SE541710C2

SE541710C2 - Portable igniter for ignition of a charcoal grill

Info

Publication number: SE541710C2
Application number: SE1630056A
Authority: SE
Inventors: Richard Looft
Original assignee: Looft Ind Ab
Priority date: 2016-03-15
Filing date: 2016-03-15
Publication date: 2019-12-03
Also published as: WO2017160215A1; SE1630056A1; CN108779917A; EP3430314A1; EP3430314A4; US20190078806A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a handheld, portable electrical igniter 1 for ignition of solid fuels. The igniter 1 comprises an electrical heating element 2 and a fan (3) for inducing an air stream to pass the heating element 2. The igniter 1 further comprises an accumulator 4 for powering the heating element 2 and the fan 3. The feature of using an accumulator 4 for powering the heating element 2 and the fan 3 makes it desirable to control the electric energy consumption to be low. The igniter may thus comprise an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) 5 programmed to control the operation of the heating element 2 and the fan 3 according to one or several Ignition Cycles (IS) for ignition in an energy efficient manner.

Description

PORTABLE IGNITER FOR IGNITION OF A CHARCOAL GRILL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a portable igniter which is suitable for ignition of a charcoalbed of a barbeque charcoal grill or the like.

BACKGROUND ART There are plenty of different methods and devices used today for igniting a charcoal bed for a barbeque or an open fire. In general, lighter fluids have been used for this purpose for a long time. During recent years, there have been an increased interest in finding new ways of lighting a fire or igniting a charcoal grill which are more environmentally friendly. A device to be used as a charcoal igniter is described in WO 2007/008130. This device is intended to ignite a charcoal bed or the like by inducing an air stream by the use of a fan and heating the stream of air by an electric heating element.

This kind of igniter may thus replace the commonly used lighter fluids which still probably are the most common way of igniting an open fire or charcoal grill. There is a great variety of lighter fluids and they may be made from petrochemical products or from a natural, renewable sources and thus being more environmentally friendly. Regardless of the origin of the fluid used, the handling of a lighter fluid will always be a risk factor, in particular having the fluid close to an open fire or charcoal bed. In addition, there is always a risk of having unburned hydrocarbons from the lighter fuel which may influence the flavour and cause unhealthy compositions to be soaked into the food to be grilled on the glowing charcoal.

An electric igniter as described in WO 2007/008130 may thus be beneficial to use to generally replace lighter fluids. However, the use of lighter fluids may still have some advantages compared to the device described in WO 2007/008130, e.g. lighter fluids may easily be carried and used at locations where there is no access to the electric grid.

The present invention is intended to provide an igniter which may be used more easily in a wide variety of environments and locations than the one described in WO 2007/008130, e.g. when going on a hike or having a barbecue on the beach, and thus be an alternative to the use of lighter fluids which has the advantage of being able to be used at almost any location.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a portable igniter suitable to be used for igniting a solid state material, e.g. a carbonaceous containing material such as charcoal, wooden pellets, logs or other kinds of fuel beds comprising burnable solid material. The igniter may thus be used for almost any kind of burning process in which it is desired to ignite a solid state fuel. In particular, the device is intended to function as an igniter for an open fire or charcoal bed of a barbeque charcoal grill.

As briefly discussed in the background art, the igniter is intended to improve the usefulness of a device such as described in WO 2007/008130 for certain occasions. This is achieved by providing a portable device which may be powered by an accumulator instead of the need to plug it in to the electrical grid. By accumulator is meant to include any device which is able to store energy in order to provide an electric power. Hence, this feature will enable to use the device at locations where there is no access to the electrical grid, e.g. when hiking in the woods or going to the beach.

The use of an accumulator as an alternative to connecting the igniter to the electrical grid has turned out to imply certain desired modifications of the igniter. In a first aspect, there is a desire to assure a low consumption of electricity when igniting something, e.g. a charcoal bed. In the following, a charcoal bed will be used in the examples even though it is evident other burnable substances also may be ignited, e.g. an open fire with logs or a furnace for burning of wooden pellets. The desire for a low, controlled consumption of electricity is of course due to the rather limited amount of electrical energy which may be stored in an accumulator compared to the available electrical energy for a device which is plugged in to the electrical grid. The desire to lower the consumption of electrical energy is particularly obvious when it is realized there is a desire to use a small accumulator to keep the overall size of the igniter small and avoid the weight to increase drastically in order to have a handy, portable igniter which is easy to carry.

