Dryer using high frequency vibration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10520252-B2
Application number	US-201715798057-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 30, 2017
Priority date	May 8, 2015
Publication date	Dec 31, 2019
Grant date	Dec 31, 2019

Abstract

A dryer includes a plurality of piezoelectric transducers in electrical communication with a high frequency piezoelectric oscillation generator. The piezoelectric oscillation generator controls the duty cycle and resonant frequency source signal that drive the plurality of piezoelectric transducers non-continuously. The piezoelectric transducers dry the wet articles without heating air passing through the articles.

First claim

The claims are as follows:

1. A dryer, comprising:
a piezoelectric oscillation generator;
a substantially hollow rotary tumbler drum for drying wet articles; and
a plurality of piezoelectric transducers disposed proximate the substantially hollow rotary tumbler drum in electrical communication with the piezoelectric oscillation generator;
where the piezoelectric oscillation controls a duty cycle and resonant frequency source signal that drive the plurality of piezoelectric transducers that dry the wet articles without heating a portion of air that passes through the articles.

2. The dryer of claim 1 where the plurality of piezoelectric transducers comprises a plurality of piezoelectric mesh transducers.

3. The dryer of claim 2 where the plurality of piezoelectric mesh transducers includes a plurality of separately spaced apart adjacent meshes that comprise a plurality of distinct mechanically actuated grids.

4. The dryer of claim 1 where the plurality of piezoelectric transducers is unitary with the substantially hollow rotary tumbler drum.

5. The dryer of claim 1 where a piezoelectric oscillation is programmed to actuate selected piezoelectric transducers only when an article is in direct contact with the selected piezoelectric transducer.

6. The dryer of claim 5 where the piezoelectric oscillation generator makes a selection in response to a detection of an alert signal transported via an electrical bus.

7. The dryer of claim 6 where the piezoelectric oscillation generator makes the selection in response to a rotational rate of the substantially hollow rotary tumbler drum.

8. The dryer of claim 7 where the piezoelectric oscillation generator actuates selected piezoelectric transducers through a non-continuous burst-width modulated signal.

9. The dryer of claim 7 where the plurality of piezoelectric transducers are unitary part of the substantially hollow rotary tumbler drum.

10. The dryer of claim 7 where the plurality of piezoelectric transducers is disposed adjacent to a lint filter collect a lint discarded from the article.

11. The dryer of claim 7 where the dryer comprises a ventless dryer.

12. The dryer of claim 7 where the dryer comprises a vented dryer.

13. The dryer of claim 1 where substantially all of a drying occurs only when the wet articles are in direct contact with the plurality of piezoelectric transducers.

14. The dryer of claim 1 where the piezoelectric oscillation generator comprises a resonant frequency oscillator in electrical communication with a burst modulator in electrical communication with an output driver.

15. The dryer of claim 1 where the plurality of piezoelectric transducers includes a multi-stack transducer having a plurality of piezoelectric elements driven by different oscillator drivers.

16. The dryer of claim 1 where a plurality of piezoelectric elements each vibrate at different resonant frequencies.

17. The dryer of claim 1 where the piezoelectric oscillation generator drives the plurality of piezoelectric transducer non-continuously.

18. The dryer of claim 1 further comprising separate ultrasonic mesh transducer drivers that drive one of the plurality of piezoelectric transducers.

19. A method of drying a wet article comprising the acts of:
providing a plurality of piezoelectric transducers having a plurality of resonant frequencies electrically coupled to an amplifier;
selecting the piezoelectric transducers in direct contact with the article;
sourcing an electric signal to the selected piezoelectric transducers to dry the wet article without injecting heated air; and
resonating the selected piezoelectric transducers at their respective resonant frequencies by providing power tuned to the piezoelectric transducers non-continuously only when a selected number of the plurality of piezoelectric transducers are in direct contact with the wet article.

20. A method of drying a wet article of claim 19 further comprising injecting hot air into a substantially hollow rotary tumbler drum enclosing the wet article only when the wet articles are substantially dry.

21. The method of claim 19 where the selected number of the plurality of piezoelectric transducers are unitary with a substantially hollow rotary tumbler.

22. The method of claim 19 where the selected number of the plurality of piezoelectric transducers are unitary with a base of a press.

23. The method of claim 19 where the selected number of the plurality of piezoelectric transducers are integrated with two or more rotating tumblers.

Assignees

• Ut Battelle Llc

Inventors

• Momen Ayyoub Mehdizadeh
• Gluesenkamp Kyle R
• Vineyard Edward Allan
• Kisner Roger A

Classifications

• D06F58/28

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F58/02

  having dryer drums rotating about a horizontal axis · CPC title

• F26B5/02 Primary

  by using ultrasonic vibrations {(using sonic energy generated by pulse jet combustion F26B23/026)} · CPC title

• D06F58/20

  General details of domestic laundry dryers  (D06F59/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• D06F2103/10

  expressed as capacitance or resistance · CPC title