Open-Top Humidifier Plenum Mixing for Safe Warm Mist Output
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional humidifiers either produce inefficient cool mist or risk burns with unmixing hot steam, and require frequent cleaning or water refilling, lacking in both safety and convenience.
Innovation Solution
A combination warm and cool mist humidifier with a housing featuring an open top for easy filling, incorporating a mixing plenum and airflow to create a uniform, safe temperature mist, and an impeller system that pumps water through a heating and nebulizing chamber for efficient steam and mist production.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If steam is mixed with cooling air to create warm mist, then safety is improved, but efficiency and output are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mixing plenum as an intermediary chamber between the steam generation source and the room. This plenum allows steam to mix with cool mist and air in a controlled environment before being distributed, ensuring safety while maintaining high output through the use of a large open top portion for efficient steam generation.
2Productivity
If steam is superheated to increase output, then productivity is improved, but safety deteriorates due to increased burn risk
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the humidifier into distinct functional zones: a steam generation chamber for high-temperature steam production, a mixing plenum for temperature reduction through mixing with cool mist, and a distribution system. This segmentation allows the system to achieve high output through efficient steam generation while ensuring safety through controlled cooling in the plenum before mist enters the room.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a small directed opening is used to mix steam, then safety is improved, but mist distribution efficiency is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a one-dimensional small opening mixing approach to a three-dimensional mixing plenum with a large open top portion. This dimensional change allows steam to mix with cool mist and air throughout a volumetric space rather than at a single point, achieving both thorough mixing for safety and efficient distribution across a large area simultaneously.
4Ease of operation
If water tank is made removable and fillable, then ease of operation is improved, but risk of contamination and inefficiency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the water storage function into a separate, removable main water reservoir that can be easily filled from the open top. This separation allows the reservoir to be removed for cleaning and refilling without disassembling the entire device, improving ease of operation while the boiling process in the steam generation chamber continuously purifies the water, reducing contamination risk.
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 enhances mist distribution and safety by achieving a uniform warm mist with improved efficiency and convenience through easy refilling and reduced bacterial contamination, ensuring a larger area is humidified without hot spots or bacterial projection.
Implementation Method 1
A combination warm and cool mist humidifier having a housing with a substantially open top portion... A main water reservoir within the housing is fillable by providing water to the substantially open top portion... The engine deck includes a heating reservoir having at least one heating element disposed therein
Implementation Method 2
Ultrasonic humidifiers utilize nebulizers or ultrasonic transducers, a metal diaphragm vibrating at ultrasonic frequency, to cause a fog or mist formed of small water droplets to rise from the surface of a reservoir containing the transducer
Implementation Method 3
An impeller is configured to pump water from the main water reservoir to an overflow chamber of the engine deck
Implementation Method 4
a fan disposed adjacent the at least one vent of the outer wall of the housing so as to draw air into the air gap and through the at least one vent of the inner wall of the housing
Data Source
AI summary
A humidifier includes a housing with a substantially open top portion. Water can be added to the humidifier by pouring the water into a water reservoir through an open top. The water is pumped from the water reservoir to an upper portion of the humidifier where it is dispersed into the environment by a flow of air. The humidifier may include both an ultrasonic nebulizer and a heater to provide a warm mix of cool mist and hot vapor. Alternatively, a warm mist can be provided by dispersed water from an ultrasonic nebulizer in combination with warm air. The humidifier may also solely provide a cool mist from an ultrasonic element, or the water can be dispersed using a wicking filter.