Microwave Processing with Intelligent Process Control

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Research University in the Helmholtz Association creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. From fundamental research to applications, KIT excels in a broad range of disciplines. Within the Helmholtz Program Materials and Technologies for the Energy Transition (MTET), the Institute for Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology (IHM) is conducting applied research and development in the field of materials processing with microwaves since more than 30 years. This includes novel applications, such as the curing of fiber-reinforced plastics, pultrusion, 3D printing, plasma chemistry and others, using industrial microwave sources such as magnetrons and solid-state amplifiers.
All those activities are motivated by increasing productivity and energy efficiency while reducing CO2 emissions by replacing fossil energy sources with microwave energy powered by renewable electricity. For the transition from lab to industrial scale applications challenges like controlled and uniform heating have to be solved. The application of intelligent process control can provide potential solution in temperature sensitive application. ... mehrAn overview of related developments at KIT and latest research results will be presented.