EP1870658A1 - A heat exchanger and a method of manufacturing thereof - Google Patents
A heat exchanger and a method of manufacturing thereof Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- EP1870658A1 EP1870658A1 EP06012575A EP06012575A EP1870658A1 EP 1870658 A1 EP1870658 A1 EP 1870658A1 EP 06012575 A EP06012575 A EP 06012575A EP 06012575 A EP06012575 A EP 06012575A EP 1870658 A1 EP1870658 A1 EP 1870658A1
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- EP
- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- manifold
- heat exchanging
- module
- heat exchanger
- modules
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
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Classifications
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- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F28—HEAT EXCHANGE IN GENERAL
- F28D—HEAT-EXCHANGE APPARATUS, NOT PROVIDED FOR IN ANOTHER SUBCLASS, IN WHICH THE HEAT-EXCHANGE MEDIA DO NOT COME INTO DIRECT CONTACT
- F28D1/00—Heat-exchange apparatus having stationary conduit assemblies for one heat-exchange medium only, the media being in contact with different sides of the conduit wall, in which the other heat-exchange medium is a large body of fluid, e.g. domestic or motor car radiators
- F28D1/02—Heat-exchange apparatus having stationary conduit assemblies for one heat-exchange medium only, the media being in contact with different sides of the conduit wall, in which the other heat-exchange medium is a large body of fluid, e.g. domestic or motor car radiators with heat-exchange conduits immersed in the body of fluid
- F28D1/04—Heat-exchange apparatus having stationary conduit assemblies for one heat-exchange medium only, the media being in contact with different sides of the conduit wall, in which the other heat-exchange medium is a large body of fluid, e.g. domestic or motor car radiators with heat-exchange conduits immersed in the body of fluid with tubular conduits
- F28D1/053—Heat-exchange apparatus having stationary conduit assemblies for one heat-exchange medium only, the media being in contact with different sides of the conduit wall, in which the other heat-exchange medium is a large body of fluid, e.g. domestic or motor car radiators with heat-exchange conduits immersed in the body of fluid with tubular conduits the conduits being straight
- F28D1/0535—Heat-exchange apparatus having stationary conduit assemblies for one heat-exchange medium only, the media being in contact with different sides of the conduit wall, in which the other heat-exchange medium is a large body of fluid, e.g. domestic or motor car radiators with heat-exchange conduits immersed in the body of fluid with tubular conduits the conduits being straight the conduits having a non-circular cross-section
- F28D1/05358—Assemblies of conduits connected side by side or with individual headers, e.g. section type radiators
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- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F28—HEAT EXCHANGE IN GENERAL
- F28F—DETAILS OF HEAT-EXCHANGE AND HEAT-TRANSFER APPARATUS, OF GENERAL APPLICATION
- F28F9/00—Casings; Header boxes; Auxiliary supports for elements; Auxiliary members within casings
- F28F9/02—Header boxes; End plates
- F28F9/0202—Header boxes having their inner space divided by partitions
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- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F28—HEAT EXCHANGE IN GENERAL
- F28F—DETAILS OF HEAT-EXCHANGE AND HEAT-TRANSFER APPARATUS, OF GENERAL APPLICATION
- F28F9/00—Casings; Header boxes; Auxiliary supports for elements; Auxiliary members within casings
- F28F9/02—Header boxes; End plates
- F28F9/0219—Arrangements for sealing end plates into casing or header box; Header box sub-elements
- F28F9/0221—Header boxes or end plates formed by stacked elements
-
- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F28—HEAT EXCHANGE IN GENERAL
- F28F—DETAILS OF HEAT-EXCHANGE AND HEAT-TRANSFER APPARATUS, OF GENERAL APPLICATION
- F28F9/00—Casings; Header boxes; Auxiliary supports for elements; Auxiliary members within casings
- F28F9/02—Header boxes; End plates
- F28F9/04—Arrangements for sealing elements into header boxes or end plates
- F28F9/16—Arrangements for sealing elements into header boxes or end plates by permanent joints, e.g. by rolling
- F28F9/18—Arrangements for sealing elements into header boxes or end plates by permanent joints, e.g. by rolling by welding
-
- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F28—HEAT EXCHANGE IN GENERAL
- F28F—DETAILS OF HEAT-EXCHANGE AND HEAT-TRANSFER APPARATUS, OF GENERAL APPLICATION
- F28F2275/00—Fastening; Joining
- F28F2275/04—Fastening; Joining by brazing
-
- F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
- F28—HEAT EXCHANGE IN GENERAL
- F28F—DETAILS OF HEAT-EXCHANGE AND HEAT-TRANSFER APPARATUS, OF GENERAL APPLICATION
- F28F2275/00—Fastening; Joining
- F28F2275/14—Fastening; Joining by using form fitting connection, e.g. with tongue and groove
Definitions
- the invention relates to a heat exchanger including at least one heat exchanging core, having a number of substantially flat heat exchanging tubes disposed in parallel at a spacing, and at least one manifold fluidly connected with said at least one heat exchanging core and to a method of manufacturing such a heat exchanger.
