Gas and liquid contact apparatus – With external supply or removal of heat – Heat producer
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-09
2001-06-12
Bushey, C. Scott (Department: 1724)
Gas and liquid contact apparatus
With external supply or removal of heat
Heat producer
C261S028000, C261S072100, C261S081000, C261SDIG006
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244576
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of humidifiers and more particularly to a humidifier capable of discharging mist having a temperature at a constant level.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, humidifiers are used to increase humidity in the room in the continental climate areas. A conventional humidifier comprises a nebulizer (or a heater) for converting water into a fine cool (or hot) mist, and a blower for carrying the cool (or hot) mist out of the humidifier into the environment to be humidified wherein a water tank having an orifice on the bottom is vertically provided on a cavity of the lower space below the top of base. The cavity is served for retaining a liquid supplying to a cool (or hot) mist cavity and a valve is provided between the cavity for holding the water tank thereon and the cool (or hot) cavity. The opening or closing of the valve is controlled by the discharged liquid level of the cool (or hot) cavity. As such, the substantial amount of water supplied by the tank is varied up and down, i.e., not at a constant amount so that the temperature of mist discharged from the conventional humidifier can not be kept in constant. Further, mist is generated in the lower part of the space having a considerably height difference with the top adjacent to the inlet of discharging tube. As such, a high power motor is required to pump mist upwardly to reach to the inlet of discharging tube. In view of this, this prior art humidifier is not economical in saving energy and requires a relatively large motor and blower which in turn occupies a significant amount of space. It is known that water tank only occupies one fourth of the humidifier. As a result, a frequent liquid supplying operation is inevitable thus bothering user a lot.
Another drawback of this prior art humidifier is the manual water supplying operation because the only orifice of water tank is provided in the bottom. In other words, there is no top orifice on the water tank so user must periodically take empty water tank out of the cavity for supplying water therein.
Additionally, the cavity is always retaining liquid therein when the humidifier not used, micro-organism may easily grow in the bottom of the cavity thus not hygienic.
Furthermore, a combination of cool and warm mist is not available in most conventional humidifiers because most commonly used high frequency ultrasonic transducers having a nebulizer are not designed to operate in a high temperature environment. In other words, a shortened life is anticipated if it does operate in such condition. One may use a nebulizer capable of operating in high temperature. However, the high cost of buying such nebulizer makes it impractical in fact.
Thus, it is desirable to provide an improved humidifier in order to overcome the above drawbacks of prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mist humidifier wherein cool and hot water tanks both have a minimum level of water and water is supplied to cold and hot water tanks in a continuous minimum way as such mist discharged from humidifier having a temperature at a constant level.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a mist humidifier wherein a nebulizer is properly disposed in a position free from affect of the high temperature of heater thus prolonging the life cycle of the nebulizer.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a mist humidifier further comprising a hose in the discharge outlet for directing mist to a woman's face for beautifying the face.
It is still further object of the present invention to provide a mist humidifier wherein the water tank has an inlet in a suitable position for facilitating the water supplying in an automatic manner for easing operation.
To achieve the above and other objects, the present invention provides a mist humidifier comprising a body for storing liquid; a nebulizer for converting liquid into a fine cool mist, and a blower for drawing ambient air into the body in order to create an air stream to carry mist out of the humidifier wherein the body is divided into a lower space receiving a main water tank for storing liquid and an upper space which further divided into an evaporative cavity and a blower cavity. Evaporative cavity is divided into a first water chamber for storing water fed from main water tank having a float ball safety valve, a second water chamber for receiving nebulizer which functioned as vaporizing water for creating cool mist, a third water chamber for receiving heater which functioned as heating water for creating a hot mist, and a water supply tube provided on the bottom of the first water chamber in fluid communication with the second and third water chambers so as to keep all water chambers at a constant equal level. By utilizing this, a mist having a temperature at a constant level is discharged from humidifier when humidifier is activated.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3756577 (1973-09-01), Breiling
patent: 5158716 (1992-10-01), Hirokane
patent: 5611967 (1997-03-01), Jane et al.
patent: 5645769 (1997-07-01), Tamaru et al.
patent: 5971369 (1999-10-01), Neveu et al.
patent: 0123456 A2 (2000-01-01), None
Bacon & Thomas PLLC
Bushey C. Scott
LandOfFree
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