Blower wheel assembly having a dynamic seal member for providing an air seal on rotation of a blower wheel

This application is a continuation of application U.S. Ser. No. 10/902,881 filed on Aug. 2, 2004, which is a divisional application of U.S. Ser. No. 10/158,492, filed on May 31, 2002, which claims the priority benefit of Canadian Application No. 2,349,970, filed on May 31, 2001, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

The present invention relates to various systems and apparati as well as devices and structures which may be used or incorporated into air handling systems (e.g. (air) ventilation and/or heating and/or filtration systems and apparati, etc.) for the manipulation or control of air in a enclosure such as a building, a room of a structure such as a residence, and the like. Such air handling systems (e.g. ventilation apparati or systems) may for example include an element for the transfer of heat from warm exhaust air (taken from inside an enclosure e.g. a building) to cooler exterior fresh air (drawn into the enclosure e.g. building). The present invention further relates to air handling systems (e.g. ventilation systems and apparati) which may not only exhaust stale interior air to the outside of an enclosure but as desired or necessary also intermingle a portion of such stale air with fresh air for delivery of the intermingled air back into the enclosure (during cold or warm weather). The present invention in particular relates to air handling systems (e.g. ventilation systems and apparati) which may exploit warm interior air as defrost air for defrosting the system during cool weather. Heat recovery ventilation systems are known whose function is to draw fresh exterior air into a building and to exhaust stale interior air to the outside. The systems are provided with appropriate ducting, channels and the like which define a fresh air path and an exhaust air path whereby with the interior air of a building and the exterior ambient air may be exchanged; during ventilation the air in one path is not normally allowed to mix with the air in the other path. A heat recovery ventilator device which forms part of such a system is provided with corresponding air paths and also one or more heat exchange elements or cores. Heat recovery ventilation devices may also have a housing or cabinet; such enclosures may for example be of sheet metal construction (e.g. the top, bottom, side walls and any door, etc. may be made from panels of sheet metal). The heat exchanging element(s), as well as other elements of the device such as, for example, channels or ducts which define air paths, filtration means, insolation and if desired one or more fans for moving air through the fresh air and exhaust air paths may be disposed in the enclosure. Such ventilation devices may be disposed on the outside of or within a building such as a house, commercial building or the like; appropriate insulation may be provided around any duct work needed to connect the device to the fresh air source and the interior air of the building.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,610, for example, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,622 describe ventilation devices which exhaust stale inside air from a structure such a house while delivering fresh outside air to the interior of the building; the entire contents of each of these patents is incorporated herein by reference.

As mentioned above, it is known to exhaust stale interior air of an enclosure to the outside of the enclosure. It is also known to intermingle stale exhaust air of an enclosure with fresh air for delivery of the intermingled air back into the enclosure; the intermingled air prior to delivery back to the enclosure may as desired or necessary be subjected to one or more treatment stages such as for example a filtration stage, a heat transfer stage, etc. A disadvantage of such known intermingling systems or apparati is that the entire stale exhaust air flow stream is intermingled with a fresh air flow stream to obtain an intermingled air flow of greater volume than that of the initial exhaust air flow; it is this greater volume of intermingled air that is then subjected to a filtration stage. The so treated (i.e. filtered) air is then split into a first portion for delivery back to the enclosure and a second portion for exhausting to the exterior of the enclosure. A drawback of such a known system is that the air exhausted outside the enclosure (e.g. dwelling) has been subjected to a filtration treatment stage, a heat transfer stage, etc. before exhaustion. This reduces the efficiency of a filtering/heat transfer/purifying capability of the system for the enclosure (e.g. dwelling).

It would be advantageous to have a ventilation method, system, apparatus or the like which avoids the exhausting of a portion of treated air (e.g. filtered, heat treated. etc.) to the exterior of an enclosure.

Ventilation systems and devices such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,610, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,622 are known to exploit damper systems which control the flow of air through the various ducts and channels thereof. Such known damper systems may exploit dampers which are actuated (i.e. displaced from one position or configuration to another position or configuration) by means of rigid (metal) link rod(s) driven by a motor arm mounted directly on a damper actuation motor. These systems require significant precision to work properly because a slight variation in rod or arm length may result in improper damper closure. More particularly, such damper systems are used to control pairs (i.e. two) of dampers which respectively may close off or open a fresh air path as well as contemporaneously opening or closing off a stale exhaust air path. If one of the dampers fails to completely close while the other is still open, this may result in an air leak, which may lead to ice buildup under certain cold weather operating conditions. It would therefor be advantageous to have a damper system which comprises a plurality (i.e. two or more) dampers which are to be contemporaneously displaced which is self aligning, i.e. if a damper closes before the other, an activation component will be able to continue to act on the unclosed damper until the second damper is fully closed

It is also known that an ordinary ventilation unit, or system allowing air exchange with the exterior may cause discomfort like nose bleeding during the winter due to overdryness of air. It would be advantageous to have a damper means, which may be used to overcome this situation, and which reacts to constrict the flow of air as a function of temperature variations around the damper. It would in particular be advantageous if such a damper could react without recourse to an external (electrical) power source, i.e. the damper movement would be a purely mechanical device.