- manifolds are produced by bending and welding flat aluminium sheets or by extruding aluminium profiles. Although these methods are relatively simple and efficient, they are not flexible, as in order to change the manifold dimensions e.g. to reflect the requirements of another installation the heat exchanger is going to be applied, it is necessary to change the relatively complicated tools, such us stamps and dies, employed to manufacture the manifolds.
- Heat exchangers made by extrusion or by bending and welding processes may not however be suitable in high pressure installations such as A/C automotive installation with the CO 2 heat exchanging medium, where the high pressure resistance is required. Due to technological conditions, it is difficult here to produce a manifold having appropriate wall thickness or to provide manifold with internal ribs or reinforcements. The last problem applies in particular to manifolds being bended and welded.
- the heat exchangers made by known methods do not enable to easily change the manner in which the heat exchanging medium passes through the heat exchanger (a so called pass arrangement).
- the object of the present invention is to provide a heat exchanger having an improved, flexible, compact construction, being readily adjustable with respect to required manifold dimensions and pass arrangement and featuring improved mechanical and pressure durability, as well as vibration resistance.
- An object of the invention is also providing a method of producing a heat exchanger of this type.
- a heat exchanger having at least one manifold formed as a stack of manifold modules, where each manifold module comprises the first face having a flat portion provided with at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion and at least one recessed portion opening at the front face of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube of a heat exchanging core and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube, and the second face having a flat portion provided with at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion, in configuration complementary with said at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion of the first face, and at least one recessed portion opening at the front face of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube of a heat exchanging core and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube, wherein said at least one convex portion of a face of a manifold module is located in said at least
- At least one chamber of at least one manifold module is separated by partition in a plane parallel to the tubes.
- a heat exchanger comprising only one manifold fluidly connected with said at least one heat exchanging core, which is formed by a stack of manifold modules, and each cooling core tube is at one end fluidly connected with the manifold, bent substantially in the middle of its length to form a U-shaped tubular arrangement, and fluidly connected with the manifold at the other end, wherein the heat exchanging means are placed within the tubular arrangements of each tube and between adjacent tubular arrangements, where a number of a manifold modules is provided with partitions in a plane parallel to the tubes, which define the required pass arrangement through said at least one heat exchanging core.
- thermodynamical features of the whole heat exchanger are largely improved. It is worth noting here, that according to the inventive construction of the heat exchanger, it is possible to employ the manifold modules having shapes and construction different to that described above. Applicable embodiments of manifold modules may be provided e.g. with slots for the heat exchanging tubes cut in the front face of each module instead of between top and bottom faces of two adjacent modules. Nevertheless, the application of the inventive manifold modules discussed above and, in particular, effortlessness of providing modules with horizontal partitions makes their use advantageous.
- At least one manifold module is provided with at least one internal rib forming a module reinforcement and/or partition.
- the rib may form a partition dividing a chamber of a manifold module into at least one pipe chamber, for receiving from and directing the heat exchanging medium to the heat exchanging tubes, and at least one separate main chamber.
- the ribs further advantageously enable to form a heat exchanger comprising at least two heat exchanging cores, where the chambers of the modules are separated by partitions. If appropriate, at least one of these partitions may be provided with passage.
- Such a heat exchanger is appropriate as an integrated heat exchanger, such us motor vehicle heating, ventilation and air conditioning integrated unit.
- the manifold may advantageously be closed with closing caps inserted into outlines of chambers of the topmost and the bottommost manifold modules.
- the front faces of the manifold modules are preferably at least one-sidedly slanted with respect to the longitudinal axis of the heat exchanging tube.
- the manifold modules are shaped by stamping, cold forming or impact extruding and, if appropriate, piercing or punching the module in order to form hollow chambers.
