FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This application relates to a system and method for creating ornamental fire displays. More specifically, but not by way of limitation, to a system that uses sets of brass pipe sections and connectors that allow the sections to be joined and provide support for jets that use the “Venturi effect” to mix gas and air to produce a low-heat flame of a desired color. The connectors thus allow positioning of the jets to create a bright, wide, ornamental flame with a natural appearance of a wood fire. Natural wood fire is characterized by its orange, yellowish-orange color, and movement or “dancing” appearance.

BACKGROUND

The use of fire and torches that produce flames for the purpose of providing illumination is well known. Additionally, the calming and comfort that that people innately draw from watching a campfire or other moderately warm flame is widely understood and appreciated by people of all cultures. In order to take advantage of these aspects of fire, many manufacturers have offered fire pits that burn natural and/or LP gas. An example of such devices can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,887 to Oliver, Jr. et. al., incorporated herein by reference. Another such device is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20070224560 to Stainrod et al. However, a problem associated with flames produced by known devices is that the flames are often blue, or they appear rushed due to the fact that they are burning a gas that is ejected from a jet. The ejected flame has little opportunity to behave like a flame from a log, and thus does not provide the ambiance created by a wood fire. Still further, fast flowing gas flames can produce inordinate amounts of heat, forcing the user to compromise and settle for a small flame in exchange for comfort and safety.

Additionally, a significant limitation of known devices that are used for burning natural gas, such as in a fireplace or in a fire pit, is that these systems are not readily customizable. Specifically, the systems have to fit within standard size fireplaces or fire pits. Thus, architects and other designers have to compromise as to the shape or size of the fireplace or pit, which may not always optimal for the architectural or aesthetic needs of the room or structure that will house the flames.

Still further, known devices typically use a single manifold, which is often a hollow ring, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,539,420 to Kerr, incorporated herein by reference. The Kerr asserts that an object of his device “is to group the jets in a particular way to gain the maximum heating effects within a given area without causing a malfunction in mixing and burning.” Thus, Kerr uses the hollow ring in combination with nozzles that are positioned closely to one another in order to create an area of intense heat for heating water, for example. Thus, the ring manifold of Kerr includes perforations and nozzles that release gas to be burned in a concentrated area, such as immediately below a kettle or water tank.

Moreover, the Kerr's nozzles are mounted from bosses that point the air and fuel mixture ejected from the nozzles in directions that result in a collision of the streams of air and fuel mixture ejected from the nozzles to collide with one another, and thereby create “sheets” of flames that burn blue in color.

A known fire pit system, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 9,125,516, incorporated herein by reference, uses a manifold that has a multitude of holes. The manifold is filled with gas, and then the gas is allowed to escape through the holes of the manifold. The released gas is then burned as it encounters air outside of the manifold. This approach is very inefficient in terms of the creation of voluminous flames that are visible and in terms of heat radiated from the flames. The absence of nozzles results in little control over the flow of the gas, and thus results in inefficient burning and results in small, low-volume, flames with little movement.

Another limitation of known devices is that typically they cannot be easily customized to nest into fire pits or support areas of different sizes. Still further, many gas fire pit designs use a single pad, ring-shaped, or close-looped manifold that provide a centralized flame area. This approach is inherently inefficient because it creates either a focused region of flames and a focused high-temperature region, or a large area with small flames. The large area of small flames is a product of the fact that a manifold with numerous apertures will result in rapid pressure loss along the manifold, which in turn results in small flames. The use of large number of small flames results in low brightness and a generally dull fire pit.

The use of pre-fabricated, single manifold designs has yet additional limitations. One important limitation is that they are not particularly well suited for accommodating pits of different shapes. Thus, they do not allow an architect or designer the flexibility in routing of the burner system, so as to accommodate variations in fire pit designs nor are they well suited for reliable, repeatable, installation in the field. While it is possible to link several pre-fabricated manifolds together, the use of these systems for providing decorative flame arrangements presents important problems and creates a need for a system that produces reliable connections in a repeatable manner. A decorative flame system must lend itself to predictable, repeatable assembly of arrangements, without the need for highly trained technicians.

Prior systems relied heavily on commercially available galvanized gas pipe and mating end caps. In these systems the gas pipe required the cutting of sections of pipe, and the addition of threads that accept the end caps. The pipe along with jets would then be assembled though the use of common plumbing tools, such as pipe wrenches. However, this approach resulted in problems associated with marring of the surfaces of the assembly. The scars left by the tools needed to assemble the galvanized pipe systems inherently produced arrangements that with the unfinished appearance of uncovered plumbing.

