Circuit for controlling power flow from a high frequency energy source to a plurality of high frequency loads

Claim 2

An inductive heating apparatus for supplying energy to one or more induction heating coil loads comprising: a high frequency energy source suitable for heating said load by an inductive heating effect; on-off switching means to cycle said energy source on and off at a frequency rate substantially lower than the high frequency rate of the energy source; and interconnecting circuit means connecting said source and said load for supplying energy to the load, said interconnecting circuit means including individual switching means for impeding energy flow from the source to the load, said individual switching means being capable of impeding energy flow after each time said on-off switching means cycles said energy source off and being capable of initiating energy at any time interval following the cycling on of the energy source.

Claim 3

An inductive heating apparatus as defined in claim 1 including a plurality of induction heating coil loads and interconnecting circuit means for connecting said source to each said load.

Claim 4

An inductive heating apparatus as defined in claim 2 including means to set the time interval between the time the energy source is cycled on and the interconnecting circuit individual switching means initiates energy flow to the load.

Claim 5

An inductive heating apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said switching means of the interconnecting circuit means automatically impedes energy flow from the source to the load each time said on-off switching means turns the energy source on.

Claim 6

An inductive heatng apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said on-off switching means does not turn on the source until the time the individual switching means of the interconnecting circuit means first set to turn on after the energy source is cycled off actually turns on.

Claim 7

An inductive heating apparatus as defined in claim 5 including power factor correcting means to correct for a low power factor of the load.

Claim 8

An inductive heating apparatus as defined in claim 6 wherein said high frequency energy source includes a DC source, two SCRs and two inductors all in series connection.

Claim 9

An inductive heating apparatus as defined in claim 7 wherein a plurality of loads are supplied from said high frequency source and the loads are four cooking positions on a home-type cooking range.

Claim 10

A control for regulating energy flow from a high frequency energy source comprising: a plurality of loads suitable to be energized by the high frequency source; interconnecting circuit means connecting each load to the source for energization of each load separately; on-off switching means operable to cycle on and off and periodically interrupt the flow of energy from the source to the loads at a frequency substantially less than the frequency of the source; individual switching means in the interconnecting circuit means connecting each load to the source operable to be set to impede the flow of energy from the source to the associated load each time the on-off switching means turns off; and a switching means control for setting the individual switching means so it ceases to impede the flow of energy from the source to the associated load during the time interval between the on-off switching means turning on but before the on-off switching means again turns off thereby to enable regulation of the flow of energy from the source to each individual load.

Claim 11

A control for regulating energy flow from a high frequency energy source comprising: a plurality of loads suitable to be energized by the high frequency source; interconnecting circuit means connecting each load to the source for energization of each load separately; on-off switching means operable to cycle on and off and periodically interrupt the flow of energy from the source to the loads at a frequency substantially less than the frequency of the source; individual switching means in the interconnecting circuit means connecting each load to the source operable to be set to impede the flow of energy from the source to the associated load each time the on-off switching means turns off; and a switching means control for setting the individual switching means so it ceases to impede the flow of energy from the source to the associated load during the time interval between the on-off switching means turning on but before the on-off switching means again turns off thereby to enable regulation of the flow of energy from the source to each individual load.

Claim 12

A control for regulating energy flow from a high frequency energy source as defined in claim 9 wherein the frequency of the energy source is in the general range of 20,000 Hertz and the operating frequency of the on-off switching means is in the range of 0.1 to 110 Hertz.