Back to results
US 5,951,276 AGranted
Electrically enhanced hot surface igniter
OwnerJames R. Jaeschke, Gordon B. Spellmaninventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electronic control circuit (10) for a gas oven including a hot surface igniter (24) which is heated through the application of electrical current to a temperature sufficient to ignite gas supplied through an electrically actuable gas valve (26). The applied current is regulated by a micro-controller (20) which controllably gates on a triac (14) while taking into consideration a sensed current level.
Claims13
An electronic control circuit for a gas oven comprising:
- an electrically actuable heated surface igniter;
- an electrically actuable valve, said valve being movable between an opened position wherein gas is permitted to flow across said igniter and a closed position where said flow of gas is prohibited;
- a source of alternating electrical current;
- a triac;
- and
- a controller circuit coupled between said valve and said triac and being adapted to produce a digital signal indicative of the current level through said valve, said controller being further adapted to provide a gating signal to said triac in response to said digital signal in order to achieve a desired current level through said valve.
3 more elements
A method for controlling the application of heat to a gas oven, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a heated surface igniter in the path of the flow of a gas;
- providing an electrically actuable valve which moves between an opened position which allows gas to flow across said igniter and a closed position in which gas is prevented from flowing, said valve being moved between said positions in response to the level of applied electrical current;
- applying an electrical signal to said igniter and said valve, said signal being pulse density modulated, and
- monitoring the level of current in said applied electrical signal and in response thereto, adjusting the density of current pulses applied to said igniter to achieve a desired current level.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.