1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a gas burner-based apparatus such as gas range, gas furnace, gas water heater, etc. and more particularly, to an inductor and fire tier arrangement for gas burner-based apparatus, which prevents incomplete combustion of fuel gas at the gas burner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many technical teachings have been disclosed to automatically turn off power supply and shut off the supply of fuel gas upon shortage of oxygen at the gas burner during burning, preventing the problems of high consumption of fuel gas from incomplete combustion, low thermal efficiency and poisoning of carbon monoxide. In one conventional teaching, a flame inductor is used to detect the burning status of the gas burner and to automatically turn of power supply and shut off the supply of fuel gas upon abnormal burning due to shortage of oxygen (in the following description, to turn off power supply and shut off the supply of fuel gas has the same meaning as apparatus shutdown).
When turned on the faucet, the electric circuit of the gas water heater is simultaneously turned on. At this time, a small amount of fuel gas is supplied to the mixing pipe 44 and discharged out of the ignition flame nozzle 45 at the top side of the mixing pipe 44. At the same time, the ignition electrode 42 discharges a high voltage to produce sparks that burns the discharged fuel gas, thereby producing an ignition flame. When the flame inductor 43 detected the presence of the ignition flame, the ignition electrode 42 is stopped from discharging a high voltage, and at the same time, the gas supply pipe is opened to supply fuel gas to the gas burner 50, and therefore a relatively bigger amount of fuel gas is discharged out of the flame holes 52 and burned by the ignition flame to produce the desired main flame for heating water.
After the formation of the main flame, the flame inductor 43 keeps detecting the burning status of the gas burner 50 so as to control the operation of the gas water heater subject to the detection result. In order to detect the burning status of the gas burner 50, the tip 46 of the flame inductor 43 must be extended to a place right above the flame holes 52.
Setting the tip 46 of the flame inductor 43 above the flame holes 52 enables the flame inductor 43 to detect the presence of a flame at the gas burner. However, if the flame is floating above the flame holes 52 due to low concentration of oxygen, the flame inductor 43 still detects the presence of the flame, and the gas water heater will keep working, i.e., the flame inductor 43 cannot automatically turn off power supply and shut off the supply of fuel gas during this unstable burning status.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view.
It is the main object of the present invention to provide a flame inductor and fire tier arrangement for gas burner-based apparatus, which detects the presence of the flame and automatically turns off power supply and shuts off the supply of fuel gas when detects no signal.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the inductor and fire tier arrangement is used in a gas burner-based apparatus comprising an ignition flame generating unit having a flame inductor with a tip, and gas burner, which comprises at least one fire tier, each fire tire comprising a plurality of flame holes and partition members between each-two adjacent-flame holes; wherein the tip of the flame inductor set suspending above one partition member between two adjacent flame holes of one fire tier for detecting the presence of a flame.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the inductor and fire tier arrangement further comprises a plate member bridging one partition member between two adjacent flame holes of one fire tier; the tip of the flame inductor set suspending above the plate member for detecting the presence of a flame.
According to still another embodiment of the present invention, the plate member can be bridging one flame hole; the tip of the flame inductor set suspending above the plate member for detecting the presence of a flame.
The aforesaid gas burner 30 is comprised of 11˜15 pieces of fire tiers 31. Because the fire tiers 31 are shaped like the tail of a fish, they are called “fishtail fire tiers”. Each fire tier 31 comprises a plurality of flame holes 32. A partition member 33 is provided between each two adjacent flame holes 32 of each fire tier 31. The inductor 13 has the tip 16 suspending above one partition member 33 to detect the burning status of the gas burner 30.
When opened the faucet, the gas water heater is started, and a small amount of fuel gas is being discharged out of the ignition flame nozzle 15, and at the same time a high voltage is discharged out of the ignition electrode 12 to produce sparks and to further burn the discharged fuel gas, thereby producing an ignition flame at the ignition flame nozzle 15.
When the inductor 13 induced the presence of the ignition flame, the ignition electrode 12 is stopped from discharging a high voltage, and the gas supply pipe is opened to supply fuel gas to the gas burner 30, thereby causing the ignition flame to burn discharged fuel gas at the gas burner 30, and therefore the desired main flame is produced to heat water. Thereafter, the ignition flame is off, and the inductor 13 detects the presence of the main flame and controls the operation of the gas water heater subject to its detection result.
During normal burning operation of the gas burner 30, the main flame is adhered to the top of the gas burner 30 and detected by the inductor 13. In case an abnormal burning condition occurred due to shortage of oxygen, the main flame will float above the gas burner 30 (see
Further, the gap between the tip 16 of the inductor 13 and the partition member 33 has a great concern with auto shutdown of the gas water heater. For example, if the oxygen concentration is set at 18% as the reference value for auto showdown control, the gas water heater will shut off the supply of fuel gas only after the oxygen concentration has dropped to below 16% if the gap between the tip 16 of the inductor 13 and the partition member 33 is big; on the contrary, the gas water heater will shut off the supply of fuel gas immediately after the oxygen concentration has dropped to below 20% if the gap between the tip 16 of the inductor 13 and the partition member 33 is small.
In order to prevent a false detection of the inductor 13 due to a transient shift of the main flame upon a wind, a delay circuit is provided to delay the action for a predetermined length of time, for example, several seconds. Because a delay circuit for this purpose can easily be obtained from the know techniques, no further detailed description in this regard is ne3cessary.
Actually, the invention provides different combinations to prevent incomplete combustion. In one embodiment, a plate member 35 is mounted on the top of one partition member 33 (see
The width of the plate member 35 determines the time to shut off the supply of fuel gas upon shortage of oxygen. A relatively wider plate member advances the time to shut off the supply of fuel gas; a relatively narrower plate member postpones the time to shut off the supply of fuel gas. Therefore, the time to shut off the supply of fuel gas upon shortage of oxygen is adjustable by changing the width of the plate member 35.
In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3˜7, the inductor 13 is used to detect the presence of the ignition flame and the main flame. According to the ignition flame generating unit 10a shown in
The ignition flame generating unit 10a shown in
The embodiment shown in
When detected the presence of the ignition flame by the inductor 13, the ignition electrode 12 is stopped from discharging a high voltage, and the gas supply pipe is opened to supply fuel gas to the mixing pipe 17 for burning by the ignition flame to produce the desired main flame. The ignition flame is extinguished a short length of time after the presence of the main flame. The inductor 13 detects the presence of the ignition flame and controls the works of the gas water heater subject to its detection result, such works including turning off power supply and fuel gas upon shortage of oxygen during burning.
There are many other alternate forms relating the embodiment shown in
It is to be understood that the illustration and reference numbers for the parts shown in FIGS. 3˜7 are applicable to the embodiments shown in FIGS. 8˜10, and like reference numbers indicate like parts.
A prototype of gas burner-based apparatus has been constructed with the features of FIGS. 3˜10. The gas burner-based apparatus functions smoothly to provide all of the features discussed earlier.
Although particular embodiment of the invention have been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, oscillator means may be used to atomize water into a fine spray. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.