Cleaning device projecting a jet formed from a liquid and a gas under pressure

Abstract

The invention relates to a cleaning device intended to project a jet formed from a liquid and a pressurized gas having a nozzle comprising: - a conduit supplied with pressurized gas at a first end and a second end opening into a chamber, said conduit having a narrowing of section substantially at said second end; - a tube supplied with said liquid, said tube being coaxial with said conduit and extending in at least a substantial portion of said conduit comprising said narrowing and in a part of said chamber; - an air guide intended to form at least one air vortex having at least one passage forming a section of a turn of a propeller, said air guide being mounted in said conduit around said tube between said first end of said conduit and said narrowing. Figure to be published: 1

Description

Title of the invention: Cleaning device projecting a jet formed from a liquid and a gas under pressure Field of invention

[0001] The invention relates to the field of cleaning a surface in general using a sprayed liquid.

[0002] More specifically, the invention relates to a cleaning device intended to project a jet formed from a liquid and a gas under pressure.

[0003] The invention finds in particular an application for cleaning and / or stripping surfaces such as walls, floors, partitions or carpets of industrial machines, or vehicles, sports equipment, such as golf shoes for example, etc. Prior art

[0004] High-pressure cleaning installations are known which are equipped with a pump for pressurizing water and connected to a hose or a spray lance equipped with a nozzle for spraying the liquid. These installations make it possible to effectively clean or strip surfaces using the liquid sprayed onto the surface. A major disadvantage of these high-pressure cleaning installations is that they consume a significant amount of water. This also leads to the need to treat large quantities of water containing cleaning residues in certain industrial applications.

[0005] In order to overcome this problem, it has been proposed to use guns projecting a mixture of air and water in order to increase the impact force of the jet while reducing the quantity of water consumed. These guns are generally connected to a pressurized water network.

[0006] These known techniques do not, however, prevent splashing the environment closer to the surface to be cleaned and in practice consume a quantity of water which still remains significant.

[0007] It has also been proposed to implement nozzles using the Venturi effect to accelerate liquid with air, which will "suck" the liquid into the air acceleration zone. This technique, which only works with low-pressure liquid, does not allow a large quantity of liquid to be projected and, furthermore, does not allow liquid to be sprayed in the form of very fine droplets. Objectives of the invention

[0008] The invention therefore aims in particular to overcome the drawbacks of the state of the art cited above.

[0009] More specifically, the invention aims to provide a cleaning technique which makes it possible to limit the consumption of liquid necessary to ensure suitable cleaning of a surface.

[0010] In a particular embodiment of the invention, an objective of the invention is in particular to limit the consumption of liquid by 50 to 80% compared to the use of a known high-pressure cleaner.

[0011] Another object of the invention is to provide a cleaning technique which does not soak the cleaned surface or the immediate surroundings of the cleaned surface.

[0012] Another objective of the invention is to provide such a technique which is simple to implement and which has a reduced cost price. Statement of the invention

[0013] These objectives, as well as others which will appear subsequently, are achieved using a cleaning device intended to project a jet formed from a liquid and a gas under pressure and comprising means of connection with liquid supply means and means of connection with pressurized gas supply means and a nozzle.

[0014] The device according to the invention thus makes it possible in particular to spray liquid.

[0015] Furthermore, within the framework of the invention, and depending on the use of the device, the jet may have a central zone mainly consisting of liquid droplets surrounded by a peripheral zone mainly consisting of gas and coaxial with the central zone, or be formed of a single zone where liquid droplets are dispersed within the gas flow.

[0016] According to the invention, said nozzle comprises:

[0017] - a conduit having a first end secured to the connection means with said means for supplying pressurized gas and a second end opening into a chamber, said conduit having a narrowing of section substantially at the level of said second end;

[0018] - a tube supplied with said liquid having a first end secured to the means for connection with said liquid supply means, said tube being coaxial with said conduit supplied with said gas and extending into at least a substantial portion of said conduit comprising said narrowing and into a part of said chamber;

[0019] - an air guide intended to form at least one air vortex having at least one passage forming a section of a spiral of a propeller, said air guide being mounted in said duct around said tube between said first end of said duct and said narrowing.

[0020] Preferably, said liquid is water.

[0021] In a particular embodiment of the invention, said liquid is water mixed with a foaming agent.

[0022] The inventors have in fact found that the device according to the invention could be used to generate a foam of suitable quality and to project it precisely onto a surface, for example to disinfect it.

[0023] Preferably, said gas is air.

[0024] In variants, it may be envisaged to use a neutral gas such as nitrogen, helium or argon.

[0025] In a particular embodiment of the invention, the pressure of said liquid in said tube is lower than that of said gas at said first end of said conduit.

[0026] In a particular embodiment of the invention, the pressure of said liquid in said tube is substantially equal to atmospheric pressure.

[0027] In a particular embodiment of the invention, the pressure of said liquid in said tube is greater than that of said gas at said first end of said conduit.

[0028] In a particular embodiment of the invention, the pressure of said liquid in said tube is greater than or equal to 40 bars.

[0029] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, said air guide is mounted to rotate around the axis of said duct.

[0030] According to a particular embodiment of the invention, said air guide has two passages forming sections of turns of two counter-rotating coaxial propellers, so as to form intersecting air vortices.

[0031] According to a particular aspect of the invention, said tube penetrates into said chamber over a length at least equal to the diameter of said tube.

