U.S. patent number 3,594,989 [Application Number 04/885,403] was granted by the patent office on 1971-07-27 for collapsible and disposable collecting cell for electrostatic precipitator.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Westinghouse Electronics, Inc.. Invention is credited to Cedric R. Bastiaans.
United States Patent |
3,594,989 |
Bastiaans |
July 27, 1971 |
COLLAPSIBLE AND DISPOSABLE COLLECTING CELL FOR ELECTROSTATIC
PRECIPITATOR
Abstract
A collapsible and disposable collecting cell for an
electrostatic precipitator comprising a plurality of conducting
sheets of first and second overlying series adapted to be
interconnected to opposite polarities of a voltage, the conducting
sheets of the first series being alternately disposed between the
conducting sheets of the second series. A respective insulating
sheet is disposed between each conductive sheet and all sheets are
interconnected in a manner to form a honeycomblike cell, when
expanded, so as to receive air therethrough in one direction. An
uppermost and a lowermost sheet is respectively connected to
respective oppositely positioned supporting base sheets in a
flexible manner such as by means of movable support bars extending
along spaced connecting portions in the one direction but which are
movable to permit limited movement at right angles to and in the
same plane of the connecting portions to thereby allow contraction
of the cell in the direction of limited movement as it is expanded
in another direction perpendicular thereto. The insulating sheets
between conducting sheets are longer in the connecting direction to
provide an overhang at respective opposite cell ends.
Inventors: |
Bastiaans; Cedric R. (Verona,
PA) |
Assignee: |
Westinghouse Electronics, Inc.
(Pittsburgh, PA)
|
Family
ID: |
25386825 |
Appl.
No.: |
04/885,403 |
Filed: |
December 16, 1969 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
96/85; 96/390;
55/529; 428/116; 55/521; 156/197 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B03C
3/45 (20130101); Y10T 156/1003 (20150115); Y10T
428/24149 (20150115) |
Current International
Class: |
B03C
3/45 (20060101); B03c 003/45 () |
Field of
Search: |
;55/138--156,278,521,529
;156/197 ;161/68 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Talbert, Jr.; Dennis E.
Claims
I claim:
1. A disposable and collapsible cell for an electrostatic gas
cleaner gas cleaner comprising, a first set of electric conducting
sheets, a second set of electric conducting sheets, each of said
sheets of said first set being interposed between adjacent sheets
of said second set so that every other conducting sheet is of the
same set, a plurality of electric insulating sheets each being
interposed between adjacent conducting sheets, thus starting with a
conducting sheet at one side there is a sheet of said first set, an
insulating sheet, a sheet of said second set, an insulating sheet
and so on, throughout the cell, means for connecting adjacent
sheets along common portions running on one direction, said common
portions for said first set of sheets and said insulating sheets on
opposite sides thereof being spaced a predetermined distance along
said first sheet of said first set in a second direction at right
angles to said one direction, every other of said common portions
of said first sheets being connected to the insulating sheet on the
opposite side of said first sheet, said common portions for said
second set of sheets and said insulating sheets on opposite sides
thereof being spaced a predetermined distance along said sheet of
said second set in said second direction, every other of said
common portions of said second set being connected to the
insulating sheet on the opposite side of said second sheet, thus
said insulating sheets are alternatively connected to a conducting
sheet of said first set and a conducting sheet of said second set,
the three sets of sheets upon being expanded from a collapsed
position forming a honeycomblike cell adapted to receive air
therethrough in said one direction, means adapted to connect said
first set of sheets to a source of power, means adapted to connect
said second set of sheets to a source of power, first and second
oppositely positioned supporting base sheets adapted to be brought
together when said cell is collapsed and drawn apart when said cell
is expanded, means flexibly connecting respective portions
extending in the one direction of the uppermost one of said
superposed sheets to said first base sheet in a manner to permit
movement of the connections in the same plane but at right angles
to the directions of connection, and means flexibly connecting
respective portions extending in the one direction of the lowermost
one of said superposed sheets to said second base sheet in a manner
to permit movement of the connections in the same plane but at
right angles to the direction of the connection so as to allow for
contraction of the cell in the direction at right angles to the one
direction when it is expanded in another direction perpendicular
thereto.
2. The invention of claim 1 in which there are a plurality of first
support bars slidably mounted on the opposing face of said first
base sheet for movement in the same plane but at right angles to
said one direction, a plurality of second support bars slidably
mounted on the opposing face of said second base sheet of movement
in the same plane but at right angles to said one direction, the
uppermost one of said superposed sheets being connected along
respective portions extending in the one direction to respective
ones of said first support bars, and the lowermost one of said
superposed sheets being connected along respective portions
extending in the one direction to respective ones of said second
support bars in a manner such that said first and second support
bars are movable towards each other when said cell is expanded from
the collapsed state and are movable away from each other as said
cell is contracted back to the collapsed state.
3. The invention of claim 1 in which the widths of the insulating
sheets between adjacent conducting sheets are greater than in width
in the one direction than the widths of the conducting sheets
extending in the one direction whereby to provide an overhang of
insulating sheets in the one direction relative to the conducting
sheets at each end.
4. The invention of claim 2 in which the widths of each of said
support bars in their directions of movement are chosen to cause
the bars to abut each other and limit the degree of movement of the
bars towards each other as the cell is expanded and thereby limit
the expansion of the cell.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
So far as is known this invention is not related to any copending
patent applications in the United States.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Collapsible and disposable collecting cells formed of sheets of
conducting and insulating papers are well known and for example the
U.S. Pat. to DiVette, No. 2,885,026, issued on May 5, 1959
discloses a collapsible cell of honeycomb structure for which the
present invention is an improvement. For most satisfactory results
in application, such a precipitator cell should have equal spacing
between the conducting cell walls of oppositely connected
electrical polarities throughout all of the cell layers when the
honeycomb is expanded for use. When the top and bottom layers or
sheets respectively of are connected to respective suitable
supporting sheets in the fixed spatial arrangement as shown in the
aforementioned patent, it is difficult if not impossible to expand
the honeycomb cell uniformly without a bowed waistline and with the
spacings between conductive sheets of the outermost honeycomb
layers less than the spacings between the innermost honeycomb
layers as shown by FIG. 1 of the attached patent drawings.
PRIOR ART
Reference may be made to the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No.
2,885,026, issued to DiVette on May 5, 1959 for which the present
invention is an improvement.
SUMMARY
In accordance with this invention, the connecting portions of the
respective top and bottom sheets of the stack of overlying sheets
are connected to respective oppositely positioned supporting base
sheets in a flexible manner such as through movable support bars
that are arranged to be movable in directions at right angles to
but in the same plane as the connecting portion directions thus
allowing for contraction of the cell in the movable direction when
it is expanded in the direction perpendicular thereto as the
supporting base sheets are moved apart. Thus the form of the cell
as expanded has a straight waistline and the spacings between
opposing conductive sheet cell walls are uniform throughout all of
the layers of the cell. Another feature of the present invention
provides that each one of the insulating sheets is longer in the
connecting portion direction than the lengths of the conducting
sheets in the same direction so as to provide an overhang of
insulating sheets at opposite ends to thereby increase the corona
and leakage current paths between adjacent conducting sheet
ends.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic end view looking in the direction of
airflow through an expanded collapsible precipitator cell
constructed as described by the prior art U.S. Pat. No. 2,885,026
previously mentioned and showing a disadvantage of the prior
art;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view partly in section of the improved form
of collapsible precipitator cell of this invention as shown in the
expanded form;
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view similar to FIG. 2 but showing the form
of the cell in the collapsed state;
FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view similar to FIG. 3 but showing a
slightly modified form of the invention as regards the flexible
manner of attaching an uppermost layer or sheet to the movable
support bars and the supporting base sheet;
FIG. 5 is a detail plan view of one of the support bars used with
FIG. 4; and
FIG. 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of FIG. 5.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION
Referring first to FIG. 1 of the drawings, wherein the prior art
collapsible precipitator cell is shown in a manner to emphasize the
disadvantages of the prior art arrangement, it will be seen that
the collapsible precipitator cell consists of superposed layers or
sheets of conducting material such as shown at 10 through 20.
Alternate conducting sheets such as the odd numbered sheets 11--19
are electrically connected together by conductive side sheet
structure 21 while the remaining conductive sheets even numbered
10--20 are electrically connected together by the side sheet 22 of
electrical conductive material. Interposed between each conductive
sheet 10--20 is an insulating sheet 30--39 and adjacent ones of the
conductive sheets are connected to adjacent ones of the insulating
sheets at spaced points such as shown at 40--45. Each of the
connecting portions 40--45 extends in one direction along the
direction of airflow and layers of cells having opposing sidewalls
of conductive material connected with opposite polarities such as
the sidewalls 14 and 15 are thereby provided in a honeycomb
structure when the cell is expanded as shown. A supporting base
sheet or end plate 50 is secured at fixed spaced points 51--56 to
the uppermost sheet 10. Similarly a supporting base sheet or end
plate 60 is secured at fixed spaced points 61--67 to the lowermost
sheet 20. It will be noted that the relatively rigid arrangement
for connecting the end plates 50 and 60 to their respective
conducting plates 10 and 20 at the fixed spaced apart points causes
a distortion of the cell shape or configuration to take place when
the cell is expanded so that the waistline formed by the conductive
sheets 21 and 22 is bowed inwardly thus making it difficult to
adapt the shape of the expanded cell to structural sidewalls (not
shown) within which the cell is intended to be placed while
expanded for purposes of cleaning the gas passing therethrough.
Another major disadvantage of the prior art arrangement being
described in connection with FIG. 1, is that the spacing between
the outermost layers of the cells such as shown between conducting
walls 19 and 20 and 10 and 11 for example is considerably less than
the spacing between the innermost cell layers 14 and 15. It should
be noted that the distortion of the cell structure upon expansion
as described is due to the fact that the spaced points of securing
the outermost layers to the respective end plates 50 and 60 are
spaced apart with the same spacing between the points 51--56 and
61--67 when the cell is either expanded or contracted. I have found
that if the cell is to be expanded in one direction as the end
plates 50 and 60 are moved apart, the width of the cell in the
direction extending at right angles to the direction of connecting
portion 51--56 should be allowed to decrease so that a straight
waistline of reduced space between the two waistlines 21 and 22 can
be provided and uniform spacing between all of the conductive
layers of the cell from top to bottom can also be obtained. With a
uniform spacing for all layers as provided by the present
invention, the applied voltage can be as high as practicable for
the minimum layer spacing which is substantially uniform throughout
and is not reduced, to any extent as is the case with the outer
cell layers of the prior art referred to.
Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3 of the drawings, the novel
arrangement of the present invention will be described in
particular detail. The cell may be comprised of superposed
conducting layers 100--104 separated by intervening insulating
sheets 107--110 in addition to the upper and lower connecting
insulating sheets 106, 111 and 112. Alternate ones of the
conducting sheets such as the even numbered sheets 100, 102 and 104
constitute a first series which are physically and electrically
connected together by side sheets and a conducting strip 114.
Similarly the other conducting sheets with the odd numbers 101 and
103 constitute a second series which are physically and
electrically connected together by a side sheet opposite to the
side sheet 114 and a similar conducting strip not shown.
The adjacent joined edges of conducting and insulating sheets each
is shown at 101A and 108A may be overlapped with a sheet of
insulating material 138 in order to minimize corona. Also an
overlay of insulating sheet material such as shown at 139 may be
provided to minimize corona.
Oppositely positioned end plate structures or base sheets 116 and
117 are provided with a plurality of movable supporting strip
members such as the strip members 118, 120 and 122 for the base
sheet 116 and movable strip members 119, 121 and 123 for the base
supporting sheet 117. The respective movable supporting trip
members 118, 120 and 122 are positioned within slots 124 and 126 of
the base strip 116 on the opposing face thereof. Similarly, the
movable support strips 119, 121 and 123 are supported in similar
groove structures including the groove structure 125 on the
opposing surface of the support sheet 117. The arrangement of the
movable supporting base strips 118--123 is such that they may move
from spaced positions such as shown by FIG. 3 of the drawings when
the cell is in the collapsed state towards each other to abutting
side-by-side positions with the sidewalls immediately adjacent each
other as shown by FIG. 2 of the drawings when the cell is expanded
and vice versa. By suitably proportioning the width of the
supporting strips 118--123 the degree of movement of the strips
toward each other as the cell is expanded may be limited to thereby
in effect limit the expanded dimension of the cell.
As shown by FIGS. 2 and 3 of the drawings the insulating strip 106
is secured at 130 to the support strip 118 at 131 to the support
strip 120 and at 132 to the support strip 122. Similarly the
lowermost layer or insulating sheet 112 is secured at 133 to the
movable support strip 119, at 134 to the movable support strip 121,
and at 135 to the movable support strip 123. Similarly, the
intervening insulating strips 107, 108, 109, 110 and 111 are
secured to respective conducting sheets at spaced points such as
136--139, etc. to form a honeycomb structure when the cell is
expanded by moving apart the supporting base sheets 116 and
117.