The overall design of the igniter may be similar to the device described in WO 2007/008130 with the difference that this device also includes an accumulator. The accumulator may completely replace the electric wiring used for connecting the device in WO 2007/008130 to the electrical grid or may be used together with the original wiring such that the device may use electric power from the grid when there is access to the grid and use the accumulator when no other power source is available. To be noted, the specific design of the igniter may of course vary from the device disclosed in WO 2007/008130 while still working perfectly well.

Hence, the invention is directed to an igniter which is suitable for ignition of solid fuels. The igniter should be easy to handle and is a handheld and portable electrical igniter. The igniter comprises an electrical heating element and a fan for inducing an air stream to pass the heating element. The igniter further comprises an accumulator for powering the heating element and the fan. By including an accumulator in the igniter it will thus be possible to use the igniter at locations where it is not possible to connect a device to the electrical grid and the device may be used essentially anywhere where it is desired to ignite a combustible material. In addition the igniter further comprises an Electronic Control Unit (ECU), said ECU being programmed to include a Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC) in which the fan and the heating element are operating simultaneously during an Ignition Step (IS), which continues for a set time interval. The ECU is programmed to include a Blowing Step (BS) in the Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC), which follows after the Ignition Step (IS), said Blowing step (BS) includes the feature of setting the electrical effect of the heating element to be lower than in the ignition step (IS) so that less heat per second is produced in the Blowing Step (BS) than in the ignition step (IS) while the fan is still operating.

In order to make the electrically powered igniter to be able to be used a multitude of times without the need to recharge or change the accumulator it is desired to control the consumption of electrical energy when igniting a fire or charcoal bed. By providing the igniter with the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) and program it to control specific cycles may it be avoided that excess electric energy is wasted, e.g. due to forgetting to turn of the igniter. In general, the heating element is consuming far more electricity than the fan. Hence, the ECU may be programmed as stated above. The Ignition Step (IS) in the Normal ignition Cycle (NIC) could for example be set to be active from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, preferably in the interval from 1 to 2 minutes. The set time is dependent on the effect of the heating element, e.g. if a higher effect is used, and thus, more heat produced per second by the heating element, may a shorter time be set for the IS.

The ECU could be programmed to control the heating element to be completely switched off in the blowing step (BS), either for the complete Blowing Step (BS) operation or during a part of it.

The basic idea of using an Ignition Cycle (IC) having an Ignition Step (IS) and a Blowing Step (BS) is to provide a controlled ignition of a fuel, in general a solid fuel, while assuring an efficient use of the electrical energy for igniting and reducing the electrical power needed to ignite. Since the fan is using less power than the heating element it is desired to reduce the time for the heating element to be used. In addition, when the charcoal bed (or whatever fuel used) is ignited will the fan contribute more than the heating element in spreading the fire or ignited portion to other parts of the bed. Hence, in order to speed up the ignition of the charcoal bed, while still using the electrical energy from the accumulator in an efficient way, could the ECU be programmed to control the fan to increase the airflow during the blowing step (BS).

Due to a thermic inertia in the igniter (1) could the ECU be programmed to include a preheating step (PS) to precede the ignition step (IS). In this preheating step (PS) is the fan set to a lower speed than in the ignition step (IS), e.g. completely turned off, while the heating element is turned on. There will thus be less air flowing to pass the heating element to cool it and the heating element and adjacent parts will be heated such that when the fan is turned, or its speed increased, will the air flow be hotter than if the fan was set to this speed from the beginning and ignition can be more efficient.

Since the igniter is intended to be working for different kinds of fuels and under different conditions could the ECU be programmed to have different Ignition Cycles (IC). The ECU may thus be programmed to include an Energy Saving Ignition Cycle (ESIC) in which the energy consumed by the heating element during its ignition step (IS) is lower than during the ignition step (IS) according to the normal ignition cycle (NIC). The ESIC may for example be used if there has been a first attempt with the NIC but the charcoal bed was not ignited at all or poorly ignited. There may thus be desired to provide some additional ignition but not necessarily a complete NIC. The ESIC could for example also be used if it is desired to speed up the ignition of a charcoal bed somewhat by placing the igniter in another portion of the bed and there is no need for a complete NIC.

