The objective of the invention is a simple and cost-effective construction of a wick holder in a candle (standalone or in a housing), all of which can be manufactured of compostable materials with known manufacturing processes and can, therefore, be disposed after use in a bio-waste bin and processed in industrial composting.

The wick in the candle delivers fuel (for example, molten wax) to the flame. The lower part of the wick is inserted into the wick holder. The wick holder holds the lower part of the wick in the designated position during the manufacturing of the candle. At the same time, it represents a safety device or an obstacle to prevent excessive heat or damage to the bottom of the housing and surface under the candle due to flame. At the end of burning, when the remainder of the wax is fully melted, the wick holder holds the wick in an upright position and prevents the wick from tipping over or floating over the liquid wax and causing the candle to function improperly or dangerously (e.g. melting or igniting the housing or surrounding areas).

Industrial composting is the process of converting waste into C0 ₂ , water, and compost under precisely defined conditions, i.e. at a certain temperature and humidity and in a limited time frame, as prescribed by international and national standards, e.g. EN 14995: 2006.

Technical problem

The disposal of used candles in a landfill is not environmentally friendly. In some countries, it is also prohibited; therefore, after use candles have to be separately collected, disassembled, separated to individual fractions of waste and each of them has to be handled appropriately, which causes additional costs. To produce a candle that can be fully composted after use, all of its components, including the wick holder, must be suitable for industrial composting. Known situation

In practice, wick holders are most commonly made of steel sheet or other non- compostable metallic materials. There are patents and other documents mentioning construction solutions for wick holders (WO 2012/082882, WO 2012/145380, US 2012/0077133, EP 1 054 054) and the use of various materials for the manufacturing of wick holders, including polymer and ceramics (WO 2004/083349), but nowhere is considered the use of design solutions and materials to enable the production of wick holders that could be treated in an industrial composting process after use.

Therefore, a technical problem that has not been solved satisfactorily is that none of the known implementations of the wick holder allows the manufacture of candles which could be fully composted after use, without any prior processing or disassembling of components. The object of the invention is to construct the wick holder in a candle, which will be able to endure the conditions in the candle (burning of the wick) and will be suitable for processing in the process of industrial composting due to the design solution and the selected materials. Furthermore, the design of the wick holder and the materials from which the wick is made allow manufacturing with known technologies for the processing of polymer materials, such as injection moulding, blow moulding, extrusion blow moulding, extrusion, and machining.

Description of the invention

The invention is described in the implementation example and figures illustrating: Fig. 1: the wick holder in axonometric projection

Fig. 2: schematic diagram of a built-in wick with the wick holder in the housing of a candle The wick holder is shown in Fig. 1. The main advantage or the feature of the invention is the selected material and construction. The wick holder is implemented as a body, which is preferably symmetrical in the vertical, but it can also be of any other form. In the preferred implementation, the holder is carried out as a body that is vertically symmetrical in shape and has a round shape in the longitudinal section. The distance of the side surface (1) of the wick holder from the outer surface of the wick (3) is greater than the diameter of the wick (3) and less than ten times the diameter of the wick (3), thus allowing sufficient fixation of the wick (3) in the holder. An opening (2) is made in the wick holder into which wick (3) is inserted during the assembly process. In the preferred implementation, the opening (2) is centrally positioned. The wick (3) is fixed due to friction, which occurs because of deformation of the holder and/or wick (3) during insertion of the wick (3) or additional plastic deformation of the holder after the wick (3) has already been inserted. The bottom surface (4) of the wick holder is designed in such a way to allow the wick holder to be coupled to the housing of the candle (5) in known ways, for example by means of adhesion, welding or form closure. This prevents any movement or toppling of the wick.

The distance of the upper surface (8) of the wick holder is more than the diameter of the wick (3) and less than seven times the diameter of the wick (3) from the lower surface (4), thus allowing the flame to go out when the candle has burnt out.

On the side surface (1) of the holder, one or more additional housing openings (6) connected with the opening (2) can optionally be made, whereby the side openings (6) are preferably implemented in such a way to be in contact with the lower surface (4). The function of the additional side openings (6) is to allow fuel inflow (7), for example molten wax, to the wick (3), allowing fuel (7) to be used fully. When burning a candle, in the case with a side opening (6), fuel (7) is also used, which lies below the top surface (8) of the wick holder. At the same time, the wick (3) can be curved and pushed through the side opening (6) during the assembly process, which further prevents the disassembling of the wick (3) from the wick holder during the manufacturing of the candle.

The wick holder is made of a compostable material that allows the manufacture with known polymer processing technologies such as injection moulding, blow moulding, extrusion blow moulding, extrusion, and machining. Relevant materials are polymers based on starch, cellulose, polylactic acid, etc., with additives for thermal resistance and self-extinguishing, which are suitable for composting.