Patent Application
20170328560
This invention relates generally to combustion equipment and more particularly to burners for use with combustion equipment.
Various types of burners are known and used for providing heat input to industrial processes such as heat treating, drying, and/or baking. As used herein the term “combustion chamber” refers to any structure containing one or more burners, for example an oven or drying chamber.
Typically burners are connected to a distributor plate that provides various connection points for the burners, for example, air and fuel connections. One of the problems of this design is that the distributor plates do not permit a user to easily change the type of burner setup being used (multi-zone, multi-pattern, etc.) without removing the distributor plate entirely. This results in having to disconnect all of the connections, removing the distributor plate, installing a new distributor plate, and reconnecting all of the connections.
Accordingly, there is a need for a multi-distributor plate apparatus that allows a user to change the type of burner without disconnecting and reconnecting all of the connections.
This problem is addressed by the present invention, which provides a mutli-distributor plate apparatus and burner control cartridge apparatus that permits a user to change the type of burner.
The invention may be best understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures, in which:
Referring to the drawings wherein identical reference numerals denote the same elements throughout the various views,
The plate 11 includes a base flange 14 to permit mounting of the assembly 10 to a burner, such as a burner for a commercial baking oven, and a raised portion 16 from which the housing 12 extends outwardly. The raised portion 16 includes view ports 17 and 18 and an electrode port 19. As shown, the electrode port 19 is an open passage extending through the raised portion 16 and the plate 11 to permit an electrode 35 (
As illustrated, view ports 17 and 18 include covers 17A and 18A pivotally connected to the raised portion 16 to allow the covers 17A and 18A to cover the view ports 17 and 18 when not in use and to pivot out of the way, thereby exposing the view ports 17 and 18, when in use. It should be appreciated that, in some circumstances, the raised portion 16 may not be necessary—in which case, the plate 11 would only include the base flange 14. In such a case, the housing 12 would extend outwardly from the base flange 14 and all ports 17, 18, 19 and covers 17A, 18A would be formed in or pivotally attached to the base flange 14.
As shown in
The housing 12 includes a port 21 for connecting to a conduit (rigid/flexible pipe, hose, etc.) transporting air and gas to a burner 33. As shown, the port 21 extends from a side of the housing 12 and communicates with the internal bore 22,
The bore 22 is a multi-diameter bore, i.e., has different diameter sections. For example, the bore 22 includes a first bore section 26 having a first diameter D1, a second bore section 27 having a second diameter D2, a third bore section 28 having a third diameter D3, and a fourth bore section 29 having a fourth diameter D4. As shown, the fourth diameter is substantially equal to a diameter of the central opening 20. The various bore section diameters are designed to permit the housing 12 to receive the burner control cartridge apparatus 25. The burner control cartridge apparatus 25 may include any type of burner control cartridge that provides a user with a desired control. For example, the burner control cartridge apparatus 25 may be a multi-zone cartridge 30 (
Referring to
As illustrated, the cartridge 30 is inserted into the bore 22 such that a first end 34 of the cartridge 30 resides in bore section 28 and abuts against an interior wall 36 of the bore 22 to prevent the cartridge 30 from entering bore section 29. A second end 37 of the cartridge 30 resides in bore section 26 and includes a ring 38 to secure and/or adjust the cartridge 30 within the bore 22. For example, the ring 38 and bore section 26 may include mating threaded sections 40 and 41 to permit the ring 38 to move the cartridge inwardly and outwardly in the bore 22 by rotating the ring clockwise and counter-clockwise.
The cartridge 30 includes zone adjustment screws 42-43 to adjust air and gas flow for each zone, i.e. three adjustment screws for a tri-zone cartridge. The adjustment screws move a plunger 44 to restrict or open gas flow channels 46, thereby controlling the amount of gas and air flowing through each flow channel 46 into a mating burner zone tube 70. It should be appreciated that the burner control cartridge apparatus 25 may include cartridge 30 with burner zone tubes 70 or cartridge 30 without burner zone tubes 70. In cases where the burner zone tubes 70 are part of the burner 33, burner zone tubes 70 would not be included with cartridge 30; however in cases where the burner 33 is an open pipe, the burne zone tubes 70 would be included with cartridge 30 and when installing the burner control cartridge apparatus 25, the tubes 70 would pass through the bore 22 and into the burner 33 until the first end 34 of the cartridge 30 abuts against wall 36.
A cap 47 is installed over the first open end 23 to cover the first open end 23 of the bore 22. The cap 47 may be installed by a press-fit connection, threaded connection, and/or fastened connection (fasteners extending through the cap 47 into threaded apertures 48, shown in
The tube holder 56 is connected to burner tube 71 and includes an inner wall 72 that extends the length of the burner tube 71 to divide the burner tube 71 into two halves “A” and “B”, thereby allowing different patterns to be formed with a single burner tube 71. The valve plate 51 includes an elongated slot 73 that directs air and gas into one and/or both of the two halves A, B of the burner tube 71. Rotation of the pattern adjustment knob 52 rotates the valve plate 51. By rotating the valve plate 51, the slot 73 is rotated with respect to the two halves A, B of the burner tube 71. For example, the slot 73 could be positioned to allow equal amounts of air and gas into the two halves A, B, to allow only air and gas into one of the two halves A, B, to allow no air and gas to flow into the burner tube 71, and/or to allow disproportionate amounts of air and gas into the two halves A, B.
Referring to
The balancing tube 60 includes a plurality of apertures 76 distributed along its length from which thermal energy is released, i.e., flames, etc. The apertures 76 have different diameters that progressively increase in diameter from the distributor plate to a distal end of the burner 33. In other words, the apertures closest to the air and gas inlet are smaller than the apertures furthest from the air and gas inlet. This pattern enables the pressure along the burner to be equalized.
In operation, the multi-distributor burner plate apparatus 10 allows a user to modify the operation of a burner without disconnecting a burner plate and separate control mechanism from the burner. Instead, the multi-distributor plate apparatus 10 is connected to burner 33. A user then decides what type of burner control is desired. For example, does the user want to control the pattern of the burner,
The foregoing has described a multi-distributor burner plate apparatus. All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.
Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.
The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiment(s). The invention extends to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed.
