GB2547013A

GB2547013A - Flame simulating apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2547013A
Application number: GB1602034.9A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Moody Mark
Original assignee: Focal Point Fires PLC
Current assignee: Focal Point Fires PLC
Priority date: 2016-02-04
Filing date: 2016-02-04
Publication date: 2017-08-09
Also published as: GB201602034D0

Abstract

A flame simulating apparatus 1 comprising a housing 2 having an interior compartment, a viewing aperture, a display screen (11, figure 2), a rotatable shaft 14 mounted in said interior compartment and including a plurality of reflective projections, a flame simulation light source 13 and a shading panel 19 including a plurality of flame-shaped openings. The display screen is a translucent screen with a first front surface facing the viewing aperture such that the light from said first flame simulation light source is reflected from the rotatable shaft through the flame shaped openings of the panel onto the rear surface of the translucent display screen. The apparatus also includes a loud speaker 24, a memory and a controller 23 for generating, storing and controlling simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds. The apparatus may include a heater, and the flame simulation light source may be below the rotating shaft. There may be a simulated fuel bed and a light source below the fuel bed. The controller may turn on the fireplace sounds when the first flame simulation light source is turned on. The volume may vary with the intensity of the light emitted from the light source.

Description

Flame simulating apparatus

The present invention relates to a flame simulating apparatus, and in particular, embodiments may be for creating the appearance of a burning fire produced by solid fuel. Such apparatus may be incorporated in a heating device to give the impression of a real solid fuel fire.

Wood-burning, gas-powered and electric fireplaces are three popular types of fireplaces that are available to consumers. Wood-burning fireplaces possess great heat production and efficiency, as well as a cosy and pleasant environment. Gas-powered fireplaces also offer good heat production but do not produce the desirable flame flickering and wood crackling sound associated with a wood-burning fireplace. However, both of these types of fireplaces exhibit many disadvantages. Wood-burning fireplaces require more effort for operation and manipulating logs and cleaning the ashes can be messy. Gas-powered fireplaces are convenient, but carry associated risks of explosion or gas leaks into the home. Both of these fireplaces demand appropriate installation, insulation and ventilation to avoid risks of accidents occurring at the premises. In addition, studies have proven that wood smoke can be dangerous to the health, due to carbon monoxide poisoning and to human lung and respiratory systems not being able to adequately filter particles emitted by wood combustion.

Electric heaters with associated flame simulation apparatus mimicking solid fuel fires are well known and becoming increasing popular. Such heaters offer safety, easy maintenance and installation. Electric heaters also are generally a cheaper option compared to wood-burning or gas-powered fireplaces. Fuel-powered fireplaces may also require chimneys or flues for the combustion gases to exit the residence. Currently, liquid-crystal display (LCD) flame simulation technology is employed for a wide range of electric heaters. However, LCD simulators may not realistically mimic the fire depth and aesthetics of a wood-burning fireplace. Heaters including light-emitting diode (LED) flame simulation apparatus are another known option as these are capable of simulating flames that resemble flames pertaining to wood-burning fireplaces. LED simulators use low energy LEDs and heaters may also be more pleasing to the eye when used in conjunction with a simulated glowing fuel bed.

Some known electric heaters including simulated flames are disclosed in GB2376292, US2984032 and US7194830. The various arrangements described in these provide with varying degrees of success of creating an impression of flames. The aesthetics and realism of electric heaters can be improved. Outstanding issues from previous electric heaters including simulated flames comprise the lack of three-dimensionality and depth of the simulated fire image, the lack of visual appeal at close distance of the image, the usage of stationary flame elements rather than moving or rotating ones, the employment of light bulbs as a light source and the designs based on the blinking of the light source instead of a carefully designed mechanism to obtain a more realistic flickering artificial flame. The objective of the present invention is to bring the artificial fire to “life” by improving the artificial fire lighting apparatus as well as the control of realistic sound effects.

Embodiments of the invention provide an improved apparatus for simulating flames from a solid fuel fire.

The invention is defined in the appended independent claims, to which reference should be made. Preferred and/or alternative features are set out in the dependent claims.

The invention provides an flame simulating apparatus comprising: a housing having an interior compartment and a viewing aperture for viewing said interior compartment, a display screen in said interior compartment, a rotatable shaft mounted in said interior compartment and including a plurality of reflective projections located around the circumference of the shaft, a first flame simulation light source for shining light onto said reflective projections, a shading panel including a plurality of flame-shaped openings, and wherein the display screen is a translucent screen with a first front surface facing the viewing aperture and a second rear surface, and the shading panel is positioned between the first flame simulation light source and the translucent screen such that the light from said first flame simulation light source is reflected from the rotatable shaft through the flame-shaped openings of the panel onto the rear surface of the translucent display screen, the apparatus further comprising a loud speaker for generating simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds, a memory for storing simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds and a controller for controlling the generation of the simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds.

