Patent Application
20230061757
The present invention relates generally to air sanitizing systems, and more specifically to an air sanitization system for an aircraft lavatory.
Commercial Airline operations are being disrupted by the COVID 19 crisis. Airline passenger trips have reduced significantly causing a financial crisis in the industry. Airlines are interested in developing and deploying technology, products, and solutions that will clean, sanitize, disinfect, or even sterilize the aircraft interior before, during, or after flight. Many solutions are proposed and discussed within the industry and within the general media. These solutions can include wiping surfaces with cleaning liquids, replacing the materials used in high-touch areas with materials that have anti-microbial properties, adding films to high touch surfaces with anti-microbial properties, or using UCV lights as pathogen killing devices. COVID-19 is considered an airborne pathogen, and the present invention is related to the sanitization of airborne pathogens.
When a toilet is flushed, there is a violent air exchange. This event can cause excrement, which may have e-coli or virus present (such as SARS-COV-2) to be dispersed into a lavatory. The dispersion can include very small particles, these particles, which may have pathogens present, can then be present in the lavatory. Cleaning on sterilizing surfaces may not eliminate the presence of airborne pathogens in an enclosed space. There is a need for solutions that not only clean the surfaces of an enclosed space, but also the volume of air within the enclosed space.
Commercial aircraft have confined spaces. One such confined space is a lavatory, another confined space is a galley. Before, during, and after flights the crew and passengers use these confined spaces. Due to the nature of the activities in these confined spaces, there can be smells and odors present that can be unpleasant to the crew and passengers. Passengers often associates smells with cleanliness. Sanitizing air with a UV light, or other means, may not eliminate odors and smells. There is a need to also create a pleasant odor in these confined spaces. High end scent generation is today available in multiple forms. For example, scent marketing is used to enhance customer experience in retail stores, food and beverage stores, casinos and hotels. The aim is typically to put the customer in a positive mood or to otherwise make the customer feel comfortable. The aim can also be to provide a scent that people associated with a clean, fresh, or natural environment. By coupling the sanitization system described herein with a scent machine a total clean environment that is potentially free of many harmful bacteria and viruses can be provided and can therefore provide for a pleasant odor free or odor scent enhanced experience.
Many sanitization systems target the cleaning of surfaces, but not the volume of air. This is a critical concern in an aircraft lavatory since the COVID-19 pandemic began. There is a need for a system that can sanitize airborne pathogens quickly and effectively.
The current state of the art for air sanitization include UV radiators. UV radiators have UV light sources inside of an enclosed housing (typically a cylinder). There are UV reflective coatings applied to the inside of the housing. As air passes through the housing, the air particles are bombarded by UV light, which kills pathogens once a threshold is achieved.
The current state of the art for aircraft air filtration is the use of HEPA filters. HEPA filters are very efficient in removing unwanted contaminates and from air, but they greatly reduce the air flow within the system. Also, there is a pressure limit at which the system can effectively operate when using a HEPA filter.
Typically aircraft filtration systems use HEPA filters to filter contaminates and pathogens from the air. HEPA filters greatly restrict airflow within a system. Using a UV air sanitization system would allow the airflow within the system to be significantly increased.
HEPA filters are typically installed in a central location in the aircraft once the air leaves the HEPA filter it may combine with local pathogens. For example, when a passenger sneezes inside a lavatory, the exhaled air may include moisture laden pathogens. There is now a local condition where pathogens are present. Similarly, when a passenger uses a toilet, or a toilet is flushed, non-desirable odors and smell are generated. The central HEPA filter does not prevent this.
The present invention includes an air duct that can be used to sanitize the air inside of an enclosed space to remove, kill, destroy or eliminate airborne pathogens. The air duct contains UV light sources or emitters located in a pattern around the interior surface of the air and a UV reflective coating on the inside of the duct in order to provide enough energy to kill airborne pathogens in a short amount of time. Because UV is being used to sanitize the air and not a HEPA filter, the airflow within the system can be significantly increased with a fan forcing optimal dwell time pathways. Lastly, a fragrance dispenser can be placed at or near the outlet of the air sanitization system to give the clean air a refreshing scent. As a result, the present invention creates a sanitization system that can quickly kill airborne pathogens that are present within an aircraft lavatory that is safe for occupants, produces a scent that can be desirable for occupants and has low power requirements.
In a preferred embodiment, a UV radiator is located at or near the ceiling of an aircraft lavatory. This can be either near the entry door to the lavatory, next to the mirror or over the toilet in the lavatory. The UV radiator includes a cylindrical duct (or other shape such as a polygon, ovular, etc.). Located on the interior surface of the cylindrical duct are UV light sources. Preferably, the interior of the duct is open with no middle interior items of any kind so that air flow and reflectivity have optimized performance. However, this is not a limitation. The UV light sources can be located in a helix pattern, or other similar pattern to maximize coverage of the UV light waves within the cylinder. The interior surface of the duct may be coated with UV reflective materials. In addition, a fan may be located within the duct. The fan pushes the air through the duct while the UVC light sources bombard the air particles with UV energy. The UV reflective coating increases the amount of UV energy that is absorbed by the pathogens, which destroys them.
