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United States Patent | 4,662,352 |
Aviles, Jr. | May 5, 1987 |
An improved catalytic heater for heating an oxidizing gas, normally air, that contains a small percentage of a catalytically oxidizable gas, normally hydrogen, and a novel method of operation within the catalytic heater. A preheat catalytic chamber is defined within a primary catalytic chamber, and the air/hydrogen mixture is first flowed through the preheat chamber and then through the primary chamber, so that the gas will first be catalytically preheated as it passes through the preheat chamber and will be further heated within increased thermodynamic efficiency because of the preheating as it passes through the primary chamber. The preheat chamber is defined within massive heat sink means, preferably of brass, which obtains additional heat from the primary catalytic chamber so as to cause the preheat catalytic activity to be even further effective for overall increased thermodynamic effiency of the system, and the heat sink characteristic stabilizes the output temperature of the heated gas against fluctuations such as may be caused when the gas is employed as a breathing gas. A principal use of the invention is for breathing to overcome hypothermia.
Inventors: | Aviles, Jr.; Ernesto R. (San Diego, CA) |
Assignee: |
Applinc
(Lancaster,
CA)
|
Appl. No.: | 06/586,125 |
Filed: | March 5, 1984 |
Current U.S. Class: | 126/204 ; 128/202.26; 128/204.17; 422/122; 422/652 |
Current International Class: | A61M 16/10 (20060101); A61F 007/08 (); A62B 007/08 () |
Field of Search: | 431/268,326 128/204.17,202.26,212,186,192,142.4,146.3 126/204 422/122,187,193,195,197,238 |
3385286 | May 1968 | Jones |
3898049 | August 1975 | Burroughs et al. |
4008050 | February 1977 | Betz |
4016878 | April 1977 | Castel et al. |