WO2003093729A1

WO2003093729A1 - A cigarette-sensitive lighter embodiment

Info

Publication number: WO2003093729A1
Application number: PCT/TR2002/000051
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mehmet KARAKILIÇ
Original assignee: Karakilic Mehmet
Priority date: 2002-05-03
Filing date: 2002-09-03
Publication date: 2003-11-13
Also published as: AU2002341535A1

Abstract

Present invention is a lighter comprising a main body (1), a battery housing (1.2) in said main body (1), a battery (6) positioned within the battery housing (1.2), an electronic circuit housing (1.5), a flammable material housing (1.1), electronic sensor means for sensing an approaching cigarette, spark producing means connected to the output of the spark producing means for producing sparks with signals received from the sensor means; a solenoid valve (16) for controlling the flammable material passage; a lid (4) substantially closing the upper surface of the main body (1.4) and a lid sensing means for controlling the power supply of the lighter's electronic elements according to the position of the lid (4).

Description

A CIGARETTE-SENSITIVE LIGHTER EMBODIMENT

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention is related to lighters.

This invention is particularly related to lighters containing a main body and a flammable material housing embodied within said main body; a spark producing means; and a valve to control the discharge of a flammable material contained within said flammable material housing.

PRIOR ART

Lighters in a number of models and types are presently being used widely. Lighters generally do contain a tank wherein a flammable material is present; a valve realized over said tank to permit a gas passage when desired; a press element in link with said valve to be controlled by the user; and an ignition means to ignite the gas discharged from said valve.

Regarding the ignition means towards burning the gas, several embodiments are present within the art.

The most widespread and simple ones among these embodiments are the lighters that contain a small wheel to light or strike a flint. As is known from this sort of application, the user produces a spark by making said wheel turn and at the same time makes the gas discharged by pressing on a press element positioned under said wheel, and thus exerts pressure on said element and opens the gas valve as long as he is willing to light the lighter. Though this embodiment is cheap, its usage is not practical.

In other lighter embodiments, piezoelectric materials are used as an igniter. As it is known in the art, piezoelectric materials are tend to produce high voltages when they are pressed on. This characteristic is utilized in these lighters to produce a spark and gas is ignited this way. No usage comfort could be provided even in this type of lighters. Lighters including electronic ignition circuits are also present and widely used to provide an use easiness. These circuits contain a DC voltage supply; an oscillator circuit to change the signals received from said source into AC signals; a transformer to receive and amplify the converted AC signal; a rectifier for converting the signals received from transformers to DC; a capacitor that is charged to a certain predetermined level with the rectified signal and when said level is reached, that is discharged immediately, for example through a discharging lamb towards the end of sparks formed between the secondary coils of the transformer. Thus, a spark is obtained between these two ends of sparks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

The present invention is related to a novel lighter embodiment eliminating the entire aforementioned disadvantages.

The main scope of the present invention is to provide a practically used and safe lighter embodiment that lights spontaneously when it senses a cigarette without necessitating an extra performance of the user.

In order to achieve above mentioned scope, said lighter embodiment comprises a main body; at least one battery housing in said main body; at least one battery positioned within said battery housing; at least one flammable material housing; at least one electronic circuit housing; electronic sensor means for sensing an approaching cigarette; spark producing means connected to the output of said electronic sensor means to produce sparks in response to the signals received from the sensor; a solenoid valve connected to the output of the electronic sensor means to automatically open and close the flammable material passage in response to the signals received from the sensor means; a lid substantially closing the upper surface of the main body; and a lid sensing means to open or close the power supply of the lighter's electronic elements in response to opening and closing said lid.

