Patent Application
20070045452
This invention relates in general to misting systems and to methods of fabricating or assembling misting systems.
At the present time, misting systems are used in many homes, businesses and other areas where people congregate in outside areas. For example, it is common to install misting systems in home patios or garden areas, outdoor restaurant areas, or any areas where outside activities take place. The misting systems generally consist of spaced apart misting elements that direct a fine mist, generally developed under relatively high water pressure, into the desired area so that as the mist evaporates it cools the area.
Several problems are predominant in prior art misting systems. A major problem is the proper placing of the misting elements around the chosen area to get the maximum benefit. In all known prior art misting systems a conduit carries water to an inlet and from an outlet of each misting element. The inlet of the element is affixed to an end of a first piece of conduit and a second piece of conduit is affixed to the outlet of the element. This requires precise measuring and cutting of the pieces of conduit to properly place multiple misting elements around a chosen area. Further, during assembly pieces of conduit can break or come loose from an element resulting in leakage and extensive and difficult repairs. Also, in most prior art misting systems higher pressure water sources are required to obtain the desired misting. This generally means an additional pump or water pressure source.
It would be highly advantageous, therefore, to remedy the foregoing and other deficiencies inherent in the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved misting system with improved misting elements.
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved misting system that is easily installed and the novel method of installation.
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved misting system that is relatively inexpensive to install and operate.
Briefly, to achieve the desired objects of the instant invention in accordance with a preferred embodiment thereof, provided is a misting element for a misting system. The misting element includes a tubular body designed to receive a conduit therethrough, a compression member affixed to the body and movable between a body positioning mode in which the body is movable along the conduit and a body fixing mode in which the body is fixedly positioned on the conduit, a radially extending opening through the tubular body, and a nozzle positioned in the radially extending opening.
The desired objects and purposes of the present invention are further realized in a misting system including a plurality of the above described misting nozzles positioned in spaced apart relationship on a continuous conduit.
The desired objects and purposes of the present invention are further realized in a method of installing a misting element on a continuous conduit including the following steps: providing a continuous conduit; providing a misting element including a tubular body designed to receive the conduit therethrough, a compression member affixed to the body and movable between a body positioning mode in which the body is movable along the conduit and a body fixing mode in which the body is fixedly positioned on the conduit, a radially extending opening through the tubular body, and a nozzle engagable in the radially extending opening; sliding the tubular body on to the conduit, with the compression member in the body positioning mode, and positioning the body at a selected position along the conduit; moving the compression member into the body fixing mode to fixedly position the misting element on the conduit at the selected position; forming a hole in the conduit within the radially extending opening through the tubular body; and engaging the misting nozzle in the radially extending opening through the tubular body and in communication with the hole in the conduit.
The foregoing and further and more specific objects and advantages of the instant invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:
Turning now to the drawings, attention is first directed to
Turning now to
Referring additionally to
It will be understood that conduit 14 can be formed of any convenient material, such as copper tubing, plastic tubing, etc. and can be of any normal diameter. Further, the outer diameter of tubing 14 is preferably only slightly smaller than the inner diameter of longitudinally extending opening 34 through body 20 so that conduit 14 can be easily slipped through body 20 and compression members 26 and 28. In this embodiment, each compression member 26 and 28 has an O-ring 40 and 42, respectively, associated therewith, as can be seen in
As can best be seen in
Referring to
Once a position for a misting element 16 has been selected, compression members 26 and 28 are tightened into body 20 to compress O-rings 40 and 42 and hold compression element 16 fixedly at the selected position along conduit 14. In this way a plurality of misting elements can be easily spaced or distributed around a selected misting area. With misting element 16 fixedly held in the selected position, a tool 50, which may be an awl, a drill, or other hole making device, is inserted into opening 30 in body 20 and a hole is made in conduit 14. Nozzle 32 is then threadedly engaged in opening 30, as best illustrated in
With all of the misting elements 16 fixedly positioned on conduit 14 and in liquid communication therewith, one end of conduit 14 is attached to a pressurized source of water. Here it will be understood that one end of conduit 14 can be provided with a simple connection to a domestic water faucet, for example. Depending upon the number of misting elements distributed about a selected area and the size of the area, the present misting system can generally be accommodated by a normal domestic water source and additional pressure sources are usually not required.
Various changes and modifications to the embodiment herein chosen for purposes of illustration will readily occur to those skilled in the art. To the extent that such modifications and variations do not depart from the spirit of the invention, they are intended to be included within the scope thereof which is assessed only by a fair interpretation of the following claims.
Having fully described the invention in such clear and concise terms as to enable those skilled in the art to understand and practice the same, the invention claimed is:
