US2962224A - Aerating devices for producing streams of large cross-section - Google Patents

Description

1960 E. P. AGHNIDES 2,962,224

AERATING DEVICES FOR PRODUCING STREAMS OF LARGE CROSS-SECTION Filed NOV. 28, 1956 FIG. I

FIG. 5.

INVENTOR Elie P. Aghnides ATTORNEYS United States Patent AERATING DEVICES FOR PRC DUCING STREAMS F LARGE CROSS-SECTION Elie I. Aghnides, 46 W. 54th St, New York 19, N.Y.

Filed Nov. 28, 1956, Ser. No. 624,346

Claims. (Cl. 239-431) The present invention relates to fluid mixing devices, particularly of the type adapted for use as a water aerator; andin this respect, the present invention is primarily concerned with improved constructions of such water aerators adapted to produce or discharge streams of larger cross section than has been possible heretofore, under a given water pressure. By reason of this increased cross-section of discharge, therefore, the structures of the present invention are particularly adapted for use as shower heads capable of producing aerated streams. The present invention comprises a continuation-in-part of my prior copending application Serial No. 135,645, filed December 29, 1949 for: Fluid Mixing Device, now US. Patent No. 2,811,340, issued October 29, 1957.

Various forms of water aerators are known at the present time and in fact the basic forms which such aerators may take are set forth in my prior Patent No. 2,210,846. Such aerators in general ordinarily comprise a casing having a water inlet, a jet outlet and air inlets therein; and in addition, the casing ordinarily has therein an upstream diaphragm and one or more downstream screens so proportioned and arranged with respect to one another that a whitish bubble-laden coherent jet of water emanates from the casing. The resultant bubbly stream produced by such aeration devices are at the present time extremely popular; and there has been a great demand for an aerating device capable of producing an output stream large enough to be used as a bathroom shower. In my prior copending application Serial No. 135,645, identified above, I have described various ways by which a stream of larger overall cross-section can be created; and these include the delivery of several individual bubbly streams; the delivery of a bubbly stream having an annular cross-section; the delivery of a bubbly stream having a. variable cross-section; and the diverging of a bubbly stream by means of a deflector.

The present invention relates in general to such streams having enlarged cross-sections, but is particularly concerned with such streams which exhibit better characteristics than any known heretofore. The present invention is based upon therecognition that in order to produce a bubbly stream of large cross-section suitable for showers and other uses, it is necessary to proportion the aerator for the production of a large amount of foam flowing at a much lower stream velocity than has been the case with respect to the velocity of streams delivered by known commercial aerators. To do this, it is necessary to divide water of high velocity, delivered for instance by the aerator diaphragm, into many streamlets of high velocity, and to provide ample space and appropriate resistance means within the mixing area of the casing so that the said individual streamlets break up, mix with air coalesce and dischargewithout undue or widespread overlapping of these individual streamlets, or of the foam produced by thedifferent streamlets.

As a matter of practice, it has been found that when such overlapping does occur within the aerator, this overlapping decreases the amount of foam produced, de-

creases the cross-sectional area of the ultimate foam stream, and increases the velocity of that ultimate foam stream. It has been found moreover, that structures which seek to increase the cross-section of the final bubbly stream by dividing that final product into several output bubbly streams, actually impairs the quality and decreases the quantity of foam discharged from the aerating device; and this decrease in quality and quantity of the output stream occurs by reason of the retardation created by the aforementioned division of the final stream into a plurality of individual streams, inasmuch as any such division structure must include imperforate areas which impose resistance upon the bubbly stream.

In accordance with the present invention, therefore, a maximum amount of foam flowing at very low velocity and having a very large cross-sectional area at't-he discharge end of the aerator maybe provided by an aerating structure which meets two conditions. First, it includes a diaphragm or other means for breaking up the Water at the inlet, and this diaphragm includes a'pl-urality of spaced orifices of such size that-the aggregate circumferences of all said orifices will be many times the circumference of a single orifice delivering the same amount of water-at a given water .pressure at the inlet; and second; the said plurality of orifices are so spaced and arranged with respect to one another, and the individual streamlets'delivered by the said orifices are. so directed upon extended resistance means'such as screens, baflles, shoulders, or plane surfaces, thatthe overlappingof' the individual streamlets as Well as overlapping of the resulting aerated streams is decreased to a minimum; or completely eliminated. Structures meeting these requirements, therefore, are adapted to producev a very large amount of aerated water or foam, and the stream so produced may take the form of asolidstream of I a plurality of spaced'individual streams] having a .total cross-sectional area of more than eighteentimes the total aggregate cross-sectional area of .the orifices. in theai'orementioned diaphragm.

