US2451681A - Oil burner delayed-action valve - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 19, 1948. I J. AQLOGAN 2,451,681

' Passa e Baal/Lanna 2mm OIL BURNER DELAYED ACTION VALVE Filed Nov. 4, 1944 3 Sheets-Sheet CONN/7'19 Mafia I c v 5:0 11? 17 I I 6 Z 011. JUFPLQZ I i 7 ig-3 J dosfl fi A. A 06A/V ATTORNEYS o o YB 8 Fig. 2 INVENTOR Y Oct. 19, 1941s. J. A. new

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H1 I D '3 a m f) g ll 8* Ex s k INVENTOR D JOSEPH/4. [om/v BY 65rd! Patented Oct. 19, 1948.

OIL BURNER DELAYED-ACTION VALVE Joseph A. Logan, Hadley, Mesa, assignor to Gilbert & Barker Manufacturing Company, West Springfield, Mala, a corporation of Massachusetts Application November 4, 1944, Serial No. 561.92.!

3 Claims. (Cl. 158-363) This invention relates to improved oil burner mechanism. The main idea involved is to provide for the use of poor oil in automatic gun type burners. The prior art situation is this. Such burners are sold for use with carefully graded oil. If that is supplied they are not likely to give critical trouble. But if, it is not, there is critical trouble to expect. With this situation in mind;

the object is to avoid the trouble by the improved burner mechanism.

The main burner trouble, when the low grade oil is supplied, is to get the burner flame started in its automatic operation. Assuming that the prior art burner can be adjusted for automatically starting the flame, there is additional trouble to y be expected with the low grade oil. It will give a very poor flame after it is started. One particular reason is, that the adjustments to get the flame started will cause a poorer flame than would b the case if adjustments were made merely for improving the flame.' The difficulty where it occurs in the prior art must be met by a compromise very much in favor of the adjustments to get the flame started. And if the oil is very poor even the compromise effort is not successful for the burner will not start.

With this situation in mind the utility of the invention will be more easily understood. The improved mechanism provides for automatically starting the burner with an adjustment to fit the starting conditions and for automatically shifting, after the flame is started, to another adjustment to fit the conditions giving a good flame in the heating period.

To accomplish the use of poor oil, various forms of gun type burners maybe converted. That is, various make of burners now in use may have new parts supplied to convert them. I will point out the way to do this economically. However the way of getting the most advantage is to use the gun type burner fully disclosed in my Patent No.

2,411,088, dated November 12, 1946, but with some easily made changes to be pointed out in this disclosure.

The utility of the invention is not limited to use with poor oil but has considerable value in improving burner operation with good oil. The general use of the invention will give added depend! ability tothese automatic burner operations from a good many viewpoints. An example is in the 2 use with perfectly good oil supplied at a lower than expected temperaturea condition likely to cause starting trouble.

The invention and the way to practice it will now be disclosed with reference to the drawings.

Referring to the drawings: Fig. 1 is a. side, and Fig. 2 is a rear view of a burner with parts of the casing broken away to indicate parts inside; Fig. 3 shows in outline and by way of example,-

. an 011 system of a burner in which the improved automatic pressure regulating valve may be used;

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of an automatic pressure regulating valve such as may be used between the oil pump and the atomizing nozzle in both burner examples and Fig. 5 is a similar view of another valve to embody features of this invention.

An oil system of a burner in which the invention may be incorporated; by way of example is shown by outline in Fig. 3. Such a system pumps the oil from the supply to a pressure regulating valve means, and from such means the oil supply is conducted to the atomizing nozzle. The improvement of this invention pertains to the character of the pressure regulating valve means in relation to the burner operation.

The burner of Fig. 1 may be of the same construction as more fully described in my aforesaid patent, except that in this instance the valve device of Fig. 4 or its equivalent is used. The preferred burner structure will be sufliciently and briefly described for its use in the present invention in combination with said valve device.

The form of burner indicated shows the use in it of the centrifugal clutch. It serves a helpful purpose in the best use of the present invention as will be pointed out later. But this invention in its broadest aspect is useful without the presence of the clutch and its function.- Prior art burners without the clutch are the big majority of those in use. And these may be converted with advantage to'use this invention provided an automatic pressure regulating valve, such as will be described later is put in them.

