NL2005641C2

NL2005641C2 - Barbecue starter.

Info

Publication number: NL2005641C2
Application number: NL2005641A
Authority: NL
Inventors: Vanessa Beijl; Santos Rui Medeiros; Simon Hendrik Maarten Wout
Original assignee: Bin Innovations Bv
Priority date: 2010-11-05
Filing date: 2010-11-05
Publication date: 2012-05-08

Description

Title: Barbecue starter

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a barbecue starter, more in 5 particular to a barbecue starter for single use.

Background

Several commercially available aids aim to simplify the life of the occasional barbecuer. One broad category of aids is concerned with products 10 to facilitate the starting of a barbecue. This category includes both the group of accelerants (e.g. firelighters and lighting aid impregnated charcoal briquets), and the group of air supply/mix promotion means (e.g. fans and Venturi-tubes). Another category involves products that aim to make dealing with in particular charcoal-fueled barbecues a cleaner affair. Products in this 15 latter category include packages with charcoal in measured portions and disposable barbecues that never need any cleaning.

Summary of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide for a barbecue 20 starter that incorporates one ore more of the above functions, thereby rendering separate accelerants, air supply/mix promotion means and/or (bulk) fuel containers superfluous.

To this end, one aspect of the present invention is directed to a barbecue starter. The barbecue starter may include a housing having a 25 generally tubular middle portion that, at opposite ends thereof, is provided with a base portion and a top portion, respectively. The base, middle and top portions may together define an interior fuel space that is configured to contain charcoal briquets. The base portion may include an air inlet provision, while the top portion may include a combustion gas outlet provision. The 30 housing may be at least partially manufactured from pressed wood pulp.

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The barbecue starter may be described as a rigid or semi-rigid, inflammable fuel container that is at least partially, and preferably for at least 80% of its mass, manufactured from pressed wood or paper pulp. The wood or paper pulp that serves as the starting material for the manufacture 5 of the barbecue starter may be obtained from recycled newsprint and other waste paper products. In an advantageous embodiment, the housing may be manufactured at least partially by press moulding (i.e. the housing’s overall shape may be effected by press moulding, as opposed to, for example, by folding a die-cut piece of cardboard sheet, which cardboard sheet - as a 10 semimanufacture - may itself have been made by press moulding), so as to enable the quick fabrication of relatively complicated shapes. The barbecue starter may define and bound an interior fuel space that is suitable for holding a fuel, in particular charcoal briquets. Due to the inherent inflammability of the barbecue starter itself, there is no need for the charcoal 15 briquets to be impregnated with a liquid starter fuel or other lighting aid, which might adversely affect the taste of food that is to be prepared and/or harm the environment. The barbecue starter itself, and more particularly the base portion thereof, may be lit and combusted to heat up the charcoal briquets in the interior fuel space and to start a charcoal fire. Furthermore, 20 due to the rigid or semi-rigid nature of the barbecue starter, it may have a defined shaped that allows it to be treated as a unitary assembly that can be transported, handled and stored (e.g. stacked) easily and efficiently. In doing so, a user need not get dirty hands or clothes from contact with the fuel, which is safely stored within the interior fuel space. Upon use, the entire 25 barbecue starter may simply be placed on the pan of a conventional barbecue grill, and be lit at its base portion as will be described in some more detail below.

The housing of the barbecue starter may, at least conceptually, include a base, a middle and a top portion. Each of the base, middle and top 30 portions may take the form of a (moulded) wall structure having a typical 3 thickness in the range of 2.5-15 mm. The middle portion may include a wall structure of a generally tubular, optionally tapered shape, whereas the top and bottom portions may include wall structures that are disposed at opposite ends of the middle portion, and that connect to respective perimeter 5 edges of the middle portion at said respective ends, so as to substantially close off and define the interior fuel space.

