TEXAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE , AUSTIN, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: A16-061

Description

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.The Army needs one appliance designed to military standards.There is an opportunity to develop a reliable, continuous mode conveyor cooking system that prepares military 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 high 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, LLC to establish technical feasibility by demonstrating the modular conveyor cooking appliance will meet the operational and environmental requirements.The technical hurdles will be addressed with laboratory environment testing and performance characterization through experimentation.The supportability, safety, and human factors concerns will be addressed along with estimates of size, weight, cost, and performance.The components will be tested to critical military environments as outlined in MIL-STD-810G.