Patent Application
20050123392
The present invention relates to portable fans and, more particularly, to a tower fan having at least one rotatable housing portion to direct the flow of air in a different direction from that directed by another housing portion of the fan.
Portable electric fans have been used extensively to enhance personal comfort by inducing air movement, and are generally intended to be placed on floors, counters or other surfaces. A common trait among portable fans is that they can be easily moved from one location to another without any more preparation than removing an electric cord from an outlet and physically relocating the fan device.
The most popular forms of portable electric fans include pedestal and box-type fans having propeller-like fan blades for blowing air in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation of the fan blade assembly. Recently becoming more popular are tower fans having an elongate housing oriented in a vertical direction and containing a cylindrical blower therein for blowing air in a direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the blower. Typically, air is drawn into one or more vertical surfaces of the longitudinal housing and is directed out a separate vertical surface by the cylindrical blower. These tower fans are desirable for their compact size and space requirements and, depending on the housing design, their efficient delivery of moving air.
Obviously, it is desirable for a fan to produce the maximum amount of air circulation and to distribute the circulating air over as wide an area as possible to provide maximum comfort in all portions of the room in which the fan is disposed. Unfortunately, both types of conventional fans often include a housing which is fixedly mounted or integrally formed on a supporting base, which causes the angular zone covered by the directed air to be fixed. Thus, with these style fans, when the user wishes to alter the direction or angular zone of the directed air, the user must reposition the fan so as to face the desired target area.
One style of tower fan has been proposed wherein the air is drawn in from the bottom of a cylindrical fan housing and blown out through the entire circumferential surface of the housing in a 360° pattern. This style of tower fan is designed to be placed in the center of a room such that the air can be directed around the entire room. Aside from the obvious drawback of having to place the fan in the center of the room, another drawback with this type of tower fan is that air cannot be blown in a specified direction or within a certain desired angular range.
It is well known in the art to provide a fan with an oscillating mechanism so that the direction of the blown air can vary. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,266,004 discloses a tower fan with an oscillating mechanism to provide a blower capable of selectively blowing air in a predetermined angular range or through an entire 360° pattern. Thus, the use of an oscillating mechanism on a standard fan enables the user to alter or enlarge the angular zone of the directed air such that a greater area is capable of being covered by the fan. However, there still remains a drawback to this style of fan, in that, as the direction of blown air oscillates from side to side, there will only be one area at any given time that receives the benefit of directed air until the fan returns to that area. Also, the angular zone of the directed air is fixed and cannot be altered by the user.
In commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,034, a portable heater is disclosed having two or more heating units that are rotatably attached to each other so as to direct the delivery of heat toward two or more separate directions. The rotatable heating units are independent of each other and contain their own separate heating elements and blowers. Thus, a heater is provided which allows the user to easily alter the angular zone of the emitted heat without depriving any of the intended area a continuous supply of heat.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to incorporate this multi-directional heat delivery concept into a portable fan in a simple and cost-effective manner. Moreover, it would be desirable to provide such multi-directional capability to a tower fan so as to minimize space requirements and to maximize the efficiency of the circulated forced air.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fan which has two or more separate housing sections which can direct the flow of air in different directions as desired.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a tower fan which is portable and easy to use.
The multi-directional tower fan of the present invention generally includes a base for supporting the fan on a surface, a first housing attached to the base, a second housing rotatably attached to the first housing, a single elongate rotating blower extending within both the first and second housing and a motor for rotating the blower. The first and second housings both have an inlet opening, an outlet opening and an interior chamber. The interior chambers of the housings are axially aligned with each other and the blower extends from the interior chamber of the first housing to the interior chamber of the second housing to simultaneously force air out through the outlet openings of the first and second housings. By rotating the second housing with respect to the first housing, the air being forced out of the outlet opening of the first housing may be directed in a different direction than the air being forced out of the outlet opening of the second housing.
In a preferred embodiment, the first housing is rotatably attached to the base so that both housings may be pivoted. Also, the blower preferably has a longitudinal axis and the second housing is rotatably attached to the first housing about the longitudinal axis. In alternative embodiments, the second housing can be attached to the first housing along a vertical axis by a flanged coupling or by a pin and slot arrangement. In another preferred embodiment, the fan further includes an oscillating mechanism for rotating the second housing with respect to the first housing.
