Coating apparatus and method
OwnerWilliam A. Newtoninventor
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Abstract
Disclosed is an evaporator apparatus and method for encapsulating individually isolated particles with a coating material wherein uniformally sized droplets, normally having no more than one particle, are formed from a mixture of the coating material, the suspended particles, and a carrier liquid; the droplets then being charged, steered by an electrostatic arrangement of a tubular electrode and at least one other electrode so as to be retained in a temperature controlled, predetermined area for a sufficient time period to allow the complete evaporation of the carrier liquid.
Claims21
An evaporator apparatus for coating individual particles with a coating material, the apparatus comprising:
- means for suppling a liquid mixture of said particles, said coating material and a carrier liquid;
- droplet forming means for forming a plurality of liquid droplets from said liquid mixture;
- charging means for electrically charging said droplets proceeding from said droplet forming means;
- temperature regulating means for controlling the temperatures within a predetermined spacial region;
- and
- electrode means for controlling the rate of movement of said evaporating droplets to allow completion of the evaporation of said carrier liquid while said droplets are within said predetermined region;
- whereby the evaporation of said carrier liquid encapsulates said particles with said coating material.
A method of coating particles comprising the steps of:
- providing a liquid mixture of the particles, a coating material and a carrier liquid;
- forming a plurality of liquid droplets from the liquid mixture so as to normally have no more than one particle in each droplet;
- evaporating the carrier liquid from each airbourne droplet so that the coating material encapsulates the particle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.