Referring to both-Figs. 1 and 2. A motor 4 has its shaft fast to the driving part of a centrifugal clutch 6. The driven part of the clutch drives the oilpump 5 through shaft coupling 1. The fan in casing with vanes 2, is driven by fixed con- 3 nection to the driving part of clutch 6. The Oil conduit II from the pump feeds to the oil pressure atomizlng nozzle I2 adjacent, a spark gap fed by electrodes I5 for ignition. The ignition transformer'is indicated at 8. The air from "the fan in casing I feeds air under pressure to annular space A. Space A is formed between two spaced concentric cylinders, a burner head cylinder 10, and an inner perforated cylinder ll. feeds through the perforations of inner sheet metal cylinder II providing space B. The front end of space B is open for the exit of the gases resulting from burning 011 from nozzle l2 mixed with air fed as Just mentioned. The rear end of space B is closed except that a supplementary air supply may feed in from that end as long as the air fed from space A through perforations to space B dominates in giving a desired character to the air feed. These burner parts and their operation will be readily understood without more description at, present.

One of the new structural parts in the combi nation is the automatic oil pressure regulating valve. A preferred form is shown in Fig. 4. Its purpose is to maintain the oil pressure constant after the burner flame is well started and in addition to provide for a higher pressure when the burner flame is being started. Valves for the first purpose are old and the valve is generally designed in part as one of the prior art for this old purpose. The additional purpose, to automatically provide for a higher pressure, so far as I know is new. And the structure of Fig. .4 for this added purpose shows one way to accomplish it. Another example will be referred to later.

Considering the form of Fig. 4, the valve structure is shown assembled in the oil pump main casting I6. The inlet passage is H and the outlet leading to the atomizing nozzle is I8. A by-pass I9 leads back to the suction side of the pump. Cylinder head 2|, with disk 20, is pressed by spring 22 tending to hold passage I8 closed. Oil pump pressure acting against the annular top area of cylinder head 2| exposed as indicated, will tend to open passage Ill. The opening movement of the valve will slide the cylinder wall I22, one way along its ported bearing 24. The latter has a passage 23 connecting the annular passage 25 with the oil pump pressure. Several circumferentially spaced ports, one being shown at 26, through cylinder wall I22 are adapted to slide into registry with passage 25. This happens when the pump pressure acts to slide the cylinder enough to make more or less registration between ports 25 and 26. When they register the pump pressure has access to the inside of cylinder wall I22 and through connected by-pass Hi. This provides for a subtraction of the oil delivery pressure of the pump, to theextent of the liquid bypassed. And the amount by-passed depends on how much the pump pressure moves cylinder head 2 I. The movement is resisted by the spring 22 applied to load the valve The construction and purpose of the parts so far described and as indicated in the drawing are old and well known. Ordinarily they operate to automatically maintain a constant oil pressure for the oil which feeds out passage I8 to the atomizing nozzle. The exit hole at the nozzle is of course a very small one. The flow through passage I8 is slow. Briefly the action is this. The oil pump operates to deliver excess oil, i. e. more than is needed at the nozzle, through passage II. This opens the valve against spring 22. The excess oil under pressure is taken oil through the by-pass with the result of lower- The air ing the pressure of the oil fed to the nozzle. Then nism indicated. This mechanism consists of two adjusting screw threaded plugs 30, mounted in opposite bores of cap member 3|. Each adjusting plug compresses a spring 32 against a ball 33. These balls engage a groove 34 in rod 28, when the groove is in proper line. Otherwise the balls rest on the regular surface of rod 28 to roll without obstruction as the rod moves with cylinder head 2|. Access for adjusting plugs 30 is had by removable sealing nuts shown. Springs 32 are retained in the sleeves shown which also retain the balls 33 in free rollable fashion.

The parts are shown in the positions taken when the valve is closed. The adjusted pressure of springs 32 functions to apply a load on the valve tending to hold it closed. This load is in addition to the load of spring 22.

