Claims:1) A water guide tray 15 for application in an evaporative air cooler 10, wherein said water guide tray 15 comprises a horizontal shallow tray portion 25 bounded by an upstanding boundary wall 26 and a scoop 22 located in the bottom tray 15; wherein said guide tray 15 is characterized in functioning towards collecting the water dripping from evaporative pad(s) 14 and then guiding such water smoothly over the inner surface of the base tank 17 of the said air cooler 10, such that the water gets guided to move smoothly over the inner surface of said tank 17 and to prevent any water dripping noise therein.
2) A water guide tray 15 for application in an evaporative air cooler 10, as claimed in claim 1, wherein said guide tray 15 is provisioned to be located beneath one of the evaporative pad frame assembly 13, but above the surface of the water in the base tank 17; and wherein further said guide tray 15 is so provisioned that each of the evaporative pad 14, mounted with the pad frame assembly 13 is engaged and accommodated with or within the said tray 15, particularly for achieving most effective control over water dripping noise.
3) A water guide tray 15 for application in an evaporative air cooler 10, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dimension of said water guide tray 15 so selected that it completely accommodates the bottom part of the vertically positioned evaporative pad 14 mounted with the evaporative pad frame assembly 13, particularly which area of 14 or 13 is in contact with the said tray 15.
4) A water guide tray 15 for application in an evaporative air cooler 10, as claimed in claim 1, wherein in one preferred embodiment of said air cooler 10 said scoop 22 of the said guide tray 15 is tapered downwardly and has its upper end 28 formed as a closed portion therein.
5) A water guide tray 15 for application in an evaporative air cooler 10, as claimed in claim 1, wherein in one preferred embodiment of said air cooler 10 said guide tray 15 is provisioned to be readily fitted in position by engaging lugs 24, which are integrally formed on the side surface 29 of said the bottom guide tray 15 within bosses 30 formed on the under surface of the back panel 16 of the air cooler body 11; and wherein the location for bottom guide tray can optionally be suitably made in different possible manner too.
6) A water guide tray 15 for application in an evaporative air cooler 10, as claimed in claim 1, wherein in one preferred embodiment of said air cooler 10, said guide tray 15 is provided with a stepped surface 23 which divide the interior of the said guide tray 15 into two shallow water receiving compartments.
7) An evaporative air 10 cooler comprising of a housing having a water storage chamber connected to the said housing, means to blow out air from within the said air cooler 10, an evaporative cooling media, a pump to circulate water from said water storage chamber to the said evaporative cooling media, and at least one bottom water guide tray 15 wherein said cooler 10 is characterized in that the said water guide tray 15 comprises a horizontal shallow tray portion 25 bounded by an upstanding boundary wall 26 and a scoop 22 located half equally side of the bottom tray 15; wherein said guide tray 15 is characterized in functioning towards collecting the water dripping from evaporative pad(s) 14 and then guiding such water smoothly over the inner surface of the base tank 17.
8) An evaporative air 10 cooler, as claimed in claims 1 and 7, wherein the air delivery is optionally guided by a set of water guide tray as horizontal guides (15) and water guide tray as vertical guides (29), often termed as louvers, and, with such louvers being optionally motorized.
9) An evaporative air 10 cooler, as claimed in claims 1 and 7, wherein a water guide tray 15 is fitted below each such evaporative pad 14.
10) An evaporative air 10cooler, as claimed in claims 1 and 7, wherein the water guide tray 15 is shallow in depth but having dimensions (length and width) generally bigger than the width and depth of the cooling pads so that the entire water dripping out from the pads is collected into the water guide tray; and wherein the scoop means of the tray 15ensures that the water is guided to flow smoothly over the inner surface of a vertically oriented wall of the tank - such wall being straight or with some shape - and, the water does not drip / fall free into the tank.
, Description:FIELD OF INVENTION:
This invention relates to an evaporative air cooler with water guide tray. This invention further relates to such water guide tray which is fitted below the evaporative or cooling pad, and, such water guide tray functions to collect the water dripping from cooling pad, and, then guide such water smoothly over the inner surface of the tank, such that the water glides the water smoothly over the inner surface of the water tank bottom surface of water tank, rather than falling freely in the tank.

