Patent Application
20110070551
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a burner and, more particularly to a burner using alcohol as fuel to provide heat to the user.
2. Prior Art
There are various burners in the market for users to warm their bodies in the cold environment. Among which, the alcohol burner is one of the most popular ones as it is compact and simple in structure. With reference to
Even though this alcohol burner does provide the necessary heat for users, it suffers from bad design and leads to dangerous consequences. For example, after the alcohol is used for some time, the alcohol level drops and naturally air will fill in the void caused by the decrease of alcohol. After the alcohol level drops to a certain degree and the user is using the alcohol burner, easily there will be a backfire (flame in the container) in the void inside the container 10, which causes great threat to users.
Another drawback is that when the container 10 is moved from one place to another, the alcohol is easily spilled out of the container 10 and causes unnecessary disturbances.
Still, it is easily observed that the tracking plate 20 is designed to have planar top surface and is welded to the opposite sides inside the container 10. As a result of this structure, the tracking plate 20 is easily deformed because of the heat from the use of alcohol. As a result of the deformation of the tracking plate 20, the sliding door 40 is stuck in the track between the tracking plate 20 and the top cap 30 because the planar surface of the tracking plate 20 is no longer a plane. When this situation happens, all the user can do is to wait until the tracking plate 20 cools down so that the sliding door 40 is able to once again be slidable and pivotal to shut the elongated slot 31. In the meantime, the user can only find alternatives to distinguish the fire.
The primary objective of the invention is to provide an improved alcohol burner which is able to obviate the drawbacks the conventional burner has so as to increase safety of the user.
In order to accomplish the primary objective of the preferred embodiment, the alcohol burner constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment is provided with absorbent filled in the internal space of the container such that when the alcohol level decreases and the alcohol burner is in use, chance of backfire situation is greatly reduced. Also, due to the limitation of the absorbent to the alcohol, when the alcohol burner is moved from one place to another, the alcohol spilling is also obviated to the minimum.
Again, to accomplish the aforementioned safety problem, the alcohol burner of the preferred embodiment has a container, a tracking plate on top of the container, a top cap on top of the sliding plate and a sliding plate slidably situated on top of the tracking plate to selectively close/open an opening defined in the tracking plate. In addition to the newly constructed elements, there is also provided with a bottom plate with a grill securely attached to the bottom face of the bottom plate to fix position of the absorbent. Because the sliding plate is separated away from the grill by both the tracking plate and the bottom plate, sufficient space is provided to the sliding plate to ensure that even there is deformation in the bottom plate, movement of the sliding plate is not influenced.
Another objective of the preferred embodiment is that the bottom plate is provided with side walls oppositely extending from two edges of the bottom plate to be securely connected to inner side walls of the container so as to prevent the bottom plate from deformation.
Other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become obvious to the reader and it is intended that these objectives and advantages are within the scope of the present invention. To the accomplishment of the above and related objectives, this invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the accompanying drawings, however, that the drawings are illustrated only, and that the changes may be made in the specific construction illustrated and described within the scope of this application.
The preferred embodiment of the invention mainly is based on the showing of
The container 50 is designed to receive therein alcohol such that the container 50 clearly has a first opening 51. The tracking plate 60 is securely provided on top of the container 50 and provided with a top bracket 61, a bottom bracket 62 having a smaller dimension than that of the top bracket 61, side walls 63 connecting the bottom bracket 62 to the top bracket 61 and a second opening 64 defined in the bottom bracket 62 to communicate with the first opening 51 of the container 50 after the tracking plate 60 is supported by side walls of the container 50. It is to be noted that after the tracking plate 60 is securely placed on top of the container 50, a gap is defined between the side walls 63 of the tracking plate 60 and the inner side walls of the container 50. Also, the second opening 64 is defined offset to a longitudinal central line of the tracking plate 60 such that the bottom bracket 62 has a larger top surface and a smaller top surface.
In order to be freely slidable on top of the tracking plate 60 to selectively close the second opening 64 so as to isolate air and to distinguish the fire, the sliding plate 80 is formed in a manner that when the sliding plate 80 is moved to the larger top surface of the bottom bracket 62, the second opening 64 is fully opened and when the sliding plate 80 is moved to the smaller top surface of the bottom bracket 62, the second opening 64 is fully closed. Also, it is noted that in order to facilitate slidable movement of the sliding plate 80, a flange 81 is formed on the sliding plate 80 and extended upward relative to the sliding plate 80.
From the depiction of
With reference to
From the aforementioned description, it is to be noted that the absorbent 52 in the container 50 may be made of ceramic material or cotton. To station the alcohol inside the container 50, the absorbent 52, as shown in
It is thus notable that when the alcohol burner of the preferred embodiment is to be used, the user may slide the sliding plate 80 to open the second opening 64 so as to reveal the first opening 51 so that the user may light the alcohol inside the container 50. When the user wants to put out the fire, the user only needs to slide the sliding plate 80 again to close the second opening 64 so as to isolate fresh air from going into the inner space of the container 50. Thus the fire is out.
Another advantage of the preferred embodiment is that the tracking plate 60 is changed from a planar structure to a structure having a top bracket 61, a bottom bracket 62 and side walls 63 connecting the bottom bracket 62 to the top bracket 61. Also, when the tracking plate is placed on top of the container 50, the side walls 63 are still separated from the side wall of the container 50. Thus when the side walls 63 of the tracking plate 60 is heated during operation of the alcohol burner of the preferred embodiment, the space between the side walls 63 of the tracking plate 60 and the inner side wall of the container 50 provides cushion for deformation of the bottom bracket 62 such that the planar surface of the bottom bracket 62 is ensured and the sliding movement of the sliding plate 80 will never be influenced. Furthermore, the provision of the grill 90 provides the positioning effect to the absorbent 52 and the bottom plate 91 between the grill 90 and the bottom bracket 62 ensures that enough space is provided between the grill 90 and the sliding plate 80 such that nothing will impair the sliding movement of the sliding plate 80 even when the grill 90 is heated and has deformation.
It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the above description is only illustrative of specific embodiments and examples of the invention. The invention should therefore cover various modifications and variations made to the herein-described structure and operations of the invention, provided they fall within the scope of the invention as defined in the following appended claims.
