HEATABLE MATERIAL STORAGE TANK

Abstract

The invention relates to an arrangement (200) comprising a storage tank (100), a heating device (1) configured to heat the storage tank (100), said heating device (1) comprising: a casing (10) defining an internal volume, said internal volume having a main chamber (14), said storage tank (100) being arranged at least partially in the main chamber (14), a heating element (20) arranged in the internal volume, a blower (30) configured to create a flow by sucking gaseous fluid from at least the upper part (10a) and to deliver sucked gaseous fluid in the main chamber (14);

wherein a suction duct (40) extends in the internal volume, the blower fan (30) being arranged in said suction duct (40),

characterized in that the arrangement (200) further comprises a guiding sleeve element (50) arranged in the main chamber (14) forming a peripheral space (51) around the storage tank (100) in order to speed up the flow and optimize the heat transfer(100).

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising: a storage tank filled with a material; a heating device configured to heat the storage tank, said heating device comprising: a casing defining an internal volume, said internal volume comprising: an upper part, an intermediate part and a lower part, according to a longitudinal axis (X-X) of the casing, a main chamber, said storage tank being arranged at least partially in the main chamber, at least one heating element arranged at least partially in the internal volume and configured to heat a gaseous fluid contained in the internal volume, a blower configured to create an flow by sucking gaseous fluid from at least the upper part and to deliver sucked gaseous fluid in the main chamber; a suction duct extending in the internal volume apart from the main chamber and communicating with said main chamber, the blower being arranged in said suction duct; a guiding sleeve element arranged in the main chamber at a distance from the storage tank, forming a peripheral space around the storage tank, the guiding sleeve element having a cylindrical shape creating a ring section on more than half of a height of the storage tank and being configured to guide the gaseous fluid delivered in the main chamber to the peripheral space such that the gaseous fluid will have a highest possible speed compatible with the blower.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a single accessible casing.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating device comprises an upper cavity arranged above the guiding sleeve element and extending along a transverse axis (X-X) of the casing, in the upper part, along an upper wall.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the guiding sleeve element comprises an internal surface arranged all around an external wall of the storage tank.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the suction duct comprises a first segment extending from the upper part to the intermediate part and a second segment extending from the intermediate part (10b) to the lower part (10c), the first segment having a cross-section reduced compared to the cross-section of the second segment.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the blower is positioned in the lower part of the internal volume of the casing, in the suction duct.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heating element is arranged upstream from the blower in the suction duct.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a control unit configured to control the at least one heating element and/or the blower.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a temperature sensor configured to measure a temperature of the gaseous fluid inside the casing.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein a control unit cooperates with the temperature sensor to keep the gaseous fluid temperature at a determined set point.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a metering element is arranged in the main chamber of the heating device.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the metering element comprises a pump configured to allow circulation of the material from the storage tank to a dispensing element, the pump being arranged in the main chamber of the heating device.

13. A multi-component dispensing machine for processing polymers from at least two components, wherein at least one component comprises the apparatus of claim 1.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0039] The invention will be better-understood thanks to the detailed specification hereinafter, which describes several embodiments of the invention as examples and based on the following figures.

[0040] FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the arrangement according to the invention.

[0041] FIG. 2 is the same view as FIG. 1 with the detailed airflow circulation according to the invention.

[0042] FIG. 3 is a detailed view of FIG. 1 illustrating heat transfer between airflow and storage tank according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] The arrangement 200 according to the invention, comprises a heating device 1 configured to heat at least one storage tank 100 as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. The heating device 1 comprises a casing 10 having sidewalls 11, an upper wall 12 and a lower wall 13 delimiting an internal volume. Obviously, the casing 10 illustrated has a polygonal shape but can be in a cylindrical shape or any other shape without being out of the scope of the invention. As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the casing 10 comprises a double-walled structure, i.e. each sidewall 11, the upper wall 12 and the lower 13 are doubled in order to have a thermal insulation of the casing 10.

[0044] The heating device 1 further comprises at least one heating element 20, preferentially several heating elements 20, arranged at least partially in the internal volume of the casing 10 and configured to heat an airflow. In the shown embodiment, the heating elements 20 are electrical resistances but the invention is not limited to this embodiment.

[0045] The heating device 1 further comprises a blower fan 30 configured to create an airflow by sucking air from at least the upper part 10a and to deliver sucked air in the main chamber 14.

[0046] The internal volume can be divided in three parts namely upper part 10a, intermediate part 10b and lower part 10c according to a longitudinal axis Y-Y of the casing 10. Said parts 10a, 10b, 10c are illustrated schematically in FIG. 1.

[0047] A shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the heating device 1 comprises an air suction duct 40 extending from the upper part 10a to the lower part 10c, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. Preferentially, the heating elements 20 are arranged in the air suction duct 40 in the intermediate part 10b, upstream from the blower fan. Moreover, the blower fan 30 is also positioned in said air suction duct 40 in the lower part 10c, in order to suck air from the upper part 10a to the lower part 10c and to deliver the sucked air into the main chamber 14.

