US3786643A

US3786643A - Vortex tube

Info

Publication number: US3786643A
Application number: US00320649A
Authority: US
Inventors: R Anderson; W Andrist
Original assignee: Owatonna Tool Co
Current assignee: Owatonna Tool Co
Priority date: 1973-01-02
Filing date: 1973-01-02
Publication date: 1974-01-22
Anticipated expiration: 1991-01-22
Also published as: CA1014076A; GB1387784A; JPS4997945A; DE2352149A1

Abstract

A vortex tube for converting pressure air to hot and cold air fractions and constructed of a body and cap assembled together with the cap and body forming a vortex chamber and a surrounding plenum chamber with a cold air passage extending outwardly from the cap and an elongate hot air passage extending outwardly of the body with the parts formed of plastic and shaped to provide a plug fit with each other and mounting an annular air filter screen therebetween and with a nozzle and valve unit threaded onto an end of the body providing for a plurality of control positions whereby either maximum cold air may be emitted from the unit or high temperature air can be emitted from the other end of the unit.

Description

Anderson et al.

[451 Jan. 22, 1974 VORTEX TUBE Inventors: Richard T. Anderson; Willard L.

Andrist, both of Owatonna, Minn.

Owatonna Tool Company, Owatonna, Minn.

Filed: Jan. 2, 1973 Appl. No.: 320,649

Assignee:

US. Cl. 62/5, 62/408 Int. CLQ. F25b 9/02 Field of Search 62/5 1 References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS Primary Examiner-William .l. Wye Attorney, Agent, or Firm-l-lofgren, Wegner, Allen, Stellman & McCord [5 7] ABSTRACT A vortex tube for converting pressure air to hot and cold air fractions and constructed of a body and cap assembled together with the cap and body forming a vortex chamber and a surrounding plenum chamber with a cold air passage extending outwardly from the cap and an elongate hot air passage extending outwardly of the body with the parts formed of plastic and shaped to provide a plug fit with each other and mounting an annular air filter screen therebetween and with a nozzle and valve unit threaded onto an end of the body providing for a plurality of control positions whereby either maximum cold air may be emitted from the unit or high temperature air can be emitted from the other end of the unit.

6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 1 voRTExTUBE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention pertains to vortex tubes and, more particularly, to a vortex tube usable in the automotive field as a device for cooling automatic chokes in the process of testing thereof.

Vortex tubes are well known in the art with the early developmentthereof being by Georges Ranque. As stated in a textbook entitled Refrigeration and Air Conditioning" byJordan and Priester, Copyright 1948 by Prentiss-Hall, the tube has been known as the Ranque tube, the I-Iilsch tube, or the vortex tube. Since that time, others have worked on developments of such vortex tubes. Typical of these additional developments are the Bramley U.S. Pat. No. 2,581,168, Fulton U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,273, and Fulton U.S. Pat. No. 3,208,229.

Additionally, others have worked on vortex tubes, with the provision for valve structure at the end thereof from which the hot gas is emitted including Tildon U.S. Pat. No. 3,074,243, l-lendel U.S.Pat. No. 2,893,214, and I-Iardebol et al. US. Pat. No. 2,955,432.

None of the foregoing patents disclose an economical vortex tube structure wherein the parts may be made of plastic with pIug-interfitting of a body and cap, with the captureof' an annular air screen in the plenum chamber of the vortex tube and between the body and cap and with valve structure at the hot air end of the vortex tube-having a restricted flow-through provision for obtaining high temperature air for use when desired with positioning of the valve structure to permit relatively nonrestricted air flow from the hot end of the vortex tube when it is desired to emit extremely cold air from the other end of the vortex tube.

