Humidifier

Abstract

One embodiment of a humidifier designed to supplement humidity for the purpose of maintaining the moisture content of a wooden instrument such as a guitar. The humidifier comprises of an absorbent material, contained within an expandable outer shell, sealed at both ends. The shell is made from a non-permeable material but is constructed to be permeable. The humidifier is hydrated by submerging it in water, resulting in the absorption of liquid, causing expansion of the absorbent core and consequently expansion of the outer shell. Once hydrated, the outer shell is dried, and then, in the case of a hollow bodied instrument, is placed inside the body, or alternatively, and in the case of a solid bodied instrument, is placed in proximity to the instrument in a case or other enclosure. The shell allows the efficient egress of water vapor while isolating the instrument from liquid sequestered by the absorbent within.

Claims

1. A humidifier for a musical instrument comprising: A container, housing an absorbent material; wherein said container is fabricated from a nonpermeable material in such a way such that it is permeable to the ingress and egress of water in liquid and vapor form; wherein, said absorbent may be a plurality of absorbent material; whereby liquid water entering said container is absorbed by said absorbent; whereby water is desorbed from said absorbent by means of evaporation; whereby the absorption of water in said absorbent causes said container to expand; whereby the desorption of water from said absorbent causes said container to contract; whereby the expansion and contraction of said container provides an immediate and unmistakable indicium of the state of hydration of said humidifier.

2. The humidifier of claim 1 wherein said container is fabricated from a woven sleeve.

3. The humidifier of claim 1 wherein said humidifier is flexible enough to conform to different shapes.

4. The humidifier of claim 1 wherein said container is fabricated from a non-marring material.

5. The humidifier of claim 1 wherein said absorbent is an anionic polymer.

6. The humidifier of claim 1 wherein said absorbent has a defined relative humidity equilibration point.

7. The humidifier of claim 1 wherein said humidifier can be placed inside a hollow bodied musical instrument via the sound hole of said instrument.

8. The humidifier of claim 7 wherein said instrument can be played without removing said humidifier.

9. The humidifier of claim 1 wherein said humidifier can be placed inside another container, such as an instrument case, thereby allowing the humidification of a musical instrument also inside said case.

10. The humidifier of claim 1 wherein said container does not need to be opened in order to hydrate said absorbent.

11. The humidifier of claim 1 whereby a means is provided of attaching said humidifier to the strings of a stringed musical instrument.

12. The humidifier of claim 1 whereby a means is provided of temporarily fastening the ends of said humidifier together, thereby allowing the humidified to be secured around another object.

13. The humidifier of claim 1 whereby a means is provided for retrieving said humidifier from the body cavity of a hollow bodied instrument via the sound hole of said instrument.

14. The humidifier of claim 13 wherein, in the case of C, D and F hole instruments, part of said retrieval means cannot enter the body cavity of said instrument.

Description

DRAWINGSFIGURES

(1) In the drawings, closely related figures have the same number but different alphabetical suffixes.

(2) FIGS. 1A and 1B show various aspects of a humidifier in its desiccated state.

(3) FIGS. 2A and 2B show various aspects of a humidifier in its hydrated state.

(4) FIG. 3 shows a desiccated humidifier being placed into water.

(5) FIG. 4 shows the outer shell of a hydrated humidifier being dried with a cloth.

(6) FIG. 5 shows a hydrated humidifier being placed into a guitar via the sound hole.

(7) FIG. 6 shows a hydrated humidifier inside the body of a guitar, conforming to the guitars shape.

DRAWINGSREFERENCE NUMERALS

(8) 10 Outer shell of a humidifier 11 Sealed ends of the outer shell of a humidifier 12a Desiccated absorbent 12b Hydrated absorbent 13a A desiccated humidifier 13b A hydrated humidifier 14 An open container of water 15 A cloth 16 A hollow bodied instrument 17 The sound hole of a hollow bodied instrument

Detailed DescriptionFIGS. 1A and 1BFirst Embodiment

(9) One embodiment of a humidifier is illustrated in FIG. 1A (end view), and FIG. 1B (top view). The humidifier has a flexible woven outer shell 10 of a fiber such as poly-ethylene-tetra-phthalate (PEThyphens are supplied to facilitate pronunciation), and of an expandable, tubular form, such as Flexo PET sleeving available from Techflex Inc. of Sparta, N.J. However, the shell can be made of any material that is flexible, that can be woven, formed, molded, 3D printed, or otherwise, into an expandable form, and that is non-permeable to liquid such as glass fiber, stainless-steel, brass, vinyl, polyethylene, polypropylene, rubber, and various metals, plastics or other plasticized materials.

