United States Patent 9,784,449
Flame Sensing System
Issued 10/10/2017 to Margolin
Application Number 14,316,489
Filed 6/26/2014
Jed Margolin
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
This invention relates to the field of sensing flames in equipment such as gas furnaces by using the electrical properties of flames. In a first group of embodiments flame rectification is used to cause distortion of a signal having a selected waveform. A harmonic of the distorted waveform is detected thereby providing flame proof. In a second group of embodiments flame rectification is used as a mixer to cause two signals having selected waveforms to produce sum and difference signals. The sum and/or difference signals are detected thereby providing flame proof.
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File Wrapper (10/10/2017) |
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Transaction History (10/10/2017 |
This patent is for sale or license. Principals only.
References
The listed links are the original links. In some cases they may be broken.
The PDF version was made from the original link.
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IDS 1: U.S. Patent 1,688,126 Method of and Apparatus for Control of Liquid Fuel Burners issued Oct 16, 1928 to R.F. Metcalfe, assigned to Socony Burner Corporation (Metcalfe Figure 1 Contacts 7 and 8; Page 3, right column, lines 70 – 79) |
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IDS 2: U.S. Patent 2,112,736 Flame Detector issued March 29, 1938 to William D. Cockrell, assigned to General Electric (Page 1, left column, line 41 – Page 2, right column, line 15) |
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IDS 3: U.S. Patent 2,136,256 Furnace Control System issued Nov 8, 1938 to A.L Sweet, assigned to General Electric Company (age 1, left column, line 4 – Page 2, left column line 2) |
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IDS 4: U.S. Patent 3,301,307 Device for detecting the configuration of a burning flame issued Jan 31, 1967 to Kazuo Kobayashi, et al, assigned to Ngk Insulators Ltd (Column 2, lines 3 -15) |
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IDS 5: U.S. Patent 4,082,493 Gas Burner Control System issued April 4, 1978 to Dahlgren, assigned to Cam-Stat, Incorporated (Dahlgren Figure 2 and Column 3, lines 32 – 42; Table at Column 3, lines 20-30) |
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IDS 6: U.S. Patent 8,310,801 Flame sensing voltage dependent on application issued November 13, 2012 to McDonald, et al., assigned to Honeywell (Column 2, lines 10 – 44) |
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IDS 7: U.S. Patent 6,404,342 Flame detector using filtering of ultraviolet radiation flicker issued June 11, 2002 to Planer, et al. and assigned to Honeywell (Column 1, lines 21 – 32) |
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IDS 8: Prediction and Measurement of Electron Density and Collision Frequency in a Weakly Ionised Pine Fire by Mphale, Mohan, and Heron; Int J Infrared Milli Waves (2007) 28:251–262; DOI 10.1007/s10762-007-9199-7; http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/2655/1/17300_Mphale_et_al_2007.pdf |
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IDS 9: Conduction of Electricity Through Gases by J. J. Thomson; Cambridge University Press; 1903,1906; Chapter IX Ionization in Gases from Flames; page 228, PDF page 8; http://trove.nla.gov.au/goto?i=book&w=808233&d=http%3A%2F%2Fopenlibrary.org%2Fbooks%2FOL7102511M |
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IDS 10: About Plasmas from the Coalition For Plasma Science; Plasma and Flames – The Burning Question; http://www.plasmacoalition.org/plasma_writeups/flame.pdf |
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IDS 11: Plasma Fundamentals and Applications; by Dr. I.J. Van der Walt, Senior Scientist, Necsa contains a chart (PDF page 8) |
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IDS 12: Introduction to Combustion; by Stephen R. Turns, McGraw Hill Education (India); Page 108, PDF page 3; page 159, bottom of PDF page 5. |
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IDS 13: Burning Sulfur Compounds; Banks Engineering – Tulsa; http://www.banksengineering.com/Burning%20Sulfur%20Compounds.pdf |
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IDS 14: Alkali metal halide, Wikipedia January 19, 2014; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkali_metal_halide |
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IDS 15: Alkali Metal, Wikipedia January 19, 2014; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkali_metal |
