US20150083360A1

US20150083360A1 - Temperature control circulator device

Info

Publication number: US20150083360A1
Application number: US14/493,010
Authority: US
Inventors: Jeff Wu
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Anova Applied Electronics Inc
Priority date: 2013-09-20
Filing date: 2014-09-22
Publication date: 2015-03-26

Abstract

A temperature control circulator device for fluidic temperature control that can connect to auxiliary heaters and pump to increase the available heating power and temperature control effectiveness of the temperature control circulator device in when dealing with large fluid volumes. The system can control the auxiliary heaters and pumps and the auxiliary devices may have sensors that feed back to the temperature control circulator device for more precise control of the fluid bath. The system also has a bottom perforated removable housing with a flow or directionally and flow adjustable pump system.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/880,691, filed Sep. 20, 2013, the contents of which are entirely incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The present disclosure relates generally to laboratory, industry, and culinary temperature control circulators, and more specifically, to precision temperature control device used to circulate heat transfer fluids.

BACKGROUND

Temperature control circulator device, are used in lab, industry, and culinary applications for temperature control of various apparatus and cooking processes. Temperature control circulator have been used in labs and industrial operations since the early 1950s. One of the functions of the bath circulator is to control the temperature of a bath to very precisely regulate temperature with 0.01 C precision. However when it these devices have limited heating capacity of around 1 kilowatt (120 volt power) or 2 kW (220-240 volt power) due to the limited amperage or legal regulations supplied by a single outlet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

In order to describe a manner in which features of the disclosure can be obtained, reference is made to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the drawing. Based on an understanding that this drawings depicts only an example embodiment of the disclosure and is not intended to be limiting of scope, the principles herein are described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawing in which:

The FIGURE illustrates a temperature control circulator device in accordance with an example embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
Several definitions that apply throughout this document will now be presented. “Circulating” means agitating, pumping, blending or mixing of one or more fluids. Hence a “circulator” is a device which can be configured to agitate, pump blend or mix a fluid. Fluids will be understood to comprise liquids. “Connect” is defined as connected, whether directly or indirectly through intervening components and is not necessarily limited to physical connections. Connected devices are devices which are in signal communication with one another. “Connected” means directly connected or indirectly connected. “Communicatively coupled” devices or components are devices or components which are in signal communication with one another.
Broadly speaking, this disclosure relates to a heating circulator used for any industry that requires large volumes of fluid to be controlled.
In at least one embodiment, a Temperature Control Circulator Device can connect to multiple auxiliary support heaters and pumps to adequately control the temperature of large fluid volumes. Typically temperature control circulator have limited heating capacity determined the wall power supply. To increase heating capacity many people have purchased a second device just to increase total heating wattage for the same liquid volume. The temperature control circulator device allows the user to just purchase an additional heater to supply additional wattage with the additional heater being controlled by the temperature control circulator.
In at least one embodiment, the temperature control circulator can control multiple auxiliary heaters or pumps to increase both heating and circulation power.
In at least one embodiment the auxiliary heaters or pumps also contain sensors to help the main temperature control circulator control the fluid temperature more precisely.
In at least one embodiment, temperature control circulator device has a removable bottom enclosure that fully or partially encloses the pump impellers. This saves a portion of cost of providing a separate impeller housing by using the existing enclosure.
In another embodiment, the temperature control circulator's bottom pump enclosure can be turned to direct flow in any direction to pump around object blockage or open multiple outputs to reduce pump flow speed but not overall pump volume flow.
In another embodiment, the temperature control circulator device can calculate the time to reach a certain temperature by tracking wattage used and temperature over time.
In another embodiment, the temperature control circulator allows operators to choose the function of the timer either to shut down the system after time has finished or as an audible alarm timer that just sounds an alarm but does not shut down the system.
The FIGURE illustrates an example embodiment of a temperature control circulator device 1. The temperature control circulator device 1 comprises an enclosure, motor, display and controllers with other electronics. The lower bottom perforated enclosure 2 can also include impellers heating coils and sensors. The top portion of the temperature control circulator device 1 can contain the electronics and motor and a pump mechanism that extends into the lower bottom perforated enclosure 2. The head portion 1 can include a display device which can display information such as the temperature of the fluid in which can pass through in the lower bottom perforated enclosure 2. The temperature control circulator device 1 can also connect to auxiliary heater or pump 3. As shown in the FIGURE, the temperature control circulator device can be connected to an auxiliary heater or pump that is controlled by the device
As discussed above, a temperature control circulator device for maintaining a liquid at a constant temperature comprising of a controller is disclosed. In at least one embodiment the device can include: a display communicatively coupled to the controller; at least one sensor communicatively coupled to the controller; at least one heater communicatively coupled to the controller; an electric motor including at least one output shaft having at least one impeller communicatively coupled to the controller; a top housing encasing at least one of the controller, the display, and the motor; and a bottom removable perforated housing at least partially enclosing the at least one sensor, the at least one heater and the at least one motor output shaft. The device can be connectable to external auxiliary heaters and auxiliary pumps, said auxiliary heaters and pumps being controllable by the device.
In at least one embodiment, the temperature control circulator device can also include a plurality of connection ports or wireless radios configured to supply control signals from the controller to the external auxiliary heaters and auxiliary pumps. In at least one embodiment, wherein the auxiliary heaters and auxiliary pumps can be configured to contain additional sensors to enable enhanced control of the liquid. The auxiliary heaters and auxiliary pumps can be housed in a perforated enclosure.
In at least one embodiment of the device, the bottom removable perforated housing houses at least a portion of the at least one motorized impeller. In at least one embodiment, the bottom removable perforated housing includes an attachable rotatable enclosure housing at least a portion of the at least one impeller. In at least one embodiment, the attachable rotatable enclosure also includes at least one openings openable and closable by rotating at least one of the top housing and the bottom removable perforated housing.
In at least one embodiment, the controller of the device is capable of calculating the time the device requires to cause the liquid to reach a certain temperature by analyzing at least one of a wattage, the liquid temperature and time trends associated with the liquid.
In at least one embodiment, the controller can include a multifunction timer that can be selected either to shut off the device at the end of time or raise an alarm but not shut off the system.
It will be understood that the various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only, and should not be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure or the following claims.

