US3211380A - Horizontal humidifier - Google Patents

Description

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 5, 1964 Z m 9 6 2 W INVENTOR ROY P SKERRITT FIG.4

BY ATTORNEYS Oct. 12, 1965 R. P. SKERRITT HORIZONTAL HUMIDIFIER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 5, 1964 4 I FIGZQ INVENTOR ROY P. SKERRITT BY W v ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,211,380 HGRIZONTAL HUMIDIFIER Roy P. Skerritt, 18411 Inkster Road, Livonia, Mich. Filed June 5, 1964, Ser. No. 372,827 4 Claims. (Cl. 239-43) This invention relates to humidifiers and, in particular, to humidifiers installed in heating and/ or ventilating systems.

Hitherto, humidifiers installed in heating and/or ventilating systems have been usually of inadequate humidifying capacity to properly humidity the space intended to be humidified. The principal reason for this inadequacy lay in the fact that it was impossible or impractical to mount a suflicient number of humidifying plates or other humidifying structures within a heater or heating duct of sufficient area to provide an adequate rate and volume of evaporation of water to properly humidity the heated space, more especially since these humidifying plates were mounted vertically in spaced parallel relationship. The humidifying action of prior humidifiers has been further hampered by the fact that most of them operate on the principle of the upflow of water by capillary attraction through a porous humidifier plate or sheet, with the result that lime deposited from the water under the action of heat upon hard water has clogged the pores in these plates or sheets and consequently at first slowed down and eventually terminated the humidifying action by blocking the upward flow of water. The same lime, precipitated out as dust upon the bare metallic surfaces of prior metallic humidifier water deflectors and pans has been easily blown off these smooth bare surfaces and conveyed through the ducts by the forced air stream, to be deposited as dust upon furniture and floors.

The humidifier of the present invention eliminates these defects and accomplishes adequate humidification in the manner set forth below in the specification and summarized in the following objects of the invention.

Accordingly, one object of this invention is to provide a horizontal-air-flow humidifier for heating and ventilating systems which enables the area of the capillary water-evaporating material to be enormously increased in contrast to prior humidifiers.

Another object is to provide a humidifier of the foregoing character wherein the humidifier sheets are suspended and wherein the water is supplied from the top upon .an approximately plate-shaped downwardly-sloping water distributor covered with porous capillary sheet material and descends therein with the aid of capillary attraction while the air moves in a generally horizontal path past the humidifier sheets, thereby enabling the sheets to be much thinner and of greater height than is possible with humidifier capillary plates drawing water upward from a pan in which the plates are standing, the thin sheet-s presenting less obstruction to the flow of air than the necessarily thick upstanding humidifier plates, the thickness of which is required for suflicient structural strength.

This is a continuation-in-part of, and an improvement effecting superior water distribution over my co-pending application Serial No. 851,922 filed November 9, 1959 for Horizontal-AinFlow Humidifier, now U. S. Patent No. 3,136,829 issued June 9, 1964.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description of the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a central longitudinal section through a heating and ventilating duct and an evaporator installed therein, according to one form of the invention, taken along the line 1--1 in FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of the humidifier, with ice the air duct in horizontal section, taken along the line 22 in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a cross section taken along the line 33 in FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 4 is a generally horizontal section with the lowest pan in top plan view, taken along the generally horizontal but partly inclined line 44 in FIGURE 1.

Referring to the drawings in detail, FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 show a humidifier, generally designating 10, according to one form of the invention as mounted in a rectangular aperture 12 in the bottom wall 14 of an air duct, generally designated 16, of a heating and/or ventilating system (not shown), the duct 16 having parallel vertical sides 18 and a top wall 20. The duct 16 is conventional together with the heating and/or ventilating system to which it is connected, and its details are beyond the scope of the present invention. The duct 16, however, is assumed to be substantially horizontal for the purpose of the present invention, so that the air to be humidified moves in a generally horizontal path through the air passageway 22 within the duct 16, as indicated by the upper arrows in FIGURE 1.

The humidifier 10 consists generally of a pan structure 23 including a lower component 26 and an upper component 28 disposed one above the other in verticallyspace-d relationship and having lower, intermediate and upper pans 30, 32 and 34 respectively. The intermediate pan 32 also serves as a cover member for the lower pan 30, while the upper pan 34 serves as a top member for the humidifier 10. The lower pan 30 has a bottom wall 36 (FIGURES 1 and 3) which is inclined slightly downwardly from steeply inclined end walls 38 and 40 and substantially vertical side walls 42. The lower pan 30 is provided at its periphery with hollow double-flanged end and side edge mounting portions 44 and 46 respectively suitably drilled in alignment to receive bolts 48 by which the humidifier is secured to the bottom wall 14 of the duct 16 adjacent the aperture 12 therein. The bottom wall 36 at its central lowest point is apertured and provided with a recessed drain connection coupling 50 to which a lower drain pipe 52 is connected. The bottom wall 36 near its junction with the end wall 40 is also apertured and provided with an overflow fitting 54 to which an overflow pipe 56 is connected, the coupling 54 having a riser portion 58 which regulates the desired depth of the water in the lower pan 30. The end wall 40 is additionally apertured to receive a coupling 60 for a drain pipe 62 from the intermediate pan 32. Each of the drain pipes 52 and 62 is in turn connected by way of a suitable normally-closed shutofl? valve (not shown) to a drain (also not shown). The shutoff valves of the drain pipes 52 and 62 are kept closed during operation and opened at the end of the heating season or whenever it is desired to drain 01f all water and foreign matter, as well as to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes in the otherwise waterfilled pans during the summer months when the heating system is not in operation.