Background of the invention:
The principles of evaporative air cooling have been exploited for several decades by people of many countries to obtain relief from uncomfortably warm environments. Evaporative air coolers are more effective in dry, hot tropical locations. Present day air coolers typically comprise of a body, a water tank, fibre pads (of different possible materials), air moving device (axial or centrifugal or cross flow fans) and water circulation system. A motorized air moving device mounted within the body of the air cooler, with fibre pads on at least one of the sides of the air cooler, blows the cool air from the air outlet (usually at front or top of the air cooler). The loosely woven fibres of the fibre pads are made of hay or cellulose. In case when fibre pads are made of hay, hay wool is filled in the cotton net of the fibre pad and in the case when fibre pads are made of cellulose, the fibre pad consist of paper and special adhesive with multiple layer of corrugated paper arranged in honeycomb manner. The fibres of the pads are kept wetted using a water distribution system.
The water after wetting the pad and thereby cooling the air passing through the evaporative pads, falls back to the tank where it gets collected and then re-circulated by a pump to water distribution arrangement to evaporative/cooling pads.

Problems associated with the prior art:
Water distributed over the cooling pads serves a function to wet the pads uniformly, thereby evaporatively cooling the air passing through the evaporative pads. The part of the water gets evaporated and the balance water flows back from the pads to the tank of the cooler.
Free fall of water from evaporative pads to the water tank results into water dripping noise. This could be quite disturbing and distracting, particularly can disturb sleep at the night time.
Further, as the water evaporates, the level of water in tank keeps reducing and at some stage, when the water level in the tank is below the minimum specified, user has to re-fill water in the tank.
When the level of the water in the tank is reduced, the water dripping noise becomes more prominent and more disturbing.
Objects of the invention:
The object of the present invention is to provide an evaporative air cooler with novel arrangement of water guide tray, particularly below the evaporative pad of the said cooler.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an arrangement where such a water guide tray is able to collect the surplus water from the evaporative pads (water remaining after evaporative cooling process) and guide the water smoothly over the inner surface of the water tank to allow its smooth flow over the tank inner surface and prevent free flow into the tank.
Another object of the present invention is to propose such a water guide tray for the evaporative air cooler, wherein said guide tray is provisioned for being located below the evaporative pads of said cooler and which has dimension comparatively larger than the dimension of the evaporative pads (particularly mounted in its vertical position), and wherein said guide tray has scoop means arranged to communicate with inner surface of the said tank.
Further another object of the invention is to eliminates/substantially alleviates the disadvantages in the prior art evaporative air coolers, as mentioned in previous paragraphs.

Summary of the invention:
The present invention relates to an improved evaporative air cooler construction having a water guide tray. The invention further relates to the provision of water guiding means for an evaporative air cooler having a housing (with side panels, back panel, front panel, top panel) and a tank (the tank serving as water reservoir),with at least one of the side/back/front panels comprising of a evaporative pad. The water guide tray is located below the evaporative pads and the dimension of the bottom water guide tray is so selected that it completely accommodates the bottom part of the vertically positioned evaporative pad as well as the evaporative pad frame assembly and therefore it may be understood that the dimension of the said tray is substantially greater than the bottom area of said evaporative pad in its vertical position or said pad frame assembly, particularly which area of evaporative pador said pad frame assembly is in contact with the said water guide tray. Such guide tray having scoop means arranged to communicate with inner surface of the said tank. The arrangement being such that when the said evaporative air cooler is in use, the water draining from the bottom of the evaporative pad is collected by the said water guide tray and through the scoop means, the water falls on the surface of the tank, where it is smoothly guided down.
With such arrangement of water guide tray in an evaporative air cooler, not only the problem of water dripping noise is substantially solved but at the same time said water guide tray results in reducing unnecessary evaporation of water, without affecting the cooling efficacy of the said air cooler.
The air cooler of the present invention is designed to be used for the convenient cooling of any room or similarly enclosed or open space such as house, office, shop, warehouse, manufacturing location, process industry, assembly hall, restaurant etc.

