Patent GB-943247-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to air-conditioning apparatus
IPC: F24F3/147
Filed: 1961-06-27
Abstract: 943,247. Air conditioning units. J. SANDOR. Sept. 25, 1962 [June 27, 1961], No. 23246/61. Heading F4V. [Also in Division B1] Air drawn into an air conditioning unit is divided into two streams, one of which passes through one portion of a rotating desiccant container and thence to a space to be conditioned and the other of which is heated and passed through a second portion of the container to regenerate desiccant and thence to an exhaust. As illustrated the container is a horizontal shallow drum 10 whose top and bottom faces are formed by fine mesh 16 and which is rotatably mounted on a fixed vertical shaft 14 in a casing 2. A labyrinth seal is provided at 11 to prevent air passing around the side walls 12 of the drum 10, the latter being rotated once every six hours by a low geared motor engaging the periphery of the drum 10 through a friction roller 28. The drum 10 contains granulated silica gel as desiccant mixed with granules of activated carbon as a deodorant, and is divided into six equal segments by walls 17. The drum may also contain a perfuming material. Below the drum 10 the casing 2 is divided by walls 22 into six equal regions, one of which 23 contains a lattice of electrical heating elements 29 connected to a supply by terminals 24 and leads 25. The region 23 may contain baffle plates or the heating elements may be in the form of a resistance mat. The space above the drum 10 and below a cover 3 is divided into five equal segments by walls 18. A part 19 of the cover 3 is solid and is provided with a hot moist air exhaust duct 21, the rest of the cover 3 having part circular louvres 20 for the egress of dried air from the unit. Air is drawn into the unit through openings 8 in a lower casing 1 and a filter 7 by an axial flow fan 5. Air passing from the fan 5 through the region 23 of casing 2 is heated and removes moisture from the desiccant above the region 23, passing thence to the exhaust 21. Air passing through the rest of the drum 10 is dried and deodorised and passes through the louvres 20. As the drum 10 rotates the desiccant is continuously regenerated. At the position shown in Fig. 2 the walls 17 in the drum 10 coincide with the positions of the walls 22 and the drum is rotating in the direction of the arrow A. There is thus a segment x in which cool air passes through the desiccant and to the exhaust 21 thus cooling the desiccant before it enters the stream of dried air. The two walls 18 defining the space above the drum through which hot moist air flows may have flexible strips resting on the surface of the drum to prevent heated air mixing with conditioned air. The operation of the fan and drum motors are controlled by a humidistat to switch the unit on when the relative humidity rises above 65% and to switch it off when the relative humidity falls below 50%. In a modification, Figs. 4 and 5 (not shown), the drum containing desiccant is freely mounted on a horizontal shaft and is caused to rotate by the unbalance of the distribution of the regenerated and unregenerated desiccant. Also air is passed through the unit by a centrifugal fan.