Charcoal briquet system

An easily ignitable charcoal briquet system is provided for use especially in making small, outdoor cooking fires. The system includes wax-impregnated charcoal briquets in combination with starting pads of wax-impregnated paper or the like. The briquets are impregnated with a hot wax in a two-stage operation to produce a charcoal having two strata of wax impregnated below the surface of the briquets, which enhances ignition and burning characteristics of the briquets. The starting pads preferably are of non-woven paper material having uncoated corners, a light coating of wax along the outer margins thereof, a heavy coating of wax about an inner border thereof and an uncoated central portion. Wax impregnated briquets are piled in the uncoated center portion of the pad, which is ignited by lighting the uncoated corners thereof. The edges of the pad may be corrugated to facilitate ventilation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates generally to wax-impregnated charcoal briquets and 
their manufacture, and more particularly is directed towards a new and 
improved charcoal briquet system that is easily ignited without the use of 
lighter fluid. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Conventional charcoal briquets are ignited normally by dowsing the charcoal 
with lighter fluid, allowing the fluid to soak into the briquets an then 
igniting the pile of briquets with a match. Once ignited, the fluid must 
burn away and the charcoal must be allowed to smolder to a point where the 
charcoals are hot enough to provide sufficient heat for cooking. The 
procedure is generally rather time consuming, and if there is any sort of 
wind, it is quite difficult to start, particularly where the fire is in 
the open and without shelter. Also, in some instances, if the charcoals 
are slow to heat up, a person will pour on additional amounts of starter 
fluid in an attempt to encourage the fire. This is an extremely dangerous 
procedure and many people are severely burned each year from uncontrolled 
fires and explosions resulting from this practice. 
While it has been suggested to improve the ignitability of charcoal 
briquets by precoating them with different materials, such as wax, or the 
like, none of these have been entirely satisfactory from the standpoint of 
ease of ignition, low smoke characteristics, shelf life, safety, and other 
factors. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide 
improvements in the charcoal briquets. Another object of this invention is 
to provide a charcoal briquet system that is easily ignitable even in 
wind. A further object of this invention is to provide a novel method for 
producing charcoal briquets of superior ignition and burning 
characteristics. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention features an easily ignitable charcoal briquet system 
comprising wax-impregnated charcoal briquets in combination with starting 
pads of paper selectively coated with wax. The wax-impregnated briquets 
are placed in the center of the pad and the pad is ignited. The wax 
pattern on the pad causes flames to surround the pile of briquets, 
uniformly heating the briquets on all sides so that the briquets are 
brought up to the proper temperature for self-sustained smoldering. The 
briquets are impregnated with two strata of wax produced by double dipping 
the briquets at an elevated temperature into molten wax.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring now to the drawings, the easily ignitable briquet system, 
according to the invention, is comprised of wax-impregnated briquets 10 in 
combination with selectively wax coated starting pads 12 on which the 
briquets are piled in preparation for starting a fire of the briquets. 
Typically, the pile of briquets 10 and a starting pad 12 are placed in a 
suitable holder, such as a hibachi grill 14, in such a manner that the 
briquets are piled in the center of the pad with the margins of the pad 
uncovered. The fire is started by lighting one of the corners 16 with a 
match 18, or the like, so that the pad will burn and surround the pile of 
briquets on all sides with fire, thereby causing them to ignite. The pad 
is selectively coated with wax and is easily ignitable by a match even in 
the wind. Once the pad is ignited, it burns evenly and strongly for a time 
sufficient to properly ignite the briquets. 
Each of the briquets, which may be of a standard size, typically 
approximately 2 inches sq. by 1 inch in thickness, is impregnated with wax 
just under the surface thereof. The best results have been obtained by 
impregnating each briquet with approximately 8% by weight of wax. The best 
wax for this purpose has been found to be a slack wax having a 110.degree. 
melting point which has been impregnated into the briquet by means of a 
two-step operation in which the briquets, at a temperature of 
approximately 150.degree. F. are dipped in the slack wax which is at a 
temperature of approximately 130.degree. F. The procedure involves dipping 
the briquet in the molten wax for one second and withdrawing it, allowing 
the briquet to drain for 5 seconds and then redipping the briquet again 
for a 1 second period. The two-step wax dipping operation of the hot 
briquet causes the charcoal to be quenched while the second dip stops the 
first wax from penetrating further into the briquet. 
The best results are obtained when the briquet is impregnated with the wax 
to a depth of approximately 1/16 inch. The double dipping operation 
produces two zones of wax impregnation, as illustrated in FIG. 4, with the 
depth of the zones being exaggerated for purposes of illustration. In FIG. 
4 the innermost zone extends to a depth of approximately 1/16 inch, on the 
average, while a second outermost zone 22 extends to a depth of 
approximately 1/32 inch, on the average. If the wax extends too deeply 
into the briquet, the briquet, when ignited, produces too much smoke and 
by keeping the wax in two shallow zones, just below the surface of the 
briquet, carburetion of the charcoal is greatly enhanced and expedited. 