Secured as by Welding to the opposite side walls 42 of the lower pan 30 are elongated horizontal angle brackets 64 (FIGURE 3) upon which rests the bottom wall 66 of the intermediate pan 32. The latter is shallowly-inclined from its parallel vertical side walls 68 with their upper edge flanges 69 and from its steeply-inclined end walls 70 to a central overflow fitting 72 at its lowest point, the overflow fitting 72 having a riser portion 74 determining the desired depth of water in the intermediate pan 32.

The opposite end walls 70 of the intermediate pan 32 are provided with horizontal rows of laterally-spaced holes 76 arranged on the same horizontal level and serving to receive humidifying sheet frames, generally designated 78, of isosceles trapezoidal shape with parallel lower and upper rod portions 80 and 82 (FIGURE 1) and inclined end rod portions 84. The upper rod portion 82 is parted as at 86 to receive a coupling ferrule 88. The holes 76 are so located and the frame end rod portions 84 of such lengths as to locate the bottom rod portion 80 of each frame 78 beneath the bottom Wall 66 in spaced relationship therewith. Draped over the lower and upper portions 80 and 82 of the frames 78 are the loops .90 and 92 of lower and upper undulatory capillary humidifying sheets 94 and 96 respectively. The undulatory capillary sheets 94 and 96 are made from any suitable capillary sheet material, such as fibrous glass sheet material having a porous texture possessing a capillary action upon the water being evaporated. Draped over and secured to the opposite end walls 70 of the intermediate pan 32 are capillary humidifying sheets 98 of U-shaped cross-section (FIGURE 1) riveted or otherwise secured thereto, these being of the same capillary material mentioned above. The bottom wall 66 of the intermediate pan 32, near its junction with one of the end walls 70, is recessed and apertured as at 100 to receive the upper end of the intermediate drain pipe 62.

The upper pan 34 of the upper component 28 is not a pan with enclosing side walls as in the case of the lower and intermediate pans 30 and 32, but has a shallowly-inclined bottom wall 102 With downwardly-extending opposite lateral edge flanges 4 extending longitudinally along the entire length of the bottom wall 102. T he pan 34 also has steeply inclined opposite ends 106 Wit-h opposite lateral edge flanges 108. Stretched laterally across the bottom wall 102 and extending over the lower and upper sides thereof are the lower and upper courses 107 and 109 of a humidifier element 110 in the shape of an endless loop resembling that of a roller towel. The lower course 107 rests upon the tops of the loops 92 of the upper undulatory humidifying sheet 96, which in turn rests upon the upper rod portions 82 of the frames 78. The humidifier element 110 is held down against the tops of the loops 92 by two parallel cross rods 112 (FIGURES 1 and 3), the opposite ends of which project laterally beneath the upper edge flanges 69 of the side walls 68 of the intermediate pan 32.

The central or lowest portion of the bottom wall 102 of the upper pan 34 is provided with an aperture 114 which is straddled by an inverted U-sh'aped bracket 116 to which is connected a threaded fitting 118 for the lower end of a water supply pipe 120. The fitting 118 has a downwardly-extending tubular portion 122 through which the water drips onto a porous capillary water-distributing fabric sheet 119 covering the apex 1'21 and the four shallowly inclined walls 123 defined by the cross ribs 125 of an approximately plate-shaped but slightly-pyramidal water distributor 127. The water distributor 127 rests upon but is slightly smaller than the bottom wall 102 of the upper pan 34 so that the Water flows from the water distributor 12 7 onto a relatively narrow rectangular marginal zone 129 of the upper course of the humidifier element 110. The bracket 116 is bolted or other wise secured to the bottom wall 102.

The water supply pipe 120 passes through a hole 124 in the upper wall of the duct 16 and is provided with any suitable conventional regulatory valve 126, which in turn is connected by a pipe 128 to a suitable source of water supply, such as the domestic cold water main. The right-hand end walls 70 and 106 of the intermediate and upper pans 26 and 28 also serve as air deflectors or scoops to intercept and deflect air passing through the air duct passageway 22 downward through the downwardly-offset central portions of the humidifier air channels or passageways 130 and 132 between the pans 30, 32 and 34.