A preferred form of the multi-directional tower fan according to the present invention, as well as other embodiments, objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
a and 4b are detailed views of alternative embodiments of the interface between the upper and lower housing sections; and
The present invention is described below as having two housing sections rotatably attached to each other about a common axis. This disclosure is in no way intended to be limited to a tower fan having only two directional housing sections rotatably attached to each other, and modification of the present fan to include more than two housing sections will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art given the following detailed description.
Referring now to the drawings,
The fan 10 generally includes a base 12 for supporting the fan on a surface, two or more housing sections 14 and 16, a blower 18 disposed within the housing sections and a motor 20 for rotating the blower. Each housing section 14 and 16 includes an inlet opening 22, through which outside air is drawn into the housing section, and an outlet opening 24, through which air is forced by the blower 18. Preferably, the inlet and outlet openings 22 and 24 of the housings 14 and 16 are in the form of a grille having a plurality of small openings through which the air can travel. Each housing section 14 and 16 further define an interior chamber 26a and 26b containing the blower 18.
In the preferred embodiment, the first housing 14 is attached directly to the base 12 and the second housing 16 is rotatably attached to the top of the first housing for rotating in a direction indicated by arrow A in
A single rotating blower 18 extends through the interior chambers 26a and 26b of both housings 14 and 16. The blower 18 used in conjunction with the preferred form of the present invention is an elongate cylindrical “squirrel cage” type blower having a plurality of vertically oriented vanes 19, which draw in air into the housing inlet openings 22 and forces air out through the housing outlet openings 24. The blower 18 may have a plurality of blower sections which are fixed, or otherwise coupled, together wherein the vanes 19 of each section are alternatingly spaced with respect to the vanes 19 of the adjacent blower section, as shown in
The rotating blower 18 is connected to and driven by the motor 20. The motor 20 can be connected to either end of the blower 18 and may be housed within the base 12, the first housing section 14 or the second housing section 16. The motor 20 rotates the blower 18 to simultaneously draw air in through the inlet openings 22a and 22b of both housings 14 and 16 and force air out through the outlet openings 24a and 24b of both housings. Because the first and second housings 14 and 16 are rotatably attached to each other, the air being forced out of the first housing outlet opening 24a can be directed in a direction different than the air being forced out of the second housing outlet opening 24b.
The first and second housings 14 and 16 are preferably semi-circular in cross-section with the inlet opening 22 being provided on a circular peripheral surface 28 and the outlet opening 24 being provided on a flat peripheral surface 30. Each housing 14 and 16 may be formed in two separate sections, which are secured together after the blower 18, the motor 20 and associated electrical components are placed in their proper locations. Securing of the housing sections can be accomplished by any means known in the art, such as screws, glue, or a friction-fit, to name a few. Of course, the housings and openings can be different in configuration from those shown for functional and/or aesthetic purposes.
Referring now to
Preferably, and as shown in
Although the coupling of the first housing 14 to the second housing 16 has been described as a flanged coupling 34 which extends from the first housing into the upper second housing, it is possible to reverse the components of the coupling such that the annular rim 36 descends from the upper second housing 16 into an opening on the lower first housing. Additionally, the coupling used does not have to be a flanged coupling as described above, but rather can be any coupling which will allow the housings 14 and 16 to pivot or rotate with respect to each other.
For example, an alternative embodiment of the coupling is shown in
The tower fan 10 of the present invention may further include an oscillating mechanism 54, as shown in
For example, the oscillating mechanism 54 may comprise a motor 56 having a shaft 57, a gear 58 attached to the shaft and having a plurality of teeth 59, and a track 60 having a plurality of teeth 61. As shown in
As is typical of portable fans, power is conducted to the motor 20 from a power cord and plug (not shown). The components required to enable operation of a fan with a power cord and plug are well known in the art and need not be discussed in detail herein. As shown in the drawings, at least one operator interface 62 is provided. The operator interface 62 can be provided on either housing or on the base and may include an on/off switch, a speed selector, an oscillating selector and/or a display panel. All of the switches used in conjunction with the present invention can be touch, toggle, dial or button operated, the selection of switch type being a matter of design and cost considerations.
In the embodiments shown in
Thus, while the foregoing detailed description has disclosed what is presently believed to be the preferred embodiments of the invention, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other and further changes and modifications can be made without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention, and it is intended that all such other changes and modifications are included in and are within the scope of the invention as described in the appended claims.
