Other

A-t-o Inc.

Frank T John

A new electrothermal fluid motor connected to an electrically controlled energy source for uniformly heating a unique reticulated heat exchanger, which together with an expansion fluid fills a chamber, having a mechanical energy output consisting of a jet flow or a change of force, pressure, or motion, has achieved elimination of internal convection and consequent start-up wall losses found in prior art devices, resulting in improved efficiency and response-time reduction. Typically, the heat exchanger has millions of heating elements, interconnected in a network of distorted dodecahedron cells, each with thirty shared heating elements of triangular cross-section, giving a shock resistance of thousands of g's and thousands of degrees centigrade, a void space of about 97%, and an average thermal diffusion distance of about 100 microns. The preferred energy source is electrical resistance heating, but induction, electrostatic, or radiation-absorption heating may be used. For high power applications, a change-of-state liquid is preferred. For example, DuPont Freon 12 will produce a 160% volume change at constant pressure of 0.7 MPa (100 p.s.i.) for a 30.degree. C. temperature change. An example of the invention is a linear differential servomotor with two reticulated electrothermal motors connected to a common output shaft in expansion opposition. The ambient temperature effect cancels, with the output force, velocity, and direction being proportional to the sum of the input energies to the respective motors. Other applications of the inventive principles include hot jet gas emitters, stepping motors, latches, power jacks, printers, acoustical signalling devices, and pistons.

Reticulated electrothermal fluid motor

It has been discovered that electrically conducting, vitreous pyrolytic carbon in broken-bubble, foam-type, reticulated structures can be used as an extremely fast and efficient electrically operated motor to actuate mechanical devices, such as mercury liquid contact relays, by electrothermally-produced gas expansion. The gas pressure change is produced evenly and almost instantaneously throughout the volume of the reticular motor to move mercury contacts, to open or close a liquid contact relay, thus avoiding the expensive electromagnetic coils now used as relay motors. By passing an electrical current through conducting reticulated material formed from pyrolytic carbon, metals, conductive ceramics or plastics, the microscopic network of interconnecting filaments is heated, thus heating and expanding the fluid (air, hydrogen, helium, argon, etc.) contained in the reticular motor. The time required to operate the device depends on the thermal gradient and the square of the average thermal diffusion distance between the gas and the nearest heating filament. Since the diffusion distance is very small, the device is very fast and efficient. For fast repetative motor operation, a reticulated material of high thermal conductivity such as silver, silicon nitride, or boron nitride, is sealed to the inside walls of the motor. The reticular electrothermal motor is useful for operating mechanical devices including both miniature logic relays and large industrial relays. The high power requirement of the latter may be supplied by using change of state expansion of volatilizable liquids such as are used as refrigerants or as propellants in aerosol spray containers.

Liquid contact relay incorporating gas-containing finely reticular solid

A microminiature palladium oxide gas detector and its method of manufacture. The detector comprises an extremely small coil of extremely fine wire such as platinum which is retained, sealed and insulated with an amorphous ceramic binder. The detector further comprises a catalyst applied to its exterior surface. The detector is manufactured by winding the wire about a mandrel which is desirably molybdenum. The coil is then coated with the binder composition which preferably comprises reduced chromic and phosphoric acids. The binder is then cured to retain the coil and the mandrel is removed by etching or oxidation. The catalyst is then applied which is preferably palladium nitrate in a weakly acidic hydrolyzed solution which has been adjusted to a pH of about 3 with tertiary octyl amine. The catalyst is then dehydrated and calcined desirably using an automatic electronic pulse controlled machine to precisely adjust and control processing temperatures and times. When hydrolyzed palladium oxide is used as the catalyst, the processing temperature never reaches the point where the oxide becomes reduced to the metal.

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Williamsville, NY, United States of America

Frank T John