- the area of the apertures defined by the recessed portions of adjacent manifold modules in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the heat exchanging tubes is greater at the outlet of the aperture than inside the module.
- the recessed portions are provided with grooves formed in the inner hips of the flat portions.
- manifold modules are provided with at least one guiding lock.
- the lock may also be formed by appropriate configuration of complementary convex and concave portions of adjacent faces of manifold modules.
- a method of manufacturing a heat exchanger comprising at least one heat exchanging core comprising a number of substantially flat heat exchanging tubes disposed in parallel at a spacing and at least one manifold fluidly connected with said at least one heat exchanging core, where each manifold is formed by a stack of manifold modules, which method comprises the following steps:
- the outline defining step (i) advantageously involves cutting substantially flat sheet of metal coated at the top and at the bottom by a brazing layer to achieve the basic outline of the manifold module.
- the outline defining step (i) preferably involves cutting slices from a metal bar having the basic outline of the manifold module and subsequently coating the slices by a brazing agent or inserting the brazing layers on both faces of each element prior the shaping step (ii).
- the shaping step (ii) of the method of the present invention preferably involves (a) stamping, cold forming or impact extruding the elements formed in step (i) and, if appropriate, (b) piercing or punching the module in order to form a hollow chambers.
- the step (vi) of joining said at least manifold with said at least one core is performed simultaneously layer by layer with the step (iii) of stacking the manifolds modules, the step (v) of stacking said at least one heat exchanging core and the step (iv) of closing the topmost and the bottommost manifold modules.
- the heat exchanger of the invention may form a single, in particular, one core unit, such as motor vehicle radiator, A/C evaporator or gas cooler or an integrated unit, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit, integrated motor vehicle condenser, radiator, cooling fan module (CRFM) and so on.
- HVAC heating, ventilation and air conditioning
- CRFM cooling fan module
- cooling core refers to a stack tubes of disposed in parallel at a spacing, with heat exchanging means, preferably in a form of a cooling fins or corrugated tape, placed between the tubes. It is to be understood that two or more cooling cores may be interlinked by a common manifold, as well as common heat exchanging means.
- a heat exchanger 1 a shown in Fig. 1 is an automotive air condition evaporator. It comprises the first and the second manifold 2a and 2b which are fluidly connected with two heat exchanging cores 3a and 3b. As indicated by arrows, the refrigerant flows into the manifold 2a through an inlet opening 4, then through the stack of parallel heat exchanging tubes 5a to the second manifold 2b and back through the stack of parallel heat exchanging tubes 5b to the manifold 2a to leave the evaporator via an outlet opening 6.
- the heat exchanging cores 3a and 3b comprise respectively a plurality of parallel layers of heat exchanging tubes 5a and 5b and common stripes of heat exchanging fins 7 arranged interchangeably between each two pairs of tubes 5a and 5b, so that each layer comprises two parallel, coplanar tubes 5a and 5b and one stripe of fins 7.
- the manifold 2a is formed by a stack of plurality (in this case 15) manifold modules 8a fluidly connected with opposite ends of each tube 5a and 5b inserted into appropriate apertures of the manifold 2a.
- the manifold 2a is closed at the top by pipe fittings 9 and at the bottom by module 8d.
- the modules 8a and 8d are separated in the middle by a vertical partition enforcing the required flow of refrigerant and reinforcing the structure of the manifold 2a.
- the manifold 2b is formed by a stack of fourteen manifold modules 8b and closed at the top and at the bottom by modules 8c.
- the vertical partition does not separate the modules 8b and 8c entirely, serving only as a reinforcing rib and enabling the flow of heat exchanging medium between the heat exchanging cores 3a and 3b.
- Configurations of the top and bottom faces of each heat exchanger module are complementary in such a way that the top face of one module adheres to the bottom face of a neighbouring module placed directly above it in the stack.
- the inlet and outlet openings of the heat exchanger of the invention may be connected to the heat exchanger in various ways, e.g. to the top module of one manifold, to the top modules of opposite manifolds, to the top and bottom modules of one manifold, to a module within the stack of modules forming a manifolds, etc.
- Fig. 2 shows detailed top view of the manifold module 8a.
- the module has been cut to achieve its basic outline from a flat aluminium sheet of a thickness h coated at the top and at the bottom by layers of brazing flux clad.
- the basic outline of the module may also be produced e.g. by cutting slices of a width h from an aluminium bar already having an appropriate profile.
