WO2003055433A2

WO2003055433A2 - Injector element and hydromassage system

Info

Publication number: WO2003055433A2
Application number: PCT/IB2002/005836
Authority: WO
Inventors: Daniël VAN HEEGDE
Original assignee: E.O.C.C. Bvba
Priority date: 2001-12-10
Filing date: 2002-12-10
Publication date: 2003-07-10
Also published as: EP1480593A2; WO2003055433A3; BE1014532A3

Abstract

The invention provides a novel form of injector element for injecting fluids into bubble baths and hydromassage tubs, as well as hydromassage tubs, as well as hydromassage injector system and a (bubble) bath equipped with such an injector or injector system. The injector element of the invention essentially comprises a tubular element, having a plurality of jet openings distributed over its length. Each end of the injector is connected to a fluid supply (for example water mixed with air), allowing a particularly effective hydromassage jet pattern over the length of the injector. The decreasing intensity of the fluid jet from successive jet openings and the reversing of this pattern by alternately opening and closing the supply connected to each end of the injector element is very effective for hydromassage of certain parts of the body, such as the lower limbs. The alternating strong and gentle massaging jets can be stimulating for medical hydrotherapy treatments intended for lymphatic drainage.

Description

INJECTOR ELEMENT AND HYDROMASSAGE SYSTEM

The present invention is related to a novel kind of injector element, a hydromassage system and also to pools, baths and the like water compartments with jetted agitation making use of such an injector element resp. hydromassage system.

These devices known as i.a. whirlpools, Jacuzzi or bubble baths are utilised in spas and medical centers for various treatments like hydromassage and hydrotherapy. Thanks to technological progress and decreasing prices said whirlpools and hydro-treatments are coming now within reach of the average consumer.

Whirlpool systems and injectors therefor are known from the prior art to exist in different designs, see for instance the patent pubications DE-A-3715010, NL-A-1005235, US-A- 3772714, EP-A-354698 etc.

As is generally known from the current practice a whirlpool comprises a powerful pump for forcedly injecting water jets in the poolwater of the whirlpool by means of a plurality of jet heads or injectors disposed in the side walls and/or the bottom of the bathtub or pool. In order to obtain a sparkling effect also air is injected into the water supply, such that a bubbling fluidum of water mixed with air exits the jet heads of the tub thereby creating extra whirling effects inside the water bath.

According to the state of the art the adding of air to the water may be realised in two ways: either by means of an air supply channel which runs into the water supply duct at a location immediately behind a venturi provided in the water supply duct, whereby air is sucked into the water flow, said sucked-in air being adjustable by a sniffer valve, or by means of an air supply channel fed by a ventilator which blows air under pressure into the channel and presses the air into a mixing area located at the the junction of the air channel with the water supply duct. The amount of injected air is in the latter case easier to control and this over a broader range in terms of flow rate and pressure by actuation of the ventilator motor and/or by actuation of a shut-off valve mounted in the air supply duct.

According to the known state of the art a large plurality of different injectors is needed in order to enable different kinds of whirling jet effects and hydro-massage treatments to be obtained. Said injectors comprise a stream-out or jet head that can be fixed or orientatable, e.g. rotatable jet heads, and further may be designed in various shapes and jet profiles.

A serious drawback of the state in the art directed to the provision of hydro-massage treatments with special effect, in casu therapeutic effectivity, resides in the fact that each jet head has to be serviced separately, which gives rise to prohitive expenses due to the necessary connections for plural water and/or air supply channels, incl. the provision of a plurality of control devices and adapted injector heads. The present invention aims at avoiding said drawbacks by providing an injector element which allows by the aid of simple means, i.e. without additional costs of supplementary jet heads and connecting provisions, to create a selectively variable hydro-whirling effect and a therapeutic hydromassage of improved effectiveness.

The invention further provides a hydromassage system and a whirlpool device in which the novel injector element is integrated.

The injector element of the invention essentially comprises a hollow cylindrical bar or a tubular element of a predetermined length having closed opposing end faces, comprising a plurality of jet exit openings distributed over said length at regular interdistance, and further comprising two tubular connecting elements for connecting each end of the tubular injector element with a supply duct of a (bubble) fluidum to be injected, like water or air or a mixture of water and air.

The tubular connector element for joining the injector to a water/air supply duct is also suitable for mounting the injector element in the wall or bottom of a bubble bath or any other hydromassage pool.

According to a simplest embodiment the injector element consists of a straight tubular element with a plurality of perforations which are arranged in line parallel to the longitudinal axis of the injector tube, for instance 10 holes drilled into the tube wall with equal distance to oneanother. At each of the injector tube end faces there is provided, perpendicular to the injector axis, a connecting tube portion of a given length suitable for disposing the injector element in a whirlpool tub.

