WO2002035131A2

WO2002035131A2 - Scent-dispersing fabric air duct

Info

Publication number: WO2002035131A2
Application number: PCT/US2001/049936
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nicolas B. Paschke
Original assignee: Rite-Hite Holding Corporation
Priority date: 2000-10-23
Filing date: 2001-10-23
Publication date: 2002-05-02
Also published as: AU2002232752A1; WO2002035131A3

Abstract

In order to disperse an aroma evenly to selected areas within a building (14), an aromatic substance (54) is disposed at an intermediate position between an upstream and a downstream section of a fabric air duct (12). The fabric duct is air permeable and/or includes discharge openings (48) that evenly disperse scented air from within the duct to various rooms being heated, cooled, ventilated, or otherwise conditioned by the air. As the air inside the duct passes across the scented substance, the air entrains the scent molecules of the substance and disperses the scent to selected rooms. Within the same ductwork system, different rooms can be provided with different scents, and other rooms can be ventilated without a scent.

Description

Scent-Dispersing Fabric Air Duct

Background of the Invention

Field of the Invention

The subject invention generally pertains to fabric air ducts and more specifically to using such ducts to evenly disperse a scent into selected areas of a building.

Description of Related Art

In systems of heating, ventilating, and/or air conditioning (i.e., HNAC systems), conditioned supply air discharged from a blower is often conveyed to various rooms or areas within a building by way of ductwork. Conventional sheet metal ductwork may include a main header duct that receives the forced air from the blower and distributes the air onto several branch ducts. The branch ducts, in turn, include one or more discharge registers that deliver the air to the various designated areas.

In some cases, it is desirable to provide the conditioned air with a scent or pleasant aroma, which can be provided by an aromatic substance, such as a scented block or card, or scented granules or liquid in an open container. Possible applications may include a popcorn aroma for a movie theater, a coffee aroma for a restaurant, or a chocolate aroma for an ice cream parlor. Sometimes a room may need a mask scent to cover a preexisting, objectionable odor, as in a restroom.

To inject such scents or aromas into the air, a few systems have been developed, as disclosed in U. S. patents 4,676,954; 4,875,912; 5,422,078; and 5,690,720, all of which are specifically incorporated by reference herein. Some involve attaching an aromatic element or substance to an air filter that is immediately upstream of the HNAC system's blower. Air passing through the filter entrains the scent, which is then broadly distributed to all the areas and rooms that are served by the ductwork. The disadvantage of such systems is that the scent may be delivered to areas where the scent is not needed. In a restaurant, for example, a mask scent intended for the restrooms may be unsuitable for the dining room. A popcorn aroma in a movie theater would probably not be needed in the theater's equipment room. Thus, delivering a scent to rooms that don't need it can be detrimental, as may be the case with the restaurant example, or may at least be wasteful of the aromatic substance, as with the example of the theater equipment room.

To avoid indiscriminately distributing a scent throughout a building, some systems install an aromatic element at specific discharge registers of the ductwork. For a restaurant, this would allow one scent for the dining room and another for the restrooms. When injecting a scent at specific registers, however, the scent or aroma would be strongest, and perhaps objectionably strong near each register. Moreover, installing aromatic elements at specific registers is impractical or nearly impossible with some ductwork, especially those made of fabric instead of sheet metal. Rather than individual discharge registers, fabric ducts typically have a flexible fabric wall that is porous and/or includes numerous holes along its length for evenly dispersing air into the areas being conditioned or ventilated. Having to install and periodically replace aromatic elements at numerous small discharge openings could become time-consuming and wearisome.

Summary of the Invention

In order to disperse an aroma evenly to selected areas within a building, a scent is released at an intermediate position between an upstream and a downstream section of an air duct having an air-permeable fabric wall.

In some embodiments, the fabric wall is air-permeable by virtue of the fabric being porous.

In some embodiments, the fabric wall includes several discharge openings that render the fabric wall air-permeable.

In some embodiments, a fabric mesh holds an aromatic substance inside a fabric duct.

In some embodiments, a zipper provides access to an aromatic substance disposed inside a fabric duct. In some embodiments, a flexible access opening in a fabric duct can be opened for replacing an aromatic substance held inside the duct and is otherwise closed during normal use of the duct.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a top view of a fabric ductwork system that can disperse a scent to selected rooms of a building, but with duct support structure omitted for clarity.

Figure 2 is a partial cut-away side view of the fabric ductwork system of Figure 1, as viewed from the dining room and looking toward the kitchen, and showing support structure for the main duct.