Claims

1. A temperature control circulator device for maintaining a liquid at a constant temperature comprising of a controller, the device comprising:

a display communicatively coupled to the controller;

at least one sensor communicatively coupled to the controller;

at least one heater communicatively coupled to the controller;

an electric motor including at least one output shaft having at least one impeller communicatively coupled to the controller;

a top housing encasing at least one of the controller, the display, and the motor; and

a bottom removable perforated housing at least partially enclosing the at least one sensor, the at least one heater and the at least one motor output shaft,

the device connectable to external auxiliary heaters and auxiliary pumps, said auxiliary heaters and pumps being controllable by the device.

2. The temperature control circulator device of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of connection ports or wireless radios configured to supply control signals from the controller to the external auxiliary heaters and auxiliary pumps.

3. The temperature control circulator device of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary heaters and auxiliary pumps are configured to contain additional sensors to enable enhanced control of the liquid.

4. The temperature control circulator device of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary heaters and auxiliary pumps are housed in a perforated enclosure.

5. The temperature control circulator device of claim 1, wherein the bottom removable perforated housing houses at least a portion of the at least one motorized impeller.

6. The temperature control circulator device of claim 1, wherein bottom removable perforated housing includes an attachable rotatable enclosure housing at least a portion of the at least one impeller.

7. The temperature control circulator device of claim 6, wherein the attachable rotatable enclosure includes at least one opening, openable and closable by rotating at least one of the top housing and the bottom removable perforated housing.

8. The temperature control circulator device of claim 1, wherein the controller can calculate the time the device requires to cause the liquid to reach a certain temperature by analyzing at least one of a wattage, the liquid temperature and time trends associated with the liquid.

9. The temperature control circulator device of claim 1, wherein the controller has a multifunction timer that can be selected either to shut off the device at the end of a specified time or raise an alarm without shutting off the device.