- the clad surface is obtained e.g. by coating the slices with a brazing flux clad, inserting clad strips on both faces of the module prior its shaping or any other suitable method of clad treatment.
- the next steps of manufacturing the module involve its shaping e.g. by stamping, cold forming or impact extruding and, where it is necessary, piercing or punching the module in order to form a hollow chambers.
- the top face of the module 8a comprises a flat portion 11 provided with convex peripheral rim 12, which begins and ends at the front face 10 of the module 8a and surrounds the side wall 13 of the module.
- the flat portion 11 further forms a partition 14 separating the module into the two chambers 15a and 15b, which pass through the module and are separated by reinforcing ribs 16.
- the flat portion 11 is provided with top recessed portions 17a and 17b defining the bottom parts of apertures for the ends of heat exchanging tubes 5a and 5b.
- the width and the shape of recessed portions 17a and 17b match the widths and shapes of the exchanging tubes 5a and 5b.
- the longitudinal sections of recessed portions 17a and 17b match the one half of the transverse section of the heat exchanging core tubes 5a and 5b.
- the width "a" of the part of an aperture formed by the recessed portion 17b is larger then the width "c" of the chamber 15b, so that grooves 18b are formed in the inner hips of the flat portion 11.
- the grooves 18b increase the surface of junction between the tubes 5b and the manifold 2a so that the joint between tube and a stacked manifold is more rigid and the whole construction of the heat exchanger is more durable.
- the grooves 18b limit the insertion depth of the tubes inside the manifold 2a.
- Similar groves 18a are formed in the recessed portion 17a of the chamber 15a.
- the peripheral rim 12 is also provided with locks 19a and 19b.
- the second or, as in this embodiment, the bottom face of the module 8a also comprises a flat portion 20 with a partition 21 separating the module chambers 15a and 15b.
- the flat portion 20 is substantially coplanar with the surface of the aluminium sheet or slice that formed the basic outline of the module prior the shaping step.
- a concave peripheral recess 22 surrounding the side wall 13 of the module and complementary to the peripheral rim 12 of the top face of the module, as well as bottom recessed portions 23a and 23b defining the bottom parts of apertures for the ends of heat exchanging tubes 5a and 5b, have been formed.
- the bottom recessed portions 23a and 23b are of the same shape as the top recessed portions 17a and 17b respectively, and are provided with an analogous set of grooves 24a and 24b stamped in the inner hips of the flat surface 20.
- the peripheral recess 22 is also provided with a female lock 25a in the form of a semicircular convexity and two locks 25b, all of the shape and site complementary to the male locks 19a and 19b of the top face.
- the locks provide boundary constrains between the neighbouring modules in the manifold stack and thus facilitate the assembly of a heat exchanger.
- Fig. 4 schematically shows a "sandwich type" method of assembling the evaporator shown in Fig. 1.
- Each layer of the exchanger is assembled manually or automatically on the top of the stack of already assembled layers.
- the process begins with the bottom modules 8c and 8d provided with horizontal partitions.
- To form the first layer first a pair of the tubes 5a and 5b is placed in appropriate top recessed portions of the top face of corresponding bottom manifold modules 8d and 8c then the stripe 7 of the heat exchanging fins and the next pair of manifold modules 8a and 8b is stacked on the top of the tubes, and so forth up to the topmost layer.
- the assembling is finished after closing the manifold 2a by the pipe fittings 9 and manifold 2b by module 8c.
- the peripheral rims 12, the peripheral recesses 22 and the locks 19, 25 ensure the precise stacking of the manifold by blocking the relative movement of the modules in a plane perpendicular to the manifold longitudinal axis.
- Fig. 5 shows another, "load type” method of assembling the heat exchanger according to the invention, which advantageously enables to employ existing stacking machines.
- the cores 3a and 3b, as well as the manifolds 2a and 2b are assembled separately, and the whole unit is mounted by pressing the manifolds 2a and 2b onto the cores in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tubes 5a and 5b.
- the ends of grooves of the recessed portions of the manifold modules ensure that the tubes shall be correctly inserted inside the apertures formed by the top and the bottom recessed portions 17 and 23.
- the manifolds 2a and 2b are closed by closing caps 26 pushed in the chambers 15a and 15b of the modules 8a and 8b.
- the caps 26 and the pipe fittings 9 are made from fragments of an aluminium pipe covered by a brazing agent and shaped to correspond to the outline of the chambers 15a or 15b of the modules at one end.
