US 5,203,794 AGranted

Ice blasting apparatus

AssigneeAlpheus Cleaning Technologies Corp.

InventorsScott M. Stratford, Philip Spivak, Oleg Zadorozhny, Alan E. Opel

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A system (10) for delivering a cold particulate material (14) has a closed storage hopper (12) for the material, the hopper having a bottom hopper outlet (16); a venturi feeder (22) having a material inlet (20) for feeding the material, a material conduit (26) to a remote nozzle (30), and a gas inlet (24); a hopper passage (18) connecting the hopper outlet to the feeder material inlet; a gas feed valve (33), the gas feed valve being openable in response to a feed signal (40) for activating the feeder and a blast conduit to the nozzle; a heater (50) in the blast conduit for limiting cooling of a workpiece without adversely heating the material; and a comminutor (52) in the material line proximate the nozzle for delivery of the material at reduced particle size to the nozzle for increased blasting effectiveness.

Claims10

Dependent claims

Apparatus for treatment of a workpiece by blasting same with sublimable particles (14), comprising:

(a) a source (12) of the particles, the particles having an incoming first average volume per particle;
(b) a nozzle unit (30) spaced from the source and having a gas inlet (30d) for receiving a high pressure gas, and a particulate inlet (30a) for receiving the particles, the particulate inlet being in fluid communication with a material outlet (30b), a nozzle outlet (30c) in fluid communication with the gas inlet being located downstream of the material outlet;
(c) transport means (22) for transporting the particles from the source to the particulate inlet of the nozzle unit;
(d) divider means (52) proximate the particulate inlet of the nozzle unit for splitting at least a portion of the particles, whereby the average volume of the particles is reduced from the incoming first average volume per particle to a second average volume per particle, the second average volume being less than approximately the first average volume;
and
(e) accelerator means (30e) in the nozzle unit for accelerating the particles to high velocity in response to the high pressure gas.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.