Close packing briquet shapes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11034904-B2
Application number	US-201816149337-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 2, 2018
Priority date	Oct 4, 2017
Publication date	Jun 15, 2021
Grant date	Jun 15, 2021

Abstract

Briquet designs that facilitate close packing and improve burn efficiency are provided herein. Such designs can include scaled down briquet size and close packing shapes, which can include pyramidal shaped portions, such as rectangular pyramids and tetrahedron shapes, as well as oblate spheroid and hexoid shapes, to facilitate closer random packing when the briquets are randomly arranged in a pile when poured from a bag. Some briquet shapes can further include special surface features, such as flattened or rounded portions or depressions, such as dimples, that reduce volume without increasing the bulk density in order to further improve burn performance and efficiency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A briquet comprising:
a solid combustible fuel formed in a shape,
wherein the shape is defined to allow for close-packing at a density of 450 to 3,000 briquets per cubic foot when a plurality of briquets of like shape are randomly arranged within a randomly poured pile,
wherein the shape comprises a pair of polygonal pyramidal portions extending from opposite sides of a polygonal mid-plane portion, wherein each polygonal pyramidal portion comprises a flattened or depressed portion only within an apex region thereof.

2. The briquet of claim 1 , wherein the shape is defined so that a volume of each briquet is within a range between 0.2 to 2 cubic inches.

3. The briquet of claim 1 , wherein the shape is defined so a total number of edges within the randomly poured pile is within a range from 5,000 to 15,000 inches per cubic foot.

4. The briquet of claim 1 , wherein the shape comprises one or more surface features comprising 35% or less of the total surface area of the briquet, wherein the surface feature comprises a depression.

5. The briquet of claim 1 , wherein the shape comprises one or more polygonal pyramidal portions.

6. The briquet of claim 5 , wherein the one or more polygonal pyramidal portions comprise a pair of polygonal pyramidal portions extending from opposing sides of a polygonal mid-plane portion.

7. The briquet of claim 5 , wherein the polygonal mid-plane portion is a regular polygon with three or more sides.

8. The briquet of claim 5 , wherein the one or more polygonal pyramidal portions comprise a rectangular or triangular pyramid.

9. A close packing briquet comprising:
a solid combustible fuel formed in a shape,
wherein the shape comprises a pair of polygonal pyramidal portions extending from opposite sides of a polygonal mid-plane portion, wherein the polygonal mid-plane portion comprises a square with rounded corners and each side having an inwardly-curved concave portion,
wherein the briquet is shaped and dimensioned to facilitate close packing when a plurality of briquets of like shape are randomly arranged within a randomly poured pile.

10. The briquet of claim 9 , wherein the shape comprises a volume within a range from 0.20 to 2.0 cubic inches.

11. The briquet of claim 10 , wherein close packing comprises a density of 450 to 3,000 briquets per cubic foot.

12. The briquet of claim 9 , wherein each of the one or more pyramidal portions comprise a plurality of sloped faces extending toward an apex, wherein a sloping of the plurality of sloped faces comprises an aspect ratio of about 1:1.

13. The briquet of claim 9 , wherein the inwardly curved concave portion of each side extends partly along the top and bottom faces extending from the mid-plane sides.

14. The briquet of claim 9 , wherein each of the one or more polygonal pyramidal portions comprises a plurality of faces, wherein the faces are curved.

15. The briquet of claim 9 , wherein the one or more polygonal pyramidal portions comprises a first polygonal pyramidal portion defining a top surface of the briquet and a second polygonal pyramidal portion defining a bottom surface, wherein any edges or transitions between faces are curved such that each of the top and bottom surface is a substantially continuous surface.

16. The briquet of claim 9 , wherein each of the polygonal pyramidal portions comprises a flattened or depressed portion only within an apex region.

17. The briquet of claim 16 , wherein the flattened or depressed portion is defined along an upper third or less of the respective pyramidal portion.

18. The briquet of claim 16 , wherein the depressed portion comprises a circular dimple.

19. The briquet of claim 16 , wherein the depressed portion comprises an irregular shape or marking.

20. The briquet of claim 9 , wherein the one or more polygonal pyramidal portions comprise two opposing irregular triangular pyramids.

21. The briquet of claim 20 , wherein the two opposing irregular triangular pyramids are defined so as to define, in combination, a larger pyramidal portion comprising a majority of the briquet.

Assignees

• Clorox Co

Inventors

• Long Joshua
• Fisher Stephen
• Swatling Donald
• Brown Stefan

Classifications

• C10L5/361 Primary

  Briquettes · CPC title

• A47J37/0768

  Disposable barbecue packages containing a quantity of fuel, e.g. charcoal · CPC title

• A47J37/079

  Charcoal igniting devices · CPC title

• C10L5/36

  Shape · CPC title

• C10L5/00

  Solid fuels (produced by solidifying fluid fuels C10L7/00; peat briquettes C10F7/06) · CPC title