DE29500220U1 - Ultrasonic humidifier - Google Patents

Description

Ultrasonic Humidifier

The innovation concerns an ultrasonic air humidifier to prevent electrostatic charging.

In the paper processing industry, but also in the textile industry and film processing, electrostatic charging always occurs when long strips of the material to be processed are fed over rollers at high speed and the necessary material moisture is lacking. This has serious negative consequences in production. During further processing, the sheets then stick together strongly and a smooth production process can no longer be guaranteed. This often leads to material jams within the production machines. The same problems occur in the textile industry and even more so in film processing. There are often downtimes during which the machines have to be freed of jammed material. This results in high personnel and material costs. Due to the static charge of the machines, the operating personnel repeatedly suffer electric shocks when touching the machines. Physical and psychological stress on the operating personnel causes further unnecessary costs due to poor work results.

All attempts to earth the affected machines to date have not brought any significant improvement to this situation. There is therefore an urgent need for an effective device to suppress the electrostatic charging of machines and materials, particularly in the paper and film processing industry and in the textile industry.

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This object is achieved in accordance with the invention by proposing an ultrasonic air humidification device for preventing electrostatic charging, which is characterized in that the aerosol generated in the device can be blown out by means of a fan via at least one supply hose through an aerosol blow-out lance.

According to the innovation, an ultrasonic air humidifier is used to generate an aerosol, which is then blown through a preferably flexible plastic hose by a fan. At the end of this hose there is an aerosol blow-out lance, which can consist of a plastic or stainless steel tube with holes in it, for example. The aerosol blow-out lance should be approximately the same length as the width of a roll on the machine that is used to process the electrically chargeable material. The lance is attached near the roll and blows the aerosol continuously over the material to be processed. Surprisingly, it has been shown that moistening the material does not lead to electrostatic charging and the problems described above are eliminated.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention according to the invention, the humidification performance of the air humidification device can be continuously regulated. This means that it can be adjusted to the running speed and the electrostatic susceptibility of the material being processed.
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Especially for applications where dusty material is processed, the new device has a fine filter

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on one side of the fan/ so that dust in the room is not sucked in and blown over the material being processed. This ensures that the new humidifier can be set up in the immediate vicinity of the processing machine. The flexible supply hoses mean that the new humidifier can be retrofitted at any time, even to existing processing machines.

So that the effective length of the aerosol blow-out lances can be adjusted to the width of the rollers of the processing machine, the lances have variable, movable cover sleeves at their ends with which unused aerosol outlets can be covered. This ensures that only the areas where this is actually necessary are specifically humidified. Unnecessarily high operating costs can thus be avoided. The air humidification device can also be equipped with several supply hoses and blow-out lances in order to supply the chargeable material with moisture at several points on the production machine at the same time.

Another preferred development of the new ultrasonic air humidifier provides that the device can be switched on and off remotely. This means that the start-up of the air humidifier can be linked, for example, to the start-up of a processing machine, so that the air humidifier is only put into operation when it is needed.

Surprisingly, it has been shown that the processing speed of paper rolls on a printing machine can be increased by a factor of 4,

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when the new humidifier is used. All problems with static charge can be eliminated cost-effectively and safely. Material losses and costly machine downtimes no longer occur. Nor should the psychological and physical relief for the operating personnel, who can touch the machines without fear of an electric shock, be underestimated.

In the following, the invention is explained in more detail with reference to the figure:

A commercially available ultrasonic air humidifier 1 produces an aerosol. The aerosol is blown out by a fan 2 through a supply hose 3 and an aerosol blow-out lance 4 over the static-susceptible material to be processed. In order to adapt the effective length of the aerosol blow-out lance to the roller width of the processing machine, the aerosol blow-out lance has cover sleeves 6 at its ends with which the aerosol blow-out openings 7 can be partially covered.

If the new ultrasonic humidifier device is used in dusty work processes, such as in the paper or textile industry, a fine filter 5 is preferably installed upstream of the fan 2 in order to safely filter out the particles in the air and not blow them out over the material to be processed.

The ultrasonic humidifier can, as shown in the illustration, also have more than one supply hose and one aerosol blow-out lance. This means that all essential

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Points of a production machine are supplied so that electrostatic charging can no longer occur anywhere. Preferably, the power of the ultrasonic air humidification device 1 is adjustable so that the amount of aerosol blown out can be adapted to the running speed and the material to be humidified.

Thanks to flexible supply hoses 3, the device can also be retrofitted to existing processing machines. Thanks to the aerosol blow-out lances, which can be flexibly adjusted in their effective length, the device can be used in a versatile and universal manner and adapted to the most diverse materials and production widths to be processed.

Claims (6)

Protection claims 1. Ultrasonic air humidification device (1) for preventing electrostatic charging, characterized in that the aerosol generated in the device can be blown out by means of a fan (2) via at least one supply hose (3) through an aerosol blow-out lance (4). 2. Ultrasonic air humidification device (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that a fine filter (5) is connected upstream of the fan (2). 3. Ultrasonic air humidification device (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the humidification performance of the device (1) is continuously adjustable. 4. Ultrasonic air humidification device (1) according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the supply hoses (3) are flexible. 5. Ultrasonic air humidification device (1) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the aerosol blow-out lances (4) have variable, displaceable cover sleeves (6) with which aerosol outlets (7) that are not required can be covered. 6. Ultrasonic air humidification device (1) according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the device can be switched on and off remotely.