It is accordingly an object of the present inventionto provide a Water aerator that is adapted to deliver a bubbly stream of greater cross-section than it has been possible to produce heretofore under a given water pressure.

Another object of the present inventionresidesin the provision of aerating devices adapted. toproduceabubbly stream of larger cross-section and.having, better. aerated characteristics than has been possible heretofore.

Still another object of the present invent-ion-resides in the provision of an improved wateraerating devi'c adapted for use as a shower-head.v

Still another'object of the 'present'invention resides in the provisionof'improved shower heads adaptedto'deliver bubbly streams wherein the quantit-y off-foam" is substantially greater than thatof devices-known hereto- .fore'and wherein the quality of said foam is -substantially Figure 3 shows still another embodiment constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 4 illustrates a further embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4A is a view taken on line A-A of Figure 4; and

Figure 5 illustrates still another form of the present invention.

Referring now to Figure 1, it will be seen that in accordance with the present invention, an improved water aerating device adapted for use in a shower head, may comprise a casing having a water inlet adjacent the upstream end thereof, as at 11, a plurality of jet outlets 12, and air inlets 13. The shower head includes means for breaking up water applied at inlet 11 into a plurality of individual streamlets, and the particular means utilized in the arrangement of Figure 1 comprise webbed conical bodies 14 and 15 movable in bores provided in a plate 16 under the control of a handle 17. Shower heads employing such webbed conical bodies are in fact described in my aforementioned prior copending application Serial No. 135,645; and in particular, the webs provided on each of the said conical bodies 14 and 15 are tapered in cross-dimension, whereby the amount of water passing the said webs and directed upon resistance elements (mixing screens, such as 18 and 19), may be adjusted, under the control of handle 17, by slidably moving webbed conical bodies 14 and 15 up or down in plate 16. In this form of the invention there are two resistance elements 18 and two resistance elements 19.

It should be noted that water directed upon the aforementioned mixing screens 18 and 19 takes the paths shown in dotted line in Figure 1; and by reason of the spacing between webbed conical bodies 14 and 15, and the spacing between mixing screens 18 and 19, possible overlap between those streamlets issuing from Webbed conical bodies 15 and those issuing from webbed conical bodies 14 is completely avoided. As a result, the device operates to produce a plurality of individually formed bubbly streams; and these individually formed bubbly streams then emanate from the discharge openings 12 of the device in a plurality of individual aerated streams.

The structure thus provided in the arrangement of Figure 1 must be distinguished from other structures suggested heretofore wherein a single bubbly stream is initially produced, and this single bubbly stream is thereafter subdivided into a plurality of streams at the discharge end of the aerating device by means such as an apertured plate or the like. Any such dividing structure must of necessity include imperforate areas between the individual streams finally produced by the device; and these imperforate areas impinged by the foam already formed, seriously impair both the quantity as well as the quality of the said foam. The velocity of the streamlets delivered from the diaphragm means, such as bodies 14 and 15 of Figure 1, entrains the maximum amount of air only when these individual streamlets flow directly through the means which are provided for breaking and mixing the water with air; and accordingly, the best quality of final aerated product is achieved only when I individual aerated streams are produced.

Moreover, it should be noted that when an arrangement such as that of Figure 1 is employed, the several streamlets from the diaphragm in each individual portion of the aerator serving to produce the aforementioned individual bubbly streams, tend to overlap very little whereby the foam delivered at the outlet ends 12 has the desired lesser velocity of flow and increased overall cross-section of ultimate foam stream discussed previously.

Another embodiment of the invention, also illustrating the principles discussed previously, is shown in Figure 2; and in particular, the said aerator may comprise a casing 20 having water inlet 21, foam outlet 22, and air inlets 23, therein. The said casing includes a diaphragm 24 having a plurality of spaced apertures 25; and the said casing also includes one or more resistance elements 26 which in this case are mixing screens. In this form of the invention there are three resistance elements 26. Water passing through the said casing is broken up by apertures 25 in diaphragm 24 into a plurality of individual spaced streamlets S, and these streamlets are then directed toward the upstream resistance element and mixed with air and are broken up by the elements 26, whereby a plurality of individually formed bubbly streams F are discharged from the lowermost of the said mixing screens 26. It will be noted that the foam streams F are, as before, individually formed; and by reason of the spacing of the several streamlets S from one another, the ultimate foamy streams F are spaced from one another and overlap very little at the discharge end 22 of the aerator.

