Loading patent…
AssigneeTutco, Inc.
InventorsKeith Howard, Jimmy L. Sherrill, Ike Walker
Estimating the term…
A heater having a frame rail and clips, attached to the rail, for securing insulators for supporting a heater coil. Each clip has a main body having a structural member for securing to the rail, and having a pair of flanges symmetrical about a central axis. Each flange has a cut-out for supporting an insulator, the cut-out having an open end, a back abutment edge and a pair of side abutment edges. A bendable tab is located at either side of the open end, each having a first and a second position. In the first position an insulator is insertable into the cut-out, and the insulator is secured by bending the tabs to their second position. Optionally the main body has a cross-section that accommodates the cross section of the rail and the rail is welded to the channel. Alternatively, a plurality of clinching flaps extend from the main body, the flaps shaped and dimensioned for bending around and clinching the rail.
A metal clip for attaching to a rail of a frame of an electric heater and for supporting at least one insulator, comprising:
An apparatus for supporting a heater coil on a frame rail within a heater, comprising:
A heater, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Backward citations are indexed for grants only.
Details: heater elements structurally combined with coupling elements or holders
Heating elements characterised by the composition or nature of the materials or by the arrangement of the conductor: the conductor being mounted…
Non-flexible: heating conductor mounted on insulators on a metallic frame
Electric heating
Term end not estimated
The present invention relates to clips for supporting insulators in electric heaters. More particularly, this invention relates to a flat metal clip for supporting a flat ceramic insulator which has at least one closed or open hole for retaining an electrical resistance heating coil.
The use of round bushing or barrel-shaped ceramic insulators to support electric resistance heating coils, which are “strung through” the bushings, is well known in the prior art. The use of flat ceramic insulators with either a closed hole or an open-ended hole at each end of the insulator to support electric resistance heating coils is also known in the art. Also known in the art are flat insulators with only one closed or open-ended hole, often referred to as “half insulators”.
Bushing insulator supports require at least one bushing ceramic insulator at each support point for the resistance heating coil, and a metal support for holding each insulator. On the other hand, flat insulators with a closed or open-ended hole at each end can support an electric resistance heating coil at both ends of the insulator.
FIG. 1 is a top view of an example embodiment of a welded mount double clip according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a top view of an example embodiment of a clinch mount double clip according to the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a front view of a T-bar heater frame rail for use with a clip in accordance with FIG. 2;
FIG. 1 depicts a top view of a first embodiment of a double clip, labeled by reference numeral 1, in accordance with the present invention. The example double clip 1 has a semi-cylindrical channel 2, having a diameter D and a depth D/2 in a direction into the surface of the drawing, the channel extending along an axis AX. The function of the channel 2, as described in greater detail below, is to accommodate a frame rail to which the clip 1 is welded. The FIG. 1 example is for a round frame rail and, therefore, the channel 2 is a semi-cylinder. Other shapes of the channel 2 can be used for other cross-sectional shapes of frame rails.
Extending from one side of the channel 2, in a first direction perpendicular to AX, is a first inward flange 4. Extending from the other side of the channel 2, in a direction opposite the first direction, is a second inward flange 6. The first and second inward flanges of the depicted example preferably lie in a common plane, such as the plane labeled “P” in FIGS. 8 and 9 described further below. A first support flange 8 extends in the first direction from the first inward flange 4 and, likewise, a second support flange 10 extends, in a direction opposite the first direction, from the second inward flange 6. At a distal end of the first support flange 8 a first outer tab flange 12 extends in the AX direction and, similarly, at a distal end of the second support flange 10 a second outer tab flange 14, preferably identical in form to the first outer support flange 12, extends in the AX direction. The dimension from the outer edge 12A of the first outer tab support flange to the outer edge 14A of the second outer tab support flange is labeled AL.
The exposed outer edge 4A of the first inner flange 4, the edge 8A of the first support flange 8 extending in the first direction and intersecting 4A, and the inner edge 12A of the first outer tab support 12 define a first cut-out 16. Similarly, the exposed outer edge 6A of the second inner flange 6, the edge 10A of the second support flange 10 extending opposite the first direction and intersecting 6A, and the inner edge 14A of the second outer tab support 14 define a second cut-out 18.