The Energy Saving Ignition Cycle (ESIC) could for example be set to reduce the energy consumption of the heating element during the ignition step (IS) by approximately 50 percent compared to the ignition step (IS) in the normal ignition cycle (NIC). This could for example be achieved by programming the ECU to reduce the time of the ignition step (IS) in the ESIC by approximately 50 percent (while keeping the power effect at the same level as for the NIC) or reducing the power effect by the heating element in watt by approximately 50 percent while the time for the ignition step is kept at the same as in the NIC. The difference in energy consumption between the different Ignition Cycles (IC) could of course deviate from being set to about 50 percent and the ECU in the igniter could also be programmed to comprise more 1C than two. It could also be possible to allow customized 1C to be programmed by a user.

To provide an igniter which is designed to avoid waste of the electric energy stored in the accumulator is the use of preprogrammed ignition Cycles (IC) thought to be of great importance. If the total energy consumption for an Ignition Step (IS) in an Ignition Cycle (IC) is at least 5 times more, and it may even be at least 10 times more, than the energy consumption during the Blowing Step (BS) for the same Ignition Cycle (IC) could the igniter efficiently ignite a charcoal bed. For an experienced user could the same result of course also be reached by controlling the heating element and the fan to be manually turned on and off. However, in general is there only a need to keep the heating element on for a short time and many users should most probably keep the heating element on for a considerably longer time than needed while an increased airflow is essentially all that is needed. The igniter could include the feature of having an ON/OFF” switch for the fan such that the user could continue with the air blowing feature as long as desired. In general it is desired to have some kind of safety arrangement concerning the heating element, either a time switch or a heat over load safety arrangement to avoid the heating element to be set to “ON” without any automatic turning off feature.

The igniter 1 is preferably controlled such that a preprogrammed Ignition Cycle (IC) is programmed to consume less than 0,5 kWh, more preferably less than 0,3 kWh and most preferably less than 0,1 kWh Since the igniter has been provided with an accumulator, which in general is sensitive to heat, could the igniter be designed such that it comprises an inlet air channel (6) connected to the fan, which is arranged in the vicinity to the accumulator. By this arrangement could it be possible to make use of the fresh air, before it is heated by the heating element, such that the air drawn through the inlet channel is in a heat exchanging relationship with the accumulator. This feature also has the benefit of preheating the air before it passes the heating element. The inlet air channel could be designed to direct the air flow to be in direct contact with the accumulator, e.g. by locating in a chamber where the airflow is essentially surrounding the complete accumulator or using one or several of the walls of the accumulator to also be a wall in the inlet channel.

Other objects and features of the inventions will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a schematic side view of an igniter according to the invention Figure 2 is a schematic view of the control panel is a perspective view of the grid scraper assembly of the invention mounted thereon.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In figure 1 is disclosed a side view of an igniter 1 according to the invention. The igniter 1 comprises an air outlet channel 9 and an air inlet channel 6. In the outlet channel 9 is as heating element 2 located close to the outlet 9a and a fan 3 located close to the inlet 9a. In the inlet channel 6 is an accumulator 4 and an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) 5 located. The accumulator 4 is electrically connected to the heating element 2 and the fan 3 in order to provide electric power to these devices. The ECU 5 is connected to the heating element 2 and the fan 3 in order to control these devices, either by wires or by wireless communication. The outlet channel 9 is connected at its inlet 9a to the outlet 6b of the inlet channel 6. The fan 3 is arranged to draw air through inlet openings (not shown) in the inlet 6a of the inlet channel 6 such that the air will pass the ECU 5 and accumulator 4. The air will be further guided via the fan 3 to the heating element 2 and be heated before the air will be discarded through the outlet 9a of the outlet channel 9.

Hence, the igniter is arranged to use the intake air for cooling of the accumulator 4 and the ECU 5. There is of course the possibility the intake air actually has a temperature above the temperature of the accumulator 4 at start but as the ignition procedure starts there will be an increase temperature of the accumulator 4 from the electric discharge when powering the heating element 2 and the fan 3 as well as from the incineration process itself when the fuel bed is ignited.

The igniter 1 further comprises a handle 8 such that it may be easy to hold and a control panel 8 for setting the igniter in a desired functional mode. The control panel 8 is connected to the ECU 5 in order to provide input information for control of the heating element 2 and fan 3.