In one embodiment of the barbecue starter, either the base portion and the middle portion, or the middle portion and the top portion may be integrally formed (e.g. moulded as a unitary piece) to increase the overall 10 sturdiness of the barbecue starter. In such an embodiment the third non-integrally formed portion may be manufactured separately and be connected (fixedly or detachably, e.g. in the form of a detachable top or base portion) to the integrally formed portions at a later stage of the manufacturing process, such as after filling the interior fuel space with fuel.

15 In use, the generally tubular middle portion of the barbecue starter may serve as a chimney. To allow hot combustion gases to escape from the chimney, it has to be open at its upper side. In case the top portion of the barbecue starter is not integrally formed with the middle portion, e.g. the top portion includes a combustion gas outlet provision in the form of a detachable 20 lid, the top portion or lid may simply be taken off. In the alternative case that the top portion is integrally formed with the middle portion, the combustion gas outlet provision of the top portion may include a wall structure that is integrally formed with the middle portion, and that includes at least one, possibly perforated, tear line that facilitates tearing of the top portion, so as 25 to create a combustion gas outlet opening therein. In either case, the material of the top portion, more particularly of the gas outlet provision, may upon use of the barbecue starter first be removed from the middle portion and then be placed underneath the base portion so as to aid in lighting it. For this purpose, the top portion of the barbecue starter may be made from an easily 30 inflammable pulp composition.

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To safeguard the structural integrity of the barbecue starter, and in particular the chimney functionality of the middle portion, for at least 10 to 15 minutes after lighting the base portion, the middle portion may have a relatively small flammability, e.g. a smaller flammability than that of the 5 base and/or top portion. The smaller flammability of the middle portion may ensure that the base portion and/or the top portion (or whatever part thereof is still present at the time of lighting the barbecue starter) are combusted more easily than the middle portion, allowing the fire to heat up the charcoal briquets under the promoting influence of the chimney before the structure of 10 the barbecue starter collapses. The relatively small flammability of the middle portion may be effected by manufacturing it from a suitable, moderately flammable wood or paper pulp composition, and/or by providing it with a greater average mass density and/or greater average wall thickness than the base portion and/or the top portion.

15 Alternatively or in addition to the use of a middle portion that is made of a moderately flammable pulp composition and/or that comprises a relatively dense and/or thick wall structure, the base portion may be constructed such that it provides for a lighting point that guides the initial flames of the fire away from the wall structure of the middle portion. Such a 20 base portion may include an outwardly/downwardly tapering, tubular or hollow wall structure with a free-lying apex that is disposed between several leg members of the base portion, as described below.

In one embodiment, the base portion of the housing may include a plurality, e.g. three or four, leg members that are circumferentially spaced 25 apart around the air inlet provision.

The leg members may protrude from the base portion, and provide for a way of stably arranging the barbecue starter in a vertical orientation wherein the base portion is disposed substantially below both the middle and the top portions. When so arranged on a horizontal surface, e.g. a pan of a 30 barbecue grill, the intermediate spaces between the leg members may form 5 air supply gates that allow air to flow from an outside environment of the barbecue starter, through the air supply gates, and towards the air inlet provision. The legs and corresponding air supply gates may preferably have a height of at least 1 cm to promote such air flow.

5 According to an elaboration of the barbecue starter, the air inlet provision includes an outwardly tapering, preferably conically or frusto-conically shaped, tubular or hollow wall structure, whose base is disposed in or adjacent the interior fuel space and whose apex is disposed amidst, preferably centrally amidst, the leg members.

10 The tubular wall structure of the air inlet provision, which may typically have a shape similar to an inverted cone, may define a gradually widening air inlet channel that extends from the apex to the interior fuel space. Upon use the barbecue starter may be ignited at the apex (which may initially be closed off), so as to allow a fire to develop at a central location of 15 the barbecue starter in a guided fashion, namely in an upward direction, into the interior fuel space. The hot combustion gases may thereby expand and flow upwardly through the middle portion to heat the charcoal briquets, and to eventually escape from the middle portion through the open top end thereof, which gas motion causes fresh air to be drawn in from the 20 surroundings at the base portion to further fuel the developing fire.