In this way, the electronic sensor means generates a signal indicating the existence of an approaching cigarette; the electronic ignition circuit receiving said signal activates and produces a spark and the solenoid valve receiving the same signal permits the flammable material to come into the flame housing wherein spark is produced. Also by means of said lid sensing means a significant energy saving is obtained and the possibility of the lighter carried within a pocket, wallet, etc. to light uncontrollably is eliminated.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the amplifying circuit used herein is a DC-AC amplifier capable to convert a DC signal that is received from an electronic sensor means into an AC signal and then to amplify said signal.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said spark producing means is an electronic ignition circuit comprising a rectifier for rectifying the signals received from the transformer, a capacitor that is charged to a certain predetermined level with the rectified signal and discharged immediately when said level is reached, preferably, through a discharging lamb towards the spark ends formed between the secondary coils of the transformer.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said electronic sensor means is a photo-sensor circuit comprising an infrared LED as an infrared light source, a phototransistor positioned opposite to the infrared LED such that there is a cigarette entrance gap between said LED and itself. In addition, a lens is located on said infrared LED to focus the infrared light that is produced to the phototransistor.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a photo-diode or a photo-resistor or a photo-triac is utilized in place of the phototransistor that is alternatively used as the infrared light sensing element of the sensor means.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said lid is moved through a lid joint having a spring means providing said lid to position 90" to the ground when opened in order to ensure a usage easiness and to prevent probable affects of the lighter's flame.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said lid sensing means comprises a lid upper surface projection realized in the interior of said lid's upper surface; a projection receiving gap realized on the upper head to locate said lid's upper surface projection onto the upper surface of the lighter's head when said lid is closed; a force transmitting bar that is located within said projection receiving gap so that it encounters with the upper surface projection of the lid when it is closed and that is forced downwards by said projection; and a key that is connected with said force transmission bar and that is placed right next the output of the battery before the entire electronic elements.

\ In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said key -by means of the spring it includes in the joint part- is a conductor bar positioned for making short circuit the line between the battery and the electronic elements unless a counter-force is applied by said force transmitting bar.

Thanks to that; once the lid is closed, the front surface projection of said lid pushes the force transmitting bar so as the latter pushes down the key whereto it is connected; thus the line between the electronic elements and the battery is opened; and once the lid is opened, the key moves upwards by means of its spring bearing joint to short circuit back the supply line.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a locking arrangement enabling users to open the lid by one-touch easily. This locking arrangement comprises a lid opening button embodied on the main body; a flexible projection catching element connected with said lid opening button; and a lid's front surface projection engaging into said projection catching element once the lid is closed.

Thanks to that, once the lid is closed; said lid's front surface projection engages into the projection catching element; and once the lid is opened, the projection catching surface is activated by pushing said button to release the lid's front surface projection.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the cigarette entrance gap between said infrared LED and said phototransistor is performed so that it is merely a little larger than the diameter of a standard cigarette in order to prevent the unwanted lightening of a lighter when its lid is opened. In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a main switch is located entirely sunk on the lighter's main body to completely interrupted the lighter's energy particularly to keep it safe from the children.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a battery lid is embodied on the lower surface of the main body to easily change said battery.

In another embodiment, the DC voltage supply is a 1.5 V battery.

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the foregoing and ongoing written specification, the drawing figures and claims that follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

Figure 1 gives a general view of the relevant lighter.

Figure 2 gives a top view of the head of said lighter.

Figure 3a gives a detailed view of the lighter's head when the lid is open.

Figure 3b gives a detailed view of the lighter's head when the lid is closed.

Figure 4 gives a view of the arrangement of the electronic elements.

Figure 5 gives a flow diagram of the electronic elements in use.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

