CA2252489A1 - Domestic apparatus for detecting and expulsing gas - Google Patents

Abstract

A domestic apparatus for detection and expulsion of gas provided with means for expelling outside the gas detected indoors by the device itself whose casing (2) includes an encapsulated motor (1) which, by the fan (3) and through the grid (7), sucks the indoors accumulated gas also localised through the grid (10) by the device's sensor (5) that actuates the motor (1) and sound/light warning alarms (9) besides the switched on indicator's light (8); the accumulated gas is extracted through the duct (6) that, after a short stretch after the grill (7), can be divided in a preferred embodiment into two identical channels (6) that in side section shape a curve with a point of inflection, which describe opposing trajectories, diametrically opposite and equidistant from each other, ending in respective outside grills (4); the motor (1) is located between such branching channels (6) centred in the same horizontal plane with the fan's shaft (11).

Description

CA 022~2489 1998-11-03 ._ DOMESTIC APPARATUS FOR DETECTING AND EXPULSING
GAS

This invention is made up of a device combining a triple function for 5 detecting dangerous gas leaks, warning of its presence via audio-visual alarms and extracting surplus gas detected to the outside.
In the state-of-the-art where this invention resides, referring to gas leak safety appliances, detectors fitted with alarms activated by a certain level of gas build-up are known.
0 However, none of such known detectors includes the function of extracting the gas from the place where build-up has been detected, as this invention does and which is an achievement of the prior applicant's devices disclosed as the Spanish Utility Models No. 9603293 and No.
9703291. The last one registration comprises the preferred embodiments 15 of this invention that overcomes the prior Spanish Utility Model No.
9603293 functional problems with practical disadvantages of security and capacity for extracting accumulated gas.
This invention combines such functions into a small sized appliance, particularly conceived for fitting in house kitchens and small rooms.
20 Manufacturing costs involved in this invention are low, meaning that any consumer can afford it and the simplicity of its components makes very low cost repairs possible.
The invention is particularly recommended for houses, flats or premises which are Iminh~bited for long periods of time, where conventional gas 25 leak detectors are ineffective because activation of their audio-visual alarms does not elimin~te the risk of gas which is continuing to build up exploding unless someone on the outside perceives the alarms and proceeds to ventilate the room where gas has accumulated.
To offer a solution against such risk situations, this invcntion proffers the 30 functional advantage of the fact that the actual device being claimed, after ~, ..

detecting gas and activating its audio-visual alarms, without the user or third parties intervening, automatically extracts the accumulated gas and elimin~tes the risk of an explosion in the dwelling or gas poisoning of people in the vicinity who, because of some physical handicap such as 5 deafness, or through listening to high volume music or watching the television with the sound high had not perceived the acoustic alarms or are in other rooms and cannot see the visual alarm displays.
This invention offers such functional advantages, as it embodies in its small sized casing a fan for expelling gas detected by the device itself to o the outside. The fan blades are driven by the shaft of a motor hermetically encapsulated in a place separated from the duct where the gas runs when expelled. This removes the risk of fire from gas coming into contact with some spark caused by the running motor, particularly as the fan shaft point of connection with the motor's encapsulated space is also sealed.
5 Due to providing for the appliance's motor to be encapsulated and that the appliance has to be on the same horizontal plane centred with respect to the fan and the grill for sucking out gas accumulated inside the dwelling, this appliance's extractor duct, seen in an elevated side section, describes a curved trajectory with an inflection point until it links with the outside 20 grill.
As a plefe.led alternative, to improve the appliance's extracting function capacity, the invention provides for the gas expulsion duct to separate or branch off, after a common commencement at the inside grill, into two or more gas extraction channels, also with a curved side cross section with 25 an inflection point.
These branched ducts run opposite to each other in diametrically opposed, equidistant trajectories, enclosing an inside space between them where the sealed encapsulated motor is housed which, in this alternative, is positioned with a 90~ turn or slope with respect to its position in the 30 alternative of a single extraction duct.