As the fire develops, the base portion of the barbecue starter is slowly consumed. To prevent charcoal briquets from falling out of the interior fuel space as a result of the disappearing bottom, at least a part of the base portion may be provided with an embedded metal wire mesh. The mesh is not 25 combustible, and may serve as a durable structural support frame for the charcoal briquets that holds them clear of the barbecue starter supporting surface, preferably at least until the leg members have been consumed, and possible even thereoafter (e.g. in case the mesh extends in the leg members).

These and other features and advantages of the invention will be 30 more fully understood from the following detailed description of certain 6 embodiments of the invention, taken together with the accompanying drawings, which are meant to illustrate and not to limit the invention.

Brief description of the drawings 5 Fig. 1 schematically illustrates in a perspective view a first exemplary embodiment of the barbecue starter according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 schematically illustrates in another perspective view the first exemplary embodiment of the barbecue starter shown in Fig. 1; 10 Fig. 3 schematically illustrates in a cross-sectional perspective view the first exemplary embodiment of the barbecue starter shown in Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4 schematically illustrates in a top view how a top portion of the first exemplary embodiment of the barbecue starter shown in Figs. 1-3 15 may be provided with an air inlet provision in the form of perforated tear lines, in particular in case the top portion is formed integrally with the middle portion;

Fig. 5 schematically illustrates in two perspective views a second exemplary embodiment of the barbecue starter according to the present 20 invention.

Detailed description

Figs. 1-3 schematically illustrate a first exemplary embodiment of a barbecue starter 1 according to the present invention. The barbecue starter 1 25 includes a housing 2 that is manufactured from pressed paper pulp by means of press moulding. The housing 2 comprises a base portion 10, a tubular middle portion 20 with a generally square cross-sectional profile and a top portion 30. The base portion 10 and the middle portion 20 have been formed integrally during manufacture. The top portion 30 has been manufactured 30 separately and connects to an upper end / perimeter edge of the middle 7 portion 20 as a detachable lid, so as to provide for a convenient air outlet provision 31. In the situation depicted in Fig. 3, the top portion / lid 30 has been removed from the rest of the housing 2. In an alternative embodiment, the top portion 30 and the middle portion 20 may have been formed integrally 5 during manufacture; in particular in such a case, the top portion 30 may include a wall structure 32 that is provided with one or more tear lines 33 (shown in Fig. 4) that enable a user to easily tear (away) the top portion 30 at least partially. The housing 2 defines an interior fuel space 3 in which a fuel, such as in particular charcoal briquets 4, may be stored.

10 The base portion 10 includes four leg members 12 that are circumferentially spaced apart around a central air inlet provision 11. The leg members 12 protrude from the base portion 10, and provide for a way of stably arranging the barbecue starter 1 in a vertical orientation wherein the base portion 10 is disposed substantially below both the middle 20 and top 30 15 portions. When so arranged on a horizontal surface, e.g. a pan of a barbecue grill, the intermediate spaces between the leg members 12 form air supply gates that allow air to flow from an outside environment of the barbecue starter 1, through the air supply gates, and towards the air inlet provision 11. The legs 12 and corresponding air supply gates may preferably have a height 20 of at least 1 cm to promote such air flow.

The air inlet provision 11 includes an outwardly or downwardly tapering, substantially conically shaped, tubular wall structure 13, whose base 14 is disposed in or adjacent the interior fuel space 3 and whose apex 15 is disposed centrally amidst the leg members 12. The tubular wall structure 25 13 of the air inlet provision 11 defines a gradually widening air inlet channel 16 that extends from the apex 14 to the interior fuel space 3. Upon use the barbecue starter 1 may be ignited at the apex 14 (as shown in Fig. 3), so as to allow a fire to develop at a central location of the barbecue starter 1 and in a guided fashion in an upward direction, into the interior fuel space 3. The hot 30 combustion gases may then expand and flow upwardly through the middle 8 portion 20 (that acts as a chimney) to heat the charcoal briquets 4, and to eventually escape from the middle portion 20 through the air outlet opening 34 that was created by removing at least part of the top portion 30. This rising motion of the combustion gases causes fresh air to be drawn in from 5 the surroundings at the base portion 10 to further fuel the developing fire.

