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US 12,576,375 B2Granted
Static mixer for blending fluids with melt
AssigneeMarkdom International Inc.
InventorChangize Sadr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A static homogenizing apparatus for blending a fluid additive with a polymer melt includes: (a) a homogenizing conduit; and (b) a plurality of homogenizing elements in the conduit for flow of the melted resin and fluid additive through the homogenizing elements in series. The plurality of homogenizing elements includes a plurality of mixing elements and at least one amplifier element. Each mixing element has a quantity of mixing channels passing therethrough, and each amplifier element has a quantity of amplifier channels passing therethrough. The quantity of amplifier channels is greater than the quantity of mixing channels.
Claims16
A static homogenizing apparatus for blending a fluid additive with a polymer melt, comprising:
- a) a homogenizing conduit having an upstream end for receiving a non-homogenous aggregation of a melted resin and a fluid additive, and a downstream end opposite the upstream end;
- and
- b) a plurality of homogenizing elements disposed in the conduit for flow of the melted resin and fluid additive through the homogenizing elements in series from the upstream end to the downstream end, each homogenizing element having a rear face directed toward the upstream end and a front face directed toward the downstream end, and the plurality of homogenizing elements including:
- i) at least two mixing elements, each mixing element having a quantity of mixing channels passing therethrough, the quantity of mixing channels being at least two, each mixing channel having a channel length extending from a mixing channel inlet in the rear face to a mixing channel outlet in the front face of the respective mixing element, wherein the melted resin and fluid additive upstream of each mixing element is divided into separate substreams corresponding to the quantity of mixing channels and recombined downstream of the respective mixing element for mixing;
- and
- ii) at least one amplifier element, each amplifier element having a quantity of amplifier channels passing therethrough, the quantity of amplifier channels being greater than the quantity of mixing channels, each amplifier channel having an amplifier channel length extending from an amplifier channel inlet in the rear face and an amplifier channel outlet in the front face of the respective amplifier element;
- wherein a homogenized solution of the melted resin and fluid additive is delivered from the downstream end of the homogenizing conduit, and wherein each amplifier channel has tapered sidewalls to adjust a pressure drop across the amplifier channel length, wherein at least a first group of the amplifier channels comprises first channels that narrow in diameter from the amplifier channel inlet to the amplifier channel outlet for increasing the pressure drop across the amplifier channel length of the first channel, and wherein at least a second group of the amplifier channels comprises amplifier second channels that widen in diameter from the amplifier channel inlet to the amplifier channel outlet, for reducing the pressure drop across the amplifier channel length of the amplifier second channels.
4 more elements
A static homogenizing apparatus for blending a fluid additive with a polymer melt, comprising:
- a) a homogenizing conduit extending along a conduit axis;
- and
- b) a plurality of homogenizing elements disposed in the conduit for flow of melted resin and fluid additive through the homogenizing elements in series, the plurality of homogenizing elements including:
- i) a plurality of mixing elements, each mixing element having a plurality of mixing channels passing therethrough for dividing a stream of the melted resin and fluid additive into corresponding substreams for recombination downstream of the mixing element, the mixing channels of each mixing element inclined relative to each other and the conduit axis to facilitate mixing of the substreams exiting the mixing channels;
- and
- ii) at least one amplifier element, each amplifier element having a plurality of amplifier channels passing therethrough for dividing the stream of melted resin and fluid additive into corresponding substreams for recombination downstream of the amplifier element, each amplifier channel having an amplifier channel length and a cross-sectional area tapering along the amplifier channel length for adjusting a pressure drop and fluid flow rate across the amplifier channel length,
- wherein the plurality of amplifier channels comprises a first group of amplifier first channels arranged in a first circular array proximate an outer cylindrical sidewall of the amplifier element, the cross-sectional area of each amplifier first channel decreasing in a downstream direction to increase a pressure drop and flow rate across the amplifier channel length of each amplifier first channel.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.