Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – Flow deflecting or rotation controlling means – Fluid rotation inducing means upstream of outlet
Patent
1990-10-04
1992-04-21
Kashnikow, Andres
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
Flow deflecting or rotation controlling means
Fluid rotation inducing means upstream of outlet
B05B 134
Patent
active
051060221
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to spray nozzles and is primarily concerned with those for bathroom showers, although there is no reason why the principles should not be applied to nozzles for other purposes, and for liquids other than water.
A good bathroom shower should be capable of operating over a wide pressure range and in particular to be effective at low pressures and with low flow rates, while retaining an acceptable shower pattern.
The instant water heaters that supply showers nowadays are mostly electric. They tend to be very hungry of energy, and special heavy duty cables normally have to be run to the heater. Much for the heat consumed is often wasted by an inefficient spray pattern which misses much of its target unless the latter is very close.
Another problem is that the spray heads tend to clog up with lime and other foreign matter carried by the water. In particular, the "rose" through which the spray finally emerges generally has very fine holes which do not take long to clog, and while the shower may continue to operate while many of them are blocked, it will naturally be operating at even less efficiency than before. Also, the dismantling and cleaning of very small apertures is a fiddly and tiresome business which tends to be put off too long.
There are nozzles (without a rose) which attempt to spread a stream of water into a conical pattern. However, they tend to concentrate the droplets into a conical "shell", with very few in the middle, or have a central stream with a much less dense outer band of droplets.
It is the aim of this invention to provide a spray nozzle where many of these drawbacks should largely be overcome.
According to the present invention there is provided a spray nozzle having a swirl chamber and a delivery passage extending therefrom with its downstream end divergent, characterised in that the downstream end is substantially straight conical with a cone angle in the range 10.degree. to 30.degree. and terminates with a sharply angled transition into the delivery end face of the nozzle.
Preferably, the cone angle is rather less than 30.degree., and ones of 14.degree. to 20.degree. have been found to be very effective.
The angled transition may be a chamfer, that is a frusto-conical surface with a substantially larger cone angle than the downstream end of the delivery passage. Its width may be in the range 0.5 to 1.5 mm. There will then be two sharp transitions, one between that downstream end and the chamfer, and the other between the chamfer and the end face of the nozzle, which in the zone around the mouth of the passage will generally be perpendicular to the axis of that passage.
There may also be a throat of substantially constant cross-section preceding the downstream end of the delivery passage, and this will generally be of circular cross-section with a diameter in the range of 1 to 6 mm (1.6 mm has been found very effective) and a length preferably in the range 2 to 6 mm, although shorter lengths may be used.
The mouth of the downstream end is preferably in a projecting boss whose outer side slopes inwardly and forwardly, and whose extremity provides said delivery end face. The width of this end face, from mouth to sloping side is preferably in the range 0.5 to 1.5 mm.
Experiments have shown that this geometry breaks up the water into fine droplets without forcing the water through narrow `pinholes`, and moreover the distribution of those droplets over the spray cone is acceptably even.
The upstream end of the delivery passage will generally be convergent from the swirl chamber, in which case the whole passage will be like a venturi.
In the preferred form, the swirl chamber is cylindrical with a plurality of generally tangential inlets, and these can act as a filter preventing ingress of foreign bodies over a certain size. But they will generally be larger than the fine apertures in a rose, and therefore will be far less prone to becoming clogged. If they do, there are fewer of them to clean out, and being larger, the job is rather easier. They may all be angled sim
REFERENCES:
patent: 2015611 (1935-09-01), Wettstein
patent: 4274595 (1981-06-01), Yamin
patent: 4415275 (1983-11-01), Dietrich
Kashnikow Andres
Morris Lesley D.
LandOfFree
Spray nozzles does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Spray nozzles, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Spray nozzles will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1580287