In the operation of the invention, with the humidifier 10 installed and connected as above described and with the overflow and drain pipes 56, 52 and 62 connected to a suitable drain but with the drain pipes 52 and 62 closed by their respective shutoff valves, the operator opens the regulatory valve 126 (FIGURE 1) to supply water through the water supply pipe 120 from the pipe 128, whence it drips through the tubular portion 122 of the fitting 118 onto the porous capillary water-distributing fabric sheet 119 of the water distributor 127 and thence with the aid of capillary attraction onto the marginal zone 129 of the upper course 109 of the humidifying element 110. From here, part of the water spreads out horizontally by capillarity over the upper course 109 and around the lateral edge flanges 104 to the lower course 107. The remainder of the Water drips through the pores of the upper course 110 and through the aperture 114 directly onto the central portion of the lower course 107, whence it spreads laterally toward the edges thereof. Thus, the water distributor 127 with the aid of capillary attraction effects a more even distribution of the water by preventing it from being concentrated at the center of the upper pan 34, and at the same time prevents the formation of dry lime dust thereon and consequently prevents the conveying and deposit of such dust upon furniture by the forced air stream.

When the upper humidifying element 110 becomes saturated, the excess water drips downward to the intermediate pan 32 of the intermediate component 26, whence it falls upon the loops 92 of the upper undulator capillary humidifying sheet 96. This water spreads through the latter by capillary attraction and, when the saturation point is reached, drips onto the bottom wall 66 of the intermediate pan 32. This pan gradually fills up with Water until the level rises to the top of the riser 74 of the overflow fitting 72, whereupon further arrival of water passes downward through the riser 74 onto the loops of the lower undulatory capillary humidifying sheet 94. When the latter becomes saturated, further arrival of water drips off the loops 90 onto the inclined bottom wall 36. The water rises in the lower pan 30 until it reaches the top of the riser 58 of the overflow fitting 54 whence it escapes through the overflow pipe 56.

Meanwhile, the air which has been heated by the heating apparatus and forced through the duct 16 by a blower or other suitable means, passes in a generally horizontal direction through the lower and upper channels 130 and 132 respectively (FIGURE 1) between the lower pan 30, intermediate pan 32 and upper pan 34, picking up water not only from the capillary sheet material of the upper capillary element and the intermediate and lower capillary elements 96 and 94, but also from the surface of the water in the intermediate and lower pans 32 and 30 respectively. From FIGURE 1 it will be seen that the top member or upper pan 34 and the intermediate and lower pans 32 and 30 respectively are disposed in partially nested relationship, and that the end walls 40, 70 and 106 of the lower, intermediate and upper pans 30, 32 and 34 respectively are inclined relatively to one another to produce a so-called venturi effect which accelerates the flow of air through the lower and upper channels and 132 respectively. Meanwhile, air passing through the upper course 109 of the upper capillary element 110 picks up further moisture and adds this to the stream of air passing through the duct 16.

In this manner, the duct 16 delivers a supply of highlyhumidified air in a large volume to the room or other space being heated and/or ventilated, and thus accomplishes humidification in a rapid, efiicient and economical way.

What I claim is:

1. A horizontal humidifier, comprising an elongated generally horizontal upper pan having longitudinally-spaced end walls inclined upwardly away from one another,

an elongated generally horizontal water pan disposed under said upper pan and having laterally-spaced opposite side walls, longitudinally-spaced end walls inclined upwardly away from one another, and a bottom wall,

means for supporting said pans in vertically-spaced relationship,

porous capillary water-evaporating fabric sheets disposed in said pans,

an approximately plate-shaped water distributor disposed above and sloping downwardly toward said upper pan,

a porous capillary Water-distributing sheet mounted upon said water distributor and sloping downwardly thereon into close proximity to the porous capillary Water-evaporating sheet of said upper pan,

and means for supplying water to said water-distributing sheet.

2. A horizontal humidifier, according to claim 1, wherein said water distributor and water-distributing sheet are narrower than said upper pan and provide a water-receiving marginal zone on said water evaporating fabric sheet of said upper pan.

3. A horizontal humidifier, according to claim 2, wherein said water distributor has a central apex disposed at the top thereof and sides inclined downwardly away from said apex.

4. A horizontal humidifier, acoording to claim 2, wherein said water distributor has upstanding cross ribs thereon defining and dividing said water distributor into a pluralty of separated walls.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,278,866 9/18 Bibbee 261-406 2,035,728 3/36 Stanton 23943 2,428,922 10/47 'Shoresrnan 261-97 3,136,829 6/ 64 Skerritt 98--30 EVER'ETT W. KIRBY, Primary Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A HORIZONTAL HUMIDIFIER, COMPRISING AN ELONGATED GENERALLY HORIZONTAL UPPER PAN HAVING LONGITUDINALLY-SPACED END WALLS INCLINED UPWARDLY AWAY FROM ONE ANOTHER, AN ELONGATED GENERALLY HORIZONTAL WATER PAN DISPOSED UNDER SAID UPPER PAN AND HAVING LATERALLY-SPACED OPPOSITE SIDE WALLS, LONGITUDINAL-SPACED END WALLS INCLINED UPWARDLY AWAY FROM ONE ANOTHER, AND A BOTTOM WALL, MEANS FOR SUPPORTING SAID PAN IN VERTICALLY-SHAPED RELATIONSHIP,

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