Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
TITLE: OFF-WATER SHUTDOWN PROTECTION MECHANICAL
HEATER
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an aquarium heater, and more
particularly to an off-water shutdown protection mechanical heater.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Fishes are poikilothermal creatures. Each species of fish has specific
upper and lower limits of temperature resistance as the most optimum
temperature range. In the most optimum temperature range, fishes
demonstrate the most vivid conditions of feeding, breathing, and digesting
and also show enhanced metabolism for rapid growth. When the
inhabitation environments of aquariums are not properly kept in the optimum
temperature range for a long term, the aquariums may suffer abnormality of
metabolism, restricted growth, and even death.
People keep and raise fishes as pets all over the world. However,
different areas on Earth have different weather conditions. Although indoor
temperature in the summertime may be sufficient to prevent the water
temperature of an aquarium tank from becoming too low, in the wintertime,
the water temperature of the aquarium tank drops as varying with the indoor
temperature. To maintain a comfortable vivarium condition for aquatic
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animals or fishes, most of the breeders provide a heater in the aquarium tank
in the wintertime. Early-day heaters have evolved from traditional heaters,
which require manual observation of the temperature of the aquarium tank
and manual control of a switch of the heater for shutting down the heater, to
mechanical heaters and electronic heater that features automatic detection of
water temperature by means of a heater for timely taking automatic
operations of deactivation and activation.
The mechanical heater has a temperature control structure and principle
involving a bimetal plate having two metals of different coefficients of
thermal expansion. Due to different degrees of curving resulting from
different temperatures of water, automatic contacting and detaching are
carried out to control a heating element to generate heat or not.
However, to date, no mechanical heater having an off-water shutdown
protection function is available. This often causes a situation that the
aquarium heater shows extra high residual heat or improper control of
water temperature may occur. For example, when the water level of an
aquarium drops due to for example evaporation of water, if water is not
properly supplemented, the glass tube that is operated to generate heat for
heating might get broken due to excessively high temperature. This is a
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drawback of the conventional mechanical heater that must be improved and
overcome.
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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An objective of the present invention is to provide an off-water
shutdown protection mechanical heater that ensures electricity can be quickly
cut off after removal out of water.
To achieve the above objective, the present invention comprises a tube
and a cap mounted to an end of the tube, wherein the tube comprises, as
being arranged in an interior thereof, an off-water protection transducer, one
of a relay and a bidirectional triode thyristor (TRIAC), a circuit board that
includes a bimetal plate, and a heating element, wherein the off-water
protection transducer, the one of the relay and the TRIAC, the bimetal plate,
and the heating element are electrically connected in sequence to form a
control loop; wherein when the off-water protection transducer detects a
situation of being immersed in water, the one of the relay and the TRIAC
turns on to conduct electricity and the bimetal plate detects a temperature of
water and undergoes deformation by the temperature to control the heating
element to generate heat or not; and when the off-water protection transducer
detects a situation of being removed out of water, the one of the relay and
the
TRIAC turns off to cut off electricity, making the heating element not
generating heat.
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The off-water protection transducer is used to ensure that electricity is
quickly cut off upon removal out of water so as to prevent the prior art
problem of excessively high residual heating that results in breaking of the
glass tube due to high temperature.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG 1 is an exploded view of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing inside details of a tube of the
present invention.
FIG. 3 is a control logic block diagram for off-water shutdown
protection according to the present invention.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the present invention comprises a tube 10
and a cap 20 mounted to an end of the tube 10. The tube 10 comprises, as
being arranged in an interior thereof, an off-water protection transducer 30,
one of a relay and a bidirectional triode thyristor (TRIAC) 40 (wherein a
TRIAC 40 is shown in the drawings as an example for illustration of the
embodiment, because a TRIAC 40 provides the same function and
effectiveness as a relay), a circuit board 60 that includes a bimetal plate
50,
and a heating element 70, wherein the off-water protection transducer 30, the
one of relay and TRIAC 40, the bimetal plate 50, and the heating element 70
are electrically connected in sequence to form a control loop.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, when the off-water protection transducer 30,
the one of relay and TRIAC 40 turns on to conduct electricity and the bimetal
plate 50 detects a temperature of water and undergoes deformation by the
temperature to control the heating element 70 to generate heat or not.
It is further noted that in FIG 2, the aquarium water temperature
detected by the bimetal plate 50 does not reach a temperature that is
sufficient
to cause deformation of the bimetal plate 50, so that a contact terminal 51 of
the bimetal plate 50 maintains contacting with a contact terminal 61 of the
circuit board 60 without being sprung therefrom, and the heating element 70
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maintains generation of heat; with the heating element 70 maintains
continuous generation of heat, when the aquarium water temperature detected
by the bimetal plate 50 is raised to be sufficient to cause deformation of the
bimetal plate 50, the contact terminal 51 of the bimetal plate 50 is sprung
off
and separate from the contact terminal 61 of the circuit board 60, thereby
making the heating element 70 heating.
When the off-water protection transducer 30 detects a situation of being
removed out of water, the one of relay and TRIAC 40 turns off to cut off
electricity, making the heating element 70 not generating heat.
The efficacy of the present invention is that the off-water protection
transducer 30 is used to ensure that electricity is quickly cut off upon
removal
out of water so as to prevent the prior art problem of excessively high
residual heating that results in breaking of the glass tube due to high
temperature.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, in an embodiment, the cap 20 is connected,
through screwing, with a regulation rod 21, wherein an end of the regulation
rod 21 is movable, through screwing and rotating, to contact one side of the
bimetal plate 50 in order to adjust a degree of deformation of the bimetal
plate 50 upon being heated and thus adjusting a temperature level at which
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the bimetal plate 50 undergoes deformation thereby making it possible to
regulate the aquarium temperature.
In an embodiment, the tube 10 is selected as a glass tube.
In an embodiment, the heating element 70 is selected as an electric
heating filament.
In summary, the present invention indeed fulfils an expected goal and
provides an off-water shutdown protection mechanical heater, which
possesses utilization.
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