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IDS 16: U.S. Patent 4,317,487 Method of recovering oil and other hydrocarbon values from subterranean formations issued March 2, 1982 to Merkl, and assigned to Molecular Energy Research Company, Inc. |
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IDS 17: Grades of Propane - Gas Purity and Quality |
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IDS 18: The Truth About Propane |
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IDS 19: U.S. Patent 307,031 Electrical indicator issued October 21, 1884 to T. A. Edison. |
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IDS 20: U.S. Patent 803,684 Instrument for converting alternating electric currents into continuous current issued November 7, 1905 to J.A. Fleming, assigned to Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Of America. |
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IDS 22: Dissertation Counter Electromotive Force in the Aluminum Rectifier; Albert Lewis Fitch, Press of the New Era Printing Co.; Lancaster, Pa; 1917; Pages 15-17). |
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IDS 23: U.S. Patent 1,077,628 Electrolytic condenser issued November 4, 1913 to Mershon {Ref. 27} Page 1, lines 40-50 |
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IDS 24: General Descriptions of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors, 1-1 Principles of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors’ Nichicon; Page 1. http://www.nichicon.co.jp/english/products/pdf/aluminum.pdf |
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IDS 25: Batteries and electrochemical capacitors; Héctor D. Abruña, Yasukuki Kiya, and Jay C. Henderson; Physics Today December 2008, page 43-47 https://ecee.colorado.edu/~ecen4555/SourceMaterial/ElectricalEnerStor1208.pdf . |
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IDS 26: Electroplating; from Wikipedia, retrieved 2/1/2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroplating |
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IDS 27: U.S. Patent 3,956,080 Coated valve metal article formed by spark anodizing issued May 11, 1976 to Hradcovsky, et al.; Column 2 lines 10 – 48. |
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IDS 28: The front pages of the datasheets for the 5U4GB, 5Y3GT, and 6X4/12X4 vacuum tube rectifiers |
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IDS 29: Visual Analyzer 2011 XE Beta 0.3.2 - Visual Analyzer is a real time software program that contains a comprehensive set of measurement instruments, including an FFT Analyzer. It runs on a PC running Windows and can use existing internal sound hardware or can use external hardware. http://www.sillanumsoft.org/ |
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IDS 30: The Art of Electronics, Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill, Cambridge University Press, 1991, pages 885-886. |
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IDS 32: Datasheet for LM13700, Texas Instruments, Figure 37 Sinusoidal VCO. |
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IDS 33: U.S. Patent 2,709,799 Flame Detector System issued May 31, 1955 to M. H. Norton, assigned to Petcar Research. |
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IDS 34: U.S. Patent 2,804,608 Flame Detector System issued August 27, 1957 to Carbauh, assigned to Petcar Research Corp. |
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Examiner’s References:
U.S. Patent 6,501,383 Method and device for monitoring a flame issued December 31, 2002 to Haupenthal
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U.S. Patent 6,486,486 Flame monitoring system issued November 26, 2002 to Haupenthal
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Publication 2008/0266000 Digital Frequency Multiplier published October 30, 2008; Ngo et al.
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Examiner’s References
Publication 2014/0085503 Mobile Communication Apparatus and Flashlight Controlling Method Wen-Yueh Su; et al. published March 27, 2014.
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US Patent 5,547,369 Camera, spectrum analysis system, and combustion evaluation apparatus employing them issued August 20, 1996 to Sohma, et al.
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Examiner’s References
US Patent 5,051,590 Fiber optic flame detection and temperature measurement system having one or more in-line temperature dependent optical filters issued September 24, 1991 to Kern.
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US Patent 5,300,836 Flame rod structure, and a compensating circuit and control method thereof issued April 5, 1994 to Cha.
