Food is the energy source of human body. In the process of self-repair and maintenance, they can also provide the most basic raw materials. Food also contains strong psychological factors. Bad food, no matter how nutritious it is, can't satisfy people's appetite. In many cases, people will stay away from it.
food is as important to soldiers as fuel is to vehicles and ammunition is to weapons. The packaging of American military rations reads: "Restricting food types and nutrition will lead to rapid weight loss, which will lead to loss of strength, decreased endurance, lack of motivation and decreased mental alertness." Obviously, food has an extremely important influence on the performance of soldiers. The heating of rations is realized by exothermic chemical reaction, which does not produce naked flame, also known as "flameless chemical heating".
The heater of flameless ration heater is mainly composed of chemical reactant and activator, which are isolated from each other at ordinary times. When in use, they contact each other in a certain way, resulting in a chemical reaction and releasing heat. Heat heats food rations by heat conduction and radiation. The representative chemical reactants are mainly quicklime, iron, aluminum and magnesium, and the activators are mainly water and oxygen.
The heated food is mainly canned in soft packages, such as non-staple food and rice. The heating of rations is realized by the heat generated by solid fuel, and there is open fire in this way.
solid fuel generates heat through combustion, which is generally equipped with a certain form of stove rack and kindling. The heated objects are mainly hard cans such as tinplate. In 1973, the U.S. military began to study the hot food of individual field rations, and the specific work was organized and implemented by the Natick Research and Development Engineering Center. At first, a vehicle-mounted food ration heating device was developed, which provided heating energy by the vehicle itself, so it had poor maneuverability and could not be heated without the vehicle.
in p>198, the U.S. military successfully developed an off-board food heating device, which used chemical reagents as the heat source and was mainly used to heat the main course of individual fast food rations. The disadvantage of this device was that it was slightly bulky and fragile.
from 1983 to 1986, the inventor of the off-board ration heating device improved its structure and composition, which greatly enhanced its flexibility and was not easy to break. Later, ZestoTherm Company was formally established and ZT brand flameless field ration heaters were produced.
in p>1989, the U.S. military put forward the plan of "self-heating device for 21", one of the central contents of which was to develop a flameless ration heater suitable for individual soldiers' fast food, with the aim of realizing the requirement of the army chief of staff to provide hot food for frontline soldiers at all times and improve the ability of food support in the battlefield.
in p>199, flameless ration heaters were officially used as supplies for the army in large quantities. In 1991, 45 million flameless ration heaters were transported to the Gulf region to support the "Desert Storm" operation of the US military, so that frontline soldiers could still eat delicious hot food in harsh environment, which boosted morale and improved the combat effectiveness of the troops.
in p>1993, the flameless rations heater was formally matched with the eighth menu of individual fast food rations, and the troops were fully equipped, so that the US military realized the real hot food of individual field rations.
in order to ensure the leading position in the field of hot food of individual soldiers' field rations, the U.S. military continued to engage in the research on self-heating individual soldiers' fast food rations, and in 1997, it successfully developed a product called flameless rations heater. Compared with flameless rations heater, this product has a low cost, which is about 2% lower, and does not produce hydrogen and pollute the environment. This product won the "Second Stage of Small Commodity Research and Innovation" quality award in 1997. The individual combat rations developed and equipped by the French army are similar to the individual fast food rations of the American army, and can also realize the hot food of individual field rations, but the heating methods are different.
The heater in the ration is solid fuel, and a simple stove rack, a box of matches and a can holder are used together with the solid fuel. This heater is mainly used to heat the canned main course in rations. This set of rations is the main single soldier field rations of the French army, which can realize hot food. It has formed large-scale production and good quality.
Compared with flameless ration heaters in individual fast food rations, solid fuel has the advantages of simple production process, wide application range, long storage period and easy matching with different canned main dishes. Disadvantages are that the heater is bulky, heavy, greatly influenced by environmental factors, and has low thermal efficiency, so it can't heat soft-packed cans.