- the caps 26 are clamped at the end to form a closing sealing.
- the heat exchanger 1 After assembling the heat exchanger 1, it is placed inside an oven where it is brazed, preferably in a so called one shot brazing. During this process the clad fills the gaps between the peripheral rims 12 and the peripheral recesses 22 of each two adjacent modules, which substantially increase the pressure tightness of manifolds.
- Figs. 6 to 7 show the construction of the manifold module 8c employed as a closing module of a heat exchanger shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 4.
- the chambers of the module 8c are provided with horizontal partitions 27a and 27b disallowing the vertical flow of heat exchanging medium. Instead it may freely flow through the passage 28 or 29, which is formed as recessed portion respectively in the partitions 14 and 21.
- Fig. 9 shows an embodiment of a serpentine heat exchanger 1c of the present invention forming an automotive A/C evaporator.
- modules 8 are not required, their features discussed above are advantageous.
- the evaporator 1 c comprises only one manifold 2, formed as a stack of manifold modules 8e - 8h.
- Each heat exchanging tube is bent in the middle of its length, forming a U-shaped tubular arrangement fluidly connected with the manifold at its both ends.
- the arrangements are disposed in parallel at a spacing one on another forming two cores (only the first core 3c is shown in the drawing).
- the heat exchanging means in a form of heat exchanging fins 7 are placed inside the spaces defined by each tubular arrangement, as well as between each two adjacent tubes 5c.
- the whole unit is additionally supported by a clamp 30 fixed to the topmost module 8h and to the bottommost module 8g in a manner not discussed in detail.
- Modules 8e - 8h are appropriately provided with horizontal and/or vertical partitions defining the required flow of heat exchanging medium.
- Fig. 10 shows a top view of the module 8e.
- the chamber of the module is additionally divided into two pipe chambers 15c and 15d and one main chamber 15e separated by reinforcing ribs 16.
- Partition 14 separates the pipe chambers 15c and 15d, while additional partition 31 isolates the pipe chambers from the main chamber 15e.
- the top face of the module further comprises a male arrow shaped lock 19c complementary with a female lock of the bottom face (not shown).
- the heat exchanging medium flows through the inlet opening 4 to the right (relative to Fig. 9) portion of the main chamber 15e of the module 8h having the left portion of the main chamber 15e separated by vertical partition.
- the medium starts to flow at the whole width of the main chamber 15e through all modules of the manifold 2 to the bottommost module 8g having a vertical partition closing all the module chambers 15c, 15d and 15e at the bottom.
- the module 8g does not comprise the partition 31, so the heat exchanging medium may freely flow to the pipe chambers 15c and 15d.
- Modules 8f are provided with vertical partitions separating the top and the bottom portions of the pipe chambers 15c and 15d, to receive and direct the medium to the pipes of the two cooling cores instead of adjacent modules 8e.
- the medium enters the pipe chambers 15c and 15d of the module 8f at the top, flows to the pipe chambers of the topmost module 8h where it is directed to the top portion of the left main chamber 15e, above the vertical partition, separating the left portion of the main chamber 15e of the module 8h, and received via the outlet opening 6.
- Other possible pass arrangements shall be readily visible to a skilled technician.
- FIG. 11 Another embodiment of the manifold module 8i is shown in Fig. 11, where the main chambers 15f and 15g form two circular distribution canals. In this embodiment however each main chamber 15f and 15g is joined with the appropriate pipe chamber 15c or 15d, which are separated with partition 21.
- the module 8i may also be employed to form a manifold of a serpentine heat exchanger similar to that of Fig. 9, having the inlet and outlet openings e.g. at the opposite sides of the single manifold.
- the module 18i is further provided with a pair of locks 19d close to the edge of the recess 22 which matches the female locks (not shown) formed in the rim of the other face of the module.
- the recessed portions 23a and 23b of the module 8i are chamfered at the front face 10 of the module so that that width of the apertures for the heat exchanging tubes, defined by the recessed portions 17 and 23 of adjacent modules 8i is greater at the outlet of the aperture than inside the module (a 1 > a). This feature facilitates sliding-in the tubes inside the manifold.
- Fig. 12 shows yet another embodiment of a manifold module 8j employed to manufacture a gas cooler of an A/C installation having only one cooling core.
