KINDLER. BLOCK OF KINDLERS AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING

THE BLOCK

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a kindler which is made of a piece of wood. The invention also relates to a block of kindlers and a method of manufacturing such a block.

Background Art

When a fire is to be kindled outdoors, in a combustion device or the like, it is almost impossible to kindle the fuel, in the form of firewood, coal or the like, directly using a match or some other kindling means. As a rule, it is necessary to use kindling aids in the form of paper, sticks of wood etc.

However, it has been known for a long time to use special kindling aids, which in this text are referred to as kindlers, in order to facilitate the process of kindling the fuel. The idea of a kindler is that it should be possible to put it in the fireplace, cover the kindler with the fuel, however in such a manner that the kindler can still be reached, and finally light the kindler using the kindling means. If you always have a kindler at hand, it will be both quicker and smoother to kindle the actual fuel.

There are many variants of kindlers that are impregnated with a particularly flammable substance. For environmental reasons and also many other reasons, it is however desirable to use a kindler of pure wood. An example of a known wood kindler is disclosed in US Patent No. 248 849. This prior art kindler is a piece of wood, in which grooves have been sawn in two different directions, thereby forming a number of slats. A match is mounted among the slats. In order to light the kindler, the match is lit, the match in turn lighting one of the slats etc. This prior art kindler suffers from a number of drawbacks. Among other things, it is a drawback in production to have to mount a match in each kindler. Moreover the kindler must be oriented in a certain direction to function well. These and other drawbacks deteriorate the applicability as well as the ignitability of the prior art kindler.

Summary of the Invention

The object of the invention is to provide a kindler with improved ignitability.

The object is achieved by a kindler, a kindler block and a method of manufacturing a kindler block according to the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

According to one aspect of the invention, a kindler of wood is provided, which has a central portion and flanges projecting from opposite first and second sides of the central portion, a first plurality of flanges, arranged side by side, projecting from the first side and a second plurality of flanges, arranged side by side, projecting from the second side. The flanges are placed at a distance from each other between two ends of the central portion, the flanges of each of said first and second pluralities of flanges having at least two different thicknesses, one or more flanges that are placed in the centre of the central portion having a minimum thickness, and at least the flanges that are placed at the respective ends of the central portion having a thickness greater than said minimum thickness.

By working a piece of wood so that it obtains the structure as defined, the kindler will be largely insensitive to which of its sides abuts against the base. It is always possible to set fire to one of the thinnest flanges, after which the fire spreads easily to the rest of the kindler. The arrangement of flanges of different thicknesses means that the flanges in the centre of the kindler can be made so thin that it will be easy to set fire to them using a match or a gas lighter, while in any case the outermost flanges are made thicker in order to ensure the strength of the kindler. If, for example, all the flanges should be made as thin as possible, there would be a great risk of at least the outer flanges being broken off during handling of the kindler.

In an advantageous embodiment of the kindler, the central portion is elongate and the flanges have a main extent in a plane transversely to the longitudinal direction. The thickness is measured along the longitudinal direction.

In an advantageous embodiment of the kindler, the flanges of the first and the second plurality of flanges are parallel to each other.

In an advantageous embodiment of the kindler, the flanges have three different thicknesses and are arranged with increasing thickness from the centre towards said ends. This results in efficient kindling combined with a burn time that can be determined by the dimensioning of the flanges. According to another aspect of the invention, a kindler block is provided, which comprises a plurality of kindlers interconnected to form a single block. With a plurality of interconnected kindlers, storing and distribution of the product is rendered more effective. The kindlers also occupy less space in storing at the user's place and the user can dimension the kindling aid according to the current demand by choosing to break off one or more interconnected kindlers from the kindler block.

In one embodiment of the kindler block, advantageously at least some of the kindlers are interconnected by first bridges which extend between end faces of at least some of the flanges of one kindler and end faces of at least some of the flanges of a neighbouring kindler. By the kindlers being held together by a few bridges, it will be easy to separate them from each other, when desired.

In another advantageous embodiment of the kindler block, at least some of the kindlers are interconnected by second bridges, each bridge of the second bridges extending between a flange, which is placed at one end of the associated central portion of one kindler, and a flange, which is placed at one end of the associated central portion of another kindler. The provision of the first and second bridges makes it easy to manufacture kindler blocks of any length and width, in which individual kindlers are easy to separate from the rest of the kindler block.