1. Main body 5.1 Projection catching element

1.1 Flammable material housing 6. Battery

1.2 Battery housing 7. Phototransistor

1.3 Lower surface of main body 8. Infrared LED

1.4 Upper surface of main body 9. Cigarette entrance gap

1.5 Electronic circuit housing 10. Projection receiving gap

2. Lighter head 10.1 Force transmitting bar

3. Flame chamber 11. Amplifying circuit

3.1 Flammable material flow opening 12. Electronic ignition circuit

4. Lid 13. Main supply line

4.1 Lid upper surface 14. Power control key

4.2 Projection of lid upper surface 14.1 Key joint

4.3 Lid front surface 15. Ground line

4.4 Projection of lid front surface 16. Solenoid valve

4.5 Lid joint 17. Battery lid

5. Lid opening button 18. Lighter main switch

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

Figure 1 gives a general view of the relevant lighter. Accordingly, the relevant lighter includes generally a main body (1) consisting of four parts as a flammable material housing (1.1), a battery housing (1.2), an electronic circuit housing (1.5) and a lighter head (2) formed on the upper part; a flame chamber (3) formed on the lighter head (2) where lighter's flame is lit; a lid (4) embodied so that it almost completely covers the upper surface (1.4) of the main body; a battery lid (17) embodied on the lower surface (1.3) of the main body; and the lighter main switch (18) sunk in one of the lateral surfaces of the main body.

Figure 2 gives a top view of the head (2) of said lighter. From the figure, the elements making up the photo-sensor circuit used in the present invention to light the lighter once a cigarette is sensed can be seen more clearly. Accordingly, said photo-sensor circuit contains a phototransistor (7) that is embodied right opposite the infrared LED (8) which is used as an infrared light source and positioned on the upper surface of the lighter head (2). A cigarette entrance gap (9) of a diameter slightly larger than a standard cigarette's diameter, preferably of 10-15 mm is provided between these two elements (7, 8). The flame chamber (3) and the flammable material flow opening (3.1) can also be seen from this figure. As it is also mentioned in detail hereunder, a solenoid valve (16) is present within this opening (3.1) and the valve (16) is opened by the signal generated by the electronic sensor means (7; 8) in case of sensing a cigarette and thus the flammable material passage to the flame chamber (3) is enabled. The projection receiving gap (10) embodied on the upper surface of the lighter head (2) of which the function is to be explained hereunder is also seen from this Figure.

Figures 3a and 3b are given in order to present how said lid electronic sensor means used in the present invetion works. Accordingly, a lid upper surface projection (4.2) is embodied facing the lighter's head (2) on this lid's upper surface (4.1), whereas this projection (4.2) is positioned such that it engages into said projection receiving gap (10) once the lid is closed. In addition, a force transmitting bar (10.1) is embodied within the projection receiving gap (10), said bar connected with the power control key (14). The power control key (14) as a conductor bar moves on a joint (14.1) that is embodied with a spring means that forces said key to stay always horizontally in respect of the ground. A stopper is present in the interior surface of the main body (1) where the key (14) just comes to a horizontal position to keep said key from going to unwanted positions by means of said spring means. As it is also seen in Figure 3a, once the lid (4) is closed, said lid forces the upper surface projection (4.2) to the force transmitting bar (10.1), whereby this bar (10.1) pushes the power control key (14) downwards to make main supply line open circuit and thus the energy of the electronic elements are entirely interrupted. Once the lid is opened, the force that the lid's upper surface projection (4.2) formed on the lid (4) exerts on force transmitting bar (10.1) and the bar (10.1) exerts on the key (14) is removed, without necessitating the user's intervention and the power control key becomes parallel to the ground by means of its spring bearing key joint (14.1) so as to short circuit the main supply line (13) again.

Figure 4 gives a view of a preferred layout of the electronic elements, being used in order to perform the objective of this invention, on the lighter's main body (1). Accordingly, a battery (6) is present under said main body (1) and an electronic circuit housing (1.5) is located above the battery housing (1.2). Within this housing (1.5), said amplifying circuit (11) is made up close to the lighter's head (2), whereas an electronic ignition circuit (12) is formed close to the battery (6). Also a solenoid valve (16) is present right next the exit of the passage opening of the flammable material. Said ignition circuit (12) preferably includes an ignition transformer, and a charge-discharge circuit consisting preferably of a diode, capacitor and a tristor, said circuit connected to the primary coil terminals; whereas said circuit discharges to the end of spark at the secondary coil of the ignition transistor. Said ignition spark ends are located around the passage opening (3.1) of the flammable material; and the connections between this and other electronic elements and their connections with the battery are performed by means of lines within the main body.