As is obvious, the design of the igniter is purely schematically disclosed in order to describe one way of designing an igniter according to the invention, For example, the ECU could be placed in or adjacent to the control panel 8 instead of in the inlet channel 6. In addition, the fan 3 could be placed at essentially any location in the inlet channel 6 or outlet channel 9. The igniter herein has also been described to comprise an inlet channel 6 and an outlet channel 9 but there could also be a single channel.

The skilled person could for example use the design of an igniter as disclosed in WO 2007/008130, which hereby is incorporated by reference, and use design details therefrom concerning layout and material choice and modify this device by, for example, enlarging the handle portion to be able to include an accumulator.

In figure 2 is disclosed an embodiment of a control panel 7. The control panel includes a first push button 7a marked “N”, a second push button7b marked “E” and a third push button 7c for the fan which have an associated indicator panel 7d with light diodes which indicates “OFF”, “I” and “N”.

Push button 7a is intended to be pressed when there is a desire to start a Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC). The letter “N” is thus intended to be short for normal. When this button is pressed could it for example be indicated by having a lamp or diode integrated in the push button 7a such that that it is obvious the igniter now is controlled to be in the NIC mode.

When the “N” push button 7a is pressed starts thus the NIC mode. This is the mode which should be selected for igniting a charcoal bed. Before the push button is pressed the igniter 1 is preferably located in an appropriate position in a charcoal bed (or other bed of solid fuel).

According to one embodiment is the Normal Ignition Cycle started by only activating the heating element for a short while, e.g. 5 to 15 seconds, in order to preheat the heating element 2 and surrounding material. This is called a Preheating Step (PS). Thereafter is the fan 3 activated, e.g. to be in mode I, in order to create a flow of air through the igniter 1 to be heated by the heating element 2 and blow heated air from the outlet channel 9 to the charcoal bed. This is called an Ignition step (IS). This step may be set to continue for about 30 seconds to 3 minutes, in general thought to be between 1 and 2 minutes.

After the Ignition Step (IS) is there a Blowing Step (BS). This step may continue for about 3 to 10 minutes. During this step is the effect of the heating lowered and may be completely turned off. The fan will continue to function and may even be controlled to increase its speed by selecting mode II and thus increase the amount of air blown through the igniter.

Above is thus described an embodiment of a Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC). However, the NIC may be modified in many ways, e.g. could the NIC only comprise the Ignition Step (IS). However, in general is it desired to include at least also the following Blowing Step (BS) in the NIC.

It may also be possible to have different fan speeds during the Ignition Step (IS), e.g. could the fan be set in mode I during a first part of the IS and thereafter, when there is some glow in the charcoal bed, increasing the speed of the fan during a second part of the IS to increase the ignition speed.

Hence, there are several ways of modifying the Normal Ignition Cycle depending on desired ignition properties.

The second push button 7b, marked “E”, corresponds to an Energy Saving Ignition (ESIC). This mode is intended to ignite the charcoal bed while using less energy for ignition and thus in most instances also a slower ignition of a charcoal bed. This could for example be useful in those occasions when a user knows he will need to use the igniter 1 several times without having an opportunity to recharge the accumulator 4. It could also be an alternative to use if it is desired to speed up the ignition process for an already partly ignited bed by placing the igniter 1 in another part of the bed or to use if the bed not was properly ignited by the Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC). The ESIC is intended to reduce the power consumption by reducing the set time during which the Ignition Step (IS) is active when a lot of electric energy from the accumulator 4 is used to heat the heating element 2. Hence, this cycle is essentially programmed in the same way as the Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC) but differs in particular by reducing the energy consumption associated with the heating of the heating element in the Ignition Step (IS).

The third press button 7c, which is positioned besides the marking “FAN”, may be pushed to select the fan to be “OFF, in mode “I” or in mode “N”. By pressing the button once will the fan 3 switch from being “OFF” to be set in mode “I” which is indicated by a lighting lamp or diode in the indicator panel 7d next to the mark “I”. In this mode is the fan running in a slow mode. By pressing the third button once more will the fan mode change from “I” to “N” which is indicated by the indicator lamp next to “I” is turned off and the indicator lamp next to “N” starts to light. In this mode is the fan running faster than in mode “I” and the amount of air blown onto the follow bed is increased. By still another press on the push button is the fan switched off and the indicator lamp next to “OFF” is turned on and the lamp next to “N” is turned off.