Such an injector embodiment is illustrated in figure 1. It is shown that the tubular connecting portions are fixed preferably at a short distance from the injector end faces and that the jet flow-out openings are disposed preferably in the injector part located between the said connecting elements, whereby the jet opening closest to the connecting element is preferably not in line with the axis of the fluidum supply connecting tube. - - > The invention is not limited to the above described embodiment. Variations of this design include i.a. non-rectilinear injectors, e.g. curved or bent tubular elements with one or more bends, possibly with helicoidal bend etc.

Forming part of the invention are also injectors with jet openings provided with various flow- out pieces or jet heads. Said jet heads may be fixedly mounted or adjustable, e.g. rotatable and/or orientatable by means of a ball joint.

Furthermore, the invention is not limited by a given shape of the injector cross section, nor by the disposition of the jet openings, nor by the shape and geometry of the injector's connecting elements or the material wherefrom the connector is made. The cross section of the injector may be round, oval or polygonal and not necessarily remain constant over the injector length. Similar variations may apply to the connector portions of the injector, which be inclined of bent in joining the injector tube. The jet openings not necessarily lay along a straight line and their interdistance, size and shape may be varied.

Also the material selection is not limitative: metals and alloys like copper, aluminium, brass, bronze and stainless steel are suitable and may be provided without or with a coating like chromium etc. Obviously various technical plastics suitable for sanitary applications may also be used as injector material. It is obvious that the method of making or assembling an injector element according to the invention may differ too: for example by casting, welding, brazing, cold or warm forming, extrusion et al.

The present inventor came to the surprising finding that a tubular injector element with multiple jet openings as described above and defined in the claims, when used in a pool or bath and being supplied with water/air fluidum under pressure, gives rise to a bubbling and hydromassage effect which has never been observed before.

More in particular, it was found the jet flow intensity, hydropower or hydropressure of the fluidum in the successive jet openings is different, and specifically that the jet or hydro- pressure of the subsequent hydrojets decreased progressively from the jet opening closest to the fluidum feed-in towards the openings located downstream therefrom. Furthermore said jet pressure drop shows a regular pattern as a function of the number of openings: P1 ,

P2, P3 P(n-1), Pn with n the number of jet outflow openings.

Since the injector element at the outlet side opposed to the inlet side comprises a second connecting tube for supply of water/air fluidum, the hydromassage pressure pattern over the injector length can be reversed. Herewith there is the provision of a system of alternating hydromassage: during a first time interval the fuidum supply channel connected with one end of the injector is opened and powered with forced feed of water and air (pressure air or aspirated air) while the inlet channel connected with the opposed end of the injector remains closed, such that a jet massage with decreasing intensity in the direction of the closed connection is obtained, and during a second time interval a reversed pattern of jet intensity is realised by closing the firstly openend supply channel while opening and activating the opposed injector feed connection.

The jetwhirl profile from high to low jet intensity over the injector length and vice versa is adjustable to a given extent, e.g. by changing the size, shape, interdistance and number of the jet openings.

The intensity of the imposed jet pattern and the power of the hydromassage effect obtainable by the novel injector elements can be increased or lowered by adjusting the system parameters like water flow rate and/or air pressure (or rate) separately or in combination by means of suitable components like valves and controllers/actuators.

The two opposed injector ends are thus connected to separate feed ducts of water/air supply which are independently actuatable and controllable.

A hydromassage system according to the invention comprises at least one injector element as defined hereinabove, and further a first duct for water/air supply towards one end of the injector and a second duct for water/air supply towards the other end of the injector, with the further characteristic that each supply duct is separately actuatable and closable/openable in a manner to establish a hydromassage jet pressure pattern, whereby in a first phase it exhibits a pattern from high to decreasing jet intensities and in a following phase, by closing the first supply duct and opening/actuating the second duct, it has a reversed pattern running from low jet pressures to high pressures exiting the successive injector openings. An alternating hydromassage jet pattern is thus accomplished with only one multi-jet injector element. The two supply channels needed therefor may be branched-off from one main duct (including water pump, venturi or ventilator device for controllable air inlet); the supply of a water/air fluidum alternatively to a first rep. a second end portion of the injector is then realised by opening and closing of suitable control valves in the supply channels.

The hydromassage system preferably comprises an adjustable actuation control, e.g. comprising a programm unit, by which a desired hydromassage jet pattern in function of time can be established: for example the duration and frequency of the alternating jet stages, their jet intensity etc.

The realisable alternating hydromassage running over the injector length jetwise from powerful to mild and vice versa in the same direction is especially suitable for an effective massage of the lymphatic system, particularly in the lower limbs. It has been demonstrated that the lymphatic vessels react better to a alternating hydropressure pattern as obtainable by the invention, and that the vessels open quicker and drain more effectively in depth.

