Importance

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Abstract

An improved air dryer having a heat exchanger through which ambient air passes between an input and an exit. The air passing through the heat exchanger for drying is normally chilled by the cold side of a thermoelectric module attached thereto. The normally opposite hot side of the thermoelectric module is attached to a heat sink which includes a fan which pulls ambient air through the heat sink for dissipating the heat from the thermoelectric module. The air passing through the heat exchanger is cooled by the thermoelectric module to a temperature below its dew point, causing the moisture in the air to be deposited on the chilled air passage walls of the heat exchanger, where it is frozen. When the air passageway of the heat exchanger becomes substantially closed by the ice formation on the walls thereof, the current to the thermoelectric module is reversed, whereby the normally cold side becomes the hot side and vice versa and, simultaneously, the air exiting is directed from an exit path to an alternate exit path. The heated ice, the ice formed on the passageway of the heat exchanger, thaws and is removed through the alternate exit path. The cooling and heating is then alternately repeated during the operation of the dryer. A timer is used to control the alternate reversing.

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First Claim