CA 022~2489 1998-11-03 Four sheets of drawings where non-limiting examples of the two aforementioned invention's embodiments can be seen are attached for better understanding of this invention's functionality as described.
Figure 1 shows a cross section in side elevation of the invention.
5 Figure 2 shows the front of the device claimed viewed from inside the dwelling where installed.
Figure 3 shows the preferred alternative to this invention, with the same cross section as Figure 1, made up of a branching off of its inside channel.
Figure 4 gives a view of the invention alternative in Figure 3 from inside o the dwelling where the device is located.
All these figures show the encapsulated motor (1), located inside the casing (2) preferably prismatic-rectangular in shape that structure this gas detector-extractor. Such motor (1) moves the fan blade (3) located facing the grill opening (7), which is directly visible from inside the dwelling 5 where this appliance is installed.
In the extraction operation, the gas sucked in by the fan (3), from inside the dwelling for expelling to the outside through the grill (4), enters the appliance through the grill (7) and crosses the expulsion duct (6) which, in its side cross section, adopts a peculiar curved trajectory -with a point of 20 inflection, especially conceived for placing the encapsulated motor (1) with respect to the fan (3) opposite on the same horizontal plane.
The encapsulated motor is located in a sealed housing into which the gas running through the expulsion duct (6) cannot enter. The point of connection (12) between the fan shaft (Il) and the motor's encapsulated 2s space (1) is especially sealed for perfect isolation.
The gas detector (5), which is activated by gas accumulation located through the grill (10), starts up the encapsulated motor (1) that, in turn, drives the fan (3) through its shaft (I l).
The device's acoustic and visual alarms are simultaneously activated. The 30 device's front visible from inside the dwelling displays two light CA 022~2489 1998-11-03 ....

indicators, one for the alert state (8) of the device, which is continuously on to confirm its correct operation, and a second danger indicator (9) which comes on when gas is detected, together with the acoustic alarm.
The Figures show the preferred alternative for this invention involving the 5 extractor duct (6), after a short stretch from the grill (7) branching into two identical channels (6) which likewise describe curved trajectories in a side cross section with a point of inflection. They are diametrically opposite and equidistant. Each of the channels (6) end in respective, separate outside grills (4).
o The branching channels (6) enclose an inside space where the motor (1) is housed. In comparison with its placing in the alternative with a single duct (6), the latter appears turned through 90~ and displaced towards the appliance's top area. This displacement correlatively affects the inside grill (7) due to the fact that this opening in the casing (2) coincides in the 5 centre in the same honzontal plane with the shaft (11) of the fan (3) and, in turn, with the motor ( 1).
The aforedescribed is a faithful reflection of this invention and it must be considered that its characteristics have been expounded in a broad but non-limiting sense, and the circumstances of a merely formal, secondary 20 or accessory nature which do not alter the essential nature claimed hereafter are indifferent and changing.

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Claims (2)

1 Domestic apparatus for detecting and expulsing gas, of the type made of a small sized casing (2) with a preferably prismatic-rectangular general structure that comprises an encapsulated motor (1) that drives the blades of a fan for sucking out accumulated gas after being started up by a sensor (5), which detects the gas leak through the grid (10), what at the same time activates an acoustic alarm and the danger light (9) that lights up on the device's indoors front and next to the luminous switched on indicator (8), characterized in that the fan (3) is located facing the grill aperture (7) visible from inside the dwelling where the appliance is fitted and through which the accumulated and detected gas is extracted by the blades of the fan (3) placed in a short stretch after the grid (7) that is connected with the expulsion duct (6), which describes, seeing it in a side cross section, a curved trajectory with a point of inflection ending at the outside grill (4) and runs round a sealed space housing the encapsulated motor (1), centred on the same horizontal plane with the fan (3), whose shaft (11) enters such capsule through the completely sealed point of connection (12).

2 Domestic apparatus for detecting and expulsing gas, as claimed in the foregoing Claim 1, characterized in that the gas expulsion duct (6), starting from the grid (7), after the short stretch where are placed the blades of the fan (3), branches into two or more identical ducts (6) with a curved side cross section with a point of inflection, describing diametrically opposed trajectories, equidistant from each other, culminating in respective outside grills (4) for each duct, having positioned the encapsulated motor (1) in the inside space delimited by such ducts (6), with a 90° turn compared to its position when there is only one duct (6) in the foregoing Claim 1.