A whirlpool or hydromassage pool according to the invention comprises a bath tub or similar water reservoir with disposed therein at least one injector element with a hydromassage means as described above. The water reservoir may be small in volume , for instance adapted for local massage of the lower limbs.

An example of a conventional whirlpool with a water/air injection supplied by means of a water pump and an air apiration channel of venturi type flowing into jet stream heads is depicted in figure 2.

An injector hydro system and bubble bath with alternating hydropressure jet pattern according to the invention is schematized in figure 3.

It may be clear that a whirlpool of the invention may be embodied in different design variants, wherein known basic components (pumps, air supplies, ducting, (magnetic) valves, multiway valves etc.) are combinable in different desired ways accorded to application requirements, actuation, servicing and control, e.g. hydromassage systems with low up to high maximum jet stream pressure, pulsating hydrosystems and the like. With respect to servicing and control, resp. actuation use and control units, the invention is not restricted to a particular control means or system (manual operation/adjustment or electronic operation with CPU including programm for jet cycle type, intensity, time duration, pulsating in certain stages and so on).

Al these possible combinations and modifications, even those not explicitly mentioned, will be part of the invention as far as comprised in the scope of the appended claims as defined hereinbelow.

Claims

1. Whirlpool injector with fluidum supply and a stream-out opening for injecting the fluidum in a water bath, caracterised in that the injector is provided in the form of a tubular element having a plurality of openings distributed over the injector length comprised between the closed end faces of the injector tube, and in that each injector end is provided with a tubular connecting portion adapted to connect the injector at both sides with a fluidum supply channel, whereby in use the flow direction of the fluidum in the injector over the stream-out or jet openings can be adjusted and changed as desired.

2. Whirlpool injector according to claim 1 , caracterised in that the jet stream openings are located between the respective flow-out mouths of the fluidum supply in the injector tube, preferably disposed in line and at equal interdistance, and in that the jet openings optionally may comprise stream-out heads (or jet heads) which may be mounted therein in a fixed, rotatable or orientatable manner.

3. Whirlpool injector according to claims 1 or 2 including one or more of the following features:

- the passage of the injector in the longitudinal direction is rectilinear, broken straight, with bends, curved or a combination of the foregoing, located not necessarily in a same plane;

- the cross section of the injector tube is constant or changes over the injector length and its shape is round (circular, oval, elliptic) or polygonal;

I- the jet openings have a same or differing size section and/or form and may be round, polygonal, slit shaped, cross shaped et al.;

- the tubular connecting portions for fluidum supply are perpendicular, inclined or bending wise mounted towards the longitudinal axis of the injector.

4. Hydromassage system for application in a water bath comprising an injector element according to claim 1 to 3 and further means for an adjustable supply of a fluidum to one or both fluidum feed connecting portions at each end face of the injector element, wherein said fluidum may comprise water, air or a mixture of water and air.

5. Hydromassage system according to claim 4, caracterised by means for the supply of a water/air mixed fluidum to the injector which comprise a water supply duct with circulation pump, if desired with pressure and/or flow rate regulation, and an air feed channel running into the water supply duct at a location upstream from the injector connection portion, said air channel feeding either pressure air generated by an controllable ventilator or suck-in air aspirated by a venturi device, and further caracterised by operation and control means for actuation and regulation of a desired fluidum jet profile, e.g. to obtain a desired hydrojet pressure pattern along the injector length.

6. Whirlpool apparatus for hydromassage comprising at leat one injector according to one of claims 1 to 3 and system means according to claims 4 or 5 for the controlled supply of a fluidum towards said injector.

7. Whirlpool according to claim 6 further characterised in that that the fluidum supply ducts towards the injector end portions are provided with a choke valve for opening, closing or adjusting the fluidum supply to the injector, incl. for the purpose of inversing the fluidum flow direction within the injector.

8. Whirlpool according to claims 6 or 7, characterised in that the supply of water and air into the fluidum duct is adjustable by means adapted therefor including: control or actuation valves in the respective ducting (main duct and branch-off channels), adjustment positions for pump power and ventilator power, regulatable sniff valve for venturi sucked-in air etc., whereby said means may be operated manually or by electronic controls, preferably are actuated electronically (analog or digital) with aid of a CPU and program control for the adjustment of hydrojet intensity and alternation over the successive jet stream openings.

9. Whirlpool according to claims 6 to 8, characterised in that the system means for actuation and control comprise timing means and inversing means for adjusting and establishing a desired hydromassage cycle in terms of duration, frequency and inversion of a fluidum injection phase with either right or left hand fluidum flow direction in the injector.

10. Use of an injector, a hydromassage system or a whirlpool according to any one of claims 1 to 9 in spas and/or hydrotherapy centers of the commercial (curing, welness,...) or medical sector for hydromassage treatments, in particular for effective hydromassage of limbs and body parts, especially for draining the lymphatic system.