To be able to manually control the operation of the fan is beneficial from the view of speeding up the ignition of a charcoal bed when already ignited. To induce an air stream is almost as efficient as inducing a heated air stream when the bed has started to glow readily. Since the electric energy consumption from powering the fan is considerably less compared to powering the heating element may this feature be desired in addition to the preprogrammed Ignition Cycles (IC).

The control panel 7 could of course include further features, e.g. still another push button for further Ignition Cycles in addition to the Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC) and Energy Saving Ignition Cycle (ESIC). There could also be a separate control for operating the heating element manually even though it is not desired to allow the heating element to be turned on for any longer time without the fan working due to the risk of overheating. The control panel 7 could of course also comprise a main switch for turning off the igniter.

The control panel need not to be located on the igniter 1 itself but could also be a remote control.

The ECU 5 could be provided with a timer function such that it is turned off after a certain time. The control system could be provided with some kind of signaling system, e.g. a sound alert, if it is automatically turned off or when an Ignition Cycle (IS) completed in order to warn a user if the igniter is forgot in the charcoal bed The foregoing disclosure is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting thereof. Although one or more embodiments of the invention have been described, persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that numerous modifications could be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosed invention. As such, it should be understood that all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as described. The written description and drawings illustrate the present invention and are not to be construed as limited to the specific embodiments disclosed. Modifications to the disclosed embodiments, as well as other embodiments, are included within the scope of the invention.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A handheld, portable electrical igniter (1) for ignition of solid fuels, said igniter (1) comprising an electrical heating element (2) and a fan (3) for inducing an air stream to pass the heating element (2), said igniter (1) comprises an accumulator (4) for powering the heating element (2) and the fan (3), characterized in that it further comprises an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (5), said ECU (5) being programmed to include a Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC) in which the fan (3) and the heating element (2) are operating simultaneously during an Ignition Step (IS) which continues for a set time interval and in that said ECU (5) is programmed to include a Blowing Step (BS) in the Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC) which follows after the Ignition Step (IS), said Blowing step (BS) includes the feature of setting the electrical effect of the heating element (2) to be lower than in the ignition step (IS) so that less heat per second is produced in the Blowing Step (BS) than in the ignition step (IS) while the fan (3) is still operating.

2. An igniter (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that said ECU (5) is programmed to control the heating element (2) to be switched off during a part of the blowing step (BS).

3. An igniter (1) according to any of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that said ECU (5) is programmed to control the fan (3) to increase the airflow during the blowing step (BS).

4. An igniter (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said ECU (5) is programmed to include a Preheating Step (PS) to precede the Ignition Step (IS), said Preheating Step (PS) including the features of setting the fan (3) at lower speed than in the Ignition Step (IS), e.g. completely turned off, while the heating element (2) is turned on.

5. An igniter (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said ECU (5) is programmed to include an Energy Saving Ignition Cycle (ESIC) in which the energy consumed by the heating element (2) during its Ignition Step (IS) is lower than during the Ignition Step (IS) according to the Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC).

6. An igniter (1) according to claim 5, characterized in that said ECU (5) is programmed to reduce the energy consumption of the heating element (2) during the Ignition Step (IS) in the Energy Saving Ignition Cycle (ESIC) by approximately 50 percent compared to the Ignition Step (IS) in the Normal Ignition Cycle (NIC) by reducing the time of the Ignition Step (IS) by approximately 50 percent or reducing the power effect by the heating element (2) in watt by approximately 50 percent.

7. An igniter according to any previous claim, characterized in that the total energy consumption for an Ignition Step (IS) in an Ignition Cycle is at least 5 times more than the energy consumption during the Blowing Step (BS) for the same Ignition Cycle.

8. An igniter (1) according to any previous claim, characterized in that said igniter (1) further comprises an inlet air channel (6) connected to the fan (3), said inlet air channel (6) arranged in the vicinity of the accumulator (4) such that the air drawn through the inlet channel (6) is in a heat exchanging relationship with the accumulator (4).

9. An igniter (1) according to claim 8, characterized in that the inlet air channel (6) is designed to direct the air flow to be in direct contact with the accumulator (4).