Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – Including supplemental gas shaping or shielding jet
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-22
2001-12-11
Evans, Robin O. (Department: 3752)
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
Including supplemental gas shaping or shielding jet
C239S291000, C239S294000, C239S343000, C239S424000, C239S424500, C239S427000, C239S427500, C239S429000, C239S430000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328226
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a nozzle and more particularly, to a nozzle which selectively emits a streaming sheet of material having relatively uniform and/or substantially identical droplets and having substantially no shear or turbulence.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Nozzles selectively emit various types of materials, such as and without limitation paint, thereby allowing the selectively emitted material to be placed or deposited upon various objects and/or upon one or more “targeted” locations in some desired pattern and/or concentration. Particularly, the paint or other material is typically atomized by a relatively high velocity stream of gas and these atomized particles or droplets are selectively emitted, along with the gas, from the nozzle and made to selectively impinge upon the targeted location and/or object.
It is oftentimes desirable to cause the deposited material to form or include substantially “well-defined”, relatively straight, “crisp”, and/or substantially “clean” edges and/or borders in order to allow the deposited material to create an overall aesthetically pleasing appearance and/or to substantially ensure that only portions of the targeted location(s) or object(s) actually receive the emitted material. For example, vehicle paint striping should normally have well defined and relatively straight edges in order to properly enhance the overall appearance of the vehicle. Moreover, vehicle stripping having multi-color (e.g., two or more) paint portions requires the creation of relatively straight edges or substantially “clean breaks” between each of the applied colored materials, in order to provide the desired overall striping appearance.
While prior nozzles and nozzle assemblies selectively emit material and allow the selectively emitted material to be placed upon various objects and/or targeted locations, they do not readily provide these desired well-defined edges due to the creation and/or existence of a relatively turbulent “shear layer” of material which typically occurs at and/or along the edges of the emitted material.
Moreover, the use of relatively viscous materials requires that the atomizing gas be communicated to and traverse within the nozzle at a relatively high speed, thereby causing the atomized material to be emitted from the nozzle at a relatively high speed and requiring a relatively large distance between the nozzle and the targeted area in order to prevent the relatively high-velocity emitted atomized material from “spattering” upon the targeted location or object. This relatively large distance causes the emitted material, emanating from the outlet aperture, to form a general conical shape or pattern having relatively turbulent shear layers at the edges or periphery of the spray pattern, thereby causing the constituent droplets to have a non-uniform velocity emission profile (i.e., the droplets are emitted from the nozzle at non-uniform speeds or velocities), and causing the creation of substantially non-uniform material deposition concentrations upon the targeted location or object. The deposition pattern is also typically distorted and may, in some instances, cause the emitted material to be applied to “non-targeted” portions or objects.
There is therefore a need for a new and improved nozzle which allows material, such as relatively highly viscous material, to be selectively atomized, emitted, and deposited upon a targeted location and/or object; which allows the selectively deposited material to form substantially well-defined and/or substantially “crisp” and/or relatively straight and/or relatively “clean” and even edges; and which allows the deposited material to form and/or to provide an overall aesthetically pleasing appearance, while increasing the likelihood that the material is only placed upon target objects or locations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a first object of the present invention to provide a nozzle which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated disadvantages of prior nozzles and/or nozzle assemblies.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide a nozzle which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated disadvantages of prior nozzles and nozzle assemblies.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, the nozzle includes a housing having communicating inlet and outlet apertures. A first material is received by the inlet aperture and communicated to the outlet aperture. The nozzle further includes an injector which is disposed within the outlet aperture, which is coupled to the source of a second material, and which selectively injects the second material into the outlet aperture, effective to allow the injected second material to be atomized by the first material. The nozzle further includes a member which is coupled to the housing, which receives the atomized second material, which diffuses the atomized second material as the atomized second material is mixed with the first material, and which emits the diffused atomized second material.
It is a third object of the invention to provide a method for communicating atomized material, which emanates from a nozzle, to a certain targeted location. The method includes the steps of diffusing the atomized material; mixing the atomized material with the second material as the atomized material is being diffused; and communicating the diffused atomized material to the targeted location.
These and other aspects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention in combination with the accompanying drawings.
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Goenka Lakhi Nandlal
Straub Marc Alan
Evans Robin O.
Visteon Global Tech. Inc.
Visteon Global Technologies Inc.
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