Claims
- 1. A method of making a vapor and heat exchange element for air conditioning comprising
- forming an aqueous silica sol with spherical silica particles whose diameters are in the range of 50 to 500 .ANG.;
- providing a multiplicity of porous desiccant particles having a mean pore size of 6 to 10 .ANG.;
- mixing the sol and desiccant particles to form a liquid slurry, and
- gelling the sol to form a solid shape composed of a network of covalently-bonded spherical silica particles encaging the desiccant particles resulting in minimal surface-to-surface contact with said desiccant particles.
- 2. A method of making a heat and vapor exchange element for air conditioning comprising
- forming an aqueous silica sol with spherical silica particles whose diameters are in the range of 50 to 500 .ANG.;
- providing a multiplicity of porous desiccant particles having a mean pore size of 6 to 10 .ANG.;
- mixing the sol and desiccant particles to form a liquid slurry;
- forming a fibrous carrier;
- gelling the sol to form a solid shape composed of a network of covalently-bonded spherical silica particles encaging the desiccant particles resulting in minimal surface-to-surface contact with said desiccant particles, and
- saturating the carrier with the slurry before gellation of the sol so that gellation occurs within the carrier thereby forming a solid structure impregnated with the desiccant.
- 3. The method defined in claim 2 and including the additional step of bonding together the carrier fibers substantially simultaneously with the gelation of the silica sol.
- 4. The method defined in claim 2 wherein the carrier is formed from glass fibers or aromatic polyamide fibers.
- 5. The method defined in claim 2 wherein the desiccant particles provided are zeolite particles having an SiO.sub.2 to Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 ratio on an atomic basis of 3-19 to 1.
- 6. The method defined in claim 5 wherein the desiccant particles provided have a mean pore size of 7-8 .ANG..
- 7. The method defined in claim 2 wherein the desiccant particles provided include particles selected from the group consisting of zeolite, silica gel and alumina gel.
- 8. A method of making a heat and vapor exchange element for air conditioning comprising
- forming an aqueous silica sol with spherical silica particles whose diameters are in the range of 50 to 500 .ANG.;
- providing a multiplicity of porous desiccant particles having a mean pore size of 6 to 10 .ANG.;
- mixing the sol and desiccant particles to form a liquid slurry;
- gelling the sol to form a solid shape composed of a network of covalently-bonded spherical silica particles encaging the desiccant particles resulting in minimal surface-to-surface contact with said desiccant particles;
- forming a fibrous carrier;
- saturating the carrier with the slurry before gelling the sol;
- heating and compressing the saturated carrier so as to simultaneously cause bonding together of the carrier fibers and gellation of the silica sol so that the silica particles bond together and encage the desiccant particles in the spaces between the carrier fibers and reinforce the carrier thereby forming a solid web-like vapor exchange element.
- 9. The method defined in claim 8 including the additional step of corrugating the saturated carrier during or immediately following said heating and compression step to form a corrugated web-like vapor and heat exchange element.
- 10. The method defined in claim 9 and including the additional steps of
- superimposing the corrugated vapor and heat exchange element on a similar non-corrugated vapor and heat exchange element, and
- winding said elements about an axis to form a wheel composed of a plurality of alternating corrugated and noncorrugated vapor and heat exchange element convolutions.
- 11. The method defined in claim 9 including the additional steps of
- forming stand-offs at spaced apart locations on the vapor and heat exchange element, and
- winding said element about an axis to form a wheel composed of a plurality of spaced-apart corrugated vapor and heat exchange element convolutions.
RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 08/069,282, filed May 28, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,876.
US Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
3868299 |
Ulisch et al. |
Feb 1975 |
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
69282 |
May 1993 |
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