Additive Static Mixer with Tailored Surface Contact Angles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional static mixers face issues with mechanical assembly imperfections, leading to fluid stagnation zones, degradation of mixed products, and limitations in tailoring to specific fluids, due to solid materials with uniform surface properties.
Innovation Solution
A static mixer manufactured using additive processes, with customizable surface properties and porosity, eliminating mechanical joints and allowing for tailored design to improve mixing efficiency and reduce back pressure, by using materials like Nano Tool with zero contact angle relative to fluids.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional mechanical machining and assembly methods are used to manufacture static mixers, then manufacturing precision and structural integrity are improved, but assembly imperfections cause fluid stagnation zones and degradation of mixed products
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separately manufactured components into a single monolithic structure manufactured by additive manufacturing. This eliminates mechanical joints and assembly imperfections that cause fluid stagnation zones, while maintaining the complex articulated three-dimensional structure necessary for effective mixing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical machining and assembly methods with additive manufacturing technology. This substitution eliminates mechanical joints, welding lines, and assembly imperfections that create dead corners and stagnation zones, while achieving the desired complex geometry for fluid breakdown and mixing.
2Device complexity
If solid materials with uniform surface properties are used in static mixers, then structural simplicity is improved, but adaptability to different fluids is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by varying surface properties at different locations within the static mixer structure. Different regions have tailored surface characteristics (hydrophobicity, roughness, porosity) optimized for specific fluid interactions, enabling adaptability to different fluid types while maintaining a single integrated structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs composite materials with varying surface properties within the monolithic structure. By incorporating materials with different surface characteristics in specific regions, the mixer achieves both structural integrity and fluid-specific adaptability, resolving the contradiction between material uniformity and fluid compatibility.
3Ease of manufacture
If traditional assembly methods with multiple components are used, then manufacturing flexibility is improved, but device complexity and assembly imperfections increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple components that would traditionally be separately manufactured and assembled into a single monolithic structure. This reduction in component count eliminates assembly imperfections while additive manufacturing maintains the flexibility to produce complex geometries tailored to specific mixing requirements.
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 enables stable and efficient fluid mixing with reduced back pressure, higher water-to-oil ratios, and optimized emulsion cell sizes, while avoiding assembly imperfections and material incompatibilities, enhancing the performance and flexibility of static mixers.
Implementation Method 1
The static mixer may be made by an additive manufacturing process
Implementation Method 2
The static mixer may be porous, and may have variant surface properties
Implementation Method 3
The static mixer exhibits a first contact angle with the first fluid and a second contact angle with the second fluid
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2D
Figure 3
AI summary
A static mixer created using an additive process is disclosed. The static mixer is enabled to homogenously blend two fluids flowing in a pipe. The surfaces of the static mixer exhibit zero contact angle in relation to the two fluids being mixed within the pipe. The surfaces of the static mixer exhibit a first contact angle with the first fluid and a second contact angle with the second fluid. The first contact angle is either between 0 and 30 or greater than 85. The second contact angle is either between 0 and 30, or greater than 85.