Free-burning equipment

Claim 1

A burner equipment for burning gaseous fuel, said burner equipment comprising in combination: a burner stand defining an open space therein; feed means for feeding a pressurized mixture of gaseous fuel and air into said space; and a burner member closing said space, said burner member having an outside surface and an inside surface, the latter being in communication with said space the burner member consisting of sintered-together metal particles, the interstices between the particles defining a multitude of channels in random distribution and forming passages for a flow of pressurized gaseous fuel and air mixture through the burner member from the inside to the outside surface thereof, said burner member being composed of superimposed layers, the cross-sectional widths of the channels being different in different ones of said layers, the narrowest channels being in the outermost layer, the channels in the layer including the widest channels having a width of about 100 μ and the channels in the layer including the narrowest channels having a width of about 20 μ, the layer including the widest channels having a thickness of about 3 mm and the layer including the narrowest channels having a thickness between about 0.1 mm and 1 mm, the flow of the gaseous fuel and air mixtures forming a turbulent zone at the outside surface of the burner member, said zone constituting an insulation layer above the outside surface of the burner member preventing contact of a flame with the outside surface of said burner member and forcing the flame to burn free of the burner member upon ignition of the emerging flow of gaseous fuel and air mixture thereby maintaining the burner member at cool operational condition.