Handheld Air Bellows with Expandable and Retractable Air Tube

The invention generally relates to equipment for starting and tending fires, and particularly relates to handheld air bellows with expandable and retractable air tubes and methods of using the same.

When starting or maintaining a fire, as nonlimiting examples, in a fireplace, hearth, stove, campfire, or grill, it is often desirable to fan the flames or coals to provide additional oxygen to help the fire ignite or burn more intensely. A person may simply blow on the flames through the mouth or fan the flames with their hands, however such methods could cause the person to be dangerously close to the heat of the fire.

Another method of oxygenating a fire involves the use of a bellows. Manual bellows are well known but often unwieldy to store, carry, and/or use. To overcome these drawbacks, motorized bellows can be used. However, conventional motorized bellows are often unwieldy to store and/or use and/or may still require a user to get uncomfortably close to the heat of the fire.

Therefore, it would be desirable to have an air bellows that overcome one or more of the challenges described above with conventional air bellows and methods of oxygenating a fire.

The intent of this section of the specification is to briefly indicate the nature and substance of the invention, as opposed to an exhaustive statement of all subject matter and aspects of the invention. Therefore, while this section identifies subject matter recited in the claims, additional subject matter and aspects relating to the invention are set forth in other sections of the specification, particularly the detailed description, as well as any drawings.

The present invention provides, but is not limited to, handheld air bellows with expandable and retractable air tubes and methods of using the same to assist with starting or maintaining a fire.

According to a nonlimiting aspect of the invention, a handheld air bellows is provided that includes an air pump carried by a housing, an electric motor that drives the air pump, and an air tube operatively coupled with the air pump to direct a stream of air from the air pump through an exit orifice of the air tube. The air tube is extendable and retractable along an axis from a distal end to a proximal end between a retracted length and an extended length longer than the retracted length.

According to another nonlimiting aspect of the invention, a method of using a handheld air bellows according to the present disclosure includes grasping the housing in one hand, extending the air tube, placing the exit orifice of the extended air tube near a flame, and blowing air on the flame through the exit orifice in the extended air tube with the air pump.

Technical aspects of air bellows and methods as described above preferably include the ability to extend a collapsible (retractable) air tube and precisely direct a stream of air through the air tube to a location within a fire or intended fire without requiring the user to get uncomfortably or dangerously close to the fire. The air bellows is preferably capable of being transformed between a compact configuration in which the air tube is collapsed such that the bellows is configured for storage, and a use configuration suitable for precisely directing air to a desired location.

These and other aspects, arrangements, features, and/or technical effects will become apparent upon detailed inspection of the figures and the following description.

The intended purpose of the following detailed description of the invention and the phraseology and terminology employed therein is to describe what is shown in the drawings, which depict and/or relate to one or more nonlimiting embodiments of the invention, and to describe certain but not all aspects of the embodiment(s) depicted in the drawings. The following detailed description also identifies certain but not all alternatives of the embodiment(s) depicted in the drawings. As nonlimiting examples, the invention encompasses additional or alternative embodiments in which one or more features or aspects shown and/or described as part of a particular embodiment could be eliminated, and also encompasses additional or alternative embodiments that combine two or more features or aspects shown and/or described as part of different embodiments. Therefore, the appended provisional claims, and not the detailed description, are intended to recite what at least provisionally are believed to be aspects of the invention, including certain but not necessarily all of the aspects and alternatives described in the detailed description.

To facilitate the description provided below of the embodiment(s) represented in the drawings, relative terms, including but not limited to, “proximal,” “distal,” “anterior,” “posterior,” “vertical,” “horizontal,” “lateral,” “front,” “rear,” “side,” “forward,” “rearward,” “top,” “bottom,” “upper,” “lower,” “above,” “below,” “right,” “left,” etc., may be used in reference to the orientation of the air bellows during its use and/or as represented in the drawings. All such relative terms are useful to describe the illustrated embodiment(s) but should not be otherwise interpreted as limiting the scope of the invention.

represent embodiments of handheld air bellowsand components thereof. The bellowsrepresented inincludes an air pump() carried by a housingand a motorthat drives the air pump. The air pumpmay be any suitable mechanism for pumping and/or blowing air, such as a fan or blower, that can be driven by the motor. The motoris an electrically powered motor, although it is conceivable that motors activated by other types of energy could be used. The housinggenerally has the shape of a small canister and is sized be grasped and manipulated by one hand of a user. In this example, the housingmay have a diameter of about 4 inches (10 cm) and a height of about 5 inches (12.5 cm), but other sizes and shapes are possible. The air pumpand motorare both disposed within an interior cavity defined by the housing. The housingis also preferably equipped with a batteryfor providing electrical power to the motor. The batteryis preferably a rechargeable battery, and can be recharged by various means such as a USB cable (not shown). A switch() is shown as disposed on the exterior of the housingand configured to selectively turn the motoron and off, for example, when engaged and/or disengaged by a user.