Figure 5 gives a representative diagram showing the operation principle of the electronic means used for said lighter. Accordingly, electronic elements used in the lighter are supplied by a 1.5V battery, where this supply is controlled by the aforementioned power control key (14). In addition, the lighter's main switch (18) formed on the ground line (15) between the battery and grounding takes control of grounding the circuit and once this switch line is turned into an open circuit, it becomes possible for the current to flow through the electronic elements. The electronic sensor means circuit receives the DC signal that the battery (6) supplies and depending on the circumstances, it drives the DC-AC amplifying circuit (11) that is connected to its output. The output of the amplifying circuit (11) and the electronic ignition circuit (12) along with the solenoid valve (16) are short-circuited. Two spark ends are realized at the output of the electronic ignition circuit (12).

Accordingly, the detailed description of system operation is given hereunder.

The infrared LED (8) present within the sensor means's embodiment continuously emits infrared light as long as it is supplied with energy from the battery (6). This light is directly transmitted to the phototransistor (7) without being scattered to other directions by means of a lens formed on the LED (8) to face the cigarette entrance gap (9). Thanks to its structural property, the phototransistor (7) remains in conduction as long as it receives this infrared light. Once the user inserts a cigarette into said cigarette entrance gap (9), the infrared light does not arrive at the phototransistor (7) or it arrives, but very attenuated. In this case, the phototransistor (7) changes its position into a blockage position. Once this blockage position is reached, a DC signal is formed at the order of the supply voltage at the input of the DC-AC amplifying circuit (11) connected to the collector of said phototransistor (7). By means of the oscillator circuit it contains, this circuit (11) firstly converts this signal into an AC signal and then amplifies this signal by the transformer it includes and transmits it to the electronic ignition circuit (12) and to the solenoid valve (16) having their inputs short circuited. This amplified AC signal is applied to the primary coil of the transformer present in the electronic ignition circuit (12) and a more amplified AC signal is obtained from the secondary coil. This signal is afterwards converted into DC by means of a rectifier and charges a capacitor. After a certain period that is determined during manufacture, the capacitor preferably discharges back to the end of sparks realized on the terminals of the secondary coil of the transformer by means of a discharge lamp, and thus an instant spark is obtained.

At the same time, once this AC current is passed through the coils of the solenoid valve (16) receiving the AC signal obtained from the output of the DC-AC amplifying circuit, the solenoid valve (16) opens the flammable material flow opening (3.1) and thus the flammable material flows into the flame chamber (3). Finally, thanks to the spark that the electronic circuit (12) produces, the flammable material is ignited and the flame necessary to light the cigarette is obtained. The point to be considered at this moment, it is the necessity that the solenoid valve (16) is opened before the spark is produced. Otherwise, no flame is obtained. Hence, the capacities of the capacitor and resistors used in the electronic ignition circuit (12) of the present invention are determined so that to produce a spark after the solenoid valve is opened.

Normally, as long as the cigarette is hold at the cigarette entrance gap (9) at the entrance of the amplifying circuit (11) there will be a continuos signal, and the electronic ignition circuit (12) driven by this signal shall continuously produce spark so as to cause an unnecessary energy consumption. In order to prevent this circumstance under the present invention, said amplifying circuit (11) becomes only active once a higher edge triggering is performed, thanks to special electronic elements incorporated in the input of said amplifying circuit (11) and when this heightening reaches a certain limit, the circuit (11) inactivates back. This way, it is necessary to remove the cigarette from the cigarette entrance gap (9) to obtain a flame once more.

