Stoves and furnaces – Stoves – Heating
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-30
2001-03-13
Price, Carl D. (Department: 3743)
Stoves and furnaces
Stoves
Heating
C431S328000, C126S08500R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06199547
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a heating apparatus of the infrared red type and is particularly applicable to heating apparatus adapted for the agricultural sector for directional heating toward the ground in livestock building.
Heating apparatus of the infrared type is now widely used. It is used for various purposes. Among numerous uses, one is the heating of livestock buildings. In the case of this use, the heating devices are used suspended in rows in said livestock buildings. The suspension height of the heating devices in this type of installation is thus a particularly important parameter. For many years, it has been sought to reduce this suspension height so as to increase the effectiveness of the heating device and to save energy. Concomitantly, the risk of fire in such installations, in particular as to the protection of particles of combustion, is widespread. This risk is increased on the one hand by the presence of plentiful dust in the atmosphere, on the other hand by the presence of dry straw on the ground.
Finally, this heating device being adapted for animal heating, it is indispensable to create regions in which the temperature is maintained fairly homogeneous and constant by avoiding the creation of any region of overheating.
None of the heating devices developed so far satisfies the above requirements in an optimum manner. A heating apparatus of the infrared type developed recently has sought, from its design, to overcome the drawbacks of the state of the art. This heating apparatus, described in the patent EP-A-0 382 286, is constituted by a reflector, a supply conduit for an air/gas mixture, a combustion chamber and a diffusion chamber, the assembly being arranged about a common axis corresponding to the axis of the supply conduit for the air/gas mixture. The choice of a reflector constituted by a reflective cap and the profile of the chambers have only led to concentrated and localized radiation of the assembly of the device in a reduced surface region located substantially below the heating device. As a result, on the ground, the heating reached a very high temperature in the region directly below the heating device whilst, when leaving this zone, the temperature rapidly drops. Because of this design connected to the conical configuration of the chambers and of the reflector in the form of a cap, it is necessary to multiply the number of heating devices to obtain heating of a large ground surface. Moreover, it is necessary in this case to be especially careful of the power regime imposed on the heating device so as to avoid reaching too high temperatures in the region in which the heat is concentrated.
Another heating device is described in Swiss patent CH-A-432.770. This heating device comprises a burner delimiting at least one conduit for supplying an air/gas mixture, a reflector surrounding the conduit, a combustion chamber for the air/gas mixture situated at the end of the conduit of the burner and coaxial to the reflector and a solid screen located below and along the axis of the burner conduit. However, this solid plate does not fulfill the function of a screen adapted to stop the fall of particles to the ground quite simply because this solid plate is lined with a cone that is perforated or not, whose conical walls extend within the combustion chamber such that the particles slide along the walls of the cone and are adapted to pass through the perforated side wall of the combustion chamber. As a result, such a heating device does not permit obtaining all the safety conditions required for the material.
Another infrared heating device is described in the patent FR-A-1.387.132. This document describes in one embodiment a heating device comprising a burner delimiting at least one supply conduit for air/gas mixture, a reflector surrounding the conduit and a combustion chamber whose surface forming the bottom is constituted by a flat screen. However, such a heating device, because of on the one hand the design of the combustion chamber, and on the other hand the design of the reflector, does not have the required heating properties.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,987,137 describes another heating device for livestock buildings whose design does not permit solving one of the problems known for such devices, namely a confinement of hot air within the volume delimited by the reflector and hence a sharp temperature rise of the walls of the reflector.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is therefore to overcome the mentioned drawbacks by providing a downwardly directed heating device whose design permits enlarging the region of the projected radiant zone whilst avoiding the creation of overheated zones.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a heating device whose design permits overcoming the risks of fire by protection of particles to the ground.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a heating device whose design permits reducing the height of suspension of this device without creating overheated regions on the ground.
To this end, the invention has for its object a heating device of the infrared type, particularly adapted for the agricultural field, for directional downward heating of livestock buildings, this apparatus comprising at least one burner delimiting at least one supply conduit for a gas/air mixture, a reflector surrounding the supply conduit over at least a portion of its length and a combustion chamber for the air/gas mixture located at the end of said conduit of the burner and coaxial to the reflector and a solid screen located below and on the axis of the burner conduit, characterized in that the combustion chamber of the burner disposed coaxially to the reflector is formed by a base coaxial to the burner conduit, this base being prolonged by a perforated peripheral wall in the shape of a truncated cone whose small base is constituted by the solid screen so as, on the one hand, to stop the flow of particles emanating from combustion, and on the other hand, to reduce the intensity of axial radiation of the apparatus, thereby preventing central overheating.
Thanks to the presence of this screen shaped to receive the particles and to prevent them from reaching the ground, all risk of fire is avoided.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the combustion chamber is formed by a base coaxial with the burner conduit, this base being prolonged by a peripheral perforated wall in the shape of a truncated cone whose small base is constituted by the solid screen.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3330267 (1967-07-01), Bauer
patent: 3975140 (1976-08-01), Placek
patent: 4452225 (1984-06-01), Plant
patent: 1508280 (1968-01-01), None
4E Systel
Price Carl D.
Young & Thompson
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