When used as a shower head, the said aerator may further include a central stud 27 carrying a deflector 28 thereon, whereby the said deflector 28 may be variably positioned with respect to discharge opening 22 of the aerator, to decrease at will the size of the discharge stream. It will be appreciated, however, that stud 27 and conical body or deflector 28 may be removed entirely, in which event a substantially solid stream, comprising a plurality of individually formed and spaced bubbly streams, will be discharged from outlet 22. When the said body 28 is removed, it may happen that the individually formed bubbly streams fail to join or overlap adjacent the discharge end 22 of the casing; and in such an event, the perforations 25 in diaphragm 24 can be placed slightly closer to one another thereby to permit such a joining of the individually formed streams at the discharge end of the aerator; or, in the alternative, the discharge end of the aerator may be slightly restricted in cross-section, thereby to coalesce the individual bubbly streams into a substantially solid stream of aerated water.

Still another embodiment of the invention is shown in Figure 3, and this particular form of shower head is adapted to deliver either an annular bubbly stream or a shower of the well known needle type. The aerator shown in Figure 3 comprises a casing 30 having air inlets 31, water inlet 32, and a liquid outlet 33. The said casing 30 also includes a plate 34 carrying a plurality of grooved tubes 35 therein; and the said grooved tubes are slidable in plate 34 under the control of a handle 36. Each of grooved tubes 35, in the particular embodiment of Figure 3, includes two sets of grooves, namely, upper grooves 37 and lower grooves 38, and the said tubes 35 also have blades 39 attached at the lowermost portions thereof. Tubular members 40 are also disposed within casing 30, and the said members 40 are adapted to rest above a blade 41 carried by a stud 42 which is screwed into the aforementioned plate 34, as shown. In the alternative, tubular member 40 may rest upon inwardly bent tongues 43 formed adjacent the discharge end 33 of casing 30.

As mentioned previously, grooved tubes 35 may be moved up or down, under the control of handle 36, to increase or decrease the flow of water through the aerator. In the particular position of tubes 35 shown in Figure 3, Water is discharged past uppermost grooves 37 and I the streamlets so formed impinge upon shoulders 44 on the upper surface of tubes 40, whereby the said streamlets break up, mix with air, and then discharge as an annular bubbly stream past annular passage 45. This annular passage can be divided, if desired, into a plurality of orifices, providing the size of the aggregate orifices and the total resistance upstream the discharge end of the device meet with the requirements of my present invention. If desired, stud 42 and blade 41 may be removed, in which event a further bubbly stream will be discharged past the central passage 46 whereby a substantially solid bubbly stream rather than an annular bubbly stream will be delivered from the aerator or shower head.

To obtain a needle shower, handle 36 may be manipulated to raise tubes 35 whereby blades 39 carry the tubes 40 upward into contact with the lowermost surface of plate 34. When the several parts assume this latter position, water is discharged past the lowermost set of grooves 38 in the grooved tubes 35, and emanates from the casing as a needle shower.

It will be appreciated that the blades 39 are, in the embodiment shown, provided to permit the raising of shoulders 44 of tubes 40 into contact with plate 34; but the said blades 39 and the lowermost set of grooves 38 can in fact be dispensed with since the screwing of stud 42 in a clockwise direction will also serve to raise tubes 40. Moreover, it will be appreciated that when the stud 42 and blade 41 are provided, the inwardly bent tongues 43 are not mandatory, since tubular members 40 will be supported upon blade 41. It will be noted that, rather than employing screens, such as are used in the embodiment of Figure 1, the embodiment of Figure 3 utilizes a resistance element which includes shoulders and extensive mixing surfaces for breaking up and mixing the water streamlets with air to produce the ultimate bubbly stream; and when such shoulders and mixing surfaces are employed, the overall aerator is required to have greater depth, as illustrated, than that of the embodiment shown in Figure 1. I

