Injection Moulded Burner Element Fabrication Without Perforated Liner
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing burner element fabrication techniques require a perforated liner, limiting design freedom and resulting in thicker, less intricate burner elements with reduced combustion chamber volume, which constrains the amount of effluent gas that can be treated.
Innovation Solution
The method employs injection moulding to produce burner elements without a perforated support, allowing for thinner, more intricate designs with increased combustion chamber volume by using a charge comprising metal fibres, a flow compound, and a porogen, which can be debound before sintering to remove excess material and control porosity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a perforated liner is used with negative pressure accumulation, then the burner element can be formed, but the burner element becomes thicker and design freedom is constrained
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the perforated liner from the final burner element structure. The liner is used only as a temporary support during fabrication, then removed after sintering. This extraction eliminates the need for the liner to be an integral part of the burner, allowing thinner designs without structural compromise.
Solution Approach 2:
The perforated liner serves as a preliminary support structure during the accumulation and sintering processes. It provides temporary mechanical support to the green body during fabrication, but is designed to be removed afterward, allowing the final structure to be optimized without its constraints.
2Ease of manufacture
If a perforated liner is used with negative pressure accumulation, then the burner element can be formed, but design freedom and structural complexity are limited
Solution Approach 1:
By removing the perforated liner from the final product, the invention frees the burner element design from the geometric constraints imposed by the liner's hole pattern and structure. This allows intricate designs and varied structures that would not be possible with a permanent liner.
Solution Approach 2:
The fabrication process is segmented into stages: accumulation on liner, removal of liner, and sintering. This segmentation allows the liner to serve its manufacturing function temporarily without permanently constraining the final design, enabling greater versatility.
3Reliability
If thicker material accumulation is used, then local anomalies are compensated, but the combustion chamber volume is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Removing the perforated liner eliminates the need for excessive material accumulation. The liner's support function during fabrication allows the use of thinner material layers, as the structural integrity is maintained during manufacturing but not required in the final sintered product.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state and structural properties of the material through sintering. The green body with lower density and thinner sections can be successfully formed and then densified through sintering, achieving the desired reliability without requiring thick initial accumulation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the production of burner elements with greater design flexibility and increased gas treatment capacity per unit size, as the method allows for the creation of thinner, more complex structures with improved porosity and mechanical bonding, enhancing the efficiency of effluent gas treatment.
Implementation Method 1
injection moulding to produce the burner element
Implementation Method 2
The method may comprise debinding the moulded burner element to allow the flow compound to escape from the moulded burner element prior to sintering
Implementation Method 3
debinding the moulded burner element to allow the porogen to escape from the moulded burner element prior to sintering
Implementation Method 4
consequent sintering
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2C
Figure 2D~2F
AI summary
A method of fabricating a burner element for an abatement apparatus is disclosed. The method comprises: injection moulding a charge comprising metal particles and a flow compound into a mould defining the burner element to produce a moulded burner element; and sintering the moulded burner element. In this way, injection moulding is used to produce the burner element, which provides far more flexibility regarding the design and properties of the burner element and avoids the necessity of incorporating a perforated support into the burner element. This allows burner elements of more intricate design to be produced, as well as burner elements which are thinner than those produced using existing techniques, which increases the volume of a combustion chamber defined by that burner element for any external burner element size, which in turn increases the amount of effluent gas that can be treated for any burner size.