The inventor of the present application is the first to acknowledge the need for more realistic electric heaters by integrating wood-burning or solid fuel burning fireplace sounds effects as well as developing an alternative lighting arrangement.

Preferably, the flame simulating apparatus includes a heater. The combination of the apparatus and the heater provides a realistic fireplace or stove environment for a user of the apparatus to benefit from.

Preferably, a simulated fuel bed is located within the interior compartment between the viewing aperture and the display screen. The inventor has appreciated that a simulated fuel bed provides the user with an enhanced artificial heater experience.

Preferably, the light sources comprise light emitting diodes. The inventor has appreciated that the use of LEDs provides improved power efficiency, durability and less heat than conventional light bulbs.

Preferably, the controller is arranged to turn on the generation of simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds when the first flame simulation light source is turn on. The inventor has appreciated that the sounds should only be on whilst the flame simulation is taking place to provide the best artificial heater experience for the user.

Preferably, the controller includes means for muting and/or turning off the simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds. This provides the user with a convenient option to mute or turn off the simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds.

Preferably, the controller includes means for controlling the volume of the simulated fireplace sounds such that the volume varies with the intensity and/or strength of the light emitted from the first flame simulation light source. The inventor has appreciated that such an arrangement where the simulated fireplace sounds can be influenced by the lighting arrangement can provide the user with a substantially realistic artificial fireplace experience.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of a non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front perspective view of a stove including flame simulating apparatus embodying the present invention;

Figure 2 is a detailed view of the portion A of the stove shown in figure 1;

Figure 3 is a rear perspective view of the stove of figure 1 with the rear wall removed;

Figure 4 is a more detailed view of the flame simulation apparatus shown in figure 3:

Referring to figures 1 and 2, a stove 1 includes a housing 2, a plurality of legs 3 (four in the present embodiment) and an openable door 4 to allow access into the interior of the stove housing 2. The housing 2 has a front wall having a door 4 with a transparent viewing panel 5, a top wall, a bottom wall, a rear wall and two side walls. The walls define a hollow interior compartment 6 that houses the flame simulation apparatus 7. The door 4 has a display board 5 located on the outer surface of the door 4. The door 4 defines the front of the stove 1. The transparent viewing panel 5 located on the door 4 allows someone in a room in which the stove is placed to view a simulated fuel bed 9 inside the stove 1 and the simulated flame image produced by the flame simulation apparatus 7. The simulated fuel bed 9 is provided on the floor of the front portion of the housing interior compartment 6. The simulated fuel bed 9 can be comprised of any component imitating a burning solid fuel material such as wood or coal. The simulated fuel bed 9 may be made of a wide variety of materials such as wood, ceramic, synthetic material and others known to the skilled person. A continuous or pulsing simulated fuel bed LED light source 10 is located under the simulated fuel bed 9 to help create a more realistic glowing fuel bed 9. A display screen 11 is positioned behind the simulated fuel bed 9 and supported by the housing 2. The display screen 11 is made of a translucent material and is the surface viewed through the viewing panel 5 on which a flame or flames are simulated as described in more detail below with reference to figures 3 and 4. Light from a flickering effect light source 13 may be shone onto moving reflective elements 16 from where it is reflected through (and filtered by) a shading panel 19 having flame-shaped openings 20 to be projected onto the rear surface of the display screen 11 to create a flame effect on the front surface thereof and viewable through the transparent viewing panel 5. A fan electric heater element 12 is located on the exterior of the housing 2, attached to the exterior of the bottom wall of the housing 2, as seen in figure 3. The heater element 10 includes a fan/blowing element (not shown) and an outlet to blow and to distribute the hot air throughout the room in which the stove 1 is placed. If for any reason the outlet or the fan are obstructed, the heater element features a thermal trip that will safely shut down the apparatus to avoid overheating and malfunction. Electric heaters (including fan heaters) are well-known so will not be described further. Any form of heater may be used with the flame simulation apparatus of the invention.

