Patent ID: 7825564

Claim:
A hand dryer, comprising: a cavity having an opening at an upper end, the opening being sized to allow a user's hands to be inserted into the cavity; a plurality of slot-like openings positioned at the upper end of the cavity; a motor unit, having a fan to generate high speed airflow, the fan being functionally connected to the plurality of slot-like openings to direct the high speed airflow through the slot-like openings; a drain, located at a bottom end of the cavity, to receive water removed from the user's hands; a collector, located downstream of the drain, to collect the water removed from the user's hands; and a nebulizer, located in the collector, the nebulizer, comprising, a high-frequency agitation source, a controller for the high-frequency agitation source, a signal generator to generate a drive signal having a variable duty cycle and being used to drive the high-frequency agitation source, and a temperature detector to detect a temperature of the high-frequency agitation source, wherein the controller is configured to vary the duty cycle of the drive signal in response to the temperature of the high-frequency agitation source.