The 15th Congress of the China National Light Industry Council and the 8th Congress of the China Handicraft Industry Cooperative were held on July 18 in Beijing. The meeting grandly commended enterprises and units winning the Science and Technology Award of China National Light Industry Council 2020. Among them, Robam’s R&D and industrialization of key technologies for semi-closed energy-saving and environmental protection project won the first prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of China National Light Industry Council 2020, which is also the highest award of the conference.

Wu Weiliang (Chief Engineer of Robam Electric and Gas Department) at the third from the right

The Science and Technology Progress Award of China National Light Industry Council 2020 Award represents the highest level of technical awards in China. It belongs to the national ministerial-level science and technology awards and has always been regarded as the "Medal of Honor" for the light industry. Robam’s winning this award once again proves its extraordinary scientific research strength and its brand status as a leader in the kitchen appliance industry.

The key technologies for semi-closed energy-saving and environmental protection is the research and development focus of Robam Appliances in recent years. Previously, the technology has been confirmed as a provincial industrial new technology by a group of experts from Zhejiang University and other universities organized by the Zhejiang Provincial Economic and Information Commission. At present, the project has authorized 5 invention patents and 188 practical patents. It has led the formulation of 2 national standards and 1 group standard. Moreover, it has been industrialized and applied to Robam electrical gas stove products on a large scale.

As we all know, low thermal efficiency, insufficient combustion and poor cooking experience are the difficulties and pain points that have not been solved for a long time in China's traditional gas cooker. As a leading brand in the kitchen appliance industry, Robam relies on the nationally-recognized enterprise technology center, national industrial design center, and nationally recognized laboratory platform to deeply study the basic principles of heat exchange and combustion in the combustion process of atmospheric gas stoves. The core burner has a breakthrough innovative design in terms of material selection, structure, air supplement system, ignition system, etc., which solves the problems of easy energy loss, insufficient combustion, and difficulty in ignition of traditional gas stoves.

Robam Appliances innovated and established a flow and heat transfer calculation model and optimization platform based on CFD simulation, and developed the technology of upward air intake, internal flame, and semi-closed combustion on the stove, which broke through the technical problem that the thermal efficiency of traditional atmospheric burners and carbon monoxide emissions cannot be balanced. This breakthrough greatly improves the combustion heat efficiency of the stove, which far exceeds the national standard first-level energy efficiency by 63%, and is as high as 76%.

In view of the difficulty of insufficient combustion of traditional gas stove, the Robam Appliances initiates the upward wind cohesive flame semi-closed combustion technology. It adopts the upward wind design to improve the primary air supply, and the cohesive flame design makes the heat not easy to lose. What’s more, the sunken semi-closed design makes the mixed gas that is not completely burned form the secondary mixed combustion, therefore the combustion is more sufficient.

Meanwhile, for the first time, Robam Appliances puts forward multi-cavity grading ejector structure based on the hole on the side wall of the nuzzle, and the throttle adjustment structure with a ring of side holes. Through secondary air supplement with burner outside, it effectively improves thermal efficiency of kitchen burning gas, and greatly improves the kitchen combustion thermal efficiency, which effectively reduces emissions of carbon monoxide, below the national standard 80%.

Precise ignition technology structure diagram

In order to solve the problem of poor ignition of traditional igniters caused by insufficient contact between the ignition rod and gas and small electric spark of the ignition rod, Robam Appliances optimized the design of the ignition structure and used the ignition needle to discharge to the honeycomb net made of rare metal. The entire gas outlet forms a three-dimensional ignition space, achieving a 100% ignition success rate. It can be said that the four innovative technologies developed by Robam Appliances have pushed the application of high-efficiency and energy-saving in gas stove production to a new level.

The application of this technology has achieved satisfying social benefits. Robam Appliances has lowered the national standard of carbon monoxide emission from 0.05% to 0.003%, and reduced more than 90% of carbon monoxide emission. What’s more, the thermal efficiency has been increased by more than 14% on the basis of traditional stove production, which can save 30 cube meters of fuel gas per family and 8.1 million cube meters per year calculated based on the sales volume of the technology application products of this project in the past three years. As one kitchen electric enterprise, it should not only push forward the development of energy-saving and emission-reduction technology, but also encourage the transmission of enterprises to a conservation-oriented growth pattern featuring low consumption, low emissions and high efficiency, which can fully achieve the goal of "carbon neutrality".

In fact, this award is only a microcosm of the technological innovation strength of Robam Appliances. Focusing on Chinese cooking for 42 years, Robam Appliances has always paid attention to the improvement of internal product quality and technological iteration. Technological innovation has always been the fulcrum of Robam Appliances' deployment in the kitchen appliance field. In the future, Robam Appliances will continue to respond to the call of the country, focus on the research and development of industrial technology and formulate industry technical standards, and strive to create high-efficiency, energy-saving and environmentally friendly professional kitchen equipment, improve the cooking environment of the Chinese people, create a new kitchen in China, and realize all the beautiful aspirations of mankind for kitchen life.