When the burner is turned on, the pump pressure rises almost instantly and high enough to open the valve against both spring loads. The pressure to do this is the high oil pressure predetermined by the adjustment of springs 22 and 32. That is the predetermined pressure at which the oil is fed to the nozzle for the burner starting operation. When the burner is started and its flame made, the starting pressure of the oil is reduced. The opening of the valve moves rod 28; it moves its groove 34 out of line with balls 33. This takes the work of overcoming pressure springs 32. The latter then continue to press the balls in but they roll on the smooth surface of rod 28 without any substantial obstruction to axial movement of the rod. Thus the extra spring load is automatically removed from the valve by the burner starting operation. Its running operation takes place with the valve loaded by spring 22 alone. This load is not enough to maintain the starting pressure of the oil but does by its adjustment maintain a predetermined running pressure of the oil.

When the burner is shut off sprin 22 will snap the valve closed. In doing this it reapplies the extra load of springs 32 tending with spring 22 to hold the valve closed. In this condition, with the parts shown with the valve closed, the mechanism has been automatically reset for the next oil burner cycle of operation.

At each burner starting operation the oil pressure used for starting the atomizing nozzle spray is a higher pressure than the pressure used after the start. The idea is to increase the oil pressure for the at-omizing nozzle for it to give a starting spray which is easier to ignite at the spark gap than if the normal running pressure were used. When the burner flame is well started, the pressure drops to the normal running pressure. The cycle is all automatic. A feature of the cycle is that the added load on the valve for the starting operation is cast ofi after the resulting higher pressure has been made available for igniting or starting the flame.

With the valve' described and its effect on the '5 oil pressure, the burner operation is as follows. The burner is'electrically turned on and off as by the usual thermostat or by hand. The motorists the fan and the consequent air stream started her .make the flame before the oil starts out the nozzle. And when the oil does start it is delivered in improved condition for starting operation of the burner and the burner is lighted for its run-- ning operation.

A general characteristic of relatively poor oil is that it is harder to light than better oil. The extra starting pressure helps the lightin operation. A general characteristic of gun type burners is that they operate better when the flame is ad iusted by the character of the air feed. by the character of the atomizing nozzle as to its angle of spray, and by the oil pressure fed to the n-ozzle, all for the purpose of getting the most heat from the flame in proportion to the oil consumed. This is all well known but there are many compromises made in practice for the purpose of providing for a dependable lighting operation. The service man must make surethat a given burner is adjusted for a dependable lighting operation.

This is the dominating thing, for without it, the automatic burner is practically useless. While the service man may adjust a given burner for its best running condition, he must compromise away from that condition before he leaves it in the user's hands for operation. And the compromise is necessarily in favor of having the burner light up automatically in dependable fashion. The trouble lies mostly in the fact that in the usual gun type burner the best starting conditions are not the same as the best running conditions. If they were. all the service man would need to do is to adjust for the'best starting conditions and he would know he had the desired best running conditions. He cannot do this as will be seenin watchin him work on gun type burner installa tions. As above stated he will compromise-in favor of starting conditions and at the expense of running conditions. This will help one understand why in the use of the structure described, this feature is significant, namely, the feature of the automatic change over from starting conditions to running conditions which is the purpose of the parts added to the automatic pressure reg ulating valve. I I have dealt with this problem somewhat before. In my prior Patent 1,985,934 of January 1. 1935, there is disclosed and claimed the feature of the centrifugal clutch and its help in avoiding the service mans compromise with running con-' ditions to get dependable startin conditions. The same centrifugal clutch feature is important as an element in the best form of the present combination. The arrangement of other parts as shown in Fig. 4 with respect to the air feed in relation to the oil feed in the burner head construction also shown and claimed in my copending case. is an important feature of the present combination in its preferred form but the 'improvement herein claimed may be used in the burner shown in my said patent and many others of the eneral oil pressure atomizing type. Particularly when the service man is likely to meet gun type burners which need to operate with poor or, "degraded" oil. he can, not only satisfy the user in keeping the burner working. but he can substantially avoid compromises at the user's operating expense in doing this. It is a. simple matter to convert the prior art burner of the gun type to a burner having the advantages'of the one disclosed in this application. Application of replacement parts, or of accessories, the centrifugal clutch, the kind of spring loaded valve, and the burner as shown will convert the usual household burner equipment to one as herein disclosed. And of course. new burners will be sold. 80 the public will benefit from the disclosure in two ways, in conversion and by forms of new structure. I

The advantage of the invention begins by the change over to the new regulating valve. The use of that with the'clutch and the burner head, or one of them added, increases the advantage. Each cooperates in the dependable lighting and good flame maintenance when poor oil is used..