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Publication 2012/0280134 Monitoring of the presence of two flames in a fuel combustion device published November 8, 2012; Diebold.
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Publication 2014/0162197 Multijet Burner with charge interaction published June 12, 2014; Krichtafovitch.
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Publication 2015/0362177 Flame position control electrodes published 12-2015; Krichtafovitch.
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This patent is for sale or license.
I have done a reference design using a MSP430G2352 which produces two signals (1262 Hz and 874 Hz) and sends it to a standard flame rod. The MSP430G2352 does quadrature detection of the difference signal (388 Hz) which can only be produced by the non-linearity of flame rectification. When a flame is detected it turns on an LED and also turns on a relay which sends a robust simulated flame signal to the furnace control board. The system operates at low voltage as opposed to the standard method used in residential gas furnaces which uses the un-isolated Mains (which is barbaric). Do it with SMT and it will be much smaller.
The MSP430G2352 also sends the detected quadrature values out through its SPI port. I made another board to receive it and display the values on a 16x2 LCD panel.
This demo is using a Meker burner. It works even better with a furnace.
This board produces a simulated flame signal used for testing.
Here’s an idea.
Send the SPI port to a Raspberry Pi with WiFi Direct so it can be used either with a Smart Phone (or Tablet) or through your home’s wireless router so you can read the detected quadrature values. It they start to go down it probably means your flame rod is getting dirty. Either clean it or replace it before it stops working and you wake up to a freezing cold house.
Even better, use an optocoupler to detect the Call For Heat produced by the thermostat. Now you know when the Call for Heat was issued and when you got a flame. If this time period starts to get longer then, again, your flame rod is getting dirty. Have the Raspberry Pi send you an email or text message.
Now the Raspberry Pi can log all of the furnace starts (and stops) by time and date so you will know the percentage of time your furnace is running. An oversized furnace will run a low percentage of the time. On the coldest night a properly sized furnace will run almost continuously. (BTW, houses are subject to wind-chill, too.) Is your furnace oversized? If it is, it means the blower isn’t running often enough. You could add a relay to control the Call For Fan and have the Raspberry Pi turn the blower on periodically (or on a schedule) so your house is properly ventilated. (Do any of the fancy schmancy thermostats do that?)
Suppose you have a family member or friend who still lives independently with some help. The failure of a furnace on a cold night could be life-threatening. If the furnace fails (or is about to fail) have the Raspberry Pi send you an email or text message so you can help your family member or friend.
You can instrument the furnace to provide more data. Measure the blower motor current. If it starts to get higher then either the filter needs to be replaced or the blower motor is wearing out. Measure the current to the gas valve so you know when the gas valve has been ordered to open. Measure the current to the inducer motor and read the signal from the pressure switch. If something goes wrong you will have a good idea what it is and what parts you or your furnace repair tech need. And detect a Call For Cooling and detect that the A/C is coming on. A failure of the A/C can also be life-threatening.
You can also make a thermostat with WiFi that talks to your RaspBerry Pi. It won’t need any control wires to the furnace, only power. And the power doesn’t have to come from the furnace. It doesn’t even need to be a thermostat, only a temperature sensor. The scheduling would be done in your RaspBerry Pi at the furnace. All you need for the remote WiFi temperature sensor is a $5 RaspBerry Pi Zero, a power supply, and a BME280 temperature sensor. If you use a sensor that measures temperature and humidity you can control the furnace according to the Comfort Index. (And why do Google/Nest and Honeywell charge so much for their WiFi thermostats?)
Since the remote WiFi sensor only needs power you can move it to different parts of the house according to the season. Or you can have more than one so that at different times of the day (and different seasons) you can use a different sensor to control the furnace (or A/C).
The patent covers only the Flame Sensing System. The rest is up to you.
Maybe you could start your own company and someday eat Google/Nest's and Honeywell's thermostat and furnace control businesses for lunch.
This patent is for sale or license to principals only.
