US Patent 7232076 Water spreading in evaporative coolers

A water spreader arrangement for use in an evaporative air cooler in which the spreader includes an inlet leading to generally vertical projections disposed over several levels. The projections are adapted to divide a single stream of water entering the inlet into many outlet streams, all of which have a predetermined ratio of flow rates. The outlet streams can be fed to an evaporative pad of an evaporative cooler. In a preferred form, the outlet streams have substantially the same flow rate. Preferably, a cooler incorporating this water spreader arrangement would include several spreaders around the upper periphery of the evaporative pads.