Referring to figure 3, a flickering effect LED light source 13 is provided behind a rotatable shaft 14. The rotatable shaft 14 is supported by brackets 15 fixed to the inner walls of the housing and spans the housing horizontally from the inner surface of one side wall to the opposite side wall’s inner surface. Reflective thin sheet-like elements 16 are fixed to and located around the circumference of the shaft 14 and project outwards therefrom at a plurality of angles. In the described embodiment, the reflective elements 16 are rigid and fully fixed onto the surface of the rotatable shaft 14. However in alternative embodiments these can be flexible or be hinged with respect to the shaft in other embodiments. The reflective elements 16 are thin strips of material not limited to a particular shape.

Referring to figure 4, one of the brackets 15 includes a motor 18 to drive and rotate the rotatable shaft 14. The motor 18 could be an electric, a mechanical or a hydraulic motor, or any controllable motor. The speed of movement of the motor 18 can be controlled by either a control on or near the stove or a remote control unit (not shown). The speed controls the flickering rate of the flames in the flame simulated image display on the screen 11.

The flickering effect LED light source 13 comprises a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) elements placed on a panel 17 of substantially the same length as the length of the section of the shaft 14 which includes reflective elements 16. The flickering effect LED light source 13 is positioned in a manner such that the light emitted therefrom shines onto the reflective elements 16 located on the rotatable shaft 14. The flickering effect LED light source 13 is located below the rotatable shaft 14. The flickering effect light source 13 consists of groups of a number of light emitting diodes (LED) lights distributed along the length of the panel. The light emitting elements may have the same or different colours with respect to each other as well as different intensities to substantially imitate the artificial flickering or glowing effects of real flames.

The light emitted from the flickering effect LED light source 13 is reflected off the rotatable reflective elements 16 located on shaft 14 and is transmitted onto a non-reflective shading panel 19. The shading panel 19 contains an array of flame-shaped openings 20 through which the light passes and can be cast upon the rear surface of the translucent display screen 11 to generate an artificial simulated flame image on the front surface of the display screen 11. The image is visible on the display screen 11 from the exterior of the front housing through the viewing aperture 5. The shading panel 19 is located between the rotatable shaft 14 and the display screen 11. The flickering effect light source 13 is located between the rotatable shaft 14 and the shading panel 19 with the LEDs of light source 13 facing the reflective elements 16 of the rotatable shaft 14. The shading panel 19 and the display screen 11 are parallel to each other although these can adopt different orientations with respect to each other in other embodiments. The angular orientations and distance between the shading panel 19 and the display screen 11 govern the flame height of the flame simulation. In addition, the shading panel 19 must be of a dark colour so as to avoid reflecting any light given off the reflective elements 16 located on the rotatable shaft 14.

The flame-shaped openings 20 are positioned at the bottom of the shading panel 19 and span vertically upwards towards the top wall of the housing 2. In addition, the flame-shaped openings 20 are designed to be taller towards the centre of the shading panel 19 as this corresponds to the typically larger flames rising from the centre of a real solid fuel fire.

The light from the flickering effect LED light source 13 catches the rotating reflective elements 16 at different angles during the shaft 14 rotation to generate the realistic glowing and flickering effect of the simulated fire. The generated artificial flame flickering image appears to be rising from the simulated fuel bed 9 as the display screen 11 and the shading panel 19 are positioned at a greater height within the interior compartment 6 than the simulated fuel bed 9. A background LED light source 21 is located adjacent to the bottom of the flame-shaped openings 20 of the shading panel 19 so as to provide a background lighting to complement the flickering effect carried out by the reflective elements 16 located on the rotatable shaft 14. A blanking panel 22 is placed at a vertical position located above the rotatable shaft 14, the flickering effect light source 13, the background light source 21 and the flame-shaped openings 20 of the shading panel 19 in order to block and prevent any light coming from the light sources 13, 21 from bleeding out of the top of the stove housing 2. In addition, the housing 2 must be designed and manufactured such that there are no unnecessary gaps or cracks to allow any light to bleed out of the housing 2. This aspect is provided to improve the electric stove experience. A sound controller 23 disposed within the interior compartment 6 may be used to implement an automatic control over a relation among parameters/properties of the flame simulated apparatus 7 and sound volume of solid fuel fire simulating sounds projected over a loud speaker 24. The sound controller 23 may monitor a selection of parameters such as the amount of current supplied or voltage applied to either of the LED light sources 10, 13, 21; the brightness and colours of either of the LED light sources 10, 13, 21; the rotational speed of the shaft 14 supplied by the motor 18, any temporal information concerning the LED light sources 10, 13, 21 have been powered on for and other relevant parameters known to the skilled person so that an algorithm incorporated in the sound controller 23 can compute an output sound considering one or more of these parameters. The volume of the solid fuel fire simulating sounds may be automatically controlled by the sound controller 23 so as to be increased when the light intensity and/or strength of the first flame simulation light source generating the flame simulated image increases and vice versa. The sound board/controller 23 contains a memory (not shown) for storing the solid fuel fire simulating sounds, which are projected using the loud speaker 24 to accompany the flame simulated image. These sounds are audio samples of real solid fuel fires, for example, to mimic the crackling sound of a wood-based fire if the simulated fuel bed is comprised of materials imitating wood. The algorithm included in the sound controller 23 is designed to select and output the correct sounds associated with the solid fuel the simulated fuel bed 9 is imitating. This may be based on the inputs given by a user of the stove via the remote control unit (not shown). For example, the user may select a ‘wood’ button on the remote control unit so that the sound controller 23 can select the suitable wood-crackling audio sample associated to a wood-based fire and project the sound through the loud speaker 24. The sound controller 23 will control the loud speaker to project sound if it detects that the flame flickering LED light source 13 is turned on. The user of the stove may select a manual control mode of the solid fuel fire simulating sounds such that the user may manually mute, increase or decrease the volume level of the sounds generated by the sound controller 23 through the loud speaker 24 using the remote control unit (not shown). The user may be able to switch between the automatic and the manual control modes using the remote control unit. A mainboard 25, the sound controller 23 and the loud speaker 24 are disposed on the bottom wall of the housing interior compartment 6. All electronic components of the flame simulating apparatus are connected and controlled by the mainboard 25. The stove 1 is powered by the household electricity supply. An electrical plug 26 is located at the rear exterior of the stove 1.