Although the present invention has been shown and described in terms of a preferred embodiment, it will be appreciated that changes and modifications will be evident to those skilled in the art from knowledge of the teachings of the present invention. Such changes and modifications, which do not depart from the spirit, scope and teachings herein, are deemed to fall within the purview of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A lighter having a main body (1), a flammable material housing (1.1), a spark producing means controlled by a user and a manually controlled valve enabling the flammable material passage from said flammable material housing (1.1 ) to flow out, comprising: at least one battery housing (1.2) in said main body (1 ), at least one battery (6) positioned within said battery housing (1.2), at least one electronic circuit housing (1.5); electronic sensor means for sensing an approaching cigarette, spark producing means connected to the output of said electronic sensor means to produce sparks in response to the signals received from the electronic sensor means; a solenoid valve (16) connected to the output of the electronic sensor means to automatically open and close the flammable material passage in response to the signals received from the sensor means; a lid (4) substantially closing the upper surface of the main body (1.4); and a lid sensing means for opening or closing the power supply of the lighter's electronic elements in response to opening and closing of said lid (4).

2. A lighter according to claim 1 , wherein a DC-AC amplifying circuit is used for converting the DC signal received from the electronic sensor means to an AC signal and then to amplify said signal.

3. A lighter according to claim 1 , wherein said spark producing means is an electronic ignition circuit (12) comprising a rectifier for rectifying the signals received from the transformer, a capacitor charged to a certain predetermined level with the rectified signal and discharged immediately when said level is reachedthrough a discharging lamb towards the spark ends formed between the secondary coils of the transformer.

4. A lighter according to claim 1 , wherein said electronic sensor means is a photo-sensor circuit comprising an infrared LED (8) as an infrared light source, a phototransistor (7) positioned opposite to the infrared LED (8) in a way that there is a cigarette entrance gap (9) between said LED and itself.

5. A lighter according to claim 4, wherein there is provided a lens located in front of the infrared LED to focus the infrared light to the phototransistor (7).

6. A lighter according to claim 4, wherein a photo-diode or a photo-resistor or a photo-triac is used as the infrared light sensing element of the sensor means.

7. A lighter according to claim 1 , wherein said lid (4) is moved through a lid joint (4.5) having spring means providing said lid (4) to position 90^° to the ground when opened in order to ensure a usage easiness and to prevent probable affects of the lighter's flame.

8. A lighter according to claim 1 , wherein said lid sensing means comprises a lid upper surface projection (4.2) realized in the interior of said lid's upper surface (4.1); a projection receiving gap (10) realized on the upper head to locate said lid's upper surface projection (4.2) onto the upper surface of the lighter's head

(2) when said lid (4) is closed; a force transmitting bar (10.1 ) located within said projection receiving gap (10) such that it encounters with the upper surface projection (4.2) of the lid when it is closed and is forced downwards by said projection (4.2); and a power control key (14) connected to the force transmission bar (10.1) and placed right next the output of the battery (6) before the entire electronic elements.

9. A lighter according to claim 8, wherein said power control key (14) is a conductor bar staying in a position making the line between the battery (6) and the electronic elements short circuit, by means of the spring it includes in key joint (14.1 ) thereof, unless a counter-force is applied by said force transmitting bar.

10. A lighter according to claim 1 , wherein there is provided a locking arrangement enabling users to open the lid (4) by one-touch easily.

11. A lighter according to claim 10, wherein said locking arrangement comprises a lid opening button (5) embodied on the main body (1 ); a flexible projection catching element (5.1 ) connected to said lid opening button (5); and a lid's front surface projection (4.4) engaging into said projection catching element (5.1 once the lid (4) is closed.

12. A lighter according to claim 1, wherein the cigarette entrance gap (9) between said infrared LED (8) and said phototransistor (7) is a little larger than the diameter of a standard cigarette for preventing the unwanted lightening of a lighter when its lid (4) is opened.

13. A lighter according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a main switch (18), which is embedded into the lighter's main body (1 ), is used for completely cutting down the lighter's energy particularly to keep it safe from the children.

14. A lighter according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a battery lid (17) is embodied on the lower surface of the main body (1.3) to easily remove the battery (6).

15. A lighter according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the DC voltage supply is a 1.5 V battery.