Method and system for preventing fouling of surfaces
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorsBart Andre Salters, Roelant Boudewijn Hietbrink, Ivo Wilhelmus Johannes Marie Rutten, Hendrik Van Houten
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Abstract
A method of anti-fouling of a surface while said surface is at least partially submersed in an liquid environment, comprising: providing an anti-fouling light; distributing at least part of the light through an optical medium comprising a silicone material and/or UV grade fused silica; emitting the anti-fouling light from the optical medium and from the surface.
Claims33
A method of anti-fouling of a protected surface comprising, while the protected surface is at least partially submersed in a liquid environment:
- providing a two-dimensional grid of conductors,
- wherein the grid of conductors comprises a plurality of nodes;
- providing a plurality of anti-fouling lights,
- wherein each anti-fouling light emits ultra-violet (UV) radiation,
- wherein each of the plurality of anti-fouling lights is coupled to a node of the grid of conductors,
- wherein the grid of conductors with the plurality of anti-fouling lights form a chicken-wire structure, each node being an intersection in the chicken-wire structure;
- embedding the grid of conductors with the plurality of anti-fouling lights in an optical medium;
- situating the optical medium in close proximity to the protected surface, the optical medium having an emission surface;
- distributing at least part of the UV radiation through the optical medium in a direction parallel to the protected surface;
- and
- emitting the UV radiation from the emission surface of the optical medium in a direction away from the protected surface.
A lighting module for anti-fouling of a protected surface comprising:
- a two-dimensional grid of conductors,
- wherein grid of conductors comprises a plurality of nodes;
- a plurality of light sources that emit anti-fouling light,
- wherein the grid of light sources is coupled to the plurality of nodes of the grid of conductors
- wherein the grid of conductors with the plurality of light sources form a chicken-wire structure,
- wherein each node forms an intersection in the chicken-wire structure;
- an optical medium that distributes at least part of the anti-fouling light through the optical medium in a direction parallel to the protected surface,
- the optical medium comprising an emission surface that emits the distributed anti-fouling light in a direction away from the protected surface,
- wherein the grid of conductors with the plurality of light sources is embedded in the optical medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.