Moreover, creating reliable connections and seals at the joints of the sections of pipe were concern. Installers had to rely on experience as to the adequate torque levels for the galvanized pipe connections. Additionally, the use of galvanized pipe end caps, particularly those made of galvanized steel, resulted in assemblies that were unreliable in terms of torque and resulting gas-tightness, and were aesthetically unpleasant. Specifically, the use of galvanized pipe and end caps created problems in verifying that proper amounts of torque had been applied to the sections of pipe so as to ensure a gas-tight seal. Thus it has been discovered that the use of galvanized steel tubing for creating the support sections for nozzles or jets that are used to create ornamental fire pits and displays has several significant disadvantages.

It has been discovered that the use of jets, which draw air and mix the air with gas flowing through the system, provide significant advantages over simply using plenums with apertures that allow gas to escape and burn. However, there also remains a need for an attachment of the jets to a gas distribution system that provides support for the jets, while at the same time providing an aesthetically pleasing, hermetic, routing for the flammable gas used to create the ornamental flames. One approach for providing jet support would be to weld or solder a boss to the components of the gas distribution system to support the jets. This is the approach used shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,539,420 to Kerr, discussed above, which uses fixed bosses that support jets with relatively large side apertures to create a tight, circular pattern, of high-temperature flames. However, this approach would greatly increase the cost of the components by increasing the amount of material used to create the system, and increasing the amount of machining needed to create the bosses. Additionally, a distribution system with integral, one piece, bosses lack the necessary adaptability to allow the assembly of fire pits of various sizes and shapes. Thus systems that have plenums with bosses at pre-established, fixed, locations allow creation of arrangements that use only the fixed locations of the bosses for the mounting of jets.

Therefore, a review of known devices reveals that there remains a need for an efficient system for creating flames for use in a decorative fire pit and produce controlled ornamental flame features for architectural design use, or for use as an independent ornamental flame display.

There remains a need for a system with components that allow the user to form a variety of flame patterns in a predictable and reliable manner.

There remains a need for a system that allows the creation of a variety of flame patterns, without requiring different castings with different boss locations.

There remains a need for a system that creates tall, orange-tone gas flames of relatively low temperature, as compared with blue gas flames commonly used for cooking or soldering.

There remains a need for a system that can be used with known, widely available, gasified fuel delivery systems, and that allow the creation of a large flame area or large flame volume, with a relatively small amount of gas.

Still further, there remains a need for a system that allows the user to spread out the flame jet locations, and use the positions of the flame jets to create a voluminous flame pattern, which results in more efficient distribution of light produced by the individual jets.

There remains a need for a system that allows the user to spread out the flame jet locations, and use the jet positioning to create a voluminous flame pattern with correspondingly distributed heat or flame sources, which will result in efficient distribution of heat and light produced by the individual jets used with the system. There remains a need for a system that allows the creation of ornamental flames along a line immediately above a pool of water.

SUMMARY

It has been discovered that the problems left unanswered by known art can be solved by providing a system that uses jet support sections and jet support connections to allow the user to create a gas delivery pattern that results in broad swirling of the gas being delivered, and in turn in thorough combustion of the gas delivered, which in turn results in wide dispersion of heat and light produced with the flames. The wide dispersion of the flames in turn results in reduced heat concentration, while at the same time resulting in broad dispersion of light. Additionally, the disclosed system allows arrangement of the jets in a manner that creates flow of a combustible mixture of air and liquefied petroleum (“LP”) gas or natural gas. The mixture being of a ration that does not create a flame that burns at dangerous or unmanageable temperatures, while at the same time creating a fuller wider natural dancing ornamental flame than achieved with devices in the prior art.

Still further, it has been discovered that the disclosed system allows the creation of ornamental pools with ornamental flames rising from just above the water. This not only provides the display of the flames created with the system, but also allows the flames to be reflected from the water, creating a particularly pleasing ornamental flame display.

According to an example disclosed here, the system uses jet support sections are formed from straight sections brass pipe, commonly referred to as nipples. The nipples will extend along a nipple axis and may include at least one aperture for accepting or creating a gas jet or jet that will deliver a stream of gas along a jet axis. The jet will be positioned along the nipple. The pipe nipple is preferably threaded to allow the user to point the jet at a desired angle to the plane of the section of pipe supporting the jet. In other words, if the nipple axis extends a generally horizontal plane, then a plane defined by the jet axis and the nipple axis will be at an angle to the horizontal plane. In some of the disclosed assemblies the nipple axis is often at 45 degrees to the axis of the jet, or the axis of the jet may be vertical. Accordingly, the angle of the jet relative to the nipple or conduit supporting the nipple may be varied in order to achieve different flame effects, such as swirling of the flames, or to create an arrangement where the flames fill a large volume without releasing large amounts of heat. For example, a large fireplace for a hotel lobby may be built and the hearth filled with flames formed using the disclosed inventive principles. The flames could be used to surround synthetic logs, and would provide the desired volume of a large fire without the danger and heat discomfort created by a wood fire of similar size. In other words, the disclosed system is particularly efficient in creating voluminous flames. Accordingly, flames created with the disclosed system may also be incorporated in back-yard fire pits or ornamental pools, and thus provide the attractiveness of a flame, while greatly reducing the danger of a similarly-sized fire created with wood, for example.