Jed Margolin
Virginia City Highlands
Nevada
I recently discovered that the data produced by using a quadrature synchronous detector can be used to infer the air/fuel mixture of gas used to produce the flame. This is the Abstract of my Provisional Application System for controlling premixed flames:
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
Flames exhibit the properties of both resistance and what can best be described as capacitance. The flame capacitance and flame resistance are both affected by the temperature of the flame. Both flame resistance and flame capacitance decrease as the flame temperature increases and increase as the flame temperature decreases. The flame capacitance and flame resistance cause a time delay in an applied signal. When flame rectification is used to heterodyne two signals and quadrature synchronous detection is used for the resulting sum and/or difference signals this time delay causes a phase delay between the detected in-phase and quadrature-phase signals. The temperature of a flame is affected by the fuel/air mixture, reaching a maximum at stoichiometric. Thus this method can be used to determine the optimum desired fuel/air mixture of a premixed flame.
The USPTO Filing Receipt for my application contains a Foreign Filing License which preserves the patent rights under the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
For my Provisional Application and Filing Receipt Click Here.
I would like to sell the patent and the provisional application for cash with no royalties.
You can make initial contact with me through my FormMail at the bottom of my homepage at www.jmargolin.com.
Here are the References in the application.
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Ref. 1
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U.S. Patent 4,585,161 Air fuel ratio control system for furnace issued April 29, 1986 to Kusama, et al.
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Ref. 2 |
U.S. Patent 4,942,832 Method and device for controlling NOx emissions by vitiation issued July 24, 1990 to Finke
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Ref. 3 |
U.S. Patent 10,151,483 Method for monitoring and controlling combustion in fuel gas burner apparatus, and combustion control system operating in accordance with said method issued December 11, 2018 to Abate, et al.
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Ref. 4 |
U.S. Patent 9,784,449 Flame Sensing System issued 10/10/2017 to Margolin
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Ref. 5 |
Conduction of Electricity Through Gases (1903, 1906), Chapter IX Ionization in Gases from Flames, J.J. Thomson. Page 228, (PDF page 8); http://trove.nla.gov.au/goto?i=book&w=808233&d=http%3A%2F%2F openlibrary.org%2Fbooks%2FOL7102511M
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Ref. 6 |
Ionic structure of methane flames, Timothy Wayne Pedersen, Iowa State University, 1991. PDF page 20, PDF page 22, PDF page 25.
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Ref. 7
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Prediction and Measurement of Electron Density and Collision Frequency in a Weakly Ionised Pine Fire by Mphale, Mohan, and Heron; Int J Infrared Milli Waves (2007) 28:251–262; DOI 10.1007/s10762-007-9199-7; http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/2655/1/17300_Mphale_et_al_2007.pdf
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Ref. 8 |
Introduction to Combustion; by Stephen R. Turns, McGraw Hill Education (India); Page 108, PDF page 3; page 159, bottom of PDF page 5.
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Ref. 9 |
Burning Sulfur Compounds; Banks Engineering – Tulsa; http://www.banksengineering.com/Burning%20Sulfur%20Compounds.pdf
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Ref. 10
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Alkali metal halide, Wikipedia January 19, 2014; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkali_metal_halide
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Ref. 11 |
Metal, Wikipedia January 19, 2014; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkali_metal
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Ref. 12 |
U.S. Patent 4,317,487 Method of recovering oil and other hydrocarbon values from subterranean formations issued March 2, 1982 to Merkl, and assigned to Molecular Energy Research Company, Inc.
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Ref. 13
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Grades of Propane - Gas Purity and Quality http://www.propane101.com/propanegradesandquality.htm
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Ref. 14
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The Truth About Propane http://www.thriftypropane.com/truthaboutpropane.aspx
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Ref. 15 |
The Art of Electronics, Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill, Cambridge University Press, 1991, pages 885-886.
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Jed Margolin
Virginia City Highlands
Nevada
12/04/2022