US3448243A - Baseboard heater - Google Patents

Description

E. C. RIPPLE BASEBOARD HEATER Jung 3, 1969 Filed Feb. 10. 1967 INVENTOR. RIPPLE ATTORNEY.

FIG.4

June 1969 E. c. RIPPLE 3,448,243

BASEBOARD HEATER sheet 2 or2 Filed- Feb. 10, 1967 INVENTOR. ELLIS C RIPPLE ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,448,243 BASEBOARD HEATER Ellis C. Ripple, Syracuse, N.Y., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Space Conditioning, Inc., Harrisonburg, Va., a corporation of Maryland Filed Feb. 10, 1967, Ser. No. 615,142 Int. Cl. F24h 9/02 US. Cl. 219-366 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Summary of the invention The invention relates to baseboard room heaters having a finned radiator tube containing a liquid heated by an electrical heater. This type of heater is used extensively for home heating. Many designs of this type of heater have been created, but such designs embody a complicated structural arrangement expensive to manufacture.

The object of this invention is a baseboard heater embodying a greatly simplified structural arrangement manufactured at low cost.

Brief description of the drawings FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a baseboard heater embodying my invention.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged view of the heater with the front cover removed.

FIGURE 3 is a view, similar to FIGURE 2, illustrating the heater assembled with two radiator tubes.

FIGURE 4 is a view taken on line 44, FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 5 is a view taken on line -5-5, FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of one of the end closures.

FIGURE '7 is a perspective view of one of the radiator tube supporting plates.

FIGURE 8 is an enlarged view of the heater with the front cover removed and with the covers for the electrical connections in place.

FIGURE 9 is a lengthwise sectional view through the radiator tube.

Detailed description The main frame piece of the heater is formed from sheet metal and shaped to provide a vertically disposed back wall 10, the upper and lower edges of which merge with upper and lower forwardly diverging walls 11, 12. The diverging walls 11, 12, are bent along their upper and lower edges to form top and bottom walls 13, 14, which extend rearwardly in a direction normal to the rear wall 10. The rear edges of the top and bottom walls 13, 14, are bent downwardly and upwardly to form flanges 16, 17, located a short distance rearwardly of the rear wall 10.

An end closure 20 is fixed to each end of the frame piece. The end closures 20 are in the form of flat plates provided with inwardly extending upper and lower flanges 21, 22, which are positioned inside of the top and bottom walls 13, 14, see FIGURE 5. The end enclosures are also formed at their rear edges with a flange 23 which is disposed coplanar with the - flanges 16, 17.

The finned radiator tube 30 is mounted at its ends in supporting plates 31, 32. These plates are formed, at their rear edges, with flanges 33 aflixed to the back wall 10, as by screws 35 extending through the rear wall 10 and threading into apertures 36 formed in the flanges 33. The supporting plates 31 are formed with central apertures 37 to receive the ends of the radiator tube 30. The plates 31, 32, are of identical form, with the exception of the direction of the flanges 33 and tabs 40. This, because the plates are made right and left-handed. With the mounting arrangement shown in FIGURE 9, both ends of the radiator tube 30 extend through the supporting plates 31, 32, the ends of the tube being encircled by resilient sleeves 41. The electric heating element 43 is of the conventional metal jacketed type. It extends axially of the tube for the greater portion of the length thereof, and is maintained in axial position by spiders 45. One end of the tube is closed by a disk 47 brazed into the tube and having a threaded aperture to receive a plug 48 which, in turn, is apertured and filled with a fusible metal to provide for the release of excessive pressure within the tube. A disk 50 is brazed to the heater element 43 and to the opposite end of the tube, the heater element extending outwardly from the tube and being provided with terminals 51, 52. The terminal 51 is connected by conductors 53, FIGURE 4, to a terminal limit switch 55 mounted on the plate 31. This switch has a heat sensing element 57 thermally connected to the radiator tube 30. The terminal 52 is connected to side 60- of the power supply. The opposite side 61 of the supply is connected by conductor 63 to the switch 55.

The terminals 51, 52, are enclosed by a U-shaped barrier 65. The electrical connections in switch 55 are enclosed by a cover member 68. The members 65, 68, are mounted on the tab '40 and secured thereo as by screw 70.

The end closure members 20 and the tube supporting plates 31, 32 are formed with vertically spaced apart projections 72, 73. A sheet metal cover is formed along its upper and lower edges with inwardly bent flanges 77 which engage the projections 72, 73, snap fashion. The upper and lower edges of the cover 75 are disposed in spaced relation from the upper and lower walls 13, 14. This arrangement provides for the movement of air upwardly about the finned heater tube 30.

