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Drying Clothes With Microwaves
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10458 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1993 |
2,209 Words |
| Author
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Rita Tatum
Rita Tatum is a free-lance science writer based in Elkhart,
Indiana. |
Anyone who has inadvertently tossed a woolen sweater or a nylon blouse into a clothes dryer knows the damages caused to delicate fabrics by the high drying temperatures. In addition, today's dryers generally take longer to dry the first load of clothes than the washer takes to finish its second. A new breed of dryers using microwaves promises to correct both of these drawbacks and also save energy in the process.
Using the magnetron technology perfected in consumer ovens, microwave dryers may be available in appliance stores as early as 1996. Working models in California and Oregon dry clothes gently, using considerably less energy than do either gas or electric dryers. Because they dry clothes at lower temperatures, microwave clothes dryers may actually extend the hanger life of fabrics.
Two pioneering groups are attempting to carve a niche for microwave units in the annual five million unit U.S. clothes dryer market: American Micro-Tech of Lake Oswego, Oregon, a start-up company led by Rudy Pesci; and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) through a research and development unit in Palo Alto, California, led by John Kesselring. Both groups hope to move the microwave dryer out of the laboratory and into the laundry.
The first working models
American Micro-Tech produced working prototypes of its microwave dryers for Southern California Edison (SCE) in the summer of 1990. The dryers successfully passed independent laboratory tests commissioned by SCE. American Micro-Tech's microwave dryers also have appeared at home shows for the past couple of years.
Pesci is now trying to find the venture capital needed to bring his company's patents into the marketplace. Currently, a Japanese manufacturer of magnetrons and a German company appear most interested.
Leading appliance manufactures and electric utilities are supporting a second thrust of microwave dryer development under way in Kesselring's program sponsored by EPRI. Founded in 1972, EPRI manages the technical research and development programs for about 700 electric utilities in the United States.
In September 1992, EPRI announced that its experimental microwave dryer had successfully completed more than a year of initial testing. Research evaluated the dryer's performance and looked for
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