US3609043A — Spray droplet analyzer

Claim 1

Independent Claim 150 words

Apparatus for measurement of the distribution of droplets in a fluid spray comprising a spray chamber, a nozzle, means for supplying fluid under pressure to said nozzle to form a spray of droplets therefrom, the spray being directed into said chamber, means associated with said spray chamber for registering the quantity of droplets in several size ranges in a selected view volume of said chamber, the view volume being small in relation to the volume of said chamber and being of preestablished size, said registering means thereby providing indications of the density of droplets therein, means for positioning said nozzle with respect to said chamber, means associated with said positioning means for providing a signal representative of the instantaneous position of said nozzle, and means responsive to said signal providing means and said registering means for operating upon the information received therefrom to provide an indication of the spray configuration.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 150 words

Apparatus for measurement of the distribution of droplets in a fluid spray comprising a spray chamber, a nozzle, means for supplying fluid under pressure to said nozzle to form a spray of droplets therefrom, the spray being directed into said chamber, means associated with said spray chamber for registering the quantity of droplets in several size ranges in a selected view volume of said chamber, the view volume being small in relation to the volume of said chamber and being of preestablished size, said registering means thereby providing indications of the density of droplets therein, means for positioning said nozzle with respect to said chamber, means associated with said positioning means for providing a signal representative of the instantaneous position of said nozzle, and means responsive to said signal providing means and said registering means for operating upon the information received therefrom to provide an indication of the spray configuration.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 63 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said operating means is a computer adapted to receive information from said positioning means and said registering means, said computer being programmed to operate upon said registering means information by a function proportional to the signal of said positioning means to provide output information related to the position of said nozzle within said spray chamber.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 90 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein said positioning system is adapted to intermittently move said nozzle in a predetermined pattern in relation to said registering means whereby a portion of a plane of symmetry of the fluid spray from said nozzle is brought into association with said registering means to provide a series of droplet distribution measurements and said computer is programmed to operate upon such series of measurements related by the spatial symmetry of the fluid spray to provide indications of the total configuration of the spray.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 237 words

Apparatus for the evaluation of the fluid spray of a nozzle wherein the number, size and location of droplets in the spray are monitored comprising a spray tank for mounting the nozzle under test and for receiving the spray therein, first and second aligned apertures in said tank, a light source associated with said first aperture for directing a beam of light into said spray tank to illuminate the fluid spray, a light sensing device associated with said second aperture, said sensing device being responsive to images of fluid droplets to provide electrical signals representative thereof, circuit means cooperative with said sensing device for converting the electrical signals to pulses representative of the number of droplet images received, in a plurality of channels representative of preselected sizes of droplets, means for altering the number of pulses in each channel by a factor related to the preselected sizes of the droplets, a plurality of scalers corresponding in a number to the number of channels of said circuit means and operatively connected to said altering means for accumulating the pulses and for providing digital representations of the number of pulses received, a positioning system for variably locating the nozzle in relation to said spray tank, said positioning system comprising a signal device for providing representations of nozzle positions, and means responsive to the representations of said scalers and said positioning system for providing indications of the fluid spray configuration.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 237 words

Apparatus for the evaluation of the fluid spray of a nozzle wherein the number, size and location of droplets in the spray are monitored comprising a spray tank for mounting the nozzle under test and for receiving the spray therein, first and second aligned apertures in said tank, a light source associated with said first aperture for directing a beam of light into said spray tank to illuminate the fluid spray, a light sensing device associated with said second aperture, said sensing device being responsive to images of fluid droplets to provide electrical signals representative thereof, circuit means cooperative with said sensing device for converting the electrical signals to pulses representative of the number of droplet images received, in a plurality of channels representative of preselected sizes of droplets, means for altering the number of pulses in each channel by a factor related to the preselected sizes of the droplets, a plurality of scalers corresponding in a number to the number of channels of said circuit means and operatively connected to said altering means for accumulating the pulses and for providing digital representations of the number of pulses received, a positioning system for variably locating the nozzle in relation to said spray tank, said positioning system comprising a signal device for providing representations of nozzle positions, and means responsive to the representations of said scalers and said positioning system for providing indications of the fluid spray configuration.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 46 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein said latter means comprises a computer programmed to operate upon the representations of said scalers by factors related to the representations of said positioning system to provide information of the spray configuration in a spatial frame of reference.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 80 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 5 wherein said positioning system comprises a mechanism for moving said nozzle linearly along a radius of a conical spray, and said computer is programmed to convert the representations of said scalers, received at a series of locations along such radius, to quantities representative of a symmetrical plane of the spray, by multiplication by the product of 2 pi and the radial dimension of the location from the central axis of the spray cone.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 114 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 further including a lens system associated with said light source and said sensing device for defining a specific view volume within said spray tank to which said sensing device is responsive, said positioning system being operative to locate various portions of the spray from the nozzle under test within the view volume, said light source being a flash lamp for illuminating the view volume for an interval of time sufficiently short to substantially stop droplet motion and said sensing device being a video pickup tube having associated scanning circuitry for providing electrical signals of the images of droplets in the view volume as received at said tube.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 27 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 7 wherein said positioning system is a plural axis mechanism for locating any portion of the spray within the view volume.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 77 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 8 wherein said plural axis mechanism comprises three mutually perpendicular position systems, each said position system comprising a closed loop automatic movement system, an information program containing predetermined end locations for each of said movement systems, means for applying said program to said movement systems to locate a portion of the spray at the view volume and means for sensing completed movement of said movement systems for operating said circuit means.

