Patent Document

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS None  
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
       [0001]     Research and development of this invention and Application have not been federally sponsored, and no rights are given under any Federal program.  
       REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX  
       [0002]     Not Applicable  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0004]     This invention relates to the restoration industry, in general, and to the drying-out of water damaged buildings, in particular.  
         [0005]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0006]     As is known and understood, mobile desiccant dehumidifiers have begun to be employed more and more in recent years to dry water damaged buildings to reduce health problems caused by the incipient mold which develops. As is also known, silica gel is oftentimes employed as the desiccant in a wheel through which the moistened air is pulled from the walls, the flooring, the concrete, etc. into the dehumidifying chamber. As the silica gel, or other desiccant employed, absorbs the moisture, however, it becomes necessary to additionally heat the desiccant to liberate the moisture it collects; this, then, serves to optimize the operation in a continuous cycle—allowing the desiccant to continually absorb the moisture in the building and blowing dried air back in. Where large-scale desiccant equipment is employed, the heat energy required is often provided by electric heating or propane heating—but, in accordance with the teachings of my U.S. Pat. No. (Ser. No. 10/190,035) firing the heat exchanger with diesel fuel offers many advantages.  
         [0007]     As my patent describes, such desiccant dehumidifying apparatus draws moisturized air from a building through a heated desiccant within an enclosed housing and then blows dried air back into the building. Flexible hoses are oftentimes employed in this process, clamped about ducts at the input and output ports of the housing by such worm gear type clamps as tightened by screwdriver rotation in known manner. Because the drying of heavily water damaged buildings is usually an expensive procedure, it is not unusual for the dehumidifying apparatus to be operating day and night. But, it has often been noted that the flexible hose pumping the dried air back into the building blows off the duct, particularly as the blowing pressure increases. Not only is this an embarrassment to the service contractor, but it is counter-productive to the drying process, especially if the hose blows off when no one is around to reconnect it, and the dehumidifying effectively stops.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     Continuing analysis of this problem led to an understanding that the fault followed from the manner by which the duct was fabricated. That is, the typical bead type ridge creased into the edge of the sheet metal duct when fabricated in the shop did not prevent the hose clamp from migrating over it and off the duct as the dried air blowing pressure increased to a threshold amount. This conventional duct ridge bead just wasn&#39;t enough, and the clamp and hose were blown off.  
         [0009]     As will become clear from the following description, the substantially circular sheet metal duct at the output port of the housing is thus supplemented according to the invention by a raised ring encircling the duct, and of a construction to deter movement off the duct of the mechanical securing clamp which tightens the hose about the duct forwardly of the ring. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, this raised ring is made a permanent part of the duct, as by being welded to the sheet metal duct. The raised ring in this context may be constructed of aluminum, with the securing clamp being of appropriate type to maintain a thermoplastic type flexible hose in position. This raised ring encircling the duct at the output port of the desiccant dehumidifier apparatus provides the very significant advantage of preventing its flexible hose from being blown off the duct even when clamped, as the dried air blowing pressures increase. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]     These and other features of the present invention will be more clearly understood from a consideration of the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0011]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram helpful in an understanding of the apparatus and method for dehumidifying moisturized air present within a building from a point external thereto; and  
         [0012]      FIGS. 2-3  are illustrations helpful in an understanding of the hose connector according to a preferred construction of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0013]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , the desiccant reactivation apparatus with which the present invention operates follows from the use of an enclosure  10  having a heat exchanger  12  and its method of operation both follow from the use of an enclosure  10  having a heat exchanger  12  and a desiccant  14 . Reference numeral  20  identifies a building in which moisturized air is present and which is to dehumidified, with the enclosure  10  having a bottom surface  16  which may rest upon a trailer or truck bed adjacent the building  20  once driven to the work site. Alternatively, the enclosure  10  could be off-loaded from the trailer or truck bed onto the ground itself. Reference numeral  18  indicates a diesel fuel burner according to the invention in my afore-cited patent, having an exhaust gas stack  22 . As will be understood, the diesel fuel burner  18  heats the exchanger  12  from the inside out—although any other type of burner to heat the exchanger  12  may be employed.  
         [0014]     A first, or processed air, blower  26  draws the moisturized air from within the building through ductwork  72  and the desiccant  14  in a first direction (shown by the arrows  60 ), which traps the moisture therein before discharging the dried air out the enclosure  10  as shown by the arrows  61 - 62 . A second, or reactivation, blower  24  draws ambient air from the surrounds via ductwork  70  into the enclosure  10 , over and about the diesel fired heat exchanger  12  and through the desiccant  14  in a second direction, as illustrated by the arrows  50 ; the moisture liberated, heated air through the desiccant  14  is discharged outside the enclosure  10  as shown by the arrows  51 - 52 . The heat exchanger  10  thus dehumidifies the desiccant  14  of the moisture collected from the wet building air in reactivating the desiccant  14  for continuing use. At the same time, the dried air from the enclosure  10  is blown or pumped along the arrows  51 - 52  back into the building  20 . Typically, this is accomplished by a flexible hose shown as  80  coupled about a duct  82  at an output port  84  of the enclosure  10 .  
         [0015]     In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, as illustrated in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , raised ring  90  is utilized to encircle the duct  82 , and made a permanent part of it as by welding at  92  when the duct  82  is fabricated of sheet metal and the raised ring  90  is constructed of aluminum. The flexible hose  80 , which previously coupled about the duct  82 , continues to overlie the duct  82 , but additionally now overlies the raised ring  90  as well, and to be mechanically secured about the duct  82  forwardly of the ring, as at  94 . Such mechanical means may continue to be a worm gear type of screw tightenable in understood manner—but one which is now deterred and prevented from blowing back off the duct  82  by the construction of the raised ring which acts as a block or stop. With the flexible hose  80  of a thermoplastic composition, and with almost any type of hose clamp being employable, the raised ring  90  merely needs to be constructed of a raised height, width and composition sufficient to withstand the rearward movement (if any) of the clamp brought about by the dried air blowing back through the output port  84  of the heat exchanger  10 .  
         [0016]     While there have been described what are considered to be preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the teachings herein. For at least such reason, therefore, resort should be had to the claims appended hereto for a true understanding of the scope of the invention.

Technology Category: 7