REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL DESCRIPTION
NineSigma,representing a global consumer products company is seeking proposals for ultra-compact boilers that can supply dry or saturated steam in small mass produced portable consumer devices. Solutions of interest include steam generation and control technology assuring at least 1000 hours (non-continuous over possibly 10 years) of robust, consistent, safe and reliable operation without the use of chemical treatment of water for scale management. Complete systems are of primary interest, but new alternatives to the boiler or heater sub-systems will be evaluated.

Characteristics of successful technologies include the following:

° Provides continuous steam of 30 g/min (approx. 1300-1400 W heat delivered) from a 100-150 ml of water chamber
° Total volume (boiler chamber, heater, controller, temperature sensors, fuses) less than 250 cm'

° Able to provide short-duration steam bursts (e.g., 5-6 g within 2 seconds and 10 g within 5 seconds)

° Complete product lifetime of 1000 L of standard "hard" water for 10 years and approx. 250,000 steam on/off cycles
° Safe and robust for consumer use (no corrosion-related failures, reliable power system, etc.)

° Target cost (in high volumes) < $10 US

Additional specifications for the boiler system include the following:

° Shell: Stainless Steel of appropriate grade, or alternatives

° Operating Pressure: -4 bars (however, must survive safety testing at 20 bars)

° Mature production technologies for consistent, reliable boiler performance for the 10 year lifetime

° Proven solution for avoiding foaming and water carry-over

° Control scheme for heating and pumping that delivers consistent steam output— avoid steam stoppage / fluctuation during water feeding to the boiler

° Preferable that the system can be FDA approved

BACKGROUND

Current steam generating devices for appliances are generally bulky and are susceptible to effects of scaling. The objective is to identify new compact approaches for a new consumer device (quantities are expected to exceed 600,000 per year within a few years).

Compactness is enabled by a small-sized steam generating device (boiler), but scaling and steaming performance become major challenges. For example, because of scaling, there can be foaming of the water in the chamber or carry over, requiring a much larger chamber to hold a smaller amount of water. Tradeoffs between external heaters and immersion-style heaters are the following:

° For externaI heaters — A small boiler requires a small and powerful heater combined with a control system and fuses. The heater is currently difficult to make.

° For immersion-style heaters — The heaters can become corroded over time due to impurities, especially chlorine. The level of impurities in the water chamber increases over time.

Therefore, new approaches to generate steam in a compact volume are needed.

POSSlBLE APPROACHES

Technologies with shell type boilers with periodic water feed are of interest. Heating may be with an external attached heater or immersion heater. Instantaneous (flash) boilers may be considered, provided the requirements described above are met, and there is no perceptible delay in steam start and stop upon activation and deactivation respectively.

The solutions may use novel materials and control schemes for the boiler, and convenient and cheap methods to manage water carry-over due to foaming and scaling effects.

APPROACHES NOT OF INTEREST

Solutions that need out-of-the-appliance descaling of feedwater and/or which require frequent replacement or regeneration of water treatment chemicals are not of interest.

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     Last modified         26.06.22

Achieved

LazArt Boiler with FoamKiller.

Proposed Technical Approach is based on my earlier tested and working developments – Boiler ( in a response to “A Fortune 500 Consumer Products Company seeks proposals for development of small, fast electric water heaters” , still under consideration) and FoamKiller (to “A global consumer products company is seeking proposals for technologies that can reduce or suppress the formation of foam in a boiler that converts tap water into steam” , rejected by NineSigma’s customer). Of course for target characteristics of current RFP approaching they were redesigned as it is shown by photo below. 165ml capacity glass jar from children nutrition serves as a water chamber. A two-section heater was placed at the chamber’s bottom, metallic jar’s cap was used as a base for two stages (FoamKiller1 and FoamKiller2) of foam evaporator. Taking into account FoamKiller2 dimensions shown at photo, we can state that total volume (boiler chamber, heater, controller, temperature sensors, fuses) is less than 250ml. 2. All those elements are based on the same principle, illustrated in action at above mentioned videos Boiler (targeted to achievement 95ºC at 4-5seconds) and FoamKiller (demonstrates as well total water-absence proofness of the design: please note that from the very beginning of FoamKiller power is ON – with no sad consequencies). The device in action can be seen at 40-17.avi (40ml of hot water were placed in the boiler chamber and 17ml were evaporated during video shooting). Turning power on and off (the 2^nd and 24^th seconds of film respectively) is indicated by image color changing with additional lamp light. Real boiling begins at 6^th second with ordered steam burst (6-8s), the second one (17-20s) is better seen by steam going not only up through FoamKiller2 output, but also down from jar cap. So during 18s boiling 17g were evaporated. Projected power growth in bursts was about 4times, so if in regular regime boiler productivity equals to X g per second, the “burst productivity” was 4Xg/s and we have X about 17/33 or 0.5g/s for regular and 10g/5s for burst regime – just as in RFP.

3. It should be noted that big (25A) “burst switch” shown on the photo and used in video is not obligatory. Smart and reliable heater adaptive control can successfully substitute the switch by, for example separate water feeding to different “regular” and “burst” sections or even heaters (of course, with taking into account other features of client’s system as a whole). This reason can be illustrated by video 60-13glass.avi, where boiling of 60ml of water is shown, resulting in 60-13=47ml of water in a glass (of course in this case – without FoamKiller - some water was splashed, so real productivity was not 13/4=3.25g/s, rather 2,5g/s as was estimated for “burst” mode).

4. It should be stressed that the heater shooted in 60-13glass.avi WAS POWERED DURING THE WHOLE FILM, from the very beginning – and nevertheless it was handled (at least for 3s shown, in water absence!) with naked hand – and in four seconds (10-14^th) it produced and effectively transmitted to water some kWs and immediately diminished the power (15^th s and later) in water absence.

5. To my mind (taking into account its physical essence) – it is the most effective and reliable water heater concept from any possible one, because in addition to already illustrated virtues, it possess inexpensive design (all materials spent in experiments discussed, totally cost less than $3-4), almost insensitive to scale (it precipitates or deposits itself at the bottom or at chamber walls (this is why in the videos presented initially transparent glass jar looks opaque), and I never saw it at heater surfaces, although observed a man using self-made heater of this kind in tea preparation for at least two years – with just the same water source - Kharkiv city water conduit). 6. Demonstrated heater sensibility to water presence/absence (by consumed power level change) can produce reliable control signals for feeding water valve and opens the way to steam production stabilization and water carry-over avoiding. Obviously this part can be properly developed only with full understanding of the whole client’s device destination and structure, because, as possible examples, an iron, coffee machine or sauna – are too different. 7. Simplicity results in reliability: if there is nothing to be damaged, it will not be damaged. Even home-made examples tested in experiments described survived about hundred on-off cycles, more than dozen video clips of “jar-based” model are available from one shooting session; even in Tic-Tac (from Ferrero) sweets box with inner volume jf 25ml a heater boiling 20ml of water in 6s can be placed with FoamKiller in the second box ( TicTac.avi, power on since 5^th s can be seen ).

Proposed Plan and Deliverables

I act as a private person in this development so I can propose the following: client company hires me for the time of project development with remuneration correspondent to my education/experience and negotiable compensation in case of successful invention implementation

Proposed Budget

Unfortunately I have no business experience in this field outside former USSR, but I hope that declared Euro100000 will be enough.

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