Skip over navigation
Main CPC Sections USPC Class Numbers & Titles USPC Class Numbers Classification Search Page Contacts Help
Printable version [PDF]
HEAT-EXCHANGE APPARATUS, NOT PROVIDED FOR IN ANOTHER SUBCLASS, IN WHICH THE HEAT-EXCHANGE MEDIA COME INTO DIRECT CONTACT WITHOUT CHEMICAL INTERACTION (safety devices in general F16P; fluid heaters having heat generating means F24H; with an intermediate heat-transfer medium coming into direct contact with heat-exchange media F28D15/00 to F28D19/00; details of heat-exchange apparatus of general application F28F)
Definition statement
This subclass/group covers:
Heat exchangers involving heat transfer between different media without separating wall, e.g. cooling towers.
References relevant to classification in this subclass
This subclass/group does not cover:
Mixers
Chemical or physical processes
Fluid heaters having heat generating means
Regenerative heat exchangers
Latent heat storage in direct contact with a heat exchange medium or another latent heat storage medium
Direct-contact trickle coolers, e.g. cooling towers (building construction E04H5/12; enclosed spaces cooled by trickle F25; components parts of trickle coolers F28F25/00; [N: indirect-contact cooling towers F28B1/06])
Definition statement
This subclass/group covers:
Heat exchangers in which one medium trickles freely over a material and is brought into direct contact with a cooling medium. e.g. ambient air.
Cooling towers are classified according to the type of flow: counter-current, cross-current or both.
This group covers also:
  • The use of cooling towers for discharging exhaust gases.
  • Means for recovering heat from exhaust steam.
  • Noise suppressing means.
  • Freezing prevention means.
  • Combination wet/ dry sections (hybrid cooling towers).
  • Means for preventing mist formation above cooling towers.
References relevant to classification in this group
This subclass/group does not cover:
Building construction of cooling towers
Enclosed spaces cooled by trickle
F25
Dry cooling towers
Indirect contact heat exchangers in which one medium trickles freely over conduits
Indirect evaporative cooler
Component parts of trickle coolers
Other direct-contact heat exchange apparatus
Definition statement
This subclass/group covers:
Direct contact heat exchangers without trickling of one heat exchange medium, e.g. direct contact between two gases , between two liquids or between a liquid and a gas without or with change of state; one of the heat exchange medium being a fluent solid, e.g. direct contact fluidized bed.
References relevant to classification in this group
This subclass/group does not cover:
Preservation of food by heating loose materials
Evaporating with heated gases or vapours or liquids in contact with a liquid
Distillation or related exchange processes in which liquids are contacted with gaseous media, e.g. stripping
Mixing gases with liquids
Devices using other cold materials
Furnaces, ovens with cooling grates, endless belts, rotary drums
Direct contact condensers
Indirect contact fluidized bed
This page is owned by Office of Patent Classification.
Last Modified: 04/16/2013 4:31:16 PM