Micro-Foam Dispenser Using a Porous Foaming Conduit
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing foam dispensers rely on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as propellants, which are environmentally harmful, expensive, and difficult to manufacture, especially for producing small bubbles, due to the need for intricate orifices that are prone to blockages and require costly techniques like laser drilling.
Innovation Solution
A dispenser that generates micro-foam without VOCs by using a conduit with specific internal dimensions and foam enhancing elements, allowing for the production of small, uniform bubbles through a combination of surfactant solution and gas flow, characterized by defined relationships between wetted surface area, two-phase flow length, and porosity, enabling efficient and cost-effective foam production.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If small orifices are used to produce small bubbles, then bubble size is reduced, but manufacturing cost and complexity increase due to specialized techniques like laser drilling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the key parameter from orifice diameter to foam enhancing element size and arrangement. Instead of using small orifices of 60 microns requiring laser drilling, the invention uses larger elements (1-5mm spheres, cylinders, or irregular shapes) arranged in a foaming section, producing small bubbles through the interaction of gas and liquid phases around these elements rather than through small holes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces foam enhancing elements as intermediaries between the gas supply and liquid surfactant solution. These elements (spheres, cylinders, or irregular shapes) mediate the phase interaction, creating numerous small bubbles through the gas-liquid interaction around and between the elements, eliminating the need for small orifices.
2Productivity
If multiple small orifices are used to increase gas incorporation rate, then foam production increases, but device complexity increases due to positioning requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a foaming section filled with numerous foam enhancing elements (spheres, cylinders, or irregular shapes) that create a porous-like structure. This arrangement provides multiple pathways for gas-liquid interaction throughout the foaming section, increasing gas incorporation rate without requiring precise positioning of individual orifices. The elements can be randomly arranged and retained by simple retaining elements at the ends of the foaming section.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the foaming section into multiple regions containing numerous foam enhancing elements. This segmentation creates many independent gas-liquid interaction zones throughout the foaming section, allowing high gas incorporation rates through parallel processing in multiple regions rather than through multiple precisely positioned orifices.
3Manufacturing precision
If small orifices are used to produce foam, then bubble size is controlled, but reliability decreases due to blockage susceptibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the scale parameter from micron-level orifices to millimeter-level foam enhancing elements. This parameter change increases the characteristic dimension by a factor of 10-100, making the system much less susceptible to blockages from dust, manufacturing off-cuts, or dried formulation components while still producing small uniform bubbles through the gas-liquid interaction around the larger elements.
4Productivity
If high pressure is used to drive liquid through small orifices, then gas entrainment increases, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a foaming section with numerous foam enhancing elements that create a porous-like structure, providing multiple pathways for gas-liquid interaction. This structure increases the effective surface area and interaction zones, allowing high gas entrainment rates at lower pressures compared to forcing liquid through small orifices. The gas and liquid phases interact around and between the foam enhancing elements, creating efficient bubble formation without requiring high pressure drops.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution allows for the production of high-quality micro-foam with uniform bubble sizes and high gas phase volume, eliminating the need for VOCs and reducing manufacturing costs by avoiding the use of small orifices, thus providing a sustainable and efficient foam generation method.
Implementation Method 1
a two phase flow length LTP
Implementation Method 2
for generating the foam from the surfactant solution and the gas
Data Source
AI summary
A dispenser for producing a foam without requiring the use of liquefied gas, from an outlet. The dispenser includes a receptacle for holding a surfactant solution, means for supplying a gas, means for conveying the surfactant solution in the receptacle and said gas along a flow path towards the outlet. The conveying means includes a conduit having a foaming section for generating the foam from the surfactant solution and said gas; and wherein the foaming section has internal dimensions adapted to provide a foam having a quality characterized by predefined limits.