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US 10,016,777 B2Granted
Methods and systems for creating aerosols
AssigneePalo Alto Research Center Incorporated
InventorsVictor Beck, David Mathew Johnson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Aerosols can be created by filament stretching and breaking of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids by applying a strain to and stretching the fluid. The fluid is stretched along a strain pathway and forms a fluid filament. The fluid filament is caused to break into droplets that can be harvested to form a mist or aerosol. Such a system for aerosol creation can include a pair of counter-rotating rollers that are positioned adjacent to each other that stretch the fluid or a pair of pistons that move toward and away from each other to stretch the fluid.
Claims17
An aerosol creation system, comprising:
- a pair of counter-rotating rollers comprising an upper roller and a lower roller that are positioned adjacent each other and define a nip between each other, the nip having an upstream side and a downstream side;
- a fluid source that is located above but not in direct contact with the top roller that coats the top roller with a flow of fluid;
- and
- a driving element that is structured to drive the pair of counter-rotating rollers to rotate in counter rotation with respect to each other and is configured to cause the fluid coating to be drawn through the nip to the downstream side of the nip and to cause the fluid to adhere to one of the rollers, the fluid stretched on the downstream side of the nip between respective surfaces of each of the counter-rotating rollers to form a fluid filament, the fluid filament stretched until the fluid filament breaks into a plurality of droplets.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.