Referring to figure 2, a stove status display board 8 comprising different display lights to inform the user of the status of different components of the stove 1, which may be controlled by a remote control unit (not shown). These include display lights informing the user of the power status of the stove 1, the power status of heater 12 of the stove 1, the power status of the simulated flame image of the flame simulation apparatus 7, the flame speed status of the simulated flame image of the flame simulation apparatus 7, the flame brightness status of the simulated flame image of the flame simulation apparatus 7 and the power status of the simulated fireplace sounds. Other embodiments may have a set of buttons on the front door 4 to control the status mentioned above instead of or in conjunction with the remote control unit (not shown).

The inventors have appreciated that the invention disclosed is not limited to a specific heating device and device setup. The flame simulating apparatus can be incorporated within fireplaces, stoves, ovens and any other devices in which the simulation of flames might be desirable. Heaters or other units incorporating the flame simulation apparatus may be floor-mounted, wall mounted or freestanding.

Claims

Claims:

1. An flame simulating apparatus comprising: a housing having an interior compartment and a viewing aperture for viewing said interior compartment, a display screen in said interior compartment, a rotatable shaft mounted in said interior compartment and including a plurality of reflective projections located around the circumference of the shaft, a first flame simulation light source for shining light onto said reflective projections, a shading panel including a plurality of flame-shaped openings, and wherein the display screen is a translucent screen with a first front surface facing the viewing aperture and a second rear surface, and the shading panel is positioned between the first flame simulation light source and the translucent screen such that the light from said first flame simulation light source is reflected from the rotatable shaft through the flame-shaped openings of the panel onto the rear surface of the translucent display screen, the apparatus further comprising a loud speaker for generating simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds, a memory for storing simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds and a controller for controlling the generation of the simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the apparatus includes a heater.

3. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the first flame simulation light source is located below the rotatable shaft.

4. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein a second light source is located behind the shading panel.

5. Apparatus according to any preceding wherein a simulated fuel bed is located within the interior compartment between the viewing aperture and the display screen.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein a third light source located beneath the simulated fuel bed.

7. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the first flame simulation, second and third light sources comprise light emitting diodes (LEDs).

8. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the translucent screen and the shading panel are substantially parallel to each other.

9. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the flame-shaped openings towards the centre of the shading panel are longer than the flame-shaped openings towards the edges of the shading panel.

10. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the controller is arranged to turn on the generation of simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds when the first flame simulation light source is turned on.

11. Apparatus according to any preceding claim 10 wherein the simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds mimic the crackling of a solid fuel fire.

12. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the controller includes means for muting and/or turning off the simulated solid fuel fireplace sounds.

13. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the controller includes means for controlling the volume of the simulated fireplace sounds such that the volume varies with the intensity and/or strength of the light emitted from the first flame simulation light source.

14. Apparatus according to claim 14 wherein the volume varies with the voltage applied to the first electrically powered flame simulation light source.

15. Apparatus substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.