Steam Mister

Jun 09, 2006 3 Replies
B

Has this been done before?



Instead of using compressed air to transfer momentum to a liquid as in paint sprayers or some industrial humidification misters, why not use steam?



Superheat the steam enough so that it will be just saturated as it mixes with the liquid. If the steam - liquid mixture was further expanded in a nozzle some of the sat. steam would turn into liquid droplets as well, depending on the sensible heat of the liquid.



It might create a neat splatter effect applying some paints.



Even more important are those situations where you don't want a lot of air mixing with the liquid.


Bret Cahill



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Brett- The reference you provided (US006962296) is about using steam to distribute superfine droplets of water to a surface, in this case a paper web process. Of course steam droplets are going to be finer than simple misted or sprayed water, that's what the referenced patent is about- an improved method of applying water droplets over prior art. They are not using the steam as a transport means to carry another liquid or chemical- just water.

Most paints (even latex, water based) will probably not work with steam as a transport means. At certain temps, solids within the paints will congeal or coagulate, clogging any nozzle tips. Also, steam exits the nozzle at a much higher temp than the surrounding air or surface to which the paint would be applied, causing further application problems. Most professional paint application systems have in-line dryers or evap systems to *remove* any traces of water in the air lines. In short, I do not see steam being used to deliver paints or pigments that do not operate well with elevated temps, and or the presence of water.

Good luck!

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< They are not using the steam as a transport means to carry another < liquid or chemical- just water.

Water may be all you need.

One humidification company has steam humidifiers and compressed air/water nozzle humidifiers.

It's surprising that they don't have steam/liquid water.

Bret Cahill

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