The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 21, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 09, 1998
Herbert Kuhnelt, Vienna, AT;
HYGRAMA AG, Rotkreuz, CH;
ULTRATROC GmbH, Flesburg, DE;
Abstract
A membrane dryer apparatus for moist air includes a housing (1) that contains a tubular fabric strand bundle (7) of tubular fabric strands (8) made of selective absorption material through which air to be dried flows, water vapor diffusing through the fabric and collecting on its outside. A portion of the dried compressed output air is channeled off near the discharge (12) of the membrane dryer and passed through a scavenging air duct (14) having a throttle (16) and passed around the outside of the fabric strand bundle to scavenge moisture and remove it through discharge openings (17, 18) to the outside air. To limit consumption of scavenging air, an independent shut-off valve (19), working as an airflow sensor, is installed in the output air duct (13), and this shut-off valve (19) opens only when output air is actually extracted by a user. This shut-off valve (19) regulates at the same time the scavenging air duct (14) whereby the shut-off valve (19) is connected to a scavenging air valve (22) which is actuated by a control line (23) that in turn is regulated by the shut-off valve (19) and branches off from the output air duct (13). This causes scavenging air to flow through the scavenging air duct only when the shut-off valve (19) is open and output air is discharged from the membrane dryer apparatus.