In a preferred embodiment, there is an inlet and an outlet to the cylindrical duct. A fragrance dispenser is located at or near the outlet of the duct, which adds a refreshing scent to the sanitized air. By placing the fragrance dispenser in-line with the UV system one can reduce the need of an additional fan. Sensors, controller and other parts can be shared to reduce the overall weight, complexity and costs of the combined system(s).
In another preferred embodiment, there is an edge placement of inlet and opposing edge placement of outlet, or a flow redirection surface at the inlet and outlet that force the air to circulate in a helical pattern, increasing dwell time and reducing disinfection time.
In another preferred embodiment, the system can be placed in, on or near a galley to have similar benefits to those described herein with respect to a lavatory.
In another preferred embodiment, the UV may be located underneath the lavatory mirror. In this embodiment, a portion of the cylindrical duct is replaced with a UV transparent lens, which faces toward the sink. The UV transparent lens allows UV light waves to exit the cylinder and contact the surface of the lavatory sink, which sanitizes the surfaces of the sink while also sanitizing the air that is passing through the UV radiator duct. Again, in this embodiment, an air fragrance dispenser is located at the outlet of the UV radiator duct which adds a refreshing scent to the sanitized air.
It will be appreciated that one or more embodiments (a combination of a UV radiator located under the mirror, over the door, and/or near the lavatory ceiling) can be used in the solution.
Using UV light is one method of destroying pathogens. Once a particular amount of UV energy is absorbed by the pathogen, it is destroyed. In order to increase the rate at which UV energy is absorbed by pathogens, UV reflective coatings can be applied to the interior surface of an air duct, which increases the amount of energy that is directed at destroying pathogens and not being wasted as heat. With the interior free of objects, the reflection is highly optimized.
It will be appreciated that there are three different functions being addressed by the present invention: clean air, scent air, and clean surfaces, by combination of design elements all three, or two, or one, function can be addressed.
One of the key enablers of the present invention is the UV reflective coating that may be applied to the interior of the air duct and also the locations of the UV light sources on the interior surface of the duct. These enablers greatly increases the amount of energy that is directed at airborne pathogens which decreased the time that it takes for the pathogens to be destroyed. This reflective surface also creates light paths within and outside of the device. The light paths outside of the device are used to clean surfaces. The less time it takes for the pathogens to be destroyed, the greater the air flow within the system can be. This lowers the amount of time needed to sanitize the full volume of lavatory air. The type of reflective surface and the associated percent of reflectivity has an exponential effect on intensity.
By combining the air flow over the LED light sources with airflow over the scent generating device (e.g., a wicking fabric with scent liquid, see U.S. Patent App. 2017/0253338, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein, as an example), with the scent device upstream of the UV device, a single motor driven fan can be used and this air flow can also be used to cool the LEDs.
A plurality of sanitization assemblies can also be part of a sanitization system that are in wireless or wired communication with one another and/or a controller that controls the sanitization assemblies and the various components, such as the fan, the lights, the scent dispenser, etc. (e.g., turn the fan on and off, adjust or changes the speed of the fan, turn the lights on and off, adjust or change the intensity, direction or duration of the lights, dispense scent or sanitizer).
It will be appreciated that LEDs during their operation generate heat, which can cause LED temperatures to rise. LED reliability and life is impacted by temperature. When LEDs are used, the designer of the product has to ensure sufficient cooling methods available, which can include convective, radiative, or conductive paths. The requirement to remove heat from LEDs can cause results that are not desirable to the customers (as they drive weight and complexity). Therefore, it is beneficial for the product design to be able to use cooling paths generated by the surrounding equipment. In a preferred embodiment, the air travelling through the duct portion, that is pushed or delivered from the fan has an air flow that is sufficient or capable of cooling the LEDs. The air movement is created by the same fan used to push the air through the sanitization system.
The invention may be more readily understood by referring to the accompanying drawings in which:
Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in the present disclosure can be, but not necessarily are references to the same embodiment; and, such references mean at least one of the embodiments. If a component is not shown in a drawing then this provides support for a negative limitation in the claims stating that that component is “not” present. However, the above statement is not limiting and in another embodiment, the missing component can be included in a claimed embodiment.
Reference in this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “a preferred embodiment” or any other phrase mentioning the word “embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the-disclosure and also means that any particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with one embodiment can be included in any embodiment or can be omitted or excluded from any embodiment. Furthermore, any particular feature, structure, or characteristic described herein may be optional.
Referring now to the drawings, which are for purposes of illustrating the present invention and not for purposes of limiting the same,
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In a preferred embodiment, the sanitization assembly 30 may also include a fragrance dispenser positioned within the airflow path at any point between the inlet 42 and the outlet 44.
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In another embodiment, the air sanitizing light emitters within an array can be arranged to all direct light at a non-zero angle θ (non-parallel or any angle between 1° and) 89° to the radius R1, as shown in
In another embodiment, some air sanitizing light emitters 50 can be arranged to direct light parallel with the radius and others within the same array can be arranged to direct light at a non-zero angle.
The above-detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the teachings to the precise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of and examples for the disclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. Further, any specific numbers noted herein are only examples and are not limiting: alternative implementations may employ differing values, measurements or ranges.
Any patents and applications and other references noted above, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