Still another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in Figure 4, and this embodiment again utilizes surface means to break up the water and mix it with air. In particular, the said aerator comprises a casing 50 having a diaphragm 51 therein which includes a plurality of spaced apertures 52. Diaphragm 51 is, as illustrated, dished in configuration whereby streamlets emanating from the several orifices 52 are spaced from one another and are inclined at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the casing 50,. Mixing means are provided within casing 50 for mixing the said streamlets of water with air entering the casing via inlets 53; and the said mixing means comprise a plurality of spaced tubular bodies 54 supported within casing 50 by cross-member 55. The streamlets issuing from the orifices 52 in diaphragm 51 are directed to strike the resistance element which in this case includes the members 54 as well as casing 50, as shown by dotted lines, whereby the said streamlets are broken up and mixed with air, as discussed previously. It will again be noted that by reason of this structure shown in Figure 4, a plurality of bubbly streams are individually formed; and these bubbly streams are spaced from one another and overlap very little as the said bubbly stream passes through casing 50.

The individual members 54, shown in Figure 4, may if desired take a corrugated configuration, as illustrated in Figure 4A; and when such an arrangement is employed, each member 54 includes corrugations 54a for maintaining the members 54 in concentric position with respect to one another and for spacing the said members 54 from one another. Moreover, if desired, the cross-member 55 may be dispensed with, and a shoulder 56 may be provided adjacent the bottom of casing 50 whereby the corrugations or protrusions of the outermost tubular member can rest upon the shoulder 56.

Still another form of the present invention is illustrated in Figure 5; and this particular form of aerator again comprises a casing 60 having an upstream diaphragm (not shown) adapted to form a plurality of individual streamlets S. Casing 60 also includes a resistance element made up of a plurality of tubular bodies which may have a tapered configuration such as at 61, and/ or which may have a stepped configuration as at 62, thereby to form shoulders 63. Each of the tubular bodies 61 and 62 includes a plate 64 supported within the said tubular body by a cross-member and spaced in alignment with the several streamlets S whereby the said stream 6 lets S strike :plates 64, as shown. By this arrangement, therefore, a plurality of individually formed bubbly streams are produced within the aerator casing 60; and these individually formed streams are positively prevented from overlapping one another by the provision of the tubular members 61 and 62.

If desired, a coupling 65 may be attached to the lowermost portion of casing 60, thereby to restrict the discharge area of the aerator and to cause a coalescing of the individual bubbly streams. The said coupling member 65 may, however, be removed whereby the final output of the aerator takes the form of a plurality of individual bubbly streams closely spaced to one another. The several tubes 61 and 62 are in tangential contact with one another within casing 60, and accordingly if coupling 65 should not be used, air may enter the interior of the several tubes 61 and 62 by entering adjacent the discharge end of the casing and passing upwardly through the openings between the tangentially contacting tubes. However, if coupling 65 is employed, thereby coalescing the individual bubbly streams into a substantially solid stream, separate air inlet ports should be provided in casing 60.

It should further be noted that instead of having only a single stream S striking plate 64 in each of the tubular members, the diaphragm of the aerator may be so arrangedthat a plurality of spaced streamlets are directed into each of the tubular members and these spaced streamlets can strike the plate 64 and can also be adapted to strike laterally against the inner walls of the tubular members 61 and 62. Moreover, in the event that one or all of the tubular members take the stepped configuration shown for tubular member 62, the plate 64 could be removed entirely therefrom, in which event the streamlets of water could be directed to strike the inner walls of member 62 and/or preferably shoulders 63.

It must be realized that the several devices thus described are quite distinct from a structure comprising multiple aerating units combined into a single structure; and this consideration arises when it is realized that the essence of the invention resides not only in forming individual bubbly streams, but in such a use of the available water pressure as to produce the maximum 'possible amount of foam which then flows with decreased velocity from the outlet discharge end. Thus, referringto the embodiment ofFigure 5 for instance, if all the orifices in the aerator diaphragm but one should somehow. be closed, then the streamlet issuing from that one open orifice will issue from the said orifice at a much higher velocity than it would otherwise have issued. Due to great friction, part of the water energy would be wasted during the flow through the single orifice, and at this greatly increased velocity, the resistance afforded by the mixing means in the casing would be much less, and the aerated water discharged, since it flows much faster, would tend to retain bubbles therein to a much lesser extent, i.e. the character of the stream will have changed.