This advantage to make poor oil work in the automatic burner is a main puropse of the invention.

Fig. 5 shows a second form of automatic pressure regulator to do the same thing as the form of Fig. 4. For the most part, this second form is like a valve type of the prior art with a new feature added for my purpose. It has two inlets to the body carries a valve seat part 3 at the other end to move with the bellows as indicated. When valve stem 46 is on such seat, the valve body is divided into two closed compartments. The one inside the bellows 42 connects at 65 to a by-pass to the inlet or suction side of the oil pump. This by-pass is opened up to take fluid being pumped when the valve stem 44 leaves its seat in part Q3. A spring holding disk or cap 48 is held on part 63 by spring 67. This. sprin is adiustably compressed by engagement with threaded plug as in cap it of valve body (ii.

The stem 43 has a valve closure portion for passage Sl. The latter leads to the atomizlng nozzle and is made in cap 52 for the valve body 4 I, This cap 52 has an axial extension 53 with ports 56 and a screw threaded bushing to guide stem at. Valve part 48 has a skirt 58 guided by extension 53, the skirt carrying open port 51. Stem 65 carries a shoulder '58 between which and cap 82 compression spring. is mounted, This spring 59 and the other sprin 41 are arranged for differential action as will be explained.

The parts so far described are substantially the same if not identical in purpose and arrangement, as a prior valve of this general type. Its operation description will be delayed until the newly added structure is described. The parts of the added structure are the rod .50 fastened at one end to the spring holding disk 48, axially slidable at the other end portion through adjusting plug 48 and extending with an end portion inside space H of cap 18. In this space, rod 60 has a groove 34. The ball detent mechanism is shown of the same construction and the same kind of mounting as already described forthe detent mecha- .nism in cap member of the Fig. 4 valve. It operwill now be described.

When oil enters inlets 46 it fills the body cornpartment outside bellows 42 with access to apply pressure on the closed movable end of the beilows which carries valve part 65.. The fluid pressure is then against spring ill, the latter being adjusted by plug 48 for its desired spring load. The tendency of the fluid to lift valve part iil ofi the end of stem id normally closing port passage in part 43 to the inside of the bellows and to the by-pass through port lib. To the load of spring ti must now be added the spring load of the added'spring detent mechanism applied on rod til. The total loaddetermines when the by-pass conduit is opened, except that the load of spring 59 must be subtracted from that of spring ll. The latter dominates with a tendency to compress spring in keeping valve closure end it against the seat of passage bl. As soon as spring fll moves under fluid pressure, spring 59 lifts valve 5|! ofi its seat and oil is fed to the nozzle through passage 5!.

It will be seen with this arrangement that the oil, before it can start feeding to the atomizing nozzle by passage 5i, must have an extra high pressure. It must be high enough to overcome the extra load of the spring detent mechanism. But when that extra load is overcome valve 50 opens. When it opens enough to reduce the pressure through the by-pass 45 the load of the spring detent mechanism is cast off and the differentiallyarranged springs 41 and 59 are left for their net effect in balanced pressure action. This alone then determines the by-pass flow. And that flow determines the pressure flow from the pump to the atomizing nozzle at a predetermined rate for the period of normal oil burning operation.

From what has been said it will now be clear how to safeguard the automatic burner operation under adverse conditions which may have different causes. Considering the cause as due to poor or degraded oil, the following situation should be kept in mind. The operation of most importance is to get automatic starting. In the disclosure there are several structural features which cooperate to'this end. When all are embodied in one burner combination, that burner shows the preferred way to practice the invention. It is the burner indicated in Figs. 1 and 2 having either one of the valves shown for examples in Figs. 4 and 5; In its operation the clutch causes the air to feed first, then the oil is fed with an extra high pressure atomizing spray and the flame is started under the best conditions. Very soon after starting, the valve' drops the pressure from the extra high pressure to the normal constant pressure for making a better heatand burner head elements of Fig. 1, will substantially help safeguard its automatic operation. This is the broadest aspect of the-invention. But the single purpose of burning poor oil will be helped in the best manner by use of the burner combination having all the emphasized" features or elements working in combination and indimg flame and maintaining the flame. The dominating radial feeding of air through perforations of the inner cylinder to space B, as in the burner head of Fig. 1, causes the flame to burn partly at least within space B. This helps both in starting and maintaining the flame because the conditions are controlled and means are provided for guarding the flame. Thus the protecting conditions are automatically provided for burning oil even poorer in quality than is likely to be us'eable at all by the common gun type burner.