An air tubeis operatively coupled with the air pumpso as to direct a stream of air from the air pumpthrough an exit orificelocated at a distal end of the tube. Though a single exit orificeis represented as disposed at the distal end of the air tube, additional orifices and/or an orifice at another location along the air tubeare also possible. The air tubeis represented as being extendable (deployed) and collapsible (retracted) between a compact (retracted) position represented inand a fully extended position represented in. The air tubein this example is formed of a telescoping hollow metal tube formed of a plurality of hollow metal tube sectionsandslidingly received within each other so as to be able to extend and retract axially along a common central axis of the tube sectionsand. The air tubedefines a passageway extending from an entry orifice() associated with a tube sectionat a proximal end of the tube, which is coupled to an exit port() on the housingwith a fitting, and the exit orificeassociated with a tube sectionat the distal end of the tube. The fittingis fluidly coupled with the air pumpvia the exit portof the housingso as to direct air flow from the air pumpinto the passageway of the air tubeand subsequently out the exit orifice. The fittingmay be omitted but is preferably provided to enable the tubeto be removed from the housingto achieve a more compact configuration of the bellowsfor transport and storage.

represent a nonlimiting embodiment by which the tubeand its fittingmay be coupled to the exit portof the housing.depicts the tube sectionof the tubeloosely assembled with the fitting, more particularly, one end of the tube sectionis received within an internal bore of a tubular portionof the fitting. The bore extends throughout the entire axial length of the fittingsuch that the passageway of the air tubeis fluidically coupled to an opening in the fittingdisposed within a base portionof the fittingdisposed opposite of the tube. The base portionis represented as equipped with one or more L-shaped slotsby which the fittingcan be coupled to the housing exit portwith complementary interlocking features, for example, nubs (not shown) protruding from the perimeter of the exit port. A crimping ringsurrounds the tubular portionof the fittingand the tube sectiontherein.represents the result of crimping the crimping ringonto the tubular portionto rigidly secure the tube sectionwithin the tubular portionof the fitting.

The air tubecan be extended and retracted between the extended and retracted positions shown inby manually pulling the distal end (e.g., the tube section) of the tubeaxially away from the proximal end of the tubeand pushing the distal end of the tubeaxially toward the proximal end of the tube. The air tubeis preferably rigid such that it does not bend transversely along its axis under its own weight in order to facilitate precisely placing the exit orificein a desired location and pointing the air tubetoward a selected location in a fire when extended. The air tubeis preferably heat resistant so that it will not melt or otherwise deform when disposed near a flame. The air tubemay be made of metal, such as stainless steel, titanium, tungsten, molybdenum, nickel, tantalum, aluminum, hafnium carbide, and/or alloys of the same. Other stiff and heat resistant materials could be used. For example, the air tubemay include a ceramic coating to provide further heat resistance. To facilitate handling with a single hand, the air tubepreferably has a retracted length of about 2 inches (5 cm) and about 6 inches (15 cm) in its retracted configuration and an extended length of about 12 inches (30 cm) and about 48 inches (120 cm) in its extended configuration. Other lengths are also possible. In this example, the air tubehas a retracted length of about 4 inches (10 cm) in its retracted configuration and an extended length of about 26 inches (65 cm) in its extended configuration.

With reference to, the air bellowsis represented as being used to selectively direct a streamof air to a precise location in a fireto provide more oxygen to the fire. In the nonlimiting example represented in, the air bellowscan be used by a user can grasping the housingin one hand, and extending the air tubeto its extended position by pulling the distal end axially away from the proximal end to cause the several tube sections,andto slide axially relative to each other. With the air tubethus extended, the user then places the exit orificeat or near a specific selected location in the fire, such as at the base of the flame or onto a glowing ember, and then blows the streamof air through the exit orificeby turning on the motorwith the switchto drive the air pumpand thus force the streamof air out the exit orificetoward the selected location in the fire.

If the batteryloses sufficient electric charge to run the motorand air pump, it can be recharged as necessary, for example via a charging port or other suitable recharging mechanism. In this way, the air bellowscan be used to oxygenate a fire, as nonlimiting examples, in a grill, hearth, furnace, etc., while the user maintains a safe distance from the fire so as to avoid the need to place the user's hands or face close to the fire. In addition, the distal end of the air tubecan fit through small openings, such as commonly found in a grill, vent, or partly open door of a furnace. After using the air bellowsto oxygenate a fire, the air tubemay be withdrawn from the fire and, once sufficiently cool, collapsed to its retracted position to provide for more compact storage.

Turning now to, an embodiment of the air bellowsis represented as generally similar to the air bellowsof, except that a hinge jointcouples the air tubeto the housingto provide for more compact storage of the air bellowswhen not in use. The proximal end of the air tubeis operatively coupled to the hinge jointsuch that the air tube can pivot about the hinge jointrelative to the housingbetween a folded configuration shown in, such as extending straight away from the housing, and an unfolded position shown in. In the folded configuration, the air tubeis disposed generally along and/or adjacent the body of the housing. In the unfolded configuration, the air tubeis disposed projecting generally radially or axially outwardly from the housing. The axis of the air tubesubtends an angle of approximately 90° between the folded configuration and the unfolding configuration; however, other arrangements and angles are also possible. Other aspects of the bellowsrepresented incan be as described for the bellowsof, and therefore will not be repeated here.

As previously noted above, though the foregoing detailed description describes certain aspects of one or more particular embodiments of the invention, alternatives could be adopted by one skilled in the art. As nonlimiting examples,, the air bellowsand their components could differ in appearance and construction from the embodiments described herein and shown in the drawings, functions of certain components of the air bellowscould be performed by components of different construction but capable of a similar (though not necessarily equivalent) function, and various materials could be used in the fabrication of the air bellowsand/or their components. As such, and again as was previously noted, it should be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited to any particular embodiment described herein or illustrated in the drawings.