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  Gas burner head with extra simmer, burner base assembly and combination thereofUSPTO Application #: 20060024632Title: Gas burner head with extra simmer, burner base assembly and combination thereof Abstract: A gas burner head with extra simmer capabilities, a burner base assembly and combinations thereof are disclosed. A gas burner head having one or a multiple fuel/air mixture exit ports with a simmer flange located above the ports and extending beyond the port exit by a predetermined distance allows the flame/fuel-air mixture from a given port to be fully or partially covered from above at a desired flame height or fuel-air mixture setting. The burner head can be a single or multiple piece assembly and can be used as part of a complete system or as an added-on component to an existing burner system. A burner base assembly has a burner base plate, a venturi and an orifice enclosure that creates a means to supply the required gas for combustion and also enables the burner head to be fully sealed. The venturi can be built-in as part of the burner base plate or made as a separate component and assembled through the burner base plate to create a sealed path. The orifice enclosure houses the gas injector orifice and can be installed in a separate compartment partitioned from the burner base plate by a sheet of metal (or partition plate) or in an enclosed area or plenum. Both the burner base plate/venturi combination and the orifice enclose may be securely attached to each other to maintain a predetermined distance between the gas orifice and the venturi inlet to allow a predetermined amount of primary air and gas mixture to be injected through the venturi into the burner head to create proper combustion. The burner base plate may be installed in a slightly raised position relative to the partition plate and/or orifice enclosure to create an air gap and the path through which primary air flows. A secondary source of primary air may be supplied through openings located around the orifice enclosure. The burner base assembly can be a single or multiple piece assembly and can be used as part of a complete system or as an added-on component to an existing burner system. Because of the rules governing abstracts, this abstract should not be used to construe the claims. (end of abstract)
Agent: Thorp Reed & Armstrong, LLP - Pittsburgh, PA, US Inventor: Jairo E. Sanchez USPTO Applicaton #: 20060024632 - Class: 431354000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Combustion, Mixer And Flame Holder The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060024632. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
[0001] The present application claims priority from U.S. Application Ser. No. 60/592,354 filed Jul. 29, 2004 and entitled Gas Burner Head with Extra Simmer, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND [0002] 1. Field of the Disclosure [0003] The present disclosure generally relates to gas burners and, more particularly, to a gas burner head with extra simmer capability, a burner base assembly and a combination thereof. [0004] 2. Brief Description of Related Art [0005] Gas burners are used in all types of applications including cooking appliances and especially in cook top systems. The less expensive burner systems are normally made of one or more metal stampings crimped or spot welded together and normally of low performance rating. In many cases, these less expensive burner systems are of annular design and fully open construction to allow primary and secondary air to flow through or around the burner. More expensive burner systems include multi piece construction of cast, molded and machined components and generally these systems are of heavier wall construction and made of a combination of materials to allow optimum performance at higher input rates. In many cases, these more expensive burner systems are fully sealed, with the orifice located in a separate enclosure, so the primary air must be supplied within that separate enclosure through slight openings in the enclosure walls and/or through air gaps under the control knobs. [0006] Sealed burner systems are desirable as they are oftentimes viewed as more aesthetically pleasing than open construction systems. Additionally, sealed burner systems are easier to clean as compared to open construction systems. Since the burner in a sealed burner system is fully sealed, it requires all of the primary air for combustion to be supplied within the enclosure of the orifice holder, either through the openings in the enclosure box itself or through openings under the knobs or trims. One major constrain for primary air supply occurs where there are not knobs available such as with glass tops with electronic touch controls, or when the enclosure plenum is required to be fully sealed so as not to allow air pressure changes and other disturbances within the plenum that will affect the flame quality. In these instances, a source of primary air is through the burner itself. [0007] Normally the high performance/high input rate burners are described as burners with high energy output at the maximum burner setting and this is a desirable performance to achieve faster cooking results. A primary limitation of high input rate burners is that to obtain a good burner performance, flame quality, heat range capability and re-ignition in the whole range from HI to LOW settings, the burner output at the lower setting (simmer position) has to be proportional to the high output setting. For example, the low ("LOW") setting of a higher BTU (British Thermal Unit) burner is higher than the low ("LOW") setting of a slightly lower BTU burner and in most cases, having a relatively high LOW setting is not an acceptable simmer performance, especially during cooking of delicate foods. To achieve the desirable performance of a high input rate burner at low simmer position, many burner and range manufactures have implemented more complex dual burner designs and valves, added extra components as electronic pulsing and solenoids, and still, other manufacturers opt to degrade the cooking efficiency of the high ("HI") setting by locating the burner further away from the cooking surface in order to achieve relatively good simmer. In all of these cases, the system becomes more complex, expensive and more difficult to maintain. [0008] There are several burner/system design configurations available today with the low simmer configuration. One method is to design a burner head with multiple gas chambers, each with its own set of gas ports and gas supply lines so the gas can be supplied to either chamber depending on the gas valve setting. For example, at the High ("HI") to Medium ("MED") settings, the gas is supplied to the chamber that has either lager size ports or greater number of ports, and at the lower setting ("LOW") the gas is supplied to a different chamber with less number of ports or with smaller size ports. This configuration is basically like having two burners in one. In both of these instances, it is required to have a special supply valve constructed with a dual outlet and it also requires independent gas lines. There are several approaches to achieve the above design concept. In one design, burners with dual heads can be designed as concentric burners, it can include an outer ring burner and a smaller simmer burner in the center, at higher settings both burners can have a flame and at the simmer position only the inner smaller burner is on. One disadvantage of this method is that, at simmer, the heat is concentrated only in the middle of the surface being heated and, therefore, creating a high heat density in the center of the pan (or other surface being heated) (not shown). [0009] Another design approach is to