Hand dryer
First Claim
1. A method of operating a hand dryer comprising the steps of:
- (a) generating air jets from a compound directional nozzle with multiple cylindrical sub-nozzles,(b) heating the air sub-jets exiting the sub-nozzles to a temperature such that, upon contact of air from the air jets with hands of a user, the temperature of the air jets will be about 135°
F.,(c) directing heated air jets through multiple cylindrical nozzles onto the hands of the user in a blow-off phase at a velocity no less than 18,000 linear feet per minute and sufficient to blow off at least 75% of water adherent to the hands of the user in at most 3 seconds and to break up a stagnation boundary layer of water on the user'"'"'s hands,(d) continuing to direct heated air through the nozzle air jets onto the hands of the user to dry the user'"'"'s hands to a residual water quantity of at most 0.3 grams in less than 15 seconds in an evaporation phase subsequent to the blow-off phase.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A dryer uses a high-speed blower producing high velocity air, a heater and a compound directional nozzle containing multiple tubular, cylindrical air sub-outlets to generate both suitable force and temperature in the sub-jets of air to dry the user'"'"'s hands. The air outlets are sized and shaped to maintain direction of airflow at the location of the hands. The multiple tubular sub-nozzles reduce the air turbulence noise from the fast airflow sub-jets striking the hands by providing spaces between the adjacent sub-nozzles and air sub-jets so that the turbulence and hand impact noise is reduced and so that the water evaporated from the water film has a shorter escape distance. An ion source provides ions in the output air from the compound directional nozzle to enhance evaporation.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method of operating a hand dryer comprising the steps of:
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(a) generating air jets from a compound directional nozzle with multiple cylindrical sub-nozzles, (b) heating the air sub-jets exiting the sub-nozzles to a temperature such that, upon contact of air from the air jets with hands of a user, the temperature of the air jets will be about 135°
F.,(c) directing heated air jets through multiple cylindrical nozzles onto the hands of the user in a blow-off phase at a velocity no less than 18,000 linear feet per minute and sufficient to blow off at least 75% of water adherent to the hands of the user in at most 3 seconds and to break up a stagnation boundary layer of water on the user'"'"'s hands, (d) continuing to direct heated air through the nozzle air jets onto the hands of the user to dry the user'"'"'s hands to a residual water quantity of at most 0.3 grams in less than 15 seconds in an evaporation phase subsequent to the blow-off phase. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of drying a wet surface comprising the steps of:
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(a) generating a forced flow of air with an electrically powered blower, (b) heating the forced flow of air with an electrically powered heater to produce a heated air stream, (c) directing the heated air stream from the sub-nozzles of the compound directional nozzle onto the surface with some or all of the sub-nozzle having a length of 3 to 5 times the largest linear dimension across the cross section of the sub-nozzle to blow off the surface at least 75% of water adherent thereto in a period less than 5 seconds. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16)
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10. The use of a compound directional nozzle with smaller diameters as a way for reducing empty space to obstruct users from stuffing a nozzle with foreign material while still not impeding the total air passage process such as that used in hand drying.
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15. A method using a compound directional nozzle to produce forceful sub-jets of air with impact area separations to permit turbulence and water to escape from the impact surface.
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17. A method adding ions to the compound directional nozzle and air sub-jets so that electrical charges on the drops and the reduced electrical capacitance of the drop will compensate (or partially compensate) for the energy lost by the heat of evaporation—
- to speed up the drying.
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18. A method for selecting the power applied to the blower motor during device assembly or switching manually before each drying event or sequence of such events so as to give the choice of normal power that provides fast hand drying with the drawback of increased hand impact noise from the fast air during drying, or alternatively the choice of lower blower power to reduce the hand impact noise with a penalty of slower drying.
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19. An apparatus for rapidly and comfortably drying hands comprising:
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(a) a blower for generating air jets, (b) a heater for heating the air jets to a temperature of about 135 deg F., (c) an air exit using compound directional nozzle having multiple cylindrical air exit sub-nozzles directing air sub-jets on the hands of the user to blow off loose water in less than 5 seconds and to evaporate surface water from the hands in at most 15 seconds, leaving less than 0.2 gm of water on the hands, whereby the hands feel warm and comfortable.
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20. An apparatus for rapidly and comfortably drying hands comprising:
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(a) a blower for generating air jets, (b) a heater for heating the air jets to a temperature of about 135 deg F., (c) a compound directional nozzle with multiple cylindrical air exit nozzles that are divergent to cover larger impact area, (d) a source of ions such as the mineral tourmaline or an electronic electrical circuit to produce a corona to supply ions in the exiting air.
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21. An apparatus for rapidly and comfortably drying hands comprising:
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(a) a blower for generating air jets, (b) a heater for heating the air jets to a temperature of about 135 deg F., (c) a nozzle with multiple cylindrical air exit nozzles that are divergent, (d) a propeller driven by the exiting air to sequentially block the entrances of the multiple cylindrical air exit sub-nozzles, (e) a source of ions such as the mineral tourmaline or an electronic electrical circuit to produce a corona to supply ions in the exiting air.
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22. An apparatus for rapidly and comfortably drying hands comprising:
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(a) a blower for generating air jets, (b) a heater for heating the air jets to a temperature of about 135 deg F., (c) a nozzle with multiple cylindrical air exit nozzles, (d) a hand operated manual switch, utilized during periodic authorized maintenance, which reverses the blower motor to blow back accumulated debris through the entrance ports of the dryer.
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Specification