Figure 3 is an enlarged view of the cut-away portion of Figure 2 and shows an aromatic element releasing a scent into a current of air.

Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4-4 of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a side view showing an aromatic element being inserted into a fabric duct.

Figure 6 is similar to Figure 5, but with a patch covering an access opening used for inserting an aromatic element.

Description of the Preferred Embodiment

An air duct assembly 10, shown in Figures 1 and 2, includes fabric ductwork 12 for ventilating or conveying temperature-conditioned air through a building 14. Several connectors 16 suspend the fabric ductwork from one or more elongated support members 18, such as a track or a taut cable. However, a variety of other known structures are available for supporting fabric ducts within a building. Building 14 could be almost any type of industrial, residential, or commercial building; however, in this example, building 14 is a restaurant having a kitchen 20, a dining room 22 and two restrooms 24 and 26. To convey air 28 to the various rooms, an air handler 30, such as a fan or a blower 32 disposed within an enclosure 34, forces air 28 through ductwork 10. Blower 32 draws air 28 in through an inlet 34, which is defined herein as the furthest upstream point of air 28. Depending on the building's air quality or conditioning needs, air handler 30 can be associated with an air filter 36 and a variety of other HNAC components including, but not limited to, electrical heating coils, heat exchangers, burners, and various refrigerant components. Blower 32 discharges air 28 into a main duct 38 of ductwork 10. Duct 38 conveys air 28 to kitchen 20, bathrooms 24 and 26, and feeds two branch ducts 40 and 42. Ducts 40 and 42, in turn, deliver air 28 to dining room 22.

To evenly disperse filtered or otherwise conditioned air into the various rooms, ducts 38, 40 and 42 each include a tubular wall 44 made of a flexible fabric 46 that is porous and/or includes numerous holes 48 along its length. The term, "fabric," refers to any pliable sheet of material that may or may not be air permeable or porous. Examples of a fabric include, but are not limited to, woven or knit cloth, flexible plastic sheeting that is not necessarily woven, plastic impregnated cloth, fiber reinforced plastic, and various combinations thereof. Holes 48 or porosity in the fabric allow the forced air 28 within ducts 38, 40, and 42 to escape into the rooms. From there, air 28 circulates through the rooms before being drawn back into inlet 34 of air handler 30.

In some cases, all or nearly all of air 28 is recirculated through building 14. In other cases, however, a portion of fresh outside 28' replenishes an equal portion of exhaust air 28" to maintain an acceptable level of fresh air within building 14. Exchanging fresh air 28' for exhaust air 28" is readily accomplished with conventional damper systems, such as the system schematically illustrated by an inlet damper 50 and an exhaust damper 52.

Further freshness or perceived freshness can be achieved by inserting aromatic elements 54 or 56 within ducts 38, 40, or 42. Aromatic elements 54 and 56 are schematically illustrated to represent any substance that emits a noticeable scent or aroma, with the terms, "scent" and "aroma" being equivalent and interchangeable. The substance can be a solid block, card, or granulated; a liquid held in an open container or held by an absorbent material, e.g., a sponge or cotton swab; or the substance can be a gas releasably held within a container.

In some embodiments, element 56 is an absorbent card containing a slowly evaporating perfume. Element 56 can simply be laid loosely inside duct 38. However, if that allows air current 28 to blow element 56 away, element 56 can alternatively be held in a fabric mesh pocket 58 attached to another fabric mesh 60, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. Here, the circular periphery of mesh 60 is sewn or otherwise attached to a relatively short fabric sleeve 62. A releasable fastener 64, schematically illustrated to represent fasteners such as a zippers, NELCRO, etc., connects the ends of sleeve 62 to an upstream portion 38' and a downstream portion 38" of duct 38. Thus, as air 28 passes through meshes 58 and 60 and across element 56, air 28 entrains the scent molecules of the perfume and disperses the scent to restrooms 24 and 26 to cover up the natural odor of those rooms. Much more scent is delivered to restrooms 24 and 26 than to kitchen 20, since aromatic element 56 is located upstream of the restrooms, but downstream of kitchen 20.

To install element 56 or to replace it after its perfume has been depleted, fastener 64 can be partially opened to create a flexible access opening through which element 56 can be inserted. Providing a fabric sleeve 62' with a slit 66, as shown in Figure 5, can also create a similar opening. To reduce the amount of air that might escape through slit 66, a fabric patch 68 can be sewn to sleeve 62" to cover slit 66, as shown in Figure 6. One edge 70 of patch 68 can be left unattached to allow element 56 to be inserted through slit 66.

