead of 500-1100 W) with smooth stepless microwave power control with 100-kHz PWM;
2. Careful forced mixing;
3. Direct temperature monitoring with infrared temperature sensor;
4. Digital control.
Those items provide:
1. Accuracy. Direct monitoring of contents temperature has been realized. The developed device heats bottle up to preset target temperature independently of initial temperature, volume, type, thermal conductivity and capacity, etc.;
2. Quickness. The developed warmer heats 100 ml for approximately 50-70 sec that is 2-4 times faster than wather-bath competitors;
3. Usability. There is no need to fill the device with water. It has merely one button – on/off;
4. Safety. There is no hot water of steam. There are no any hot parts;
5. Careful heating. Not merely surface but whole volume is heated under permanent forced mixing. The local temperature does not exceed 60°C; all nutrients survive. Scalds are impossible.

Application Date

10-Aug-2015

Patent Information

PCT/RU/2015/000497

Others

An object of the invention relates to apparatus for managing temperature and sterilizing products, and more particularly to baby food bottle warmers and sterilizers for such bottles. Baby food bottle warmer with temperature control comprises a power supply unit, a control unit, a microwave generator, at least one infrared sensor, a heating chamber provided with a lid at one end and closed at the other end, with means located within the chamber to rotate a bottle equipped with an electric motor, characterized in that the means for rotating the bottle is a drum adapted to enable forced mixing of the bottle contents during the heating process, the heating chamber and the drum are further provided with through holes, at least one in each, performed in such a manner that while rotating the drum the through hole in the drum periodically overlaps with the opening in the heating chamber wall, whereas the infrared sensor is located opposite to the opening in the chamber on the outside, so that upon rotation of the drum during heating infrared radiation from the bottle periodically falls onto the sensitive area of the infrared sensor, with the drum rotation axis directed horizontally or at an angle to the horizontal plane. Technical result: increase in the heating rate at the same time ensuring lack of local overheating and increase in the accuracy of getting the target temperature throughout the entire bottle contents volume.

Country/Region

Russia