PERSONAL AIR DISTRIBUTION COOLING DEVICE POSITIONED NEAR AND AROUND THE USERS WAIST
Personal wearable comfort device that distributes fresh air around the users waist and core to help cool via convective and evaporative cooling. The system includes an air distribution belt which houses a fan assembly source for generating air movement and a breathable channel with a relatively air impermeable wrap for directing air movement. The fan assembly source for generating air movement is removable from the belt and consists of a small impeller blower, rechargeable battery, printed circuit board to drive user interface with power on/off and level selections. The breathable channel for air distribution is built using a highly breathable material that is wrapped with one or more materials designed to maintain airflow throughout the interior of the belt and deliver a level of comfort to the user. There are holes/pores introduced to this wrap material to direct the airflow out of the belt and across the ideal regions of the user's body for optimized distribution and thermal cooling performance. This breathable channel for air distribution is adjustable, washable, and customizable to the user.
The present application claims priority to, and incorporates by reference, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/144,206 filed on Feb. 1, 2021.
BACKGROUNDThe present invention relates to a personal air distribution device, namely, to a device worn around a user's waist having a fan that distributes airflow through and out of the device to cool the user.
A large amount of body heat is trapped between the body core and the clothing. There are multiple methods of cooling a person's body—of which two key methods include convection and evaporative cooling. Overheating, sweating, and being generally warm is a common issue that people deal with. The difficulty of cooling a body is that the person is normally wearing a piece of clothing which does not allow direct access of ambient air to the skin—this limits the amount of convective cooling or evaporative cooling that can take place—especially when the clothing has limited wicking or air flow characteristics. Similarly, if the person is not active and moving, there is limited opportunity for the ambient air to ‘flow across’ and ‘wash’ the heat and/or moisture away from the skin.
Everyone's body is different in how it regulates itself and the optimum climate that it prefers to maintain a neutral thermal condition. The opportunity to remove clothing, adjust the environmental conditions, or introduce an external device (i.e. a fan or ice pack) is not always available or reasonable depending on the situation. This affects people in many aspects of life including but not limited to athletic activities, business and casual work environments, or normal everyday routines.
Thus, a need exists for a cooling device that substantially solves the problems of the prior art.
The accompanying drawings provide an illustration of one embodiment of the system. Understanding that these drawings are meant to provide a visual representation of the description and only a single method of intended use or construction is not to limit the scope. Additional details and descriptions will be provided with the accompany of these drawings.
A personal cooling device which wraps around the users waist and delivers fresh air across the skin is disclosed herein. The present system outlines a method of which fresh air can be introduced to and pushed across the user's skin in order to cool via convection and evaporation.
With reference to the figures,
The power button can be pressed multiple times to achieve multiple fan speed setpoints.
The belt assembly (100) may or may not have additional pockets or regions that can be used for storing other devices such as a phone, key, wallet, or similar item. The belt assembly (100) may come in multiple different sizes with a level of flexibility to suite different waist dimensions, and also have an adjustable feature used to tighten or loosen.
The belt assembly (100) could be built with different thicknesses of the spacer monofilament (500) to target different use cases. For scenarios such as a business and indoor work environment where minimal sound and size is desired, low thickness as little as 1 mm thick with a height in the 1-2″ range could be used. This low profile could enable the belt assembly (100) to be fed through and used within the belt loops of a pair of pants. For scenarios where obscurity is not as critical and higher performance is important, this spacer monofilament (500) could be closer to 8 mm thick and have a cross section height of 1-4″.
Air flow distribution can be controlled using the holes/pores (400) or through use of an inherently breathable material that enables sufficient distribution while maintaining enough restriction so that the air does not escape the air distribution channel (102) too quickly. These holes/pores (400) can be actual holes, or another design which creates an exit point for the air such as slits, pores, or similar. As an alternate embodiment, rather than using holes introduced to the relatively impermeable material, there could be sections replaced with a more breathable material that effectively distributes the air gradually while maintaining some volume through the belt region. The holes/pores (400) can be created through the entire fabric stack-up or only the relatively non-impermeable material and be introduced to the assembly at the fabric component level or post assembly. A duplicate set of holes/pores (400) may be located on what is being considered the front of this belt for the scenario where a 2nd fan assembly (300) and fan pocket (101) is incorporated into the belt assembly (100).
Claims
1. A cooling device for cooling a user, comprising
- a belt having an interior channel, the belt adaptable to secure to the body of the user;
- a fan connected to the belt for generating air flow through the interior of the belt for cooling the user; and
- one or more pores in the belt where the air exits from the interior of the belt.
2. The device of claim 1 where the belt is adjustable in length.
3. The device of claim 1 where the belt includes a buckle.
4. The device of claim 1 further comprising a fan pocket for housing the fan.
5. The device of claim 1 where the pores are substantially evenly distributed along a perimeter of the belt.
6. The device of claim 1 where the pores at least partially wrap around multiple sides of the belt.
7. The device of claim 6 where the pores wrap around a top and a side of the belt that is adjacent to the user when the belt is worn.
8. The device of claim 1 where the belt is comprised of an outer relatively non-breathable outer layer, and an inner relatively more breathable layer whereby the air from the fan flows through the interior channel of the belt.
9. The device of claim 8 where the inner layer is comprised of multiple layers of material.
10. The device of claim 9 where at least one of the inner layers is stamped forming a channel for increased airflow within the inner channel of the belt.
11. The device of claim 8 where the outer layer is comprised of an outer layer conducive for contact with the user's skin and an inner mesh layer.
12. The device of claim 8 where the outer layer includes adhesive tabs to secure the inner layer to the outer layer.
13. The device of claim 8 where the portion of the inner layer adjacent to the pores is notched for increased airflow out of the pores.
14. The device of claim 10 where the portion of the inner layer adjacent to the pores is notched for increased airflow out of the pores, and the stamped areas create an air channel leading to the notches.
15. The device of claim 1 having multiple fans.
16. The device of claim 1 where the fan includes one or more stand offs to create a gap between an air intake of the fan and the belt into which the fan is contained.
17. The device of claim 1 where the fan is battery powered.
18. The device of claim 17 where the batteries are rechargeable.
19. The device of claim 4 where the pocket has a releasable closure.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 1, 2022
Publication Date: Aug 4, 2022
Inventor: Kody Karschnik (Plymouth, MN)
Application Number: 17/590,791