Noiseless air-actuated turbine-type vibrator with blades arranged in a sidewardly extending annular pattern

Claim 1

A relatively silent, compressed gas-actuated, turbine-type vibrator having a rotor of not less than 11/4 inches and not more than 51/2 inches diameter and when operated within a speed range of 6,000 to 10,000 rpms having a noise level not greater than 85 decibels hz., the vibrator including: (a) a substantially closed housing having a cylindrical chamber therein; (b) a dynamically unbalanced rotor freely rotatable in the cylindrical bore of the chamber, the diameter and length of the rotor being established so that not less than one thirty-second of an inch clearance is provided between the rotor and ends and bore of the chamber, the rotor having a plurality of tooth-like configurations formed on its outer periphery, the tooth-like configuration further having a radial depth which corresponds to a distance not exceeding 7 percent and not less than 11/2 percent of the diameter of the rotor, these tooth-like configurations form blades of substantially identical configurations disposed on at least one of the two sides of the rotor and arranged in an annular pattern and extending from its outer periphery a short distance inwardly to terminate short of the other side of the rotor, these teeth disposed at substantially right angles to the plane or rotation of the rotor; (c) an air outlet formed in the housing and extending from the rotor chamber to the outside of the housing, and (d) an air inlet formed in the housing and extending from the outside of the housing to the rotor chamber, the air inlet arranged to carry this air to at least one side of the rotor chamber and to direct the incoming pressurized air tangentially against the teeth of the mounted rotor and with the tooth-like configuration so formed that in a plane normal to the axis of the rotor the face of the tooth-like configuration against which the incoming air impinges defining an angle of intersection with a theoretical radial line of said rotor, said defined angle being as little as zero and as great as 30° as measured from said point of intersection and inclined in such a direction that the circumferential thickness of the tooth-like configurations tend to decrease as the radial distance from the axis increases, the cross-sectional area of the inlet being 30 to 55 percent of the area of the outlet.