[0032] In a particular embodiment of the invention, said tube penetrates 0.5 to 5 mm into said chamber.

[0033] In a particular embodiment of the invention, said liquid supply means and / or said gas supply means comprise a flow rate limiting device capable of being actuated by a selector.

[0034] In a particular embodiment of the invention, a cleaning device as described above comprises mechanical, electrical or automatic control means for said liquid supply means and / or said gas supply means.

[0035] A remote control using wireless technology based for example on the Bluetooth protocol, Wi-Fi protocols, radio frequency waves, can also be provided. List of figures

[0036] Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly on reading the following description of an embodiment of the invention, given as a of a simple illustrative and non-limiting example, and of the appended drawings among which:

[0037] [Fig-1] is a sectional view of the nozzle of an exemplary embodiment of a cleaning device according to the invention;

[0038] [Fig.2] is a view of the "helical" air guide of the cleaning device shown with reference to [Fig.l]. Detailed description of the invention

[0039] Illustrated in [Fig.l], in a sectional view, is a nozzle 10 of an exemplary embodiment of a cleaning device according to the invention.

[0040] This nozzle 10 has a body 11 and a head 111 assembled using a nut 112, delimiting a rectilinear air circulation duct 12 of circular section, of axis 13. This duct 12 is supplied with air by a flexible compressed air connector at 15 bars screwing onto a connector secured to the body 11, mounted near the first end 12i of the duct 12 (not shown in [Fig.l]). It ends at its second end 122 by a reduction of section 123 in the form of a convergent cone, which opens into a cylindrical chamber 14 having an opening 14i at its distal end to evacuate the jet.

[0041] In variants of this embodiment of the invention, it may be provided that the chamber 14 gradually widens from the second end 122.

[0042] A capillary tube 15, coaxial with the conduit 12, is housed in the conduit 12 in the direction of the axis 13. This tube 15 is connected by its first end 15i to a connector allowing the connection of a flexible water supply pipe (not shown in [Fig.l]). In this particular embodiment of the invention, water under a pressure of 3 bars is injected into the tube 15.

[0043] The tube 15 extends over the entire length of the conduit 12, passes through the section reduction 123 and enters the chamber 14 over a distance of 5 mm.

[0044] An air guide 16 of generally annular shape is mounted in the duct 12 around the tube 15 upstream of the reduced section 123. This air guide 16 extends radially from the outer wall of the tube 15 to substantially the inner wall of the duct 12.

[0045] In this particular embodiment of the invention, the air guide 16 is fixed. In variants of this particular embodiment of the invention, it may be provided that the air guide 16 is mounted to be able to rotate around the tube 15.

[0046] As can be seen more clearly in [Fig. 2], in a view of the air guide 16 shown alone, the air guide 16 has two grooves in the form of sections of a helix turn of two counter-rotating coaxial helices 16X and 162 allowing the passage of air. These passages 16i and 162 allow a swirling movement of the air flow to be created.

[0047] Thus, the air entering through the first end 12i into the conduit 12 and circulating around the tube 15, will adopt a swirling movement after passing through the air guide 16 and will then be accelerated in the section reduction 123, which will allow the water to be sucked at the second end 152 of the tube 15. The swirling movement impelled by the air guide 16 also allows a jet to be formed with microdroplets distributed homogeneously in the air flow, which increases the quality of cleaning by multiplying the density of impacts on the surface per unit of time. Furthermore, the inventors have observed that the quantity of water that can be sucked at the second end 152, even for a very low water pressure in the tube, was increased by implementing the air guide 16.

[0048] It will also be noted that the device according to the invention can also be implemented with pressurized water, for example at a pressure of 40 or 50 bars. Thus, even if the water pressure is higher than that of the air, which does not allow one to benefit from suction by the Venturi effect at the second end of the tube, the inventors have found that the swirling movement of the air makes it possible to obtain a jet containing fine droplets with an increased impact speed due to the inlet pressure of the water.

Claims

Claims

1. Cleaning device intended to project a jet formed from a liquid and a pressurized gas and comprising means for connection with liquid supply means and means for connection with pressurized gas supply means and a nozzle, characterized in that said nozzle comprises: - a conduit having a first end secured to the means for connection with said pressurized gas supply means and a second end opening into a chamber, said conduit having a narrowing of section substantially at the level of said second end; - a tube supplied with said liquid having a first end secured to the means for connection with said liquid supply means, said tube being coaxial with said conduit supplied with said gas and extending in at least a substantial portion of said conduit comprising said narrowing and in a part of said chamber;- an air guide intended to form at least one air vortex having at least one passage forming a section of a spiral of a propeller, said air guide being mounted in said duct around said tube between said first end of said duct and said narrowing.;

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that said liquid is water.

3. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that said liquid is water mixed with a foaming agent.

4. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said gas is air.

5. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the pressure of said liquid in said tube is lower than that of said gas at said first end of said conduit.

6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the pressure of said liquid in said tube is substantially equal to atmospheric pressure.

7. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the pressure of said liquid in said tube is greater than that of said gas at said first end of said conduit.

8. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that the pressure of said liquid in said tube is greater than or equal to 40 bars.

9. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that said air guide is mounted in rotation around the axis of said duct.

10. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that said air guide has two passages forming sections of turns of two counter-rotating coaxial propellers, so as to form intersecting air vortices.

11. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that said tube penetrates into said chamber over a length at least equal to the diameter of said tube.

12. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that said tube penetrates 0.5 to 5 mm into said chamber.

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