[0048] The air suction duct 40 comprises a first segment 41 extending from the upper part 10a to the intermediate part 10b and a second segment 42 extending from the intermediate part 10b to the lower part 10c, the first segment 41 having a cross-section reduced compared to the cross-section of the second segment 42, as shown in FIG. 1, for example. Obviously, the air suction duct 40 could have another shape without being out of the scope of the invention.

[0049] According to the present embodiment of the arrangement of the invention, said arrangement further comprises a guiding sleeve element 50 arranged in the main chamber 14 at a distance from the storage tank 100, forming a peripheral air space 51 around the storage tank 100, the guiding sleeve element 50 being configured to guide the air delivered in the main chamber 14 to the peripheral air space 51 at nearest possible, taking into account acceptable pressure drop to the external wall of the storage tank 100 as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

[0050] According to an embodiment of the invention, the heating device 1 may include an upper cavity 17 arranged above the guiding sleeve element 50 and extending along a transverse axis X-X of the casing 10, preferentially in the upper part 10a 10, along the upper wall 12 of the casing 10, as shown in FIG. 1. Advantageously, the upper cavity 17 is in fluidic communication with the guiding sleeve element 50 and the air suction duct 40, as shown in FIG. 1.

[0051] As shown in FIG. 1, the heating device 1 comprises a control unit 60 configured to control the at least one heating element 20 and the blower fan 30. Moreover, the heating device 1 comprises at least one temperature sensor 70 configured to measure the temperature of the air inside the casing 10. The control unit 60 cooperates with the temperature sensor 70 to keep the air temperature at a determined set point. Thus, the temperature sensor 70 measures temperature inside the casing 10 and in particular, in the air suction duct 40 and sends the measurements to the control unit 60 which controls the heating element 20 and/or the blower fan 30 in order to reach the determined temperature set point at a determined speed.

[0052] According to the invention, the arrangement 200 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 is integrated in a dispensing machine (not shown) for processing polymers from at least two circuits-component.

[0053] A shown in FIG. 2, the circulation of the heated air inside the internal volume of the casing 10 is a closed loop. The air from the upper cavity 17 is sucked into the air suction duct 40 by the blower fan 30 and is heated by the heating elements 20, all the way down the lower part 10c. Then, the blower fan 30 sends the heated sucked air into the main chamber 14. The heated airflow is guided and forced to move up in the internal volume by the guiding sleeve element 50 towards the upper part 17. The heated airflow goes through the guiding sleeve element 50, to heat, by heat transfer, the storage tank 100 arranged in the said guiding sleeve element 50 as shown in particular in FIG. 3. The airflow is guided through the guiding sleeve element 50 into the upper cavity 17 to be sucked again into the air suction duct 40.

[0054] According to an embodiment of the invention, metering elements 101, 102, such as a pump 101, ducts 102 for conveying the liquid material contained into the storage tank 100, valves, filter, sensors, etc . . . , can be advantageously arranged in the main chamber 14 of the heating device 1, in order to be also heated by the heated airflow.

[0055] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, with a fan and a heating power similar to those used in the prior art and parameters as described in Experimental part [49], to reach a temperature of 80° c. with a two hundred liters storage tank 100, unexpectedly, a dramatic improvement has been measured as the time to reach the targeted temperature has been divided by two with a product real temperature closer to the set point, demonstrating the efficiency of this new heating device 1 by forced-air circulation.

EXPERIMENTAL PART

[0056] In FIG. 2, in three sections of the casing 10, referenced S1, S2 and S3, the cross-section surface (in mm.sup.2) and the air speed (in m/s) were measured, with a blower fan power around 500 W, a blower fan output 1000 m.sup.3/h and a pressure drop of 500 Pa. These measurements are presented in the following table.

TABLE-US-00001 S1 S2 S3 Cross-section 10 000 17 000 35 000 surface (mm.sup.2) Airflow    27    16    7 speed (m/s)

[0057] In other examples (not shown), the parameters can vary: the air fan power can be between 200 and 2000 W for a blower fan output between 500 to 2000 m.sup.3/h and a pressure drop between 200 and 2000 Pa. For this kind of ranges the measurements can be:

TABLE-US-00002 S1 S2 S3 Cross-section 3000 to 25 000 10 000 to 30 000 20 000 to 45 000 surface (mm.sup.2) Airflow 10 to 50   10 to 30  5 to 20 speed (m/s)

[0058] In other examples (not shown), the parameters can vary: the air fan power can be between 200 and 750 W for a blower fan output between 500 to 1500 m.sup.3/h and a pressure drop between 300 and 1000 Pa. For this kind of ranges the measurements can be:

TABLE-US-00003 S1 S2 S3 Cross-section 5000 to 20 000 12 000 to 25 000 25 000 to 40 000 surface (mm.sup.2) Airflow 15 to 40   10 to 20  5 to 10 speed (m/s)

[0059] In the example illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, the gaseous fluid is air, but the invention is not limited to this example. Moreover, the blower is in the example a blower fan but it can be all apparatus configured to blow air or gaseous fluid. Obviously, the invention is not limited to the embodiments described and represented with the annexed drawings. Modifications remain possible, in particular from the point of view of the constitution of the each element or by substitution of technical equivalents, without being out of the scope of the invention.