This invention offers the following advantages:
i. Collect the water from the pads
ii. Guide such collected water over the tank inner surface, so as to let the water flow smoothly over tank inner surface
iii. Thereby eliminate the direct free fall of water into the tank
iv. Thereby eliminating the otherwise disturbing water dripping noise
v. Water collection tray is bigger than the cooling pad cross-section and this also means that this eliminates the chances of random water droplets leaking out from the pads to the outsides of the cooler.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:
The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein the same numerals are used to denote the same parts. However, it is made clear that the description and the drawings only illustrate the invention and in no way limit the same.
Figure 1 is perspective view of an evaporative air cooler in its assembled form;
Figure 2 is an exploded schematic view of the cooler illustrating the main component parts thereof;
Figure 3 is an isometric view of bottom tray;
Figure 4 is an underneath perspective view of the back panel of the cooler.

In one of the preferred embodiment as illustrated in the accompanying figures 1 to 4, the evaporative aircooler 10 comprises an evaporative cooler body 11, which itself comprises front panel 12, a back panel 16 and base tank 17. Adjacent to the back panel 16, there is located an evaporative pad frame assembly 13 (or simply referred as the pad assembly) comprising an evaporative pad 14 containing a fibrous absorbent material which is arranged to provide a large surface area for evaporation of the water which runs downwardly there through. The fan18 (axial or centrifugal or cross flow fans), which includes a fan housing 19, and motor 20, and the pump 21 for pumping water through the unit, are assembled in the cooler body in known manner as shown in FIG. 2.
Various type of pump and pumping arrangements are available in the prior art, and, this invention is not restrictive in use of such pumps.

In accordance with this invention, a provision is made for a bottom water guide tray 15 preferably constructed from injection moulded plastics material but could be constructed with any other suitable material, located beneath one of the evaporative pad frame assembly 13, but above the surface of the water in the base tank 17. The dimension of the bottom water-guide tray 15 is so selected that it completely accommodates the bottom part of the vertically positioned evaporative pad 14 as well as the evaporative pad frame assembly 13 and therefore it may be understood that the dimension of the said tray 15 is relatively greater than the bottom area of said evaporative pad 14 in its vertical position or said pad frame assembly 13, particularly which area of 14 or 13 is in contact with the said tray 15.In this preferred embodiment, the bottom guide tray 15 comprises a horizontal shallow tray portion 25 bounded by an upstanding boundary wall 26 and a scoop 22 located half equally side of the bottom tray 15 but such scoop could be arranged in any other manner also. The scoop 22 is tapered downwardly and has its upper end 28 formed as a closed portion therein.
Said bottom water guide tray 15 is so provisioned in an evaporative air cooler that each of the evaporative pad 14, mounted with the pad frame assembly 13 is engaged and accommodated with or within the said tray 15, particularly for achieving most effective control over water dripping noise.
The bottom guide tray 15 is readily fitted in position by engaging lugs 24, which are integrally formed on the side surface 29 of the bottom guide tray 15 within bosses 30 formed on the under surface of the back panel 16 of the cooler body 11. This enables the bottom tray to be also accurately located. The location for bottom guide tray can be suitably made in different possible manner too, and, thereby it can be fitted to any of the panels of the housing or any of the inner structural parts of the air cooler.
In this preferred embodiment, the bottom guide tray 15 is provided with a stepped surface 23 which divide the interior of the bottom tray 15 into two shallow water receiving compartments,
In addition to the above mentioned embodiments, it is to be understood that various modifications and alterations with regard to the types of the materials used, their method of joining together, and the attachments, and, the shape of the air cooler, the structure of the air cooler, the shapes / dimensions / orientations of the components as describes, the absence of certain optional components as described, and/or function may be made to the disclosed embodiments by one skilled in the art without departing from the invention as defined by the claims. Accordingly, the above disclosure is not to be considered as limiting and the appended claims are to be interpreted as encompassing the entire spirit and scope of the invention.