| abstract |
A spray nozzle system for skin treatments includes separate air outlets moving over the skin surface to deliver one or more streams of supplemental air for the purpose of warming or drying the skin surface to improve efficacy and comfort of the spraying experience. The drying air from the auxiliary ports may be applied while spray is emitted from the nozzle to increase the spray cloud temperature, or may be applied before or after the spray application, with the spray turned off, to warm or dry the skin. A heating source is provided to warm the air directed through one or more supplemental air ports. In the case of air-atomizing nozzles, the supplemental air is delivered through low pressure ports separately from the air emitted through the nozzle's atomizing and pattern shaping orifices to minimize the expansion cooling effect inherent with the spray nozzle ports. In another implementation, the airflow is redirected from the nozzle jets to one or more of the supplemental ports using a control valve which proportions the amount of airflow directed to the main atomizer air jets, the pattern shaping air jets and the supplemental air for drying the skin. |