Claim 12

Independent Claim 123 words

The method of evaluating a nozzle by measurement of the fluid spray therefrom comprising the steps of directing the spray from the nozzle into a spray chamber, isolating sample volumes of the spray at predetermined locations therein, such sample volumes being small in relation to the total spray, electronically counting the number of various size droplets in such sample volumes, modifying the number counts of the various size droplets by a factor related to the relative size of the droplets to obtain density indications of the spray on a common volume basis, and processing such density indications by a factor related to the spatial position of the sample volumes in relation to the total spray to provide an indication of the spray configuration.

Claim 13

Independent Claim 123 words

The method of evaluating a nozzle by measurement of the fluid spray therefrom comprising the steps of directing the spray from the nozzle into a spray chamber, isolating sample volumes of the spray at predetermined locations therein, such sample volumes being small in relation to the total spray, electronically counting the number of various size droplets in such sample volumes, modifying the number counts of the various size droplets by a factor related to the relative size of the droplets to obtain density indications of the spray on a common volume basis, and processing such density indications by a factor related to the spatial position of the sample volumes in relation to the total spray to provide an indication of the spray configuration.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 148 words

Apparatus for analyzing a spray of fluid droplets, comprising video sensing means for developing electrical signals representative of the number of droplets in a portion of the spray, a flashlamp for intermittently illuminating the spray for detection by said video sensing means, focus means for rejecting electrical signals from out of focus images, thereby to define view volumes of predetermined size for various size droplets, means for separating the electrical signals into ranges representative of different size droplets, scaler means for accumulating the electrical signals as counts of the number of droplets in each size range, means for modifying the count of each said scaler means as a function of the relative droplet size to provide indications of the number of droplets in a standard volume, and means for monitoring the instantaneOus relative position of the spray and said video sensing means for evaluation of the total spray.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 148 words

Apparatus for analyzing a spray of fluid droplets, comprising video sensing means for developing electrical signals representative of the number of droplets in a portion of the spray, a flashlamp for intermittently illuminating the spray for detection by said video sensing means, focus means for rejecting electrical signals from out of focus images, thereby to define view volumes of predetermined size for various size droplets, means for separating the electrical signals into ranges representative of different size droplets, scaler means for accumulating the electrical signals as counts of the number of droplets in each size range, means for modifying the count of each said scaler means as a function of the relative droplet size to provide indications of the number of droplets in a standard volume, and means for monitoring the instantaneOus relative position of the spray and said video sensing means for evaluation of the total spray.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 40 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 11 wherein said modifying means comprises an electronic multiplier connected between said separating means and said scaler means and providing output pulses at a predetermined ratio for received electrical signals from said separating means.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 37 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 12 wherein said monitoring means comprises a servosystem for positioning the spray with respect to said sensing means, said servosystem comprising a transducer for providing electrical signals representative of such position.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 41 words

Apparatus as set forth in claim 13 further including means for operating upon the counts of said scaler means as a function of the position signals of said transducer for evaluation of the total spray configuration from preselected representative samples thereof.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	1974-09-27	1975-03-29	1975-09-28	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	1978-09-27	1979-03-29	1979-09-28	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	1982-09-27	1983-03-29	1983-09-28	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Spray droplet analyzer

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