Patent Grant
10440988
The invention relates to a humidifier, more particularly to a humidification apparatus for producing humidifying mist or vapor and then conveying the same into an enclosed environment inside a humidor.
A conventional humidor may be any kind of box or room with constant humidity that is used for storing and taking good care of the humidity of cigars, cigarettes, pipe tobacco, or tobacco within an enclosure of the humidor. For private use, small wooden boxes for holding a few dozen cigars are very common, while some cigar shops may have a walk-in humidor. Humidors can also be used for maintaining other goods to have consistent and desired humidity level. Many humidors use hygrometers therein to monitor their humidity levels, respectively.
Commercially made humidor cases are typically made of wood, although other materials, like acrylic glass and metal, are not uncommon. Carbon fibre, silicon carbide, and polyethylene have also been used. Disregarding the aesthetic qualities, the casing's primary purpose is to protect the interior thereof and create a closed environment, so any durable and airtight material can be used. Typically, the interior of a conventional humidor case is overlaid with a veneer of Spanish cedar, which possesses the following desirable characteristics for cigar storage:
It holds more moisture than most woods, so it helps maintain humidity of the environment inside the humidor case;
It is not prone to “warping” or “cupping” in high humidity;
It imparts its aroma to cigars; For the same reason, some cigars are wrapped in Spanish-cedar sheets before they are sold; and
It can repel tobacco beetles, pinhead-sized pests which can ruin entire stocks of cigars by eating the tobacco and laying eggs, causing further infestation. They can also be discouraged by ensuring the temperature inside the humidor not getting hotter than 20° C. (68° F.). The beetle eggs usually only hatch at around 25 C (77 F), although there are also instances where they will hatch at cooler temperatures if the humidity is too high.
In general, Humidors are typically commercially produced, though most walk-ins are custom built and some humidors are homemade. They range considerably in material, size and complexity. Capacity of the Humidor is usually determined by deducting the space required for the humidification element and some extra room between the humidification element and the cigars. It can also be calculated online for the most popular cigar formats.
In order to maintain the humidity of the tobacco or cigars to a favorable and desirable level, the tobacco and cigars are usually placed in an enclosure such as a humidor which has an interior constructed of wood along with some form of humidifier for the purpose of providing protection to the tobacco and cigars by creating an environment within the enclosure of the humidor which promotes and maintains the relative humidity inside the humidor to a certain level usually within 65% to 75% relative humidity. This process may take a long time and usually requires a User's involvement through periodically opening the enclosure for checking whether or not the relative humidity level inside the humidor is maintained to a desirable level.
As to the humidity inside the conventional humidor, low relative humidity will inevitably cause many problems including causing the tobacco becoming brittle and dehydrated as well as having tears on cigar wrappers, which eventually increases stiffness of the tobacco and in turn causes the tobacco losing its original flavor due to the absence of moisture and natural oils within the tobacco that are produced when properly humidified. Conventionally, in order to effectively overcome the problems mentioned above, humidifiers currently installed in ordinary humidors include a water-absorbing pad along with a fixed electric fan that provides airflow over the water-absorbing pad to increase the humidity inside the humidor over a period of time. Other types of humidifiers may include only a moistened pad, sponge or water beads situated inside the humidor until all moisture within the humidifier is depleted via natural evaporation. A third form of humidification requires a package of premixed water and salt formula placed inside the enclosure of the humidor that helps to regulate the relative humidity inside the enclosure and is replaced once the content of the package is dried out.
In view of the above, it should be apparent and obvious that the conventional humidifying methods are unable and fail to create an optimal environment for the contents stored inside the humidor due to various reasons such as the relatively low flow rate provided therein for dispersing the humid air into the enclosure of the humidor, which takes a long period of time to increase the relative humidity of the air in the internal environment of the humidor to reach a desirable level because the humidity being created by these types of conventional humidifiers are quickly absorbed by the naturally absorbent tobacco as well as the wooden materials used in the interior construction of the humidor faster than conventional humidifiers can introduce new moist air into the enclosure of the humidor. Therefore, although the conventional humidifiers currently existing in the market have achieved considerable popularity and commercial success, there has been a continuous need to improve on the capabilities offered by these conventional humidifiers.
Accordingly, a need arose to design a whole new humidifier (hereinafter referred to as “humidification apparatus”) for being used in a humidor so that, when a User places the cigars, cigarettes, pipe tobacco, tobacco or other goods within an enclosure of the humidor, the configurations and mechanism of the humidification apparatus not only will effectively improve the humidity introduction rate thereof, but also will avoid the User from getting involved in the maintenance of the humidity inside the enclosure of the humidor, as well as effectively reducing the amount of moving parts of the apparatus to zero, and in turn effectively reducing the amount of parts required in manufacturing, assembling, and using the apparatus, thereby allowing the apparatus to be in a preferred smaller package capable of being conveniently placed in almost any size humidor and continuously maintain the relative humidity inside the said enclosure to a desirable level.
