Appeal No. 2002-1519 Page 2
Application No. 09/433,344
BACKGROUND
The appellant's invention relates to fluidic mixing devices incorporating fluidic
and vortical flow effects to enhance mixing of a fluent material with a carrier fluid
(specification, p. 1). A copy of the independent claims under appeal (i.e., claims 1 and
4) is set forth below.
1. A fluid mixer and vortex distribution device comprising:
an oscillation and mixing chamber having an upstream end, a
downstream end, top and bottom walls, curved sidewalls which diverge from said
upstream end and converge towards said downstream end,
a power nozzle adapted to be coupled to a source of liquid under pressure
for issuing a main jet of liquid into the upstream end of said oscillation and
mixing chamber,
said oscillation and mixing chamber having a pair of control ports
symmetrically contiguous to the side of said main jet of liquid, and an exit
aperture at the downstream end of said oscillation and mixing chamber for the
egress of fluids from said oscillation and mixing chamber to ambient, and
one or more sources of fluent materials connected to said control ports,
whereby any vacuum caused by said main jet of liquid at said control ports
entrains said fluent material and forming vortices on either side of said jet of
liquid and create oscillation of the liquid jet exiting out and mixing entrained fluent
material with said main jet of liquid in said oscillation and mixing chamber to form
a mixture prior to passing through said exit aperture to a point of utilization, and
said oscillation of the liquid jet stops when entrainment of said fluent material
through said control port ceases.
4. A fluidic mixer comprising:
a housing having an oscillation vortex mixing chamber with an upstream
end and a downstream end, said oscillation vortex mixing chamber having a pair
of curved sidewalls which first diverge in a downstream direction from said
upstream end to a point of maximum divergence and then converge towards said
downstream end,
a power nozzle at said upstream end of said oscillation vortex mixing
chamber, said power nozzle being adapted to be coupled to a source of carrier
liquid under pressure for issuing a jet of carrier liquid into said oscillation vortex
mixing chamber,
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Last modified: November 3, 2007