The Idea and Motivation o Microwaves caused ~7,400 fires in 2005 n 87 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Fire Safe Microwave

Reid Allen - Red B

The Idea and Motivation

•  Microwaves caused ~7,400 fires in 2005

n 87 injuries and $18 million property damage.

•  Prevent fires caused by sparks and flame

inside the microwave

•  Reduce Fire Department false alarms

associated with microwave oven use

Customer, Market and Benchmarking

•  Customer: Original Equipment Manufacturer

n Major microwave producers

• 

GE and Sharp have >40% market share

•  End-User: households

n 13.5 million microwaves sold last year in US n $3.8 billion sales

•  SafeT Sensor – Patent Pending

Customer Contract

Customer Need ¡ Product Attribute(s) ¡ Alarm when detect spark ¡ Visual/Auditory Signal ¡ Able to sense spark in whole microwave space ¡ Detection Area ¡ Price ¡ Low Cost ¡ Reliable spark detection ¡ Needs to be consistent ¡ Not affect conventional microwave functions ¡ Minimally intrusive ¡ MEAN ¡ 11.4% ($34.23 on $300) ¡ Standard Deviation ¡ 13.7% ($41.14 on $300) ¡

Mock-Up Goals

•  Power off microwave if sparks or flames occur
•  Find a permanent location for our sensor

n Faraday Cage test n Microwave tear down, research

•  Understand physics of microwave sparks and flames

n Ignition testing n Effect of microwaves on flame

•  Identify situations causing false positives

Future Work

•  Reduce manufacturing costs
•  Eliminate false positives
•  Develop user interface

n Auditory, visual warning n Reset switch

Thank you