Patent Publication Number: US-4225539-A

Title: Room humidifier and the humidification system

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention generally relates to a noiseless room humidifier which is not dependent upon a source of electrical potential for effective opertion. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     The prior art, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 309,771, 1,790,993, 3,227,064 3,278,175 3,497,188 3,673,770 and some other discloses room appliance-type humidifiers having their evaporators directly connected with built-in soaking pans and with the evaporators being prearranged to operate in conjunction with a predetermined unchanging air flow path and as such they are neither claimed nor are they suited to perform with full efficiency under the often varying natural path of the air circulating in a room. 
     The present invention also relates to improvement on my &#34;Noiseless Humidifier With Rotatably Repositionable Evaporator&#34; disclosed in my prior U.S. application Ser. No. 893,337, filed Apr. 4, 1978, now abandoned. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The primary object of this invention is to provide a humidification assemblage which will be capable of performing noiselessly and efficiently by utilizing the moisture absorbing capacity of the air in a room as the air circulates, naturally, about the room and without employing any power source to create forced air circulation, thus saving energy and its expense and eliminating the noises usually associated with such power sources. 
     Another object of this invention is to provide a humidification system employing a highly sensitive evaporator unit consisting, preferably, of rows of multiple, open sided, hollow core and tube-like strips of a water absorbent material supported in spaced apart relation as to comprise a panel-like evaporator unit. The strips are tubular and may be of rectangular, octogonal or other cross-sectional shapes wherein the hollow interiors of the cores provide a free air flow therethrough and thus assists in rapid evaporation of water from the strips. The evaporator unit is provided with a meshtype enclosure and the enclosure is equipped with suitably arranged pivot pins or hinges enabling the enclosure to be angularly displaced, as desired, for effective disposition in the natural air circulating air flow of a room. 
     The efficiency of this type of humidifier depends mainly upon the efficient use of the comparatively weak room air circulating currents and, therefore, further object of this invention is to provide the humidification assemblage with supporting brackets or pedestals or the like of such character which enables the humidification unit enclosures to be readily positioned most advantageously in any portions of the air paths of natural room air circulation and with the enclosures optimumly positioned relative to the associated portion of the natural air flow in the room. 
     Yet another object of this invention is to provide a humidifier unit in accordance with the preceding objects and including supporting brackets or pedestals which themselves are shiftable relative to the supporting surfaces therefor and which, therefore, further facilitate optimum positioning of the humidification unit. 
     Another object of this invention is to incorporate two or more humidification units in a humidification system wherein two or more humidification units are being used and are optimumly positioned relative to spaced portions of the natural air circulation path in a room. 
     Another important object of this invention is to provide supportive brackets or pedestals including humidifier unit supporting brackets thereof which are substantially identical and which therefore enable a single humidifier unit to be alternately supported from a support bracket or pedestal. 
     A still further object of this invention is to provide a humidification system which, in addition to conserving energy by exploiting evaporation as a result of convection currents, will be helpful as well as safe and simple to operate and maintain. 
     Another object of this invention to be specifically enumerated herein is to provide a room humidification assemblage in accordance with the preceding objects and which will conform to conventional forms of manufacture, be of simple construction and easy to use so as to provide a device that will be economically feasible, long lasting and relatively trouble-free in operation. 
     These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a typical form of humidification unit constructed in accordance with the present invention and with portions of the mesh enclosure and tubular evaporation strips broken away and illustrated in vertical section; 
     FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of a first modified form of evaporation unit supported from and which may be flipped relative to a stationary wall mounted support rack; 
     FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a second modified form of humidification unit utlilizing a hingedly supported mount; 
     FIG. 4 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken substantially upon the plane indicated by the section line 4--4 of FIG. 3 with alternate positions of the humidification unit illustrated in phantom line and on somewhat of an enlarged scale; 
     FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of another modified form of humidification unit utilizing an adjustable height pedestal for its support, the unit being illustrated in exploded position relative to the pedestal; 
     FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a preferred form of wall mounted bracket for use in conjunction with those forms of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4 and which is also usable atop the pedestal in that form of the invention illustrated in FIG. 5; and 
     FIG. 7 is a schematic view illustrating the manner in which a plurality of humidification units constructed in accordance with the present invention may be positioned in spaced relation within a room whereby to be optimumly positioned relative to the nature circulation of air within the room. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring now more specifically to the drawings, the numeral 10 generally designates a first form of evaporator unit illustrated in FIG. 1. The evaporator unit 10 includes a plurality of hollow core 11 type water absorbent evaporative strips 12 disposed in parallel laterally spaced relation to define air spaces 13 therebetween. The strips 12 are housed within a mesh-type enclosure 14 including an open side and clips 15 supported from the enclosure 14 about the open side thereof and for angular displacement relative to the enclosure 14. A removable closure will portion 16, also of mesh construction and preferably constructed of plastic, is disposed over the open side of the enclosure 14 and removably retained in position over the strips 12 by the pivotal clips 15. 
     The opposite ends of the enclosure 14 include pivot shank mounted handles 17 and springs clip-type bearings 18 are supported from the free ends of the arms of a bifurcated rack 19. Accordingly, the unit 10 may be rotated relative to the rack 19 about a first axis extending along the center line of the shank poriton supporting the handles 17. Also, the rack 19 is pivotally supported from a channel-shaped base 20 for angular displacement relative thereto about a second axis disposed substantially normal to the first axis. The base 20 is slidably engageable with a bracket 21 adapted to be supported from any suitable surface by means of screw-type fasteners for support of the base 20 from that wall surface. 
     With attention now invited more specifically to FIG. 2 of the drawings, there may be seen a second form of supporting rack 22 including a horizontal arm portion and a base portion, similar to the base portion 20, carried by one end of the arm portion and also removably slidably engageable with the bracket 21 whereby the modified rack 22 may be supported from the bracket 21 with the arm portion of the rack 22 substantially horizontally disposed. In this embodiment of the invention, the unit 10 may be placed upon the rack 22 in the manner illustrated in FIG. 2 and alternately flipped in position on the rack 22 whenever desired. 
     A third form of the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 of the drawings and utilizes an evaporator unit 10 similar to that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and supported from a pair of laterally spaced apart C-shaped support clips 23 pivotally supported from a base 24 by friction-type pivot fasteners 25. The unit 10 illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 may be manually withdrawn from the supporting clips 23 in the manner illustrated in the left hand phantom line designation in FIG. 4 and the unit 10 may further be pivoted to the vertical phantom line position 26 illustrated in FIG. 4. Thus, the unit 10, when supported form the clips 23, may be variously positioned as desired. 
     With attention now invited more specifically to FIG. 5 of the drawings, there will be seen a fourth form of assemblage wherein the supporting rack 19 and base 20 of FIG. 1 are utilized and a bracket 21, such as that provided in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 is mounted atop the upper telescopingly adjustable standard portion of a pedestabl 27 including a lock screw 28 for retaining the pedestal in adjusted extended positons. Of course, the pedestal 27 may be supported from the floor of a room in any suitable location therein in order to optimumly position the unit 10 relative to an adjacent portion of the path of natural air circulation through the room. 
     With attention now invited more specifically to FIG. l7 of the drawings, there may be seen an example of possible positioning of a plurality of units 10 positioned about a window opening in a wall for optimum positioning of the unit 10 relative to various portions of the path of natural air circulation within the room.