According to a further aspect of the invention, a method of manufacturing a kindler block is provided, comprising the steps of

- machining a first plurality of grooves in a piece of wood, which has opposite first and second large faces, such that flanges are saved between the grooves, and such that the flanges are given at least two different thicknesses, the grooves being given an extent in the depth direction from the first large face of the piece of wood to the second large face thereof, and

being given a depth amounting to less than half the distance between said first and second large faces;

- machining a second plurality of grooves in the piece of wood, such that flanges with at least two different thicknesses are saved between the grooves, said second plurality of grooves being given an extent in the depth direction from the second large face of the piece of wood to the first large face of the piece of wood, the depth of the grooves being substantially equal to the depth of said first plurality of grooves;

-machining at least one third groove which extends along a flange and divides it into two parts to a depth that amounts to more than half of said distance, each third groove dividing the flanges into groups of several flanges on each side of the third groove; and

- machining at least one fourth groove which extends perpendicularly to said at least one third groove and divides the flanges into shorter flanges, each group of flanges being divided into subgroups, which each is included in a kindler.

By performing the method, a kindler block of the above described design and with associated advantages is provided. This will be explained in more detail below. The depth of the grooves in the first and second pluralities of grooves has to be sufficient for ignitable flanges to be formed, and the central portion should be given a suitable thickness. It has been found advantageous that the depth amounts to at least a fourth of the distance between the large faces.

In one embodiment of the method, the step of machining at least one fifth groove in the piece of wood is included, said fifth groove extending parallel to and being opposite to said at least one fourth groove, leaving bridges between at least some of the flanges. In this embodiment, the positioning of the bridges is determined to be between the large faces of the piece of wood.

Brief Description of the Drawing

In the following the invention will be described in more detail by way of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which

Fig. 1 is a perspective view seen obliquely from above of a kindler block according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view seen obliquely from below of the kindler block in Fig. 1 ; Figs 3 and 4 are corresponding perspective views of a kindler which has been separated from the kindler block in Fig. 1.

Description of Preferred Embodiments

Fig. 1 shows a kindler block which has been provided by machining a massive piece of wood. An efficient way of machining the piece of wood is sawing grooves in the piece of wood in different directions using a plurality of parallel saw blades at the same time. This results in a block which contains a plurality of kindlers, in the shown example twelve, which are held together by relatively small wood portions which are easy to break away by hand. A broken-away kindler is shown in Figs 3 and 4. It is quite conceivable to manufacture the kindlers each separately, but this would not be equally rational.

More specifically, the kindler block 1 has a first large face 3 and a second opposite large face 5. Each kindler 7 has a central portion 9, which has opposite first and second sides 11 and 13 respectively. A first plurality, more specifically eight, flanges 15a-c project from the first side 11. The flanges 15a-c are plate-shaped and extend between the long sides of the elongate central portion 9. The flanges 15a-c are arranged side by side at a distance from each other and project perpendicularly to the first side 11 of the central portion. In other words, the flanges 15a-c are arranged like dominoes between the ends 17, 19 of the central portion 9. The flanges 15a-c have three different thicknesses, two flanges 15c, which are placed in the centre of the central portion 9, being the thinnest ones, the next two flanges 15b towards each end 17, 19 being slightly thicker and the outermost flange 15a at each end 17, 19 of the central portion being the thickest one.

The kindler 7 is mirror-symmetrical about a central plane of the central portion 9, a second plurality of flanges 21a-c, which are eight in number,

projecting from the second side 13 of the central portion 9 opposite the flanges 15a-c in the first plurality of flanges.

The thickness of the central portion 9 is only a minor part of the distance between the free ends of the opposite flanges 15a-c, 21a-c, that is the distance between the first and second large faces 3, 5 of the piece of wood 1. In other words, the height of the flanges corresponds to almost half of said distance.

The thinnest flanges 15c, 21c are made as thin as possible, while maintaining a strength that is necessary for the handling of the kindlers, so that they remain as flammable as possible. The other flanges 15a, 15b, 21a, 21b are preferably made thicker than the thinnest flanges 15c, 21c in order to give the kindler 7 a suitable total burn time. The outermost flanges 15a, 21 a are in this embodiment the thickest ones and make the kindler 7 impact resistant and also constitute a factor in the total burn time of the kindler 7. The shown order of thickness with the thinnest flanges in the centre and the thickest at the ends of the central portion 9 is preferred, but not necessary. However, it is preferred that at least a fairly centrally located flange is of the thinnest type.