An automatic gun type burner. supplied with 'the valve of Fig. 4 or 5 and without the clutch cated inl igs. 1, 2, and 4.

Having disclosed the invention and the best way now known to practice it, I claim:

1. In an automatic gun type oil burner of the kind described, the combination of a fan to supply a controlled air stream. an oil pressure atomizing nozzle to discharge oil in said air stream, an oversize pump-to supplyoil to said nozzle, an oil conduit to connect the pump and the nozzle, an automatic pressure regulating valve interposed in said oil conduit, said regulating valve having a valve face and valve seat portion and spring means to hold the face to the seat, said face portion of the valve being retractable from the seat by fluid from the pump exerting pressure on a movable surface of the valve to overcome said spring means, and a frictional device to additionally hold said valve face to its seat and delay the opening of the valve by making the pump supply oil under pressure substantially higher than that necessary to overcome said regulating valve spring means, said frictional device being operably connected with said regulating valve to be moved out of friction exerting position when the valve opens and returned to said position when the valve closes, all for the purpose described.

2. In an automatic gun typeoil burner of the kind described, the combination of a fan to supply a controlled air stream, an oil pressure atomizing nozzle to discharge oil in said air stream, a pump to supply oil to.said nozzle, an oil conduit to connect the pump and nozzle, an automatic pressure regulating valve interposed in said oil conduit, said regulating valve having a movable valve member, a seat for said member, an element movable with said valve member in a path toward and away from said seat, and spring means to hold the valve member to said seat, a

detent element mounted for movement laterally of said path toward and away from the valve element, one of said elements having a cam face and the other having a cam follower face, a spring acting on the detent to press said faces into engagement, said cam face being inclined to said ath and located to be engaged by the follower face when said valve member is engaged with its seat and during the initial part of the movement of saidvalve member away from its seat, said spring-pressed detent acting through the follower face and cam face to impart a thrust on said valve element in the direction of said path to provide pressure in addition to that provided by said spring means for holding the valve memagainst the pressure of the spring means and the additional pressure produced by the springpressed detent to carry the valve away from its seat, such movement of said valve element being operable to move the cam and follower faces out of engagement to relieve the valve member of said additional pressure, whereby the pressure required to open said valve member is higher than that necessary to maintain it open after it has been moved away from its seat.

3. In an automatic gun type oil burner of the kind described, the combination of a fan to supply controlled air stream, an oil pressure atomizing nozzle to discharge oil in said air stream, a

pump to supply oil to said nozzle, an oil conduit conduit, said regulating valve having amovable.

valve member, a seat for said member, an element movable with the valve member in a path toward and away from said seat, said element being exposed to the pressure of the pumped oil and movable thereby, spring means acting on said element to yieldingly hold the valve member in closed position against the oil pressure, a loading device acting on said element and applying pressure in addition to that of the spring means to hold said valve member in closed position, and means on said element to inhibit the action of said loading device subsequent to the initial part of the opening movement of the valve member in response to an increase in the oil pressure, whereby a greater oil pressure is required to open the valve than to maintain it open.

JOSEH A. LOGAN.

Number Name Date 1,425,338 Ray Aug. 8, 1922 1,657,807 Ray Jan. 31, 1928 1,791,012 Ray Feb. 3, 1931 1,871,043 Chalmers Aug. 9, 1932 1,985,934 Logan Jan. 1, 1935 1,995,480 Murphy Mar. 26, 1935' 2,009,137 Kleckner July 23, 1935 2,051,301 Kleckner Aug. 18, 1936 2,263,833 Aldrich Nov. 25, 1941 2,319,708 Smith et 9,1. May 18, 1943 Taylor Dec. 5, 1944 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

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