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US 4,869,250 AGranted
Localized cooling apparatus
AssigneeThermacor Technology, Inc.
InventorJack G. Bitterly
Life of this patent
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AssigneeThermacor Technology, Inc.
InventorJack G. Bitterly
Estimating the term…
The flexible cooling fabric has an injector that is flat so that it can be maintained unobtrusively within the cooling fabric. The injector has a flat electromagnetic coil which surrounds an injection chamber. The chamber receives pressurized fluid, but a spring-biased plunger closes the outlet openings to the chamber. The fluid of the electromagnetic coil tends to center the plunger within the chamber to uncover the outlet openings, and the fluid flows toward a membrane which is against the skin or other object to be cooled. The refrigerant gas boils due to the heat flux from the skin, and this results in rapid and efficient cooling. The present invention also includes a system for recycling spent refrigerant gas. The gas is collected in a volume absorber, and only when the volume inside of the absorber reaches a predetermined maximum does the compressor operate to relieve the pressure in the volume absorber by compressing the spent gas and injecting it back into the storage tank. The compressor operates efficiently because it only runs intermittently when the pressure in the volume absorber is above predetermined limits, but the tank continues to supply refrigerant to the injector when the compressor is not operating.
A localized cooling device comprising:
An injector for injecting fluid into a container comprising an annular electromagnetic coil, which surrounds a central chamber, the inlet means extending into the central chamber and carrying the fluid into the central chamber, the central chamber having opening means extending from the central chamber into the cavity for importing the fluid into the cavity, plunger means including sealing means normally biased over the opening means for blocking the flow of fluid from the inlet means to the cavity, the plunger means moving to an open position in response to magnetic force from the electromagnetic coil for uncovering the openings and permitting fluid to flow through the openings into the cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.