In view of the drawbacks of the aforesaid conventional humidifiers in terms of performance, portability, and utility, the disclosed configurations and mechanisms of the new humidification apparatus are intended to solve the aforementioned drawbacks with greater ease of use, higher accuracy, higher stability, and greater utility so as to promote and maintain humidity inside a humidor, achieving consistent and desirable humidity levels far more suitable for storing cigars, cigarettes, tobacco, or other goods than its prior art counterparts.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a humidification apparatus which, may comprise of multiple interconnected segments that couple together to form an elongated body including a water reservoir, a housing, a high frequency transducer, control circuitry and a coupler: wherein the water reservoir has an open end and a closed end, and a first accommodating space formed therein between the two ends for receiving a volume of water; the housing has a second accommodating space formed therein, wherein a humidity sensor and a temperature sensor are disposed in the housing for sensing humidity and temperature of the surrounding environment of the apparatus, an electronic display is disposed on the body of the housing for displaying digital numeric values of identified setpoints of humidity and temperature values respectively; a plurality of power connectors are disposed on symmetrical and opposing positions inside the housing for supplying power therethrough from a power source to electronic elements of the apparatus, and at least one User operable button is disposed on the body of the housing for allowing a User to set or adjust the setpoints of humidity and temperature values as well as to provide an access to a selectable menu items shown on the electronic display; the high frequency transducer is disposed inside the housing and is able to generate a high frequency oscillation thereon for atomizing water in contact therewith; at least one control circuit is disposed within the second accommodating space and is electrically connected to the electronic display, the User operable buttons, and the sensors, respectively. and is able to activate the high frequency transducer to generate the high frequency oscillation in response to the humidity or temperature value changes detected by the sensors and to act as an atomizing device for producing humidifying mist or vapor; and the coupler has one end removably coupled to the open end of the water reservoir by means of a watertight connection, and another end removably coupled to a first end of the housing, and the coupler includes at least one horizontal passage and a vertical passage formed therein and a wicking element, wherein the vertical passage is configured to intersect with the horizontal passage, and the horizontal passage is configured for creating a continuously regulated flow of water from the first accommodating space of the water reservoir to the vertical passage, wherein a wicking element is inserted in the vertical passage with its lower end positioned within the coupler corresponding to the intersection of the vertical passage and the horizontal passage for receiving liquid flowing from the first accommodating space to the coupler through the horizontal passage, and with its upper end protruding above and out the vertical passage and being in contact with the base of the high frequency transducer, such that the wicking element is able to continuously absorb said liquid and then consistently move said liquid upwards against gravity by capillary action through the wicking element to the upper end of the wicking element so that the top end of the wicking element is not only always located at a position in contact with the base of the high frequency transducer, but is also always moistened by said liquid.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a humidification apparatus of which the coupler further comprises an extruded lower end that can be coupled to the an oppositely extruded upper end formed on the housing, so that the extruded lower end of the coupler can then be merged with the oppositely extruded upper end of the housing together to form a continuously circumferential elongated body, wherein the upper end of the wicking element protruding out from the coupler through the vertical passage may be in contact with the base of the high frequency transducer situated inside the housing corresponding to an outlet formed on the housing, such that when the high frequency transducer is activated by the control circuitry, in response to the humidity changes detected by the sensors, the transducer will generate a high frequency oscillation and, in the meantime, apply the high frequency oscillation to the liquid contained in the upper end of the wicking element, the liquid will be atomized to become a humidifying mist or vapor and to be dispersed through the outlet out to the surrounding environment.
Several preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The present invention will now be described in detail hereinafter by reference to certain embodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to those who are skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without having some of these specific details. In other instances, well known details have not been described in detail hereinwith in order not to unnecessarily obscure the essential and core features of the present invention.
According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, a first preferred embodiment of the present invention is a Humidification apparatus (100) for being placed in an enclosed environment inside a humidor and illustrated respectively in
In other embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus (100) or the control circuitry (79) may further includes wireless circuitry (73) for wirelessly transmitting the humidity and temperature data detected by the sensors from the apparatus (100) or the control circuitry (79) to Internet connected equipment for effectively eliminating the loss of the humidity that is in the enclosed environment (SE) should the humidor have been opened by a User to manually check.
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In some other embodiments of the present invention, again referring to
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In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, as referring to
In still another embodiment of the present invention, as again referring to
In one embodiment, the aforementioned sensors may be conveniently disposed inside the housing (91), but the sensor may also be disposed outside the housing (91), for example, being disposed at an end of a cable having the other end connected to the control circuitry (87) and affixed to the outside body of the housing (91).
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the humidification apparatus (100) may include a wireless circuitry coupled to the control circuitry (79), wherein the wireless circuitry is configured to cooperate with the control circuitry (79) for being connected to a network or internet and allowing the other equipment connected to the network or internet to utilize the humidification apparatus (100) in various technological circumstances for effectively broadening the operation of the apparatus and offering a rich variety of additional capabilities.
Although the invention herein has been described by reference to a particular embodiment, it is to be understood that the embodiment is merely illustrative of the principles and application of the present invention. It is therefore to be understood that various modifications may be made to the above-mentioned embodiment and that other arrangements may be devised without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4790479 | Matsumoto | Dec 1988 | A |
| 7490815 | Tollens | Feb 2009 | B2 |
| 7547004 | Hsu | Jun 2009 | B2 |
| 7654508 | Wegner | Feb 2010 | B2 |
| 9586228 | Roemburg | Mar 2017 | B2 |
| 20030042629 | Eom | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20130168880 | Duke | Jul 2013 | A1 |
| 20160213866 | Tan | Jul 2016 | A1 |
| 20170274405 | Lucas | Sep 2017 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20190045842 A1 | Feb 2019 | US |
