Conditioning apparatus for providing a carrier gas

Abstract

A conditioning apparatus (2) for providing a carrier gas (6), the apparatus including: an inlet (4) for a pressurized inlet gas (6); a cleaning unit (10) to provide clean pressurized gas (6), the cleaning unit (10) including one or more filters to remove solid and/or liquid contamination particles from the pressurized gas (6) and a drying station to remove moisture from the pressurized gas (6); an ionization chamber (16) which ionizes the clean pressurized gas; and an outlet for clean, pressurized, ionized gas; wherein the gas ionized in the ionization chamber (16) has a chemical composition which is substantially the same chemical composition as the inlet gas.

Claims

1. A conditioning apparatus for providing a carrier gas, the apparatus including: a gas inlet for a flow of inlet gas; a cleaning unit to provide a clean flow of gas, the cleaning unit including one or more filters to remove solid and/or liquid contamination particles from the gas flow and a drying station to remove moisture from the gas flow; an ionization chamber which ionizes the clean gas flow to generate the carrier gas; an outlet port for the clean, ionized carrier gas; and a treatment station located downstream of the ionization chamber, wherein the treatment station includes an activated carbon filter to remove undesired products from the ionized gas; wherein the gas ionized in the ionization chamber has a chemical composition which is substantially the same as the chemical composition of the inlet gas.

2. The conditioning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drying station includes a heat exchanger configured to cool the gas flow to a temperature below its dew point.

3. The conditioning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus further includes a compressor located upstream of the cleaning unit.

4. A spray apparatus including the & conditioning apparatus according to claim 1, and the spray apparatus connected to the outlet of the conditioning apparatus via a hose.

5. The A spray apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the hose includes a temperature control system configured to control a temperature of the carrier gas within the hose.

6. The spray apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the temperature control system includes one or more heating elements.

7. A method of preparing a carrier gas, the method including: directing a flow of pressurized inlet gas to an apparatus according to claim 1; cleaning the flow of pressurized gas by removing solid and/or liquid contaminants, and moisture from the gas flow to provide a clean flow of pressurized gas; and ionizing the clean flow of pressurized gas, wherein the ionization step ionizes an gas flow having a gas composition which is substantially the same as the composition of the inlet gas.

8. The Method according to claim 7, wherein the cleaning step includes drying the gas flow by cooling it to a temperature below its dew point.

9. The Method according to claim 7, further including the step of removing any undesired products generated by the ionization step from the carrier gas.

Description

(1) An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an apparatus for providing a carrier gas according to the first aspect of the invention.

(3) For the avoidance of doubt, the skilled person will appreciate that in this specification, the terms “upstream”, “downstream”, etc. refer to the order of the steps in the example as described hereinafter and as shown in the FIGURE.

(4) A conditioning apparatus 2 for preparing a carrier gas includes an inlet 4 in fluid communication with a source of a pressurized inlet gas 6. The flow of pressurized inlet gas is directed via a conduit 8 to a filtration station 10 including a number of filters 11 which remove liquid and solid particulate contaminants from the gas flow. Filters for use in removing such contaminants from a flow of pressurized gas are well known.

(5) After filtration, the flow of pressurized gas is carried via a second conduit 12 to a gas drying station 13 comprising a refrigeration system 14 which cools the flow of pressurized gas to a temperature below its dew point to remove water vapour from the flow of gas. The refrigeration system 14 subsequently heats the flow of pressurized gas to a pre-determined temperature before it is carried to an ionization chamber 16 via a third conduit 18. The skilled person will understand that a number of different methods are known for drying a flow of pressurized gas and while a refrigeration system is described herein, the pressurized air may be dried in other ways.

(6) The flow of pressurized gas is ionized in the ionization chamber 16.

(7) The flow of ionized, pressurized gas exits the ionization chamber 16 and is directed to an outlet port 20 via a fourth conduit 22.

(8) A hose 24 is fluidly connected to the outlet port 20 such that the ionized, pressurized carrier gas is directed to a spray apparatus 26, such as a conventional spray gun or a spray robot. The hose 24 includes a heating element 34 such that the temperature of the pressurized gas within the hose 24 can be varied as desired.

(9) The skilled person will appreciate that where the inlet gas includes oxygen, any undesired products generated by the ionization process may be removed by a treatment station 28 located between the ionization chamber 16 and the outlet port 20.

(10) A compressor 30 may be located upstream from the cleaning unit, which includes filtration station 10 and drying station 13.

(11) The hose 24 may include a temperature control system 32 to control the temperature of the carrier gas within the hose 24. The temperature control system may include one or more heating elements 34.