In other words, the increase of surface of contact between air and water, which is obtained by the division of the water into a plurality of relatively low velocity streamlets as compared to the velocity of a single streamlet of the same cross-section, would cease to exist under these circumstances, the effects of overlapping streams will no longer be avoided as the velocities of several streams would be superposed and concentrated into the single stream, and the efiective Water breaking, mixing and the aerating space, will be greatly reduced in respect to the increased volume of water through that space.

Thus, as has been described previously, in order to produce a maximum amount of foam flowing at very low velocity and having a very large cross-sectional area at the discharge, it is necessary first to provide a plurality of orifices in the diaphragm, so dimensioned that the aggregate circumferences of said orifices will be many times the circumference of a single orifice delivering the same amount of water; and secondly, these orifices should be so arranged with respect to one another that the streamlets are distinctly spaced from one another and tend to overlap very little or not at all as they strike and flow through extended resistance means provided within the aerator.

In actual practice, it has been found that the issuing bubbly stream or streams at the point of discharge should have a total cross-sectional area at least eighteen times the cross-sectional area of the aggregate orifices in the diaphragm for the first 18 mm. of apertured area in said diaphragm. When the aggregate openings in the diaphragm exceed the aforementioned 18 mm. the mix ing and discharge openings of the aerator can be adapted to deliver a bubbly stream of less than eighteen times the cross-sectional area of the total openings of the diaphragm, this increase in total openings in the diaphragm tending to decrease the amount of air entrained by each streamlet. It will be appreciated that these particular figures relate to water pressures normally available for domestic use.

The relationship may also be expressed by stating that the aerator diaphragm should preferably include a plurality of apertures for dividing the water and increasing the surface of contact of that divided water with air; and the circumference of each such aperture in the diaphragm should be less than the diameter of a single orifice having an area equal to the aggregate cross-sectional area of the apertures in said diaphragm. Moreover, the mixing means in the aerator and the discharge end of that aerator should be so dimensioned that the discharged bubbly stream has an etiective cross-section equivalent to an area having a circumference at least four times the circumference of the aforementioned single orifice. By adhering to one or the other of these relationships, the individual aerated streams formed within the aerator-- overlapping very little or not at allwill result in a final discharge having excellent aeration characteristics due to a much greater cross-sectional stream area than has been possible in commercial aerators or aerating shower heads known heretofore.

It will be appreciated, of course, that the foregoing description is meant to be illustrative only and that many variations will be suggested to those skilled in the art. All such variations as are in accord with the principles described are meant to fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim to have invented:

1. In a water aerator adapted to deliver an aerated bubbly stream having a casing adapted to be secured to a source of water under pressure, a diaphragm having apertures adjacent the upstream end of the casing, a resistance element spaced from the diaphragm and in the path of the water therefrom, air inlet means provided in said casing providing a free inlet for the passage of air from outside the casing to the space between the diaphragm and the resistance element, the improvement comprising the diaphragm having a plurality of spaced apertures providing a means for dividing an inlet stream of water into a plurality of spaced, individual, streamlets, said resistance element having an extended area relative to the apertures in the diaphragm, the aperture spacing being such that each individual streamlet passes through the space between the diaphragm and the resistance ele ment, then through the resistanceelement wherein the streamlet of water is mixed with air producing an individual aerated Water streamlet, then leaves said resistance element as an individual aerated water streamlet non-overlapping with any one of the adjacent plurality of streamlets, and means coalescing streamlets that leave said resistance element to form at least one coherent bubbly stream.

2. A water aerator as defined in claim 1 in which the last-named means combines the individual streamlets fed thereto into a single output stream.

3. A water aerator as defined in claim 1 in which the resistance element is a screen.

4. A water aerator as defined in claim 1 in which the resistance element includes a plurality of spaced tubes, one for each streamlet leaving the diaphragm through which the streamlet passes and in which it is broken up.

5. A water aerator as defined in claim 4 in which the resistance element also includes a bafile in each tube.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,912,113 Aghnides May 30, 1933 2,210,846 Aghnides Aug. 6, 1940 2,247,310 Rockwood a- June 24, 1941 2,316,832 Aghnides Apr. 20, 1943 2,448,792 Fraser Sept. 7, 1948 2,811,340 Aghnides Oct. 29, 1957

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