Fig. 5 schematically illustrates a second exemplary embodiment of the barbecue starter 1 according to the present invention. In this second embodiment, the top portion 30 and the tubular, (upwardly) tapering middle portion 20 of substantially circular cross-section have been formed integrally, 10 while the base portion 10 is detachably connectable to the lower end / perimeter edge of the middle portion 20.

In this text relative terms such as for example ‘horizontal’, ‘vertical’, ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘top’, ‘bottom’, ‘back’ and ‘front’ as well as adjectival and adverbial derivatives thereof (e.g. ‘horizontally’, ‘upwardly’, etc.) should 15 be construed to refer to the particular orientation as then described or shown in the drawing or figure under discussion. Relative terms are employed to clarify the exposition and may reflect a typical orientation, e.g. an orientation typical for the intended use or execution of the present invention. However, unless expressly stated otherwise, relative terms are not intended to limit the 20 scope of the invention to any particular orientation.

Although illustrative embodiments of the present invention have been described above, in part with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to these embodiments. Variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by 25 those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present 30 invention. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in 9 an embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, it is noted that particular features, structures, or characteristics of one or more embodiments may be combined in any suitable manner to form new, not 5 explicitly described embodiments.

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List of elements 1 barbecue starter 2 housing 3 interior fuel space 5 4 fuel, charcoal briquets 10 base portion 11 air inlet provision 12 leg member 13 conically shaped wall structure 10 14 base 15 apex 16 air inlet passage 20 middle portion 30 top portion 15 31 combustion gas outlet provision 32 wall structure 33 tear line

Claims

A barbecue preparation device (1), comprising: - a housing (2) with a tubular central part (20) which, at opposite ends thereof, is provided with a base part (10) and an upper part (30), respectively said parts (10,20,30) jointly defining an internal fuel space (3) adapted to contain charcoal briquettes, said base part comprising an air inlet facility (11), and wherein said upper part comprising a combustion gas outlet facility (31), characterized in that the housing is at least partially made of pressed wood or paper pulp.

The barbecue-making device according to claim 1, wherein the pressed wood or paper pulp determines at least 80% of the mass of the housing (2).

The barbecue-making device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein either the base part (10) and the middle part (20), or the middle part (20) and the upper part (30) are integrally formed.

The barbecue-making device according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the housing (2) is manufactured by compression molding. 25

The barbecue-making device according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the base member (10) comprises a plurality of leg members (12) disposed around the air inlet facility (11) and spaced apart. 30

The barbecue-making device according to claim 5, wherein the air inlet means comprises an outwardly tapering, tubular or hollow wall structure (13), a base (14) of which is located in or near the internal fuel space (3) and of which a top (15) is located in the middle of the leg parts (12).

The barbecue-making device according to claim 6, wherein the top (15) of the tubular or hollow wall structure (13) is initially closed, and wherein combustion of the top opens an air inlet channel (16) extending from the top by the tubular wall structure, into the internal fuel space (3).

The barbecue-making device according to any of claims 1-7, wherein at least a portion of the base part (10) is provided with an enclosed metal wire grid.

The barbecue-making device according to any of claims 1-8, wherein the combustion gas outlet means (31) comprises a detachable cover. 20

The barbecue-making device according to any of claims 1-9, wherein the combustion gas outlet means (31) of the upper part (30) of the housing (2) comprises a wall structure (32) integrally formed with the middle part (20), and comprising at least one perforated tear line (33) that facilitates tearing of the upper part (30) to create a combustion gas outlet opening (34) therein.

11. The barbecue preparation device according to any of claims 1-10, wherein the middle part (20) has a lower flammability than the base part (10) and / or the top part (30).

The barbecue-making device according to any of claims 1-11, wherein the middle part (20) has a greater average mass density and / or average wall thickness than the base part (10) and / or the top part (30).

The barbecue-making device according to any of claims 1-12, wherein the fuel space (3) contains charcoal briquettes.