WO1996010721A1

WO1996010721A1 - Air inlet valve

Info

Publication number: WO1996010721A1
Application number: PCT/NL1995/000329
Authority: WO
Inventors: Abraham Anthony John De Graaff
Original assignee: J.E. Stork Ventilatoren B.V.
Priority date: 1994-09-30
Filing date: 1995-10-02
Publication date: 1996-04-11
Also published as: NL1000130C2; NL1000130A1; AU3688695A

Abstract

The invention relates to an air inlet valve adapted for connection to an air feed duct debouching in wall or ceiling of an area for ventilating, which valve comprises: a generally tubular housing; coupling means for sealingly coupling the housing to said duct; and an outlet opening in which an optionally disposable obstruction body is received while leaving free an edge outlet zone through which the air is blown out at an angle to the axial direction of the valve. The invention provides an air inlet valve which has the feature that in the edge outlet zone is accommodated an annular deflection member which deflects the outer layer of the air flowing through this zone such that it leaves the said zone at an angle of (90 ± 20)° to the axial direction of the valve.

Description

AIR INLET VALVE

The invention relates to an air inlet valve adapted for connection to an air feed duct debouching in wall or ceiling of an area for ventilating, which valve comprises: a generally tubular housing; coupling means for sealingly coupling the housing to said duct; and an outlet opening in which an optionally disposable obstruction body is received while leaving free an edge outlet zone through which the air is blown out at an angle to the axial direction of the valve.

The oblique outflow of air results in additional air flows due to so-called "induction". An air flow is for instance created which is directed axially toward the fan, is deflected close to the fan and then carried along with the outflowing air. As a result of their inertia, relatively heavy dust particles carried along by this induced air flow are not able to follow the rapid deflection, so that they follow a path with a considerably smaller deflection and adhere easily and strongly to the surface round the valve. As a consequence hereof the area surrounding such a valve cannot be prevented from becoming heavily fouled after a period of time which, for understandable reasons, is highly undesirable. The fouling could be prevented by causing a valve to blow out substantially axially. This is however also undesirable for reasons of comfort. A directed air flow with a certain speed is generally perceived as chilly and disagreeable. The known valve with a diverging outlet provides a rapid mixing of the air blown out by the valve with the ambient air, so that the stated comfort problem of axial valves does not occur therein. The invention now has for its object to provide an air inlet valve of the type stated in the preamble which is substantially free of the stated fouling problems.

With a view to this objective the invention provides an air inlet valve which has the feature that in the edge blow- out zone is accommodated an annular deflection member which deflects the outer layer of the air flowing through this zone such that it leaves the said zone at an angle of (90 ± 20) ° to the axial direction of the valve.

The dependent claims 2-5 give advantageous embodi- ments.

The invention also relates to a deflection member which is adapted and evidently intended to serve as part of an air inlet valve according to the invention. Such a deflection member can also be added to an existing air inlet valve. The only figure shows a built-in air inlet valve 1.

This air inlet valve is connected by means of coupling means to be described hereinbelow to an air feed duct 4 debouching into a ceiling 2 of a space 3 for ventilating.

The valve 1 comprises a generally tubular housing 5 with an upward bent edge zone 6. By means of a rubber ring 7 with lips 8 acting as barbed hooks and an annular sealing lip 8 the housing is sealingly coupled to the said duct 4. Together with an obstruction body 9 supported in the middle of housing 5 the edge zone 6 bounds a widening outlet opening 10 through which air 11 supplied by the duct 4 is blown out at an angle to the axial direction of the valve. This blown-out air is indicated with arrows 12.

Accommodated according to the invention in the edge outlet zone 13 is an annular deflection member 14 which deflects the outer layer of the air flowing through this zone 13 such that this air, which is designated with reference numeral 15, leaves the said zone 13 at an angle of about 90" to the axial direction of the valve 1.

The deflection member 14 is fastened to edge zone 6 by means of screws 16.

The figure shows a secondary air flow 17 resulting from induction which, close to the zone 13, is deflected in the manner drawn in the direction of the outflowing air flow 12. Relatively heavy dust particles, designated with 18, have too great an inertia to follow the rapid curve of the path and follow a path in the manner designated with the reference numeral 18' . They have hereby acquired a considerable radial component and can subsequently be carried along by the secondary air flow 15 and then further disseminated in the space.

The central obstruction member 9 is coupled via spokes 19 to housing 5 and adjustable by means of screw means. In this respect attention is drawn to the fact that in this embodiment the position of the deflection member 14 is unchanging. When the axial position of the obstruction member 9 is changed the relative proportion of the air flow 15 will therefore change correspondingly.

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Claims

1. Air inlet valve adapted for connection to an air feed duct debouching in wall or ceiling of an area for ventilating, which valve comprises: a generally tubular housing; coupling means for sealingly coupling the housing to said duct; and an outlet opening in which an optionally disposable obstruction body is received while leaving free an edge outlet zone through which the air is blown out at an angle to the axial direction of the valve, characterized in that in the edge outlet zone is accommodated an annular deflection member which deflects the outer layer of the air flowing through this zone such that it leaves the said zone at an angle of (90 ± 20) ^* to the axial direction of the valve.

2. Air inlet valve as claimed in claim 1, character¬ ized in that the amount of air flowing in the outer layer amounts to a maximum of about 30% of the total amount of blown- out air.

3. Air inlet valve as claimed in claim 1, character¬ ized in that the deflection member is releasable.

4. Air inlet valve as claimed in claim 1, character¬ ized in that the coupling means comprise an annular sealing lip of elastic material and a plurality of resilient coupling lips acting as barbed hooks, which lips can be pressed into the air feed duct while deforming elastically.

5. Air inlet valve as claimed in claim 4, character¬ ized in that the sealing lip and the coupling lips form part of one rubber elastic coupling member.

6. Deflection member adapted and evidently intended to serve as part of an air inlet valve as claimed in any of the foregoing claims.

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