- the modules 8j are of a semicircular cross-section and are provided with only one chamber 15 separated in the middle by partition 16 and opening into the apertures for the cooling core tubes formed by the bottom and the top recessed portions 17 and 23.
- the guiding grooves are not present in this embodiment as the insert constraint for the tubes is formed simply by the curvature of the inner wall of the chamber 15.
- the top face of the module is provided both with a chamfered convex rim 12a and a concave portion 22a.
- the convex rim 12a of the top face of the module 8j surrounds the concave portion 22b of the bottom face of an adjacent module stacked at the top of this one.
- the concave portion 22a of the top face of the module 8j is surrounded by the convex rim 12b of the bottom face of an adjacent module in a stack.
- the flat portions 11 a and 20a are separated with the convex lock 19e, while the flat portions 11 b and 20b are separated with a corresponding concave lock (not shown).
- the recessed portions 17 and 23 widen conically toward the front face 10 of the module, so that an angle "b 1 " is created. This feature facilitates the process of inserting the heat exchanging tubes, which is advantageous, in particular in a load type method shown in Fig.5.
- Fig. 13 presents top view of one more embodiment of a manifold module 8k for a heat exchanger with two cooling cores.
- the front face 10 of the module is symmetrically slanted from both sides with respect to plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the cooling core tubes, depicted on the drawing by a dashed line.
- a cross-section of a heat exchanger 1d having manifolds formed as a stack of modules 8k is shown schematically in Fig. 14.
- the heat exchanger 1d of this type operates as an air flow reducer, behaving similarly to the diffuser, as the air flowing through the cooling cores 3a and 3b is compressed behind the core 3a and decompressed behind the core 3b.
- Rising air flow speed removes water or ash accumulated between the cooling core tubes, so that retention of these substances in the heat exchanging core may be substantially reduced or even avoided.
- the module 8k When applied in an A/C evaporator, the module 8k also decreases or even eliminates a problem of odour occurrence or freezing phenomenon.
- Heat exchangers of this type may also be installed in the vertical position, i.e. such that the manifolds are mounted horizontally. It should be noted that to achieve the foregoing results it is sufficient if the manifold module is slanted only from one side.
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- Heat-Exchange Devices With Radiators And Conduit Assemblies (AREA)
Abstract
Description
- The invention relates to a heat exchanger including at least one heat exchanging core, having a number of substantially flat heat exchanging tubes disposed in parallel at a spacing, and at least one manifold fluidly connected with said at least one heat exchanging core and to a method of manufacturing such a heat exchanger.
- In typical heat exchangers, manifolds are produced by bending and welding flat aluminium sheets or by extruding aluminium profiles. Although these methods are relatively simple and efficient, they are not flexible, as in order to change the manifold dimensions e.g. to reflect the requirements of another installation the heat exchanger is going to be applied, it is necessary to change the relatively complicated tools, such us stamps and dies, employed to manufacture the manifolds.
- To overcome this drawback, it is known e.g. from
U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,567 to form a manifold as a stack of modules cut from aluminium extrudate and having the front face provided with apertures for the ends of heat exchanging tubes. Similar solutions are also known fromU.S. Pat. No. 4,969,512 ,U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,728 orGerman application DE 101 12 697 . - Heat exchangers made by extrusion or by bending and welding processes may not however be suitable in high pressure installations such as A/C automotive installation with the CO2 heat exchanging medium, where the high pressure resistance is required. Due to technological conditions, it is difficult here to produce a manifold having appropriate wall thickness or to provide manifold with internal ribs or reinforcements. The last problem applies in particular to manifolds being bended and welded.
- Moreover, the heat exchangers made by known methods do not enable to easily change the manner in which the heat exchanging medium passes through the heat exchanger (a so called pass arrangement).
- The object of the present invention is to provide a heat exchanger having an improved, flexible, compact construction, being readily adjustable with respect to required manifold dimensions and pass arrangement and featuring improved mechanical and pressure durability, as well as vibration resistance.
- An object of the invention is also providing a method of producing a heat exchanger of this type.
- According to the present invention, there is provided a heat exchanger having at least one manifold formed as a stack of manifold modules, where each manifold module comprises the first face having a flat portion provided with at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion and at least one recessed portion opening at the front face of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube of a heat exchanging core and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube, and the second face having a flat portion provided with at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion, in configuration complementary with said at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion of the first face, and at least one recessed portion opening at the front face of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube of a heat exchanging core and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube, wherein said at least one convex portion of a face of a manifold module is located in said at least one concave portion of a face of adjacent manifold module and the recessed portions of adjacent manifold modules define the aperture for the end of the heat exchanging tube.
