Rheem Manufacturing Company

Amin Akbarimonfared

Timothy J Shellenberger

Robert Steven Neihouse

Scott Alan Willbanks

Darryl J Farley

Nathan Taylor Whalen

Shawn Allan Reed

Kevin G Williams

Shawn Allen Reed

Bruce A Hotton

Juan Carlos Montanez

Satya Kiran Gullapalli

Jorge Miguel Gamboa

Robert Stuart Glass

Stephen Thurlkill

Juan Garcia

Leonard E Chambers

Christopher Hertzberg

Juan Cervantes

Trent E Thompson

Nathan T Whalen

A fuel-fired furnace incorporates specially designed fuel/air mixing and combustion structures. The fuel/air mixing structure is of a mixing sound-attenuating design and includes a venturi having a perforated sidewall portion and being surrounded by a noise-damping housing chamber communicating with the interior of the venturi via its sidewall perforations. During use of the mixing structure, air is flowed through the venturi in a swirling pattern while fuel is transversely injected internally against the swirling air. The combustion structure includes a burner box housing into which the fuel/air mixture is flowed, combusted, and then discharged as hot combustion gas into and through the heat exchanger tubes. The fuel/air mixture entering the burner box housing initially passes through a non-uniformly perforated diffuser plate functioning to substantially alter in a predetermined manner the relative combustion gas flow rates through the heat exchanger tubes.

Fuel/air mixture and combustion apparatus and associated methods for use in a fuel-fired heating apparatus

A boiler can have a combustion chamber, a burner, a heat exchanger in fluid communication with the combustion chamber, and a flue for removing a combustion product from the boiler. The burner has a protruding taper shape such as a cone or similar shape. The protruding taper shape of the burner distributes heat to the heat exchanger more evenly than a cylindrical shaped burner thereby reducing heat losses at the combustion chamber wall and increasing the thermal efficiency. The protruding taper shape of the burner also reduces noise associated with the operation of the burner.

Optimized burners for boiler applications

A water heater can include a baffle and a slab heat exchanger with at least two rows of heat exchanger tubes, each row comprising a plurality of heat exchanger tubes. At least one of the heat exchanger tubes comprises a tube and a plurality of fins on the exterior of the tube circumscribing the tube, wherein the outer edge of each fin of the plurality of fins is bent at least at the same three areas of each fin such that the bends form at least three flat or concave areas running along the length of the heat exchanger tube.

Heat exchanger tubes and tube assembly configurations

A fuel-fired furnace incorporates specially designed fuel/air mixing and combustion structures. The fuel/air mixing structure is of a mixing sound-attenuating design and comprises a venturi having a perforated sidewall portion and being surrounded by a noise-damping housing chamber communicating with the interior of the venturi via its sidewall perforations. During use of the mixing structure, air is flowed through the venturi in a swirling pattern while fuel is transversely injected internally against the swirling air. The combustion structure comprises a burner box housing into which the fuel/air mixture is flowed, combusted, and then discharged as hot combustion gas into and through the heat exchanger tubes. The fuel/air mixture entering the burner box housing initially passes through a non-uniformly perforated diffuser plate functioning to substantially alter in a predetermined manner the relative combustion gas flow rates through the heat exchanger tubes.

A fuel-fired device can include an air-moving device that mixes air and a fuel to generate a fuel-air mixture. The fuel-fired device can also include an air box that provides the air to the air-moving device, and a fuel valve that provides the fuel to the air-moving device, where the fuel valve includes a tracking port coupled to the air box, where the tracking port detects a pressure of the air box. The fuel-fired device can further provide a pressure-regulating device disposed between a pressurized component and the tracking port of the fuel valve. The flow regulating device can control, during an ignition phase of operation, an amount of the fuel provided by the fuel valve to the air-moving device.

Ignition control systems for fuel-fired devices

A tube for a thermal transfer device can include a wall having a length and having an inner surface and an outer surface, wherein the inner surface forms a cavity. The tube can also include at least one first dimple pressed into the wall toward the cavity at a first location along the length of the wall, where the inner surface of the wall at the at least one first dimple is separated from itself by a first distance. The tube can further include at least one second dimple pressed into the wall toward the cavity at a second location along the length of the wall, where the inner surface of the wall at the at least one second dimple is separated from itself by a second distance. The cavity can be configured to receive a fluid that flows continuously along a length of the at least one wall.

Heat exchanger tubes

To substantially reduce inequality in hot combustion flow rates through first and second heat exchanger tubes from a fuel-fired heating appliance burner box connected thereto and internally combusting a fuel/air mixture received therein from a source thereof to create the hot combustion gas, a perforated diffuser member having a non-uniform perforation pattern is provided. The fuel/air mixture is flowed through the perforated diffuser member into the interior of the burner box. The non-uniform perforation pattern of the diffuser member functions to alter relative combustion gas flow rates through the first and second heat exchanger tubes in a manner reducing an undesirable operating temperature differential therebetween.

Diffuser plate for premixed burner box

A burner assembly for a fuel-fired heating appliance that defines a direction of flow of a fuel and air mixture in a flow path. The burner assembly comprises a plurality burners defined in a unitary mesh structure. Each burner defines at least one peak at a distal end thereof in a direction of flow of a fuel and air mixture. The burner assembly also comprises a diffuser plate having a plurality of perforated areas defined therein and one or more imperforate areas between respective perforated areas of the plurality of perforated areas. The perforated areas respectively correspond to the plurality of burners. The diffuser plate is disposed in a fixed position upstream of the mesh structure so that, when the burner assembly is disposed in the flow path, a respective flow of the fuel and air mixture is directed from each of the plurality of perforated areas to its corresponding burner of the plurality of burners.

Growing community of inventors

Fort Smith, AR, United States of America

Amin Akbarimonfared