A cleaning device that projects a jet formed from a liquid and a pressurized gas.

Abstract

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

Description

Title of the invention: Cleaning device projecting a jet formed from a liquid and a pressurized gas. Field of the 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 particular 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. Previous art

[0004] High-pressure cleaning systems are known, equipped with a pump for pressurizing water and connected to a hose or a spray lance fitted with a nozzle for atomizing the liquid. These systems allow for the efficient cleaning or stripping of surfaces using the liquid sprayed onto the surface. A major drawback of these high-pressure cleaning systems is their high water consumption. This also necessitates the treatment of large quantities of water containing cleaning residues in certain industrial applications.

[0005] To remedy this problem, it has been proposed to use guns that project a mixture of air and water in order to increase the impact force of the jet while reducing the amount of water consumed. These guns are generally connected to a pressurized water supply.

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

[0007] It has also been proposed to implement nozzles using the Venturi effect to accelerate liquid with air, which will "draw in" the liquid at the point of air acceleration. This technique, which only works with low-pressure liquids, does not allow for the projection of large quantities of liquid and, moreover, does not allow for the atomization of liquid in the form of very fine droplets. Objectives of the invention

[0008] The invention therefore aims in particular to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art mentioned above.

[0009] More specifically, the invention aims to provide a cleaning technique that limits the consumption of liquid needed to ensure proper 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 objective of the invention is to propose a cleaning technique that does not soak the cleaned surface or the immediate environment 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. Description 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 for connection with liquid supply means and means for connection with gas supply means under pressure 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 made up of liquid droplets surrounded by a peripheral zone mainly made up 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 fixed to the connection means with said means of supplying pressurized gas and a second end opening into a chamber, said conduit having a narrowing of cross-section substantially at the level of said second end;

[0018] - a tube supplied with said liquid having a first end fixed to the means of 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 including said constriction 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 helix, said air guide being mounted in said conduit around said tube between said first end of said conduit and said constriction.

[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 indeed found that the device according to the invention could be used to generate a suitable quality foam 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 implement 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 less 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 spiral sections of two coaxial counter-rotating helices, so as to form intersecting air vortices.

[0031] According to a particular aspect of the invention, said tube penetrates 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 from 0.5 to 5mm into said chamber.

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

[0034] In a particular embodiment of the invention, a cleaning device as described above includes mechanical, electrical, or automated 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, may also be provided. List of figures

[0036] Other features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon reading the following description of an embodiment of the invention, given by way of simple illustrative and non-limiting example, and the accompanying drawings, among which:

[0037] [Fig-1] is a cross-sectional view of the nozzle of an example 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.1]. Detailed description of the invention

[0039] Figure [1] shows in a cross-sectional view a nozzle 10 of an example embodiment of a cleaning device according to the invention.

[0040] This nozzle 10 has a body 11 and a head 111 assembled by means of a nut 112, defining a straight air circulation duct 12 with a circular cross-section and axis 13. This duct 12 is supplied with air by a flexible compressed air fitting at 15 bar screwing onto a connector integral with the body 11, mounted near the first end 12i of the duct 12 (not shown in [Fig. 1]). It terminates at its second end 122 with a converging cone-shaped reduction 123, which opens into a cylindrical chamber 14 having an opening 14i at its distal end for jet discharge.

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

[0042] A capillary tube 15, coaxial with the conduit 12, is housed within the conduit 12 along the direction of the axis 13. This tube 15 is connected at its first end 15i to a fitting for connecting a flexible water supply hose (not shown in [Fig. 1]). In this particular embodiment of the invention, water under a pressure of 3 bar is injected into the tube 15.

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

[0044] An air guide 16 of generally annular shape is mounted in the conduit 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 conduit 12.

[0045] In this particular embodiment of the invention, the air guide 16 is fixed. In variations of this particular embodiment of the invention, the air guide 16 may be provided to be mounted to rotate freely 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 shape of sections of a helix turn of two coaxial counter-rotating helices 16i and 162 allowing the passage of air. These passages 161 and 162 allow a swirling movement of the airflow to be created.

[0047] Thus, the air entering the first end 12i into the conduit 12 and circulating around the tube 15 will adopt a swirling motion after passing through the air guide 16 and will then be accelerated in the cross-sectional reduction 123, which will allow water to be drawn in at the second end 152 of the tube 15. The swirling motion imparted by the air guide 16 also makes it possible to form a jet with microdroplets distributed homogeneously in the airflow, which increases the quality of the cleaning by multiplying the density of impacts on the surface per unit of time. Furthermore, the inventors observed that the quantity of water that can be drawn in at the second end 152, even for a very low water pressure in the tube, is increased by using the air guide 16.

[0048] It should 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 bar. Thus, even if the water pressure is greater than that of the air, which does not allow for Venturi-effect suction at the second end of the tube, the inventors have found that the vortex movement of the air makes it possible to obtain a jet containing fine droplets with an impact velocity increased due to the water inlet pressure.

Claims

Demands

1. A cleaning device for projecting a jet formed from a liquid and a gas under pressure and comprising means for connecting to liquid supply means and means for connecting to gas supply means under pressure and a nozzle, said nozzle comprising: - a conduit having a first end integral with the means for connecting to said gas supply means under pressure and a second end opening into a chamber, said conduit having a constriction of cross-section substantially at said second end; - a tube supplied with said liquid having a first end integral with the means for connecting to 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 including said constriction and into 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 helix, said air guide being mounted in said duct around said tube between said first end of said duct and said constriction, characterized in that said air guide is mounted in rotation around the axis of said duct.;

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 less 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 of any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that said air guide has two passages forming spiral sections of two coaxial counter-rotating helices, so as to form intersecting air vortices.

10. Device of any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that said tube penetrates said chamber over a length at least equal to the diameter of said tube.

11. Device of any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that said tube penetrates 0.5 to 5mm into said chamber.

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