The support connections of disclosed examples might themselves include at least one aperture for accepting or feeding a gas jet or jet to deliver a stream of gas along a jet axis.

Thus, the disclosed system may be assembled to create a straight-line pattern, with a pair of long nipples extending from I-shaped support connector with a vertical inlet, each long nipple having multiple jets extending from each nipple. An “H” pattern could also with a I-shaped support connector with a vertical inlet and a pair of opposing nipples extending from the vertical inlet. Each of the opposing nipples may in turn support another I-shaped support connector, each of the I-shaped support connectors supported from the nipples having an inlet and a second pair of opposing nipples. The second pairs of opposing nipples would have an aperture for accepting or creating a gas jet or jet. The opposing nipples would be a pair of blind opposing nipples, and thus forcing any gas entering into the assembly to exit through the gas jets.

The I-shaped support connector with a vertical inlet may also have an aperture for accepting or creating a vertical gas jet or jet that is coaxially positioned with the vertical inlet. It is preferred that the second pairs of opposing nipples of this example would have jets that are pointed up, so that the jets deliver converging gas streams. This arrangement will allow the converging gas streams to create a swirling pattern of gas and air above the H-shaped arrangement. The swirling pattern of gas will be driven up by gas flowing from the vertical gas jet. It will be understood that the resulting flame will also have an upwardly swirling pattern, and thus will be far more visible and bright than flame patterns created with previously known systems.

Aboveground gas lines may be made of steel or ductile iron, copper, yellow brass, or aluminum pipe. Steel or ductile iron requires the use of PTFE (such as Teflon®) or other sealants in order to ensure a hermetic seal. These sealants are not designed for use next to flames, and thus steel or iron pipe is not particularly suitable for use as part of a gas flame manifold. Moreover, the appearance of steel or ductile iron piping is not aesthetically pleasing to many. Aluminum and copper are soft, malleable, metals that can produce gas-tight seals, but their use is disfavored due to the possibility of corrosion and pitting. This leaves brass as a desirable material for creating manifold for an ornamental gas flame manifold. However, while brass provides desirable sealing without scarring or marring, corrosion resistance, and aesthetic characteristics, it presents problems due to its malleability. The softness of brass often leads to unsightly scoring of the surfaces of the sections being joined.

Typically, nipples for gas pipes are connected to one another using pipe wrenches. Pipe wrenches are used because sections of pipe are typically cut to length as needed in the field, and then threaded in the field. The cut sections of pipe do not have landings to allow screwing the sections of pipe together, and thus pipe wrenches are commonly used to join sections of threaded pipe. The grip provided by the teeth of pipe wrenches against the surface of the pipe is needed to ensure a hermetic connection. However, the engagement of the teeth inherently results marring and gouging, or scarring, of the surfaces of the pipe almost inevitably occurs. This is especially true when the wrenches are used to provide sufficient torque to the brass sections being joined so as to create gastight seals between the components. Accordingly, disclosed embodiments use brass support sections such as pipe wrenches, to create an appropriate seal results in an unsatisfactory appearance on the ornamental gas flame manifold.

It has been discovered that problems associated with consistently creating sealed connections between sections of the system are greatly reduced, if not eliminated, by using nipples with integral features that allow turning of the nipples while connecting the threaded sections, without marring or scratching of the surfaces of the nipples. These features allow the assembly and installation of the disclosed systems in a reliable, repeatable manner without marring the surfaces of the nipples. Additionally, the use of a torque wrench provides the benefit of a reliable connection, without the marring of the surfaces of the nipples through the use of pipe wrenches.

Accordingly, it will be understood that the disclosed system provides at least the following benefits over the prior art:

The integration of the end caps and the nipples that support the jets results in fewer leak points;

The use of the jets that use the Venturi effect to accelerate the flow of gas and mix the gas with air results in a taller and brighter flame;

The use of jets with metering side apertures for creating an appropriate fuel-air mixture that is accelerated as the gas flows through the jet results in a more fuel-efficient system.

It should also be understood that while the above and other advantages and results of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, showing the contemplated novel construction, combinations and elements as herein described, and more particularly defined by the appended claims, it should be clearly understood that changes in the precise embodiments of the herein disclosed invention are meant to be included within the scope of the claims, except insofar as they may be precluded by the prior art.