It should now be apparent, that upon expansion of the cell when the
supporting end plates 116 and 117 are moved apart, the spacings
between adjoining connecting portions such as 130, 131, and 132 are
decreased in a direction extending at right angles to but in the
same plane as the direction of the connections 130, 131 and 132.
Similarly the supporting strips 119--123 are moved together to
contract the spacing between the connecting strip portions 133, 134
and 135 so that a uniform expansion of the cell in the direction
between the movable end plates 116 and 117 is uniformly obtained
with a minimum of distortion, and with a corresponding contraction
between the side waistline such as the side waistline 114 and its
opposing side waistline (not shown). Thus, the spacing between the
conductive electrode layers 100--104 is uniform throughout the
entire cross section of the cell when the cell is expanded.
The uppermost and lowermost layers of the cell may be secured to
the respective movable supporting strips by any suitable manner
such as gluing or the like. Also, depending upon desired design
criteria, the uppermost and lowermost layer of a particular cell as
constructed in accordance with this invention may be either a
conducting layer or an insulating layer. The supporting base sheets
116, 117, and the movable support strips 118--123 are formed of
suitable insulating material such as cardboard or the like. It is
not believed necessary to refer to any particular type or sheet
material for the respective conducting and insulating sheets
forming the cell layers since various materials are well known to
those skilled in the art having the desired properties of
insulation or conduction respectively.
Referring to FIGS. 4--6 of the drawings a somewhat modified form of
the invention is shown wherein the flexible or movable connections
between the outermost layers of the cell is provided by passing a
flexible connecting strip member such as the member 151 loosely
through loops such as shown at 143--145 of a supporting strip or
bar 140 that is affixed in any suitable manner to the supporting
base sheet 116. Similarly, a connecting strip member 152 may be
passed loosely through loops such as the loop shown at 153 of a
supporting strip 154. Any number of supporting strips or bars such
as strips 116, 154 and associated flexible connecting strips 151,
152 may be provided depending on desired cell parameters such as
the width of the strips 151, 152 relative to the height of the
complete cell that has only been fragmentarily shown by FIG. 4 of
the drawings.
Referring again to FIG. 2 of the drawings, it will be seen that the
insulating sheets 107--111 adjacent to the conducting sheets
100--104 are of greater width than the conducting sheets in the
connecting direction to provide overhangs such as are shown at
107A-- 111A. This greater width has been defined to extend in a
direction of the connecting portions such as connecting portions
136 and 137 and provides an overhang not only as shown at
107A--111A but a similar overhang at the opposite end of the sheet
structures (not shown by the drawings). The overhang provided by
the greater width of the insulating sheets 107--111 relative to the
conducting sheets 100--104 provides an extremely long leakage path
and hence a lessened possibility of corona for the cell when it is
in operation with a voltage of about 6,000 volts applied with
opposite polarities respectively to the respective series of
conducting electrode sheet members.
It should be understood that this invention is not limited to any
particular number of conducting sheets or insulating sheets and
that various arrangements for securing either conductive or
insulating sheets as the outermost layers to the movable supporting
strips on the opposing supporting base sheets may be used.
It is now apparent that the collapsible and disposable precipitator
cell formed and constructed as described by the present invention
of inexpensive material such as conductive and insulating paper and
cardboard may be readily discarded after use instead of resorting
to tedious procedures as used in the past for cleaning the
accumulated dirt from a used precipitator cell. Since the
collapsible cell of the present invention is not distorted in the
expanded form, and uniform spacing between the conductive
electrodes is obtained a cross section of response of the cell is
more uniform and higher voltages may be used throughout the cell
for improved efficiency. Also, the tendency for heavy buildup of
dirt in one part of the cell relative to another part of the cell
to thus become clogged will be avoided. Thus the usable lifetime of
the cell is extended since the accumulations of dirt within the
cell will be more uniformly dispersed and there will not be any
undesired clogging as would be obtained when there are relatively
narrow spacings between the conducting electrodes of opposite
polarity as disclosed by the prior art.
Although it is not shown or described, it should be understood that
any simple supporting framework of rectilinear configuration may be
provided within which the expanded precipitator cell will be
contained during its operation and this invention is not concerned
with any particular supporting frame configuration.
Various modifications will occur to those skilled in the art.
* * * * *