Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The disclosure relates to drying devices and more particularly pertains to a new drying device for accelerating cure time.
The prior art relates to drying devices for a variety of applications. Existing devices are often suited for drying a particular object such as shoes and paintbrushes. More general drying devices are often oven-like devices and utilize heat. What is needed, and what the present invention provides, is a drying device to receive printed media such as vinyl film and create airflow and improve ventilation to accelerate curing time.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a film tube having an open tube top end, a tube sidewall, and an open tube bottom end defining a tube inside. The tube inside is configured to receive a roll of freshly printed media. An intake housing is coupled to the film tube and is selectively engageable with the tube top end. An intake fan is coupled within the intake housing to draw air through a plurality of intake slots of the intake housing into the tube inside. An exhaust housing is coupled to the film tube and is selectively engageable with the tube bottom end. An exhaust fan is coupled within the exhaust housing to draw air from the tube inside and push it out of a plurality of exhaust apertures of the exhaust housing. A control unit is coupled to the film tube and has a control panel, a microprocessor, and a power supply. The control unit is in operational communication with the intake fan and the exhaust fan.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
An intake housing 30 is coupled to the film tube 12. An intake bottom edge 32 of the intake housing may have a pair of engagement slots 34 to selectively receive a pair of engagement arms 36 of the tube top end 14. The pair of engagement slots 34 twist on the pair of engagement arms 36 to selectively engage the intake housing 30 onto the tube top end 14. The intake housing 30 has an intake sidewall 38 and an intake top side 40. A plurality of intake slots 42 extends through the intake sidewall 38. The intake housing 30 may taper thinner from the intake bottom edge 32 to the intake top side 40. An intake fan 43 is coupled within the intake housing 30 to the intake top side 40. The intake fan 43 draws air through the plurality of intake slots 42 into the tube inside 20.
An exhaust housing 44 is coupled to the film tube 12. The exhaust housing 44 may have an engagement lip 46, an exhaust sidewall 48, an exhaust bottom side 50, and a filter 52. The filter 52 is coupled to the exhaust sidewall 48 parallel to the exhaust bottom side 50 and may be selectively removable to be cleaned or replaced. The engagement lip 46 selectively engages the tube bottom end 18 of the film tube. A plurality of exhaust apertures 54 extends through the exhaust sidewall 48. An exhaust fan 56 is coupled within the exhaust housing 44. The exhaust fan 56 may be coupled to the filter 52 to draw air from the tube inside 20 through the filter 52 and push it out of the plurality of exhaust apertures 54 of the exhaust housing.
A control unit 58 is coupled to the film tube 12. The control unit 58 is coupled to the access door 22 and includes a control panel 60, a microprocessor 62, and a power supply 64. The power supply 64 may be an AC or DC power adaptor suited for 12v, 110v, or 220v outlets. When the access door 22 is not present the control unit 58 may be coupled to the intake top side 40. The control unit 58 is in operational communication with the intake fan 43 and the exhaust fan 56. The control panel 60 has a plurality of buttons 66 and a display screen 67 to operate the intake fan 43 and the exhaust fan 56 for manual or preset durations of time depending on the size and material of the printed media 28.
A stabilizer 68 has a stabilizer body 70 and a plurality of stabilizer wings 72 coupled to the stabilizer body 70. The stabilizer body 70 is selectively engageable with the film tube 12 and the exhaust housing 44 to maintain the apparatus 10 in an upright position. The stabilizer body 70 may include a pair of arc-shaped clips 74. The plurality of stabilizer wings 72 may include a pair of outer wings 76 coupled to a pair of distal ends 78 of each of the arc-shaped clips and a medial wing 80 centrally coupled to each arc-shaped clip 74.
In use, the printed media 28 is placed within the tube inside 20 and the control panel 60 is manipulated to operate the intake fan 43 and the exhaust fan 56 to draw air through the tube inside 20. The off-gassing of the printed media 28 is thus accelerated and the total cure time is greatly reduced before application.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5729908 | Braden | Mar 1998 | A |
5987773 | Lipscy | Nov 1999 | A |
6440190 | Goyetche | Aug 2002 | B1 |
7946418 | Cerynik | May 2011 | B1 |
8106279 | Chang | Jan 2012 | B1 |
D658314 | Burch | Apr 2012 | S |
8328462 | Beh | Dec 2012 | B2 |
10143354 | Putnam, Jr. | Dec 2018 | B2 |
20030115783 | Woosley | Jun 2003 | A1 |
20070157485 | Andrisin, III | Jul 2007 | A1 |
20080271338 | Muir | Nov 2008 | A1 |
20120186096 | Fox | Jul 2012 | A1 |
20180243126 | Porter | Aug 2018 | A1 |