Drip irrigation hose and method of its manufacture
AssigneeT-Systems International, Inc.
InventorsMichael DeFrank, Wayne Hackman, Shawn Shirvan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The serpentine, turbulence inducing path lengths from the inlets to the outlets of the flow regulating passage of a continuous emitter drip irrigation hose are arranged in back to back fashion relative to the outlets in the sense that the chevrons angle away from each of outlets, so there is parallel turbulent flow from two inlets to each outlet. This doubles the flow rate from each outlet without changing the dimensions of the flow regulating passage.
Claims12
A drip irrigation hose made from a water impervious material comprising:
- an elongated water supply passage having a large cross section;
- a longitudinal flow regulating passage having a small cross section, the flow regulating passage being disposed along the water supply passage;
- a plurality of longitudinally spaced non flow limiting inlets from the water supply passage to the flow regulating passage;
- and
- a plurality of longitudinally spaced outlets from the flow regulating passage to the exterior of the hose, the outlets being offset from the inlets to provide two substantial path lengths from each inlet to a respective outlet.
A drip irrigation hose made from a water impervious material comprising:
- an elongated water supply passage having a large cross section;
- a longitudinal flow regulating passage having a small cross section disposed along the water supply passage, the flow regulating passage having adjacent, turbulent flow inducing surfaces;
- a plurality of longitudinally spaced inlets from the water supply passage to the flow regulating passage;
- a plurality of longitudinally spaced outlets from the flow regulating passage to the exterior of the hose, the outlets being offset from the inlets to provide two substantial path lengths from each inlet to a respective outlet;
- and
- the inlets having a substantially larger cross sectional area than the outlets and the flow regulating passages such that each outlet is fed by two inlets and two flow regulating passages.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.