Temperature adjustable airflow device

Abstract

A temperature adjustable airflow device includes a vortex tube having a high pressure gas inlet and cooled and heated outlets. A mixing chamber is provided having first and second ends, one gas inlet end at the first end and a gas outlet end at the second end, and an intermediate gas inlet end between the first and second ends. A high pressure inlet conduit is connected to the high pressure gas inlet of the vortex tube and to the gas inlet of the mixing chamber. The cooled or the heated vortex tube outlet is connected to the intermediate gas inlet end, the mixing chamber mixing high pressure gas with cooled or heated gas, respectively, from the vortex tube to enhance the pressure of the cooled or heated gas emanating from the vortex tube. The arrangement allows cooled or heated gas from the vortex tube to be output for a given application at a higher pressure that would normally be available.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]This invention generally relates to vortex tubes and, more specifically, to a modified temperature adjustable airflow device.[0003]2. Description of the Prior Art[0004]Vortex tubes, known since the 1930s, are mechanical devices that convert gas tinder pressure into hot and cold gas streams. It has no moving parts.[0005]Generally, a typical vortex tube has two openings, one at each end and an intermediate inlet tube for introducing gas under a high pressure into a spiral flow path. While there are different explanations for the way in which vortex tubes work, it is known that when a gas is introduced under high pressure, it is separated into two different streams, a first gas stream exiting one end of the tube being heated air while the gas stream exiting the other end is cooled air. The gases that exit at two opposing ends of the tube being heated and cooled gas streams, are at lower pressures that the pressure of the i...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014]It is another object of the invention to provide a temperature adjustable airflow device that is simple construction and economical to the manufactures.

[0015]It is still another object of the invention to provide a temperature adjustable airflow device that utilizes a vortex tube and is easy and safe to use to adjust the temperature of the gas output of the device.

[0016]It is still another object of the invention to provide a temperature adjustable airflow device as in a previous object that provides accurate control of the temperature of the outlet gas of the vortex tube.

[0017]It is still another object of the invention to provide a temperature adjustable airflow device as in a previous object that allows the adjustment of the temperature of the output gas without unduly reducing the efficiency of the device.

[0020]In order to achieve the above objects the present invention utilizes a relative conventional vortex tube that has two opposing ends one of which releases cooled gas while the other produces heated gas relative to an ambient temperature of a high pressure gas that input into the vortex device. The one of the two vortex tubes that releases the cooled gas is tapped into a mixing chamber that has a gas mixing compartment. A bypass tube connects the high pressure tube that feeds the vortex tube to the mixing compartment of the mixing chamber, an adjustable valve being placed within the bypass tube to allow gas flowing within the bypass tube to be freely transmitted or partially blocked or fully blocked. The high pressure gas that is fed by the bypass tube and the cooled gas that is output of the vortex tube are mixed within the mixing chamber and fed to the outlet of the mixing chamber. The mixed gas will achieve a temperature that is between the ambient temperature of the high pressure gas and the temperature of the cooled gas exiting the vortex tube. This matter, the temperature at the outlet of the mixing chamber can be adjusted while maintaining a relatively high pressure or flow speed of the temperature modified gas.

Problems solved by technology

While vortex tubes are not an efficient as traditional air-conditioning equipment, they are commonly used for inexpensive sport cooling, when compressed air is available.

However, because the air exiting this tube can be hot, this is a disadvantage and make cause injury to a user.

Also, while such and adjustment at the hot end of the tube may raise the temperature of the gas at the cooled end of the tube, it is not always practical to use this approach to increase the pressure of the cold air exiting the tube.

As indicated, while has been conventional in the prior art to control the temperature of the discharged cold stream by providing a valve at the hot discharge end of the vortex tube, not only is such placement of a valve at the hot end of the tube inconvenient and potentially dangerous to the user who may be exposed to elevated temperatures, but the closing of the valve necessarily increases the volume of the cold discharge stream.

However, this approach will tend to decrease the efficiency of the unit as the valve decreases the volume of the stream to counteract the decrease in the temperature of the stream.

However, this assembly includes a complicated mechanism for mixing the hot and cold discharge streams in an attempt to obtain a desired temperature while maintaining the flow volume of the mixture constant.

The device is expensive to fabricate and the efficiency of the unit is reduced because of the manner in which the discharged streams flow in parallel to a common end of the device necessarily resulting in temperature interchanges between the hot and cold streams along such parallel flow paths.

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