A strip 80 is secured at its upper edge, as by screws 81, to the lower portion of the flat back wall 10, see FIG- URES 4 and 5. The strip 80 extends downwardly to the bottom wall 14 and forms, in conjunction therewith and with the lower diverging wall 12, a triangular shaped raceway for the feed conductors, the inclined wall 12 being formed with an aperture 83 to permit the supply conductors to be brought into the terminal wiring compartment.

The heater unit may be of substantial length in the order of ten or twelve feet, in which case two of the radiator tubes are mounted in the frame piece and the heater elements 43 are connected to the power supply at the center of the heater, as illustrated in FIGURE 3.

It will be apparent that the component parts of the heater are all economically formed of sheet metal. The end closures 20- and mounting plates 31 are simply blocked and formed from flat stock by punch press operation, as also the front cover 75, the barrier 65 and the wiring compartment cover 68. The main frame piece is formed from a continuous strip in a roll forming machine. The radiator tube .30 consists only of a length of straight finned tubing. It is not equipped with any plumbing accessories, such as valves, expansion chambers, and the like, yet the heater performs equally as well as those presently available and embodying expensive and complicated structural arrangements.

I claim:

1. A baseboard heater unit comprising an integral frame piece formed of sheet metal bent along horizontal bend lines to define a vertically disposed planar back wall panel, upper and lower imperforate forwardly diverging panels extending from the upper and lower edges of said back wall panel and imperforate top and bottom horizontal rearwardly extending wall panels joined at their forwardmost edges to the upper and lower edge portions of said diverging panels and terminating rearwardly in vertical flanges extending toward each other and lying in a common vertical plane spaced rearwardly of said back wall panel; a pair of end closure sheet metal members fixed to the respective opposite ends of said frame piece and having inwardly projecting top and bottom flanges secured in inwardly lapping relation against the inner surfaces of said top and bottom horizontal wall panels and inwardly projecting vertical rear flanges disposed in coplanar relationship with the flanges of said top and bottom wall panels, a pair of radiator tube supporting plates aflixed to said rear wall and spaced inwardly from the respective end closure members, said supporting plates each having a central aperture therein and extending forwardly from said back wall panel to define forward edge portions spaced forwardly from the fonwardmost edges of said top and bottom horizontal wall panels, an axially elongated liquid containing finned radiator tube having resiliently deformable annular sleeves encircling the opposite end portions thereof supported in the apertures of said supporting plates by engagement of the bounding surfaces of said apertures in inwardly deforming relation with exterior surface portions of said sleeves, an axially elongated metal jacketed electric heating element extending through the greater portion of the length of said radiator tube and having terminals protruding beyond one end of said radiator tube into the space between the adjacent supporting plate and end closure member, a thermal limit switch mounted on said adjacent supporting plate within said space and having a heat sensing element thermally connected to said radiator tube contiguous to said adjacent supporting plate, a cover member secured to said adjacent supporting plate and extending between the same and the adjacent end closure member to form an enclosure for said terminals and said thermal limit switch, said enclosure members and said supporting plates having vertically spaced and oppositely protruding upper and lower rounded projections at their forward edges and an imperforate front cover member of sheet metal coextensive in length with said frame piece and having inturned flanges along its upper and lower edges to be removably assembled in a snap-latch relation on said rounded projections with the upper and lower edges of said front cover member being disposed in spaced relation to said upper and lower horizontal wall panels of said frame piece.

'2. A baseboard heater unit as defined in claim 1, including an elongated plate member fixed adjacent its uppermost edge to said back wall panel and extending downwardly into engagement with said bottom horizontal wall panel defining with the latter and with the lowermost of said forwardly diverging panels a triangular cross section electrical conductor raceway extending lengthwise of the heater unit.

3. A baseboard heater unit as defined in claim 1, including a channel-shaped barrier member within said space having a forwardmost vertical bight portion secured against the inner surface of said cover member to said adjacent supporting plate and having upper and lower horizontal channel sides extending rearwardly to said back wall panel and longitudinally of the heater between said adjacent supporting plate and the adjacent end closure member in planes spaced slightly above and below said terminals, said channel side members having apertures therein for passage of electrical wires therethrough from said terminals.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,651,504 9/ 1953 Gundrum. 3,051,816 8/1962 Knoll 2 19-365 3,165,624 1/1965 Cunningham 219--367 X 3,179,788 4/1965 Uhlig 219-365 X FOREIGN PATENTS 95,748 3/1960 Norway.

ANTHONY BARTIS, Primary Examiner.

M. C. FLIESLER, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R.

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