The present invention has a connector aspect. This connector aspect of the invention relates to a connector for securing together two elements at least one of which is of material having a relatively poor or weak gripping characteristic with respect to screw type attachment devices and/or bolt/nut attachment devices. The connector may be used to avoid stress concentration in the area of attachment.

The mentioned material, for example may have a relatively weak grip (or strength) on the screw threads of the thread part of the screw part embedded therein such that the screw thread end may be relatively easily dislodged from engagement with the material in which it is embedded. The attachment strength of the attachment device is therefor relatively weak.

It would be advantageous to have connector which may be attached to a structure of a friable material with a screw or similar attachment means but wherein the threaded part of the screw is screw engaged with the connector not the structure per se. It would also be advantageous to have a connector which may have an additional engagement component for connection to another structure.

The present invention also has an air diffuser aspect. This aspect of the present invention relates to means and mechanisms by which a first air stream or flow may be intermingled with a second air stream or flow.

It is known for example to provide an air a handling system which provides for the mixing of a cold (and possibly dry) air stream with a hot (and possibly humid) air stream. However, the intermingling or mixing of such streams may lead to the presence in the system of undesirable or unwanted water condensation and even snow or ice buildup; this is especially so if a cold/dry flow of air (exterior air) is merely brought into contact with the a flow of high humidity warm/hot air (interior air such as from a dwelling) during winter conditions. On the opposite side a similar undesirable water buildup (i.e. a liquid or solid) may occur in an air handling system if fresh hot humid outside air is contacted with relatively cool stale dry inside air (i.e. hot summer conditions).

It would be advantageous to have means or mechanism for an air handling system (e.g. an air ventilation system) whereby the mixing or intermingling of one air stream with a second air stream may be manipulated so as to provide a staggered or staged (i.e. gradual) mixing of one air flow into another air flow.

It would be advantageous for example to be able to manipulate air flow such that a first air stream may be split into sub-portions or sub-streams which may be gradually (e.g. sequentially) brought into contact with a second air stream in (intermittent or continuous) stages rather than being intermingled in a more or less single shot process

It would in particular be advantageous to have a dispersal or dispensing mechanism which would be able to provide for a graduated intermingling of one air flow with another air flow. It would further be advantageous to be able to associate with any air intermingling means (whether known or as described herein) a temperature responsive means able to choke off (once a predetermined cut-off fresh air temperature is reached, e.g. a too low outside air temperature) the inflow of a first (i.e. fresh air) air flow to the intermingling means and the out flow of a second (stale air) air flow with respect to an enclosure (e.g. dwelling), namely once a predetermined air inflow temperature is reached fresh air inflow and stale air exhaust (i.e. outflow from an enclosure) is inhibited or stopped outright (e.g. stale air may be merely recycled back to an enclosure without any added fresh air).

The present invention has a further blower assembly aspect. This (blower) aspect of the present invention relates to a blower wheel assembly which is provided with first and second blower wheels mounted on a common rotor shaft.

It is known to mount first and second spaced apart blower wheels on a common motor rotor shaft for use in a ventilation apparatus wherein one blower is to be associated with a fresh air stream and the other with a stale or exhaust air stream. For such an arrangement it is known to pass the portion of the motor rotor shaft associated with one blower through a respective baffle wall with the motor separated from the two air streams by both baffles, i.e. the motor is sandwiched between the pair of baffle walls. The air handling apparatus in which such blower assembly is incorporated must be relatively large to accommodate the blower structure. Additionally removal for servicing of the motor and/or blowers is complicated by the fact that the motor mus usually be separated from the blowers while still in the air handling apparatus.

It would be advantageous to have a relatively compact blower assembly for association with a motor. It would also be advantageous to have a blower assembly (which may be associated with a motor) which would facilitate servicing of an air handling system (e.g. apparatus) in which it is incorporated by allowing the blower assembly (and associated motor) to be removably as a single unit from the air handling system.

The present invention additionally has a mounting port aspect. This (port attachment/sealing) aspect of the invention relates to a mounting port of the type for connection to an opening means which may or may not exploit attachment means of the snap or quick connect type. The snap type of connectors are known and may exploit mateable male and female elements which are of materials or construction which promote spring like characteristic which allow for the quick connect or release of elements.

A difficulty with respect to such quick connect ports relates the sealing of the port to the inlet of an air pathway of an air handling apparatus, i.e. there is a tendency to leak unless a sealing element is provided.

It is also known to use a mounting port which is limited for attachment to single size duct.