- Preferably, at least one chamber of at least one manifold module is separated by partition in a plane parallel to the tubes.
- According to the present invention, there is also provided a heat exchanger comprising only one manifold fluidly connected with said at least one heat exchanging core, which is formed by a stack of manifold modules, and each cooling core tube is at one end fluidly connected with the manifold, bent substantially in the middle of its length to form a U-shaped tubular arrangement, and fluidly connected with the manifold at the other end, wherein the heat exchanging means are placed within the tubular arrangements of each tube and between adjacent tubular arrangements, where a number of a manifold modules is provided with partitions in a plane parallel to the tubes, which define the required pass arrangement through said at least one heat exchanging core.
- Since the heat exchanging medium flows only through one manifold, the utilization of a heat exchanging core and thermodynamical features of the whole heat exchanger are largely improved. It is worth noting here, that according to the inventive construction of the heat exchanger, it is possible to employ the manifold modules having shapes and construction different to that described above. Applicable embodiments of manifold modules may be provided e.g. with slots for the heat exchanging tubes cut in the front face of each module instead of between top and bottom faces of two adjacent modules. Nevertheless, the application of the inventive manifold modules discussed above and, in particular, effortlessness of providing modules with horizontal partitions makes their use advantageous.
- Preferably, at least one manifold module is provided with at least one internal rib forming a module reinforcement and/or partition.
- In particular, the rib may form a partition dividing a chamber of a manifold module into at least one pipe chamber, for receiving from and directing the heat exchanging medium to the heat exchanging tubes, and at least one separate main chamber.
- The ribs further advantageously enable to form a heat exchanger comprising at least two heat exchanging cores, where the chambers of the modules are separated by partitions. If appropriate, at least one of these partitions may be provided with passage.
- Such a heat exchanger is appropriate as an integrated heat exchanger, such us motor vehicle heating, ventilation and air conditioning integrated unit.
- The manifold may advantageously be closed with closing caps inserted into outlines of chambers of the topmost and the bottommost manifold modules.
- To increase the speed of air flowing through the heat exchanger, the front faces of the manifold modules are preferably at least one-sidedly slanted with respect to the longitudinal axis of the heat exchanging tube.
- Preferably, the manifold modules are shaped by stamping, cold forming or impact extruding and, if appropriate, piercing or punching the module in order to form hollow chambers.
- To facilitate the insertion of the heat exchanging tubes inside the manifold, the area of the apertures defined by the recessed portions of adjacent manifold modules in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the heat exchanging tubes is greater at the outlet of the aperture than inside the module.
- To improve the joint between the tubes and the manifold and to delimit their insertion depth, the recessed portions are provided with grooves formed in the inner hips of the flat portions.
- Further, the manifold modules are provided with at least one guiding lock. Obviously, the lock may also be formed by appropriate configuration of complementary convex and concave portions of adjacent faces of manifold modules.
- Finally according to the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a heat exchanger comprising at least one heat exchanging core comprising a number of substantially flat heat exchanging tubes disposed in parallel at a spacing and at least one manifold fluidly connected with said at least one heat exchanging core, where each manifold is formed by a stack of manifold modules, which method comprises the following steps:
- (i) the outline defining step of preparing a plurality of elements having a horizontal cross-section substantially corresponding to the cross-section of the manifold;
- (ii) the shaping step of forming a plurality of the manifold modules, so that each manifold module comprises
- (a) the first face having a flat portion provided with at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion and at least one recessed portion opening at the front face of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube of said at least one heat exchanging core and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube, and
- (b) the second face having a flat portion provided with at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion, in configuration complementary with said at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion of the first face, and at least one recessed portion opening at the front face of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube of said at least one heat exchanging core and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube;
- (iii) the step of stacking the manifold modules one on top of the other in order to form at least one manifold, wherein said at least one convex portion of a face of each manifold module is located in said at least one concave portion of a face of adjacent manifold module and the recessed portions of adjacent manifold modules define the aperture for the end of the heat exchanging tube;
- (iv) the step of closing the topmost and the bottommost manifold modules;
- (v) the step of stacking said at least one heat exchanging core by forming layers of the heat exchanging tubes separated by the heat exchanging means;
- (vi) the step of joining said at least manifold with said at least one core;
- (vii) the step of brazing the heat exchanger, preferably in a one shot brazing operation.