If the scent of element 56 is inappropriate for dining room 22, a similar aromatic element, but of a different scent, can be inserted upstream of branch ducts 40 and 42. For example, element 54 could have a coffee aroma. An element 54 can be installed within each duct 40 and 42 or within a sleeve 62 in a manner similar to the installation of element 56 in sleeve 62.

If kitchen 20 requires a lot of ventilation with little or no added aroma, a portion 72 of duct 38 can be provided with high-throw air-discharge holes 48 and be left generally unscented from an upstream end 72' to a downstream end 72". Thus, ductwork 10 provides an appropriate amount of ventilation and scent to meet the specific needs of each of the rooms. A scent to cover a preexisting odor is delivered to restrooms 24 and 26, a pleasant coffee aroma is delivered to dining room 22, and a relatively large volume of generally unscented air is delivered to kitchen 20.

Although the invention is described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications are well within the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention is to be determined by reference to the claims that follow.

I claim:

Claims

1. An air duct assembly adapted to convey forced air through a building, comprising: an air duct having a fabric wall that is air-permeable and adapted to convey the forced air through the building; and an aromatic substance disposed within the air duct, whereby as the air passes across the aromatic substance, molecules of the aromatic substance are entrained in the air to be dispersed into the building.

2. The air duct assembly of claim 1, wherein the fabric wall is air-permeable by virtue of the fabric being porous.

3. The air duct assembly of claim 1, wherein the fabric wall defines a plurality of discharge openings that renders the fabric wall air-permeable.

4. The air duct assembly of claim 3, further comprising an air filter located upstream of the plurality of discharge openings, wherein the aromatic substance is disposed downstream of the air filter and upstream of the plurality of discharge openings.

5. The air duct assembly of claim 3, wherein the plurality of discharge openings includes a first group of openings and a second group of openings with the aromatic substance being disposed downstream of the first group of openings and upstream of the second group of openings, whereby aroma from the aromatic substance tends to pass through the second group of openings more than the first group of openings.

6. The air duct assembly of claim 1, further comprising a fabric mesh disposed within the air duct, wherein the aromatic substance engages the fabric mesh.

7. The air duct assembly of claim 6, wherein the fabric mesh includes a pocket in which the aromatic substance is held.

8. The air duct assembly of claim 6, further comprising a zipper that couples the fabric mesh to the air duct.

9. . The air duct assembly of claim 6, further comprising a touch-and-hold fastener that couples the fabric mesh to the air duct.

10. The air duct assembly of claim 1, wherein the fabric wall defines a flexible access opening that facilitates inserting the aromatic substance into the air duct.

11. An air duct assembly adapted to disperse an aroma from an aromatic substance, comprising: an air duct that includes an upstream section and a downstream section with both the upstream section and the downstream section consisting of a fabric wall that is air- permeable; and a holder disposed within the air duct at an intermediate position between the upstream section and the downstream section and being adapted to hold the aromatic substance at the intermediate position, whereby the downstream section is adapted to disperse more aroma than the upstream section.

12. The air duct assembly of claim 11, wherein the fabric wall is air-permeable by virtue of the fabric being porous.

13. The air duct assembly of claim 11, wherein the fabric wall defines a plurality of discharge openings that renders the fabric wall air-permeable.

14. The air duct assembly of claim 1, further comprising a fabric mesh disposed within the air duct, wherein the aromatic substance engages the fabric mesh.

15. . The air duct assembly of claim 14, wherein the fabric mesh includes a pocket in which the aromatic substance is held.

16. The air duct assembly of claim 14, further comprising a zipper that couples the fabric mesh to the air duct.

17. The air duct assembly of claim 11 , wherein the fabric wall defines a flexible access opening that facilitates inserting the aromatic substance into the air duct.

18. A method of dispersing an aroma, comprising: creating an air duct having an interior and an exterior defined by a fabric wall that is air-permeable; creating an air current through the interior of the air duct; releasing the aroma into the air current; and allowing air from the air current to pass from the interior to the exterior of the air duct by virtue of the fabric wall being air-permeable, whereby the aroma escapes to the exterior of the air duct.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the fabric wall is porous to promote even dispersion of the aroma.

20. The air duct assembly of claim 18, wherein the fabric wall defines a plurality of discharge openings that renders the fabric wall air-permeable.