Wax Burning Method and Apparatus

Abstract

A wax burning system provides a melting plate and burning assembly for maintaining a burning flame to consume substantially all of the provided wax in the system.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the priority of Provisional Application 61 / 061,207 filed on Jun. 13, 2008, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Flaming entities like candles or torches are limited in their ability to produce a larger flame without creating a plume or a periodic wisp of soot. Similarly, larger flames tend to be excessively high for safe indoor use, resulting in fire hazard concerns. Smaller flames produced limited light and cannot generate enough heat to sufficiently melt a solid fuel fast enough or completely enough. This is especially true in wax burning products that are intended to deliver a volatile active ingredient, like fragrance, insect repellent, aroma therapy compound, or other additives that a user desires to fill an area to perform a meaningful job like scenting a room or repelling insects.[0003]Because a flame's ability to cast light and generate heat flux into a ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention is a solid fuel system that produces a bigger flame with specific shapes. It can handle solid fuel to burn brighter, without sooting, and resist extinguishing easily. This system creates a larger melt pool faster than existing alternatives, which results in more light being shed and better performance.

Problems solved by technology

Flaming entities like candles or torches are limited in their ability to produce a larger flame without creating a plume or a periodic wisp of soot.

Similarly, larger flames tend to be excessively high for safe indoor use, resulting in fire hazard concerns.

Smaller flames produced limited light and cannot generate enough heat to sufficiently melt a solid fuel fast enough or completely enough.

Because a flame's ability to cast light and generate heat flux into a system relies on the flame's surface area, currently available wax burning alternatives are inadequate to offer brighter lighting without the plume of ash or soot.

Traditional candles are greatly limited in their ability to shed light because of the vertical pillar nature of their flame geometry.

Even planar wicks, which can increase the length of a flame), cannot create large flames without sooting excessively.

Oil lanterns (that run on liquid fuels like kerosene, mineral oil, olive oil, or other liquid fuel) can create a larger flame with a planar wick but these products will not manage heat transfer required to both melt and deliver a melted wax to the flame.

Oil lanterns simply cannot tolerate solid fuels.

The limited flame surface area of traditional wax candles also creates inability to deliver enough heat to a candle or wax burning system to offset the natural cooling that tends to keep a wax solid or reforms the melted wax into a solid as the radial distance from the candle flame increase.

Because of this, traditional candles fail to completely consume all of the solid wax fuel—unless the total distance from the flame is kept very small (as in a tea light).

However, because the melt pool surface area remains very small, this kind of system fails to volatilize any active ingredient and deliver it to the air efficiently or completely.

In doing do, the light of an already small flame is further diminished, and the aesthetics of the flame are compromised.

Outdoor candles, even candles with larger wicks and larger flames whose flames are exposed to the natural elements, tend to be susceptible to extinguishing—even in the slightest breeze.

They are also often very susceptible to the ambient temperatures.

These products are unable to be used and to operate as designed or intended because they are greatly dependent on ambient temperature conditions.

Presently there is no product that offers a larger flame without sooting.

No product produces a flame that is resistant to extinguishing in the wind.

No wax burning product works reliably in a wide range of ambient temperature conditions.

No available system can melt a solid wax fuel completely and quickly without the need to compromise the flame, as with a metal fin in the flame or an apparatus that hangs above a flame.

Images