Fire extinguishers – Processes
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-02
2004-09-28
Evans, Robin O. (Department: 3752)
Fire extinguishers
Processes
C169S028000, C169S035000, C169S036000, C169S026000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06796382
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
3,446,287
May 1969
Hook
169/28
3,980,139
September 1976
Kirk
169/28
4,964,469
February 1990
Smith
169/28
5,232,053
August 1993
Gillis
169/28
5,588,493
December 1996
Spector et al
169/28
6,012,531
January 2000
Ryan
169/28
6,056,063
May 2000
Hung
169/28
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
[Not Applicable]
REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX
[Not Applicable]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to fire extinguishing devices. In particular, this invention relates to a device that disperses fire-fighting chemical agents, both wet and dry types, through the use of an explosive force.
2. Background of Prior Art
Fire-fighting devices in general use at present, are subject to numerous limiting factors with respect to their cost of acquisition, placement, storage, deployment for fire-fighting—or fire suppression—and other factors. By their nature, they may require periodic inspection by qualified, knowledgeable persons, training or esoterically detailed familiarity in their use, are typically bulky and/or require, as centralized sensing and extinguishing systems, extensive, expensive installation to afford the protection they are designed to provide.
Small fire safety devices, such as the common pressurized dry chemical extinguisher, are relatively heavy, due to the prerequisite construction of the their pressurized containers. Their weight, bulk and relative complexity, adds to the cost of manufacture, and therefore, theoretically, their cost of acquisition. In use, their directed stream of chemical spray requires judgment and forethought, and therefore, a fully conscious and cognizant user whose mental faculties have not been impaired by smoke, heat, mental stress or panic.
Sprinkler systems, are subject to high installation costs, and may fail to effectively fight fires due to limited water supplies, sedimentary clogging of water supply piping, or failure to install sprinkler heads with sufficient coverage areas throughout an edifice, among other factors.
A drawback to nearly any fixed installation of fire-fighting equipment such as fire hoses, sprinklers, or the device of U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,063 to Hung, is that they are often installed with less than complete coverage area for the full extent of the interior space they were installed to protect, due to limits of the dispersal pattern from the fixed mounting, or physical obstructions to retardant discharge. An example being a single dispersal unit, such as a water sprinkler head, in the center of a hotel room, which if actuated due to fire, would have a dispersal pattern which might not reach all corners of an irregularly shaped room, such irregularities commonly including short entrance corridors and closets blinded from the sprinkler head by corners, etc.
Thus, the present invention is designed as a product which is versatile in installation mounting, i.e., mountable in a simple holder on walls, desk, counter or table surfaces, or elsewhere, and be able to self-actuate when situated as thus, yet can be lifted out of its holder and deployed manually, should any occupant of the room or area deem appropriate, and be conscious and capable of doing so.
Explosive devices for fire-fighting purposes, in prior art, have often demonstrated high efficiency in extinguishing localized blazes, but have shown limitations, again, in cost and the relative sophistication of their design impacting complexity in manufacturing process. Also their methods of storage, deployment and/or use, such designs may be seen to require expert use, inhibiting broad public acceptance. Again, as mentioned previously, dispersal patterns of the fire extinguishing chemicals from some explosive fire-fighting devices may, in some cases, be less than uniform or ideal. Two other important detractions to explosively dispersed chemical fire-fighting devices are the force of detonation experienced with some, and subsequent flying debris from even some minute parts of such devices despite frangible casings, therefore being, therein, safety hazards unto themselves.
In nearly all prior art, be they of explosive type or other means of delivery, the cost of manufacture and/or installation, and therefore the cost of purchase is a limiting factor to broad public demand; this factor being most acutely apparent in underdeveloped countries, and even in poorer communities of developed nations.
The bulk and subjective unsightliness of even the common dry chemical, pressurized tank fire extinguisher aesthetically limits their installation in many private dwellings worldwide. One does not typically find such devices mounted in living rooms, or guest reception areas, sometimes purely for aesthetic reasons.
Frequently, only one fire-extinguisher is maintained for the entirety of a private dwelling, and it may fail to work after lying dormant many years, due to its need of periodic inspection and maintenance by qualified personnel; something often overlooked by private owners. And with only one fire-fighting device deployed at some point within the dwelling, the possibility exists that a path to it may be blocked by flame and/or smoke, especially when a fire starts and spreads while the occupants are asleep.
The present invention is intended to overcome or lessen the above limitations in prior art.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
1. Object of the Invention
The object of this invention is to provide an inexpensive, compact and easily used device, which, while being of the explosive type, does not present any serious safety hazard in its actuation.
It is important to establish in this portion of the disclosure that the present invention is a single-use device, which is environmentally friendly in its basic construction, and leaves little more residue than the expended fire extinguishing/suppressant chemicals employed with the device, when actuated. No attempt is made to affect reusability in the device, because a reusable device requires components that can withstand the stresses of a remanufacturing process, add the need for a recycling infrastructure that can not only ‘refill’ the device, but also test and certify that the recycled device can perform again at the required level of protection or usefulness. This of course leads to the requirement that the reusable components must be sturdy enough not only for refilling/remanufacturing, but to be able to reliably perform for more than one use. These preconditions to a reusable device, especially with respect to a device upon which lives and property would depend, it is felt economically prejudices reusable containers or systems for general public use.
What is logically required in a low-cost, easily manufactured, effective fire-fighting device is, a low mass, inexpensively manufacturable containment vessel, with a maximum of fire-retardant chemical agent within such a device—viewed as a high relative percentage of weight/mass of the fire-fighting agent to the total weight of the complete functional unit—and a method of dispersal of the chemical agent by a rapid means, which in itself is lightweight, does not create bulk, is inexpensive and places few demands on the device container while the device is stored and unused. General public acceptance also requires other values, as well, those being that it is highly effective in its work, that it is intuitively easy to use, compact enough to be placed anywhere near at hand when needed, and that it be inexpensive.
Thus, the device disclosed herein is intended to have the following features—
A simple, self-contained design, and of a construction whose physical integrity and ability to operate can be quickly surmised through visual inspection of its exterior by ordinary persons not highly versed in technical knowledge, and be—
inexpensive and easily manufactured in nearly any country, worldwide;
so intuitively simple in its use that even a confused or partially impaired user may employ it with little forethought;
so innocuous in size and shape that it may be installed or stored
Evans Robin O.
Siam Safety Premier Co., Ltd.
Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.
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