Electric resistance heating devices – Heating devices – Vaporizer
Reexamination Certificate
2002-04-09
2003-08-05
Paik, Sang (Department: 3742)
Electric resistance heating devices
Heating devices
Vaporizer
C392S395000, C219S541000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06603924
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related to the field of thermal vaporizers for liquid formulations comprising volatile actives.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The use of so-called plug-in thermal vaporizers to dispense volatile actives is well known. Some known thermal vaporizers comprise a wick means inserted into a container with a reservoir of liquid volatile active, a heater unit and electric pins which are either fixed, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,177, or able to be rotated such that the wick can be orientated perpendicular to the ground, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,053, U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,546, U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,394, U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,647 and EP-A-0 962 132.
In the above-mentioned cases, the vaporizers rely on the air motion resulting from the heat rising from the heater unit and the natural dispersion properties of the volatile liquid to disperse the vapor within a defined area such as a room. The wick means comprises a wick formed in the shape of a rod that draws liquid from a refill container up and into a cylindrical gap formed at the center of a heater coil, through which the wick rod passes. Heat from the coil warms the rod, causing evaporation of the liquid, which is replenished through capillary action up the porous rod. In all cases, the heater unit is arranged to operate at one fixed pre-determined temperature.
There are plug-in units available that are designed to control the evaporation intensity by movement of either the container (such as a refill bottle) and wick in relation to the heater unit, as described in the above-mentioned EP-A-0 962 132 or by moving the heater unit in relation to the wick, as is the case with the commercially available air freshener retailed under the Ambi-Pur brand by Sara Lee. In these cases, the amount of evaporation is controlled by exposing more or less of the wick to the heater unit but the operating temperature of the heater unit is still fixed.
It is common for plug-in liquid vaporizer units to run at two distinct temperatures, depending on the end use of the product. Devices for dispensing an insecticide vapor tend to use ceramic or graphite-based wicks and run at temperatures typically in the region of 110-140 degrees centigrade, as is the case with the Kill-Paff® unit as marketed by Zelnova®. Fragrance dispensing units, such as the Ambi-Pur® brand by Sara Lee®, tend to run at lower temperatures, utilizing cellulose or fiber wicks. As a result of the different wicks and operating temperatures, separate heater units have customarily been specifically designed for each end use.
WO-A-97/39779 discloses a multiple electronic vaporizer for resins, which is provided with a plurality of heated hollow bodies, each hollow body reaching different temperatures according to the type of resin to be evaporated (such as incense, propolis and myrrh).
DE-A-37 01 499 discloses a thermal vaporizer arranged to heat tablets containing active substances. The device is arranged so that two tablets with different active substances (such as one tablet with a fragrance and another tablet with an insecticide) can be heated simultaneously, at different temperatures.
DE-A-33 45 134 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,874 also disclose thermal vaporizers for evaporating active substances in tablets. Here, the vaporizers include switches for allowing the vaporizers to be set to operate at different temperatures, n accordance with the active substance to be evaporated. The user is expected to manually operate the respective switch in order to select the correct temperature corresponding to the specific active substance to be evaporated. Of course, this implies a certain risk that the user may forget to set the switch to the correct position, whereby an incorrect heating temperature may be applied to a specific active substance.
In the case of a thermal vaporizer for an active substance housed in a bottle with a wick means, using a too high temperature (for example, for a fragrance dispensing bottle with wick) could cause damage to the wick. On the other hand, using a too low temperature for dispensing an insecticide could result in an ineffective release of the insecticide.
Thus, it would be desirable to reduce the risk for erroneous selection of the operating temperature.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The invention comprises a thermal vaporizer, a container and a thermal vaporizer assembly as defined in the independent claims. Some preferred embodiments of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.
A first aspect of the invention relates to a thermal vaporizer for a liquid formulation comprising a volatile active, said vaporizer comprising a housing having: a heater unit for evaporating the liquid formulation; a mounting for a container for the liquid formulation; a passage for a wick means to be heated by the heater unit; at least one outlet for evaporated volatile active; and an electrical contact connected to said heater unit.
The vaporizer further comprises:
means for selectively operating the heater unit at, at least, two different predetermined heating temperatures, including selecting means for selecting heating temperature, said selecting means including at least one first selecting means arranged to be selectively activated by the container.
By this way, it is achieved that the container, when applied to the vaporizer (preferably, when mounted in the mounting), may activate the first selecting means. This activation can be achieved by means of providing certain containers with special features or activating means so as to activate the first selecting means when the container is brought into a specific relation with the vaporizer, such as when the container is mounted into the mounting of the vaporizer. Thus, said certain containers (which may be, for example, containers for insecticides) will activate the first selecting means, whereas other containers (which may be, for example, containers for fragrances) will not activate said first selecting means. Thus, the heater unit will only operate at a specific predetermined temperature when a container is applied that has the special activating features or activating means. Examples of such activating means will be discussed in more detail later hereinbelow.
Thus, by means of the invention, it is achieved that the temperature at which the heater unit will operate will be switched over automatically when a specific type of container is applied to the vaporizer, for example, when such a container is mounted into the mounting. That is, the heater unit will be made to operate at a suitable temperature in accordance with the specific type of container used.
Thus, the thermal vaporizer according to the invention can be used for the dispensing of different volatile actives, such as insecticides and fragrances. Depending on the type of fragrance used, the container will or will not be provided with special activating features or activating means, so that the first selecting means will automatically be activated or not activated, in accordance with the specific container (and, thus, volatile active) used. Thus, as long as the correct container is used, there will be no danger (or, at least, a substantially reduced danger) that the heater unit could run at an incorrect temperature for a given volatile active.
The first selecting means can comprise, for example, a displaceable switch element arranged to be displaced by the container when the container is fixed into the mounting.
The first selecting means can also comprise one or more selectively interrupted electric circuits arranged to be closed by a metal (or equivalent) connector on the container when the container is fixed into the mounting. For example, the invention can comprise two incomplete or interrupted circuits whereby at least one of them is completed or closed by a metal connector forming part of the container (for example, of the neck, top or cap of the container) when the container is fixed into the mounting. In that case, the specific design of the metal connector of the container could determine whether
Brown Colin William
Dominguez Mónica Mascato
Gohil Kishen
Hart Gerald Leslie
Naish Guy Edward
Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen, LLP
Paik Sang
Zelnova, S.A.
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