Patent ID: 6946165

Claim:
A method of using a gas burner assembly to flame treat or manufacture a product by moving a flame that is projected from said gas burner assembly in operative relation with respect to a product or mold, said method comprising the steps of: mounting a gas burner assembly on an end of arm tool, said gas burner assembly including a flame jet forming ring that generally fully encloses a chamber that is defined within a body portion of said gas burner assembly, said gas burner assembly having an air/gas inlet that communicates with said chamber, said flame jet forming ring including at least one port defined therein that communicates with said chamber and that is generally annular in shape; feeding a pre-mixed air/gas mixture into said chamber through said air/gas inlet to cause said air/gas mixture to be generally evenly distributed throughout said chamber and said at least one port, and to cause substantially all of said air/gas mixture to flow from said air/gas inlet to ambient atmosphere through said chamber and said at least one port; igniting said air/gas mixture to create a generally annular flame that projects from said flame jet forming ring of said gas burner assembly; causing said end of arm tool to move said gas burner assembly with respect to a product or mold so that at least a portion of said generally annular flame is in direct contact with desired portions of the product or mold (i) so that, when the method is used to flame treat a product, desired portions of the product are at least partially oxidized, and (ii) so that, when the method is used to manufacture a product on a mold, the product can be formed on and then removed from the mold; projecting an inert gas from said gas burner assembly and through said generally annular flame at various velocities as desired to cause the geometry of said generally annular flame to be changed in proportion to the velocity of the inert gas that is projected through said generally annular flame; feeding said inert ass through a supply line to said gas burner assembly; and heating said supply line with a heater at a point in said supply line prior to said supply line entering said gas burner assembly so that said inert gas is heated shortly prior to the time when it is supplied to said gas burner assembly to reduce at least some of the chilling of said generally annular flame as said inert gas passes therethrough.