make the burner slightly taller and to incorporate two rows of ports one above the other. Normally, one set of ports is smaller in size than the other or of a different shape. The gas is supplied through different chambers within the burner head, one chamber connects to ports used for the higher settings, the other chamber connects to the simmer ports. This method might not be as efficient at the higher settings, because the ports used for the higher setting might be physically located further away from the cooking surface to allow room for the simmer ports. [0010] Another more complex design to achieve a good simmer is by implementing a complete system approach. This design can be accomplished by incorporating an electronic sequencing device that energizes and de-energizes a solenoid to close and open at fixed intervals in time. The gas is supplied through the solenoid and the flame is automatically ignited during a set amount of time. Thus, effectively, the amount of total energy output within that time interval is equivalent to a burner with a lower energy input. This system has a lower reliability because electronic and extra electromechanical components are required in series with the burner. [0011] A quick look at a burner head shows that burner heads are made of single or multiple components to form a plenum where the air/gas mixture is contained prior to ignition. The gas is supplied into the plenum by an orifice injector via a venturi. Typically, the burner ports are located on the perimeter of the burner head or cap and formed or machined at a predetermined angle. In some cases, ports can face straight up and perpendicular to the burner head. The ports can be of different size and shape depending on port loading. Typical port shapes include round holes, open end rectangular slots, or other alternate shape. Most burners include a drip lip around the burner head or cap. The drip lip is used to protect the ports from spillage that might occur during the cooking process. The lip is usually located the closest possible distance just above the ports. The burner head can be an integral part of the burner or as a separate cap placed freely or fastened securely to a burner base to create a completely enclosed chamber. SUMMARY [0012] One aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a gas burner that optimizes the performance at simmer (extra-simmer) setting without sacrificing the performance of the burner at the higher settings. The extra-simmer capability may be achieved without introducing extra components that may adversely affect maintenance and reliability of the system. The "extra-simmer" setting may be defined as the setting where it is possible to locate a sheet of paper over the cooking surface without the paper being burned (the paper may scorch, but not burn). [0013] Another aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a burner base assembly that supplies primary air to the gas burner in gas burners with completely or partially sealed construction of the enclosure plenum. [0014] A further aspect of the disclosure is to simplify and minimize the number of components of the overall burner system and still provide an extra-simmer setting, to use a single outlet valve, to use a single supply line from the valve to the burner and to minimize the number of components of the burner head. [0015] The present disclosure relates to a single burner head or a single burner head assembly, a burner base or burner base assembly, or a single burner head (or head assembly) and a single burner base (or base assembly) that can be used as a whole or as a part of a new burner system, or as a component of an existing typical burner system. The burner head can be a cast or machined annular cup made as a single piece that includes ports and carry over ports around its perimeter, and an integrated "simmer flange" located at a predetermined distance above and protruding beyond the port outlet. In multiple piece configurations, one possible design incorporates the simmer flange as part of the burner cap that then can be freely placed or securely attached to the burner head that contains the ports. The simmer flange cap can be used over existing burners by modifying the height and shape of the bottom of the cap to fit the shape of the mating surface and to achieve the overall height required for extra-simmer operation. [0016] The distance from the ports to the simmer flange may be a function of the length of the flame. Ideally, the simmer flange's vertical location and protrusion may be determined by the length of the flame at a point when the valve is set at the desired low set position. Once the flame length is defined, the vertical position for the flange may be established by placing the bottom of the simmer flange just at the tip or outer cone of the flame. The protrusion of the simmer flange may be determined visually so when viewing the flame normal to the burner, there is no flame or minimum flame showing. A good simmer flange configuration allows "extra-simmer" capability with the minimum burner height, without disrupting the flame at higher settings and complies with all combustion quality standards. [0017] The burner base can be cast or machined components, consisting of a burner base plate, a venturi, an orifice enclosure and an orifice injector. The burner base plate and venturi can be constructed either as a two separate components or designed as a single burner base plate and venturi combination. The burner base plate is designed so that in the final assembly, the burner base plate allows primary air to flow through the bottom of the burner base plate into the orifice enclosure through an air gap of approximately 0.150 in. (0.381 cm) created between the burner base plate and the partition plate and/or orifice enclosure. The primary air is guided through the orifice enclosure into the inlet of the venturi to mix with the gas. The primary air/gas mixture is then injected through the venturi. The orifice enclosure consists of an annular body, with one end fully open to allow air to flow through. The opposite end contains the means to attach to the gas supply and gas orifice/injector. The orifice enclosure can include openings in its wall, for instance (2) 1.0 in..times.0.75 in. (2.54 cm.times.1.91 cm) openings on either side, to allow extra primary air to flow through. The solid end (or opposite end), can also include a method of attachment to a support frame and the means to accept a fitting for the gas orifice and gas supply line. The open end includes the means to establish the location of a partition plate and a way to create a labyrinth path by protruding a portion of the enclosure (approximately 0.375 in) through an opening in the partition plate to be used as a barrier for liquid spillage. The open end also includes the means of attachment to secure the burner base plate and the orifice holder as well as a method to establish the air gap between the burner base and orifice enclosure. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0018] For the present disclosure to be easily understood and readily practiced, the present disclosure will now be described for purposes of illustration and not limitation, in connection with the following figures, wherein: [0019] FIG. 1 is a cross section of an exemplary extra-simmer burner assembled on a typical assembly; [0020] FIG. 2 depicts in exploded view the cross section of a typical burner assembly with extra-simmer burner head (i.e., a burner head with "extra-simmer" capability); [0021] FIGS. 3(a)-(b) show cross section views of an extra-simmer burner head with typical flame, wherein the flame is at high setting in FIG. 3(a) and at extra-low heat setting in FIG. 3(b); Continue reading... 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