- The outline defining step (i) advantageously involves cutting substantially flat sheet of metal coated at the top and at the bottom by a brazing layer to achieve the basic outline of the manifold module.
- Alternatively, the outline defining step (i) preferably involves cutting slices from a metal bar having the basic outline of the manifold module and subsequently coating the slices by a brazing agent or inserting the brazing layers on both faces of each element prior the shaping step (ii).
- The shaping step (ii) of the method of the present invention preferably involves (a) stamping, cold forming or impact extruding the elements formed in step (i) and, if appropriate, (b) piercing or punching the module in order to form a hollow chambers.
- Preferably, the step (vi) of joining said at least manifold with said at least one core is performed simultaneously layer by layer with the step (iii) of stacking the manifolds modules, the step (v) of stacking said at least one heat exchanging core and the step (iv) of closing the topmost and the bottommost manifold modules.
- The heat exchanger of the invention may form a single, in particular, one core unit, such as motor vehicle radiator, A/C evaporator or gas cooler or an integrated unit, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit, integrated motor vehicle condenser, radiator, cooling fan module (CRFM) and so on.
- The term "cooling core" as used above and below refers to a stack tubes of disposed in parallel at a spacing, with heat exchanging means, preferably in a form of a cooling fins or corrugated tape, placed between the tubes. It is to be understood that two or more cooling cores may be interlinked by a common manifold, as well as common heat exchanging means.
- The invention is presented below by way of exemplary embodiments in connection with the drawings on which:
- Fig. 1 is an axonometric view of an embodiment of a heat exchanger according to the present invention;
- Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show one of the manifold modules of a heat exchanger from Fig. 1 respectively in an axonometric top and bottom view;
- Fig. 4 schematically illustrates a method of assembling a heat exchanger from Fig. 1;
- Fig. 5 schematically illustrates another method of assembling a heat exchanger according to the present invention;
- Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show another manifold module of a heat exchanger from Fig. 1 respectively in an axonometric top and bottom view;
- Fig. 8 shows a front view of manifold portion comprising modules shown in Figs. 2, 3 6 and 7;
- Fig. 9 shows another embodiment of a heat exchanger according to the present invention;
- Fig. 10 shows one of the manifold modules employed in a heat exchanger from Fig. 9 in an axonometric top view;
- Fig. 11 shows another embodiment of a manifold module with distribution canals in an axonometric bottom view;
- Fig. 12 shows a stack of two manifold modules of yet another embodiment in an axonometric top view;
- Fig. 13 show yet another embodiment of a manifold module in a top view; and
- Fig. 14 schematically shows a cross-section through an embodiment of a heat exchanger comprising modules shown in Fig. 13.
- A
heat exchanger 1 a shown in Fig. 1 is an automotive air condition evaporator. It comprises the first and thesecond manifold heat exchanging cores inlet opening 4, then through the stack of parallelheat exchanging tubes 5a to thesecond manifold 2b and back through the stack of parallelheat exchanging tubes 5b to the manifold 2a to leave the evaporator via anoutlet opening 6. - Above and below reference numerals of the same elements and features remain the same, where the suffixes (e.g. 2a) denote variants of the corresponding elements or features (e.g. 2) having the similar functions. The denotations "bottom", "top", "left", "right", "horizontal", "vertical", etc. should not be regarded as implying any technological feature and are relative only to the drawing. Further, for simplicity of the drawing, the inlet and outlet pipes, brackets, as well as other auxiliary heat exchanging system components of particular embodiments of the heat exchanger of the present invention were omitted.
- The
heat exchanging cores heat exchanging tubes heat exchanging fins 7 arranged interchangeably between each two pairs oftubes coplanar tubes fins 7. - The manifold 2a is formed by a stack of plurality (in this case 15)
manifold modules 8a fluidly connected with opposite ends of eachtube pipe fittings 9 and at the bottom bymodule 8d. Themodules manifold 2b is formed by a stack of fourteenmanifold modules 8b and closed at the top and at the bottom bymodules 8c. In this case, however, the vertical partition does not separate themodules heat exchanging cores - It shall be apparent for a person skilled in the art that the inlet and outlet openings of the heat exchanger of the invention may be connected to the heat exchanger in various ways, e.g. to the top module of one manifold, to the top modules of opposite manifolds, to the top and bottom modules of one manifold, to a module within the stack