The kindler block 1 has kindlers which neighbour each other in two directions, on the one hand kindlers 7, 8 which are placed side by side, and on the other kindlers 7, 10 which are placed one after the other. The kindlers 7, 8 placed side by side are interconnected by first bridges 12, which extend between end faces 14a of the flanges 15a-15c of one kindler 7 and end faces 14b of the opposite flanges 23 of the laterally neighbouring kindler 8. In other words, the flanges of the first kindler 7 and the flanges of the second kindler 8 are interconnected in pairs by said first bridges 12. The first bridges 12 have a thickness, or height, which amounts but to a minor part of the total distance between the first and second large faces 3, 5 of the kindler block 1. Furthermore, the kindlers 7, 10 placed one after the other are interconnected by a second bridge 25, which connects the end flange 15a of one kindler 7 to the opposite end flange 27 of the longitudinally neighbouring kindler 10. Since the latter kindler 10 is placed between two other kindlers, it

is also connected to the next kindler 31 by a corresponding, second bridge 29 at its other end.

When a fire is to be kindled, one or a group of several interconnected kindlers 7 is broken away from the kindler block 1 and the kindler/kindlers 7 is/are placed on the fireplace. Due to the design of the kindlers 7 involving flanges projecting in opposite directions from the central portion 9, the kindler/group of kindlers 7 will be rather insensitive to the direction in which it is placed. A flange 15c, 21c of the thinnest type will always be easy to reach and the fire will always be able to spread fairly easily from the kindled flange to the others. The result of using a group of several kindlers is that a higher effect is generated during approximately the same burn time as that of one kindler 7. Thus, it is possible to light a fuel that is more difficult to set fire to, such as moist firewood.

A kindler block according to the embodiment illustrated is manufactured in accordance with the following method. Using a woodworking machine with a plurality of sets of several saw blades, milling tools or similar working tools in each, grooves are made in different places and with different extents and directions in a piece of wood. The blank is a rectangular parallelepipedal piece of wood 1 which has a length and a width and opposite first and second large faces 3, 5. A first plurality of grooves are made through the piece of wood, such that flanges are saved between the grooves, and such that the flanges are given three different thicknesses. In the shown block, 21 grooves are made, a set of seven grooves being repeated along the piece of wood 1 , the shown combination of first flanges 15a-c being obtained in three largely identical groups. In the two transitions 25, 29 between the groups, the flanges of the neighbouring grooves are not yet separated but are still in one piece and can be seen as two extra thick flanges. The grooves are given an extent in the depth direction from the first large face 3 of the piece of wood to the second large face 5 thereof, and a depth amounting to almost half the distance between the large faces 3, 5. A second plurality of grooves are made opposite the first plurality of grooves, such that second flanges 33, which are identical to the first flanges 15a-c, are obtained. The second plurality of grooves are given a depth which is equal to the depth of said first

plurality of grooves. As a result, the central portion 9, 35 is saved between the first and the second flanges 15a-c, 33.

Moreover two third grooves are made, which extend along a flange each of the above-mentioned extra thick flanges and divide it into two parts to a depth that amounts to more than half of said distance. Thus each third groove creates an end flange 15a, 27 in each group of flanges and leaves material that forms the above-mentioned second bridges 25, 29.

Subsequently three fourth grooves 37 are made, which extend perpendicularly to said third grooves and divide each flange into four shorter flanges, each group of flanges being divided into subgroups, which each is included in a kindler 7, 8, 10, 31. The depth of the fourth grooves 37 amounts to more than half of said distance.

Finally, three fifth grooves 39 are made opposite to the fourth grooves 37. The fifth grooves 39 extend only a small distance into the kindler block 1 , such that the thin, first bridges 12 are left.

The kindlers can advantageously be used to kindle fuel in fireplaces, such as wood stoves, tiled stoves, heating boilers etc, in grills for barbecuing of food, in other outdoor firing, and so forth.

Some embodiments have been described above. As will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art, further modifications are conceivable within the scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.