Spring-Mounted Ethanol Supply Container for Constant Burner Level
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ethanol furnaces experience non-uniform combustion and changing flame patterns due to varying ethanol levels in the burner cassette, leading to inefficient burning and potential safety issues like deflagration and odor emissions, especially when the cassette is almost empty.
Innovation Solution
An adjustable storage vessel mounted via a spring arrangement ensures a constant ethanol level in the burner cassette by raising the vessel as the ethanol content decreases, maintaining a consistent fuel level and flame pattern through a communicating tube system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the storage vessel is fixed in position, then the structure is simple, but the ethanol level in the burner cassette varies during operation causing non-uniform combustion
Solution Approach 1:
The storage vessel is mounted on a spring arrangement that allows it to move vertically in response to changing ethanol weight. This dynamic mounting enables the vessel to automatically adjust its position to maintain constant ethanol level in the burner cassette, resolving the contradiction between structural simplicity and level stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring-mounted storage vessel self-adjusts its height as ethanol is consumed. The system automatically compensates for weight loss by allowing the vessel to rise on the spring, maintaining the communicating vessel level equality without external intervention, thus achieving stable composition with minimal structural complexity.
2Reliability
If the storage vessel is raised to maintain ethanol level, then combustion uniformity improves, but the mechanism becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The spring mechanism automatically raises the storage vessel as ethanol is consumed, using the weight loss itself as the driving force. This self-service adjustment ensures reliable combustion performance without requiring complex external adjustment mechanisms, sensors, or actuators.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring-mounted system provides continuous feedback through the weight of remaining ethanol. As ethanol burns and weight decreases, the spring automatically adjusts the vessel position to maintain the correct level in the burner cassette, ensuring consistent combustion reliability through passive feedback control.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the storage vessel is mounted on a spring arrangement to maintain constant ethanol level, then combustion uniformity improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The spring mounting creates a dynamic system where the storage vessel position automatically adjusts with ethanol consumption. This simple dynamic mechanism maintains constant burner output by preserving the communicating vessel level relationship, achieving composition stability with minimal added complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring arrangement acts as a counterweight mechanism, balancing the weight of the storage vessel and its ethanol content. As weight decreases from consumption, the spring's elastic force automatically compensates by allowing the vessel to rise, maintaining the level equilibrium needed for consistent burner performance.
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 configuration provides a reliable and constant burner output and flame pattern, preventing deflagration and odor issues by maintaining a consistent ethanol level in the burner cassette, ensuring safe and efficient operation.
Implementation Method 1
The ethanol is then fed to the burner cartridge from this intermediate container... connected via a connecting line to the lower end of the vertical burner tube according to the principle of the communicating tube
Implementation Method 2
the height-adjustable storage vessel being resiliently mounted via a spring arrangement, with the spring arrangement being designed in such a way that an ethanol level in the storage vessel during operation is constantly the same as an ethanol level in the burner cassette
Implementation Method 3
the mixture of vaporized ethanol with oxygen takes place continuously at other points across the height of the burner cassette
Implementation Method 4
the mixture of vaporized ethanol with oxygen takes place continuously at other points across the height of the burner cassette, which leads to a non-uniform burner output over the burning time
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 4
AI summary
The ethanol furnace system comprises an ethanol burner (52) having a burner cartridge (54), said ethanol burner being connected to a supply container (16) for ethanol (104) via a connection line (50). According to the invention, the supply container (16) is to be formed in a height-adjustable manner, wherein the height-adjustable supply container (16) is spring-mounted via a spring assembly (20), wherein the spring assembly (20) is formed in such a way that an ethanol level (112) in the supply container (16) during operation is continuously equal to an ethanol level (112) in the burner cartridge (54), wherein the supply container (16) can be raised by the spring assembly (20) when the ethanol-contents reduces, such that the level uniformity can be automatically adjusted.