(10) The ends of the shell 11 are permanently sealed shut by means of fusion by heat. However, they may be sealed by other means such as welding, gluing, sewing, crimping, swaging, binding, capping, over-molding or otherwise.

(11) Housed within the shell is an absorbent material consisting of a plurality of anionic polymer beads 12a such as sodium polyacrylate, available from JRM Chemical Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio However, the absorbent material may also be potassium polyacrylate, sponge, cellulose fiber, or any other material capable of absorbing liquid water, and releasing vapor.

(12) OperationFIGS. 1. To 6

(13) To hydrate the humidifier, the desiccated humidifier 13a is submerged in water 14, as illustrated by FIG. 3. The water is preferably distilled, however, may be tap water or any other clean, non-salinized water. FIG. 1A (end view), and FIG. 1B (top view), illustrate a humidifier in its desiccated state.

(14) The absorbent material 12a/b contained within the outer shell 10 absorbs water causing it to swell. This in turn causes the shell to expand, significantly increasing the humidifier's volume. FIG. 2A (end view), and FIG. 2B (top view), illustrate the humidifier in its hydrated state.

(15) Once hydrated, the outside of the hydrated humidifier 13b is dried by means of a cloth 15, as illustrated by FIG. 4, or by other means such as a towel, paper towel, air drying, or otherwise.

(16) For a hollow bodied instrument 16, such as an acoustic guitar, the hydrated humidifier 13b is placed into the body of the instrument through the sound hole 17, as illustrated by FIG. 5. For solid bodied instruments, and alternatively for hollow bodied instruments, the humidifier may be placed in proximity to the instrument in an instrument case or other enclosure.

(17) Over time, water evaporates from the absorbent core, augmenting humidity. This process of desorption causes the absorbent 12a/b and outer shell 10 to shrink, slowly returning the hydrated humidifier 13b to its original desiccated size. This change provides a built-in indication of remaining water content.

(18) In the case of a hollow bodied instrument the hydrated humidifier 13b, which is soft and has a non-marring shell, will conform to the internal shape of the instrument 16, as illustrated by FIG. 6. This prevents excessive movement within the instrument, allowing it to be played with the humidifier in place.

Advantages

(19) From the description above, a number of advantages of some embodiments of my humidifier become evident: (a) It comprises of just two components and requires no special tooling to manufacture which means it is simpler and less expensive to fabricate than other products; (b) It can be manufactured in variety of colors, patterns, and sizes without the need to change tooling or setups; (c) It uses an absorbent polymer to store water. Water enters the absorbent in liquid form and is wholly absorbed, and can only egress as vapor, hence, once hydrated it cannot leak; (d) It has an outer shell that is made from a non-permeable material, but designed to be highly porous, hence allowing water in the form of vapor to escape while providing physical barrier between the absorbent and the instrument. (e) It is reusable and can be refilled at will simply by submerging it in water; (f) It has a high capacity for water, allowing it to provide supplemental humidification for longer periods between refills; (g) It has a larger active surface area than other humidifiers providing more efficient humidification; (h) It has an outer shell that expands when hydrated and contracts when desiccated, providing an unmistakable indication of remaining water content; (i) It can be placed inside an acoustic instrument such as a guitar, and, in the case of an acoustic guitar, does not need to be removed in order to play the instrument; (j) It does not need to be attached to the instrument; (k) It can alternatively be placed inside an instrument case or other enclosure.

CONCLUSIONS, RAMIFICATIONS, AND SCOPE

(20) Accordingly, the reader will see that the humidifier in various embodiments can be used to effectively supplement the humidity of wooden instruments, can be left inside the body of a hollow body instrument without affecting playability, and can easily be refilled as necessary. Furthermore, the humidifier has the following additional advantages in that: It permits the production of humidifiers in various shapes, colors and patterns, to suit a variety of instruments, without the need to change tooling; It is simple and cost effective to manufacture, comprising of just two components; It has a large capacity for water, allowing it to supplement humidity for extended periods between refills; It has a flexible, non-marring outer shell; It provides an unmistakable indication of its current state of hydration.

(21) Although the description above contains many specifications, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments, but merely providing illustrations of some of the several embodiments.

(22) Thus, the scope of the embodiments should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.