The slack wax used to impregnate the briquets is an unrefined wax and 
typically contains 10 % oil. The wax has a melting point of 110.degree. F. 
and in the dipping operation is heated to 130.degree. F. By heating the 
briquets to 150.degree. F. prior to the dipping operation, the pores of 
the briquets are opened, making them more receptive to impregnation by the 
wax. When the briquets are dipped in the wax, the cooler wax quenches the 
briquet and the first dip results in the wax migrating into the briquet 
approximately 1/16 inch, which is deep enough to leave the surface of the 
briquet clear and the pores still open. It is desirable to keep the pores 
of the charcoal open at the surface in order to allow the charcoal to 
carburet when burning and for the impregnated wax to gasify. On the first 
dipping of the briquet in the wax, the briquet temperature is brought down 
to about the temperature of the wax, namely, 130.degree.. In the second 
dipping of the briquet, the wax impregnates to a depth of approximately 
1/32 inch. 
The dipping operations are kept short since, if allowed to reside too long 
in the wax, the wax would penetrate too deeply into the briquet, which 
would result in poor burning characteristics. It is desirable to hold the 
wax just under the surface of the briquet so that the wax will turn into 
gas when burned. The second dipping operation stops the wax from the first 
dipping operation from penetrating further into the charcoal. 
In practice, the charcoal is heated prior to the dipping operation to a 
temperature within the range of 150.degree. to 200.degree. F. If the 
briquets were cold when dipped into the hot wax, the wax would merely coat 
the outer surface of the briquet, making the briquet much harder to light 
as compared to an impregnated briquet, as described herein. The 
impregnated briquet, according to the invention, thus has two zones of wax 
just under the surface of the briquet, while the outer surface is 
characterized by a very thin film of wax which is barely visible to the 
eye and slightly sensible to the touch. 
The impregnated briquets resist moisture absorption and reduce charcoal 
dusting. The presence of the wax within the briquet provides a 
low-temperature, volatile material stored inside the briquet and flames 
from the pad start the wax to volatilize, thereby, enhancing the burning 
action. The wax will not evaporate and may be stored for long periods of 
time in bags which need not be air tight. 
Referring now to FIG. 5 of the drawings, there is illustrated a system for 
automatically producing, on a continuous basis, impregnated charcoal 
briquts according to the invention. In FIG. 1 a conveyor 24 carries the 
briquets 10 from a feeder 26 onto the upper reach of the conveyor. The 
briquets are first carried through a heating unit 28 which heats the 
briquets to a temperature in the range of 150.degree. to 200.degree. F. 
From the heater 28 the briquets are carried under a first wax dispenser 
30, which delivers a curtain of molten wax at a temperature of 
approximately 130.degree. F. over the briquets. To enhance the interaction 
between the briquets and the wax, a vibratory unit 32 may be located below 
the wax dispenser 30. The briquets are then carried under a cooling fan 34 
and then past a second wax dispenser 36 to provide the second impregnating 
step. Another vibratory unit 38 may be provided under the conveyor and the 
briquets are then carried past a second fan 40 to cool the briquets which 
are then transferred to a bin 42 for storage or packaging. 
Referring now to FIG. 6 of the drawings, there is illustrated an individual 
starting pad 12 made according to the invention. The pad 12 preferably is 
fabricated from a cellulosic material, such as paper, and preferably is of 
a non-woven paper material, preferably somewhat soft and bulky to have 
good absorption characteristics. Paper toweling is ideally suited for this 
purpose. While the pads may be made up in various sizes, a pad 
approximately 11 inches square is suitable for most purposes. In any 
event, the pad 12 is selectively coated with a wax in a pattern 
illustrated in FIG. 6. Preferably, the wax employed is a relatively high 
meltingpoint wax and for this purpose a petrolatum wax is preferred. A 
petrolatum wax having a melting point of about 135.degree. F. provides 
satisfactory results, although a wax having a melting point on the order 
of 175.degree. to 185.degree. F. may also be used to advantage. By using a 
relatively high melting point wax on the pads, the pads will not stick 
together in the event that packages containing a number of pads are 
shipped or stored under high temperature conditions. 
The pad, as shown in FIG. 6, is formed with an uncoated center portion 44, 
which may be perhaps 6 inches square. Surrounding the uncoated center 
portion 44 is a band 46 of relatively thick wax, perhaps 1 inch wide, and 
between the outer edge of the band 46 and the edge of the pad 12 is a 
second band 48 of relatively thin wax coating. The corners 16 of the pad 
are uncoated or with a very thin coating to facilitate the ignition of the 
pad by means of a match, lighter, or the like. By leaving the center 
portion 44 free of any wax, or only lightly coated, and piling the 
charcoal within the coated area 44, very little smoking results, which 
would not be the case if the pad were fully coated with a thick layer of 
wax. 
When the pad is ignited at a corner, the fire immediately speads all around 
the outer edge of the pad and the thinly coated edges of the pad form a 
fire lane or path about which the flames spread. As the outer edge of the 
pad ignites it works its way inwardly, igniting the band 46 with a 
stronger, more durable flame and all sides of the pile of briquets will be 
heated uniformly at the same time, greatly enhancing the ignition of the 
briquets. The heavy wax supports a flame that will resist wind or rain and 
will furnish enough flame to start the treated charcoal. In order to 
further enhance the burning action of the pad, particularly around the 
edges, the margins of the pad may be formed with shallow corrugations 50 
which serve to vent the pad, allowing air to circulate freely and ensure 
optimum burning action. 
Referring now to FIG. 7 of the drawings, there is illustrated a 
modification of the pad, and in this embodiment a pad 12', similar to that 
of the pad of FIG. 6, is formed with a transverse medial tear line 52, 
extending along the center of a band 54 of a relatively light coating of 
wax also extending transversely of the pad. The FIG. 7 pad may be torn in 
half along the tear line, allowing one-half to be used for relatively 
small fires, or for starting in small grills, or the like.