IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,372,232
Granted Patent B2
US 12,372,232 · App. 18/402,823 · Granted Jul 29, 2025

Burners and additive manufacturing methods

Inventors: Aniruddha A. Upadhye (St. Paul, MN); Mark A. Strobel (Maplewood, MN); Elizaveta Y. Plotnikov (Woodbury, MN); Luke E. Heinzen (Shoreview, MN)
Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company
F23D14/02B22F10/25B22F10/85F23D14/56F23D2213/00
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,372,232
App. No.
18/402,823
Granted
Jul 29, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

Burners and methods of making burner bodies via a focused beam are disclosed. In an aspect, a burner includes (a) a burner body and (b) at least one connector configured to supply at least a fuel and an oxidizer to the burner body. The burner body includes (1) a plurality of passageways; (2) a first major surface; (3) a plurality of ports at the first major surface, each port defined by an end of one of the passageways; and either: (4a) at least one heating element in or adjacent to at least one of the plurality of passageways that increases the temperature of a wall of the at least one of the plurality of passageways; or (4b) a cooling chamber directly adjacent to three or more of the plurality of passageways. The burner body includes a number of layers of metal directly bonded to each other. Further, methods are provided, including receiving, by a manufacturing device having one or more processors, a digital object comprising data specifying a burner body; and generating, with the manufacturing device by an additive manufacturing process, the burner body based on the digital object. A system is also provided, including a display that displays a 3D model of a burner body; and one or more processors that, in response to the 3D model selected by a user, cause a 3D printer to create a physical object of the burner body.

Claims (51)

1. A burner comprising:

a) burner body comprising:

1) a plurality of passageways;

2) a first major surface;

3) a plurality of ports at the first major surface, each port defined by an end of one of the passageways; and

4) at least one heating element in or adjacent to at least one of the plurality of passageways that increases the temperature of a wall of the at least one of the plurality of passageways, wherein the at least one heating element comprises a heating fluid, wherein the at least one heating element further comprises a structure that increases heat transfer, wherein the structure that increases heat transfer comprises individual posts;

wherein the burner body comprises a plurality of layers of metal directly bonded to each other; and

b) at least one connector configured to supply at least a fuel and an oxidizer to the burner body.

2. The burner of claim 1 , wherein the heating fluid comprises oil.

3. The burner of claim 1 , wherein the burner body comprises a plurality of columns of grains of metal.

4. The burner of claim 1 , wherein the first major surface has 8 or more rows of ports.

5. The burner of claim 1 , wherein a pattern of the plurality of ports at the first major surface is asymmetrical.

6. The burner of claim 1 , wherein the metal comprises steel or a nickel alloy.

7. A method of making a burner body of claim 1 , the method comprising sequential steps:

a) a subprocess comprising sequentially:

i) depositing a layer of loose powder particles in a region, wherein the loose powder particles comprise metallic particles and wherein the layer of loose powder particles has substantially uniform thickness;

ii) selectively treating an area of the layer of loose powder particles with irradiation by a focused beam to bond metallic particles together;

b) independently carrying out step a) a plurality of times to generate a burner body comprising the bonded powder particles and remaining loose powder particles, wherein in each step a), the loose powder particles are independently selected; and

c) separating substantially all of the remaining loose powder particles from the burner body.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having data representing a three-dimensional model of a burner body, when accessed by one or more processors interfacing with a 3D printer, cause the 3D printer to create the burner body comprising:

1) a plurality of passageways;

2) a first major surface;

3) a plurality of ports at the first major surface, each port defined by an end of one of the passageways; and

4) at least one heating element in or adjacent to at least one of the plurality of passageways that increases the temperature of a wall of the at least one of the plurality of passageways, wherein the at least one heating element comprises a heating fluid, wherein the at least one heating element further comprises a structure that increases heat transfer, wherein the structure that increases heat transfer comprises individual posts;

wherein the burner body comprises a plurality of layers of metal directly bonded to each other.

9. A method, comprising:

retrieving, from a non-transitory machine-readable medium, data representing a 3D model of a burner body, the burner body comprising:

1) a plurality of passageways;

2) a first major surface;

3) a plurality of ports at the first major surface, each port defined by an end of one of the passageways; and

4) at least one heating element in or adjacent to at least one of the plurality of passageways that increases the temperature of a wall of the at least one of the plurality of passageways, wherein the at least one heating element comprises a heating fluid, wherein the at least one heating element further comprises a structure that increases heat transfer, wherein the structure that increases heat transfer comprises individual posts;

wherein the burner body comprises a plurality of layers of metal directly bonded to each other;

executing, by one or more processors, a 3D printing application interfacing with a manufacturing device using the data; and

generating, by the manufacturing device, a physical object of the burner body.

10. A burner body generated using the method of claim 9 .

11. A method of forming a burner body, the method comprising:

receiving, by a manufacturing device having one or more processors, a digital object comprising data specifying a plurality of layers of a burner body, the burner body comprising:

1) a plurality of passageways;

2) a first major surface;

3) a plurality of ports at the first major surface, each port defined by an end of one of the passageways; and

4) at least one heating element in or adjacent to at least one of the plurality of passageways that increases the temperature of a wall of the at least one of the plurality of passageways, wherein the at least one heating element comprises a heating fluid, wherein the at least one heating element further comprises a structure that increases heat transfer, wherein the structure that increases heat transfer comprises individual posts;

wherein the burner body comprises a plurality of layers of metal directly bonded to each other; and

generating, with the manufacturing device by an additive manufacturing process, the burner body based on the digital object.

12. A system comprising:

a display that displays a 3D model of a burner body; and

one or more processors that, in response to the 3D model selected by a user, cause a 3D printer to create a physical object of the burner body, the burner body comprising:

1) a plurality of passageways;

2) a first major surface;

3) a plurality of ports at the first major surface, each port defined by an end of one of the passageways; and

4) at least one heating element in or adjacent to at least one of the plurality of passageways that increases the temperature of a wall of the at least one of the plurality of passageways, wherein the at least one heating element comprises a heating fluid, wherein the at least one heating element further comprises a structure that increases heat transfer, wherein the structure that increases heat transfer comprises individual posts;

wherein the burner body comprises a plurality of layers of metal directly bonded to each other.

Continuity (3)
Continuation 17309293
Provisional Application 62784979 · Dec 26, 2018
Related Publication 20240133547A1 · Apr 25, 2024
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