SUMMARY The vortex tube disclosed herein overcomes the problems and disadvantages of the prior art referred to above and enables the production of aninexpensive vortex tube having use in the automotive field as a choke tester wherein it is necessary to cool down an automatic chokeas-part' of the testing procedure and wherein the vortex; tube may selectively emit usable high temperature air from the opposite end thereof and with suitable fitting attachments.-

A primary feature of the invention is to provide a vortex tube structure whereinthe structure is basically formed from a body and cap of plastic material which are shaped to provide an interfitting-plug relation and to define therebetween a vortex chamber and a surrounding plenum chamber with a series of air channels therebetween entering tangentially into the vortex chamber and with an annular air filter screen positioned in the plenum chamber and held in position by the ends thereof engaged in annular grooves in opposed faces of the cap and body.

An additional feature of the invention is to provide a vortex tube as defined in the preceding paragraph wherein the body has an elongate passage and with a nozzle and valve unit threadably fitted onto the body with a restricted air passage and a nonrestricted air passage and with the nozzle and valve unit being selectively positioned to either permit flow only through the restricted air passage when hot air is desired and, alternatively, to permit positioning of the unit in a variety of positions to permit relatively nonrestricted air flow through the nonrestricted passage when it is desired to have colder air emitted from the cold end of the vortex tube.

An object of the invention is to provide a new and improved vortex tube having the features set forth above and overcoming the problems and shortcomings of the prior art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the vortex tube as usable as a choke tester;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section, on an enlarged scale, taken generally along the line 2-2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken generally along the line 3-3 in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the nozzle and valve unit shown in association with an end of the body and with the nozzle and valve unit in a different position from that shown in FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The vortex tube, is shown generally in FIG. 1 and has a body, indicated generally at 10, associated with a cap, indicated generally at 11. The body 10 has a central recess 15 to receive a plug section 16 of the cap 11 in interfitting relation and with an O-ring l7 captured therebetween to seal the body and cap together and with the body and cap having abutting surfaces 18. The body and cap are held in assembled relation by a series of attaching members 20.

As well known in the art, a vortex tube has a vortex chamber 21 surrounded by a plenum chamber 22 and with a series of air channels 23 extending between the vortex chamber 21 and the plenum chamber 22 and entering tangentially into the vortex chamber. In the structure disclosed herein, the body 10 has a central section 25 coacting with the plug section 16 of the cap 11 to define the vortex chamber therebetween and with the air channels 23 being formed by grooves in the face of the central section 25 of the body and completely defined by the end face of the plug section 16 of the cap.

Air under pressure enters the vortex tube through an inlet 30 in the body 10, with the air passing to the annular plenum chamber 22 and through the air channels 23 to the vortex chamber 21. In order to filter the air, an annular pervious filter screen 31 is positioned in the plenum chamber with the opposite ends thereof seated in an annular groove 32 in the body and an annular groove 33 in the cap. In assembly of the cap and body the annular screen 31 can be inserted into the groove 32 in the body 10 and the cap then placed in final position to seat the opposite end of the annular filter screen 31 in the groove 33 of the cap.

The cap 11 has a cold air passage 40 with a slight taper formed in a tubular part 41 thereof and which is of a diameter less than the vortex chamber 21. The body 10 has a lateral tubular extension 45 with a passage 46 which is of a diameter less than the vortex chamber 21 and of a diameter greater than the cold air passage 40. This construction enables the air entering the vortex chamber to reach an increased velocity and provide for better separation of the air into hot and cold fractions. This relation of the vortex chamber to the air passages is known in the art and described in the Bramely U.S. Pat. No. 2,581,168.

A nozzle and valve unit, indicated generally at 50, is associated with the free end of the lateral tubular extension 45 of the body 10, and controls the operation of the vortex tube with regard to the temperature of the air fractions delivered from the vortex tube. The nozzle and valve unit 50 is generally cup-shaped and has a transverse wall 51 with a restricted air passage 52 concentric with the air passage 46. The end of the passage 52 has a metal insert 53 with an orifice 54 providing for restricted air flow therethrough. With the parts as positioned in FIG. 2, the only air that can flow to the left, as viewed in FIG. 2, is the air which travels through the orifice 54. This results in relatively high temperature air being emitted therefrom, while air emitted from the cold air passage 40 is not of a significantly low temperature.

The nozzle and valve unit 50 is threadably mounted to the tubular extension 45 by threads, indicated at 55, and is in an inner limit position, as shown in FIG. 2, with the transverse wall 51 in engagement with an end of the tubular extension 45. The nozzle and valve unit 50 may be rotated and, due to its threaded relation with the tubular extension 45, moved to one of several positions away from the inner limit position with one of these positions being shown in FIG. 4. In such position, the transverse wall thereof is moved away from the end of the tubular extension 45 of the body whereby air flowing through the passage 46 can flow to a nonrestricted air passage 60 through a peripheral wall 61 of the nozzle and valve unit whereby air passing through the passage 46 is not at a maximum high temperature, but the cold air emitted from the cold air passage 40 may be at or near the maximum cold temperature.

The nozzle and valve unit has a heat sleeve 65 as a part thereof which surrounds the tubular part 45 of the body.

The body and the cap 11 are shaped for construction of molded plastic parts, as is the nozzle and valve unit 50. In order to provide the orifice passage 54, the metal insert 53 is molded into the nozzle and valve unit whereby a long, small restricted passage may be provided. As shown, a separate sleeve 65 is provided with external serrations to facilitate rotation of the nozzle and valve unit 50, with this sleeve being fitted onto the wall 61 which threadably fits onto the body part 45. The sleeve 65 has an opening 66 aligned with the opening 60.

With the construction disclosed herein formed of simply shaped, molded plastic parts, it is possible to extend the advantages of a vortex tube which separates air under pressure into hot and cold fractions into fields of use, such as automobile garages, where there are requirements for hot or cold air with a known requirement for cold air being to chill an automatic choke in an automobile being serviced.

We claim:

1. A vortex tube for separating compressed air into hot and cold fractions comprising, a body and a cap in assembled relation and having means to define a vortex chamber and a plenum chamber, a series of air channels extending between said plenum chamber and the vortex chamber and entering tangentially of said vortex chamber, said cap having a cold air passage extending from the vortex chamber to the exterior of said tube, said body having an elongate passage extending from the vortex chamber for the entire length thereof, and a nozzle and valve unit having a flow restricting orifice and an air exhaust passage, said unit being mounted on an end of said body for movement between one position causing all air flowing in said elongate passage to pass through said flow restricting orifice to any of a plurality of positions where air may flow through said air exhaust passage at a controlled rate greater than through said flow restricting orifice.

2. A vortex tube as defined in claim 1 wherein said nozzle and valve unit is cup-shaped and threaded onto an end of said body, said air exhaust passage being in a side wall of the unit, and said nozzle and valve unit having an internal wall engaging an end of said body in said one position to block air flow to said air exhaust passage and cause air to flow through said flow restricting orifice.

3. A vortex tube as defined in claim 1 wherein said nozzle and valve unit is of molded plastic and a metal insert therein defines said flow restricting orifice.

4. A vortex tube as defined in claim 1 wherein ssaid nozzle and valve unit has an insulating sleeve extending therefrom and in spaced surrounding relation with a part of said body having said elongate passage.

5. A vortex tube for separating compressed air into hot and cold fractions comprising, a body and a cap in assembled relation and having means to define a vortex chamber and a plenum chamber, a series of air channels extending between said plenum chamber and the vortex chamber and entering tangentially of said vortex chamber, said cap having a cold air passage extending from the vortex chamber to the exterior of said tube, said body having an elongate passage extending from the vortex chamber for the entire length thereof, said body having a central recess and said cap having a central plug section fitted into said recess, an air inlet in said body leading to said plenum chamber, and an annular air filter screen in said plenum chamber having one end seated in a groove in said body and the other end seated in a groove in the plug section of said cap.

6. A vortex tube as defined in claim 5 wherein said elongate body passage terminates at an end of the body, a cup-shaped nozzle and valve unit threaded onto an end of the body and having a transverse wall with a restricted flow passage concentric with said elongate body passage, and a non-restricted air exhaust passage in a perimetral wall of said unit, said unit having one position wherein said transverse wall engages the end of the body and blocks air flow to said non-restricted air exhaust passages and a plurality of other positions controlling air flow to said latter passage.