Continuous Mode Conveyor Cooking Appliance for Unitized Group Rations (UGR-A) for Military Field Feeding

Modern military field kitchens are required to provide high volume throughput while maintaining the best quality of group feeding rations for the Warfighter. The Army's legacy JP-8 fired appliances fall short, relying on inefficient burner units that subject cooks to excessive heat, exhaust, and noise. There is an opportunity to develop a reliable, continuous mode conveyor cooking system that prepares UGR-A rations that would eliminate the need for an entire kitchen ensemble. The combination of high heat transfer of hot air impingement and microwave energy has the potential to produce high volume throughput results with consistent quality. Army cooking appliances need to be modular, man portable, and operate in all military environments. Texas Research Institute Austin, Inc will team with JetSweep Solutions to establish technical feasibility by demonstrating the modular conveyor cooking appliance will meet the operational and environmental requirements. A full scale prototype appliance will be developed and produced to demonstrate technical capability of the oven. The oven system will be demonstrated through functionality and operational testing. Manufacturability issues will be identified related to full-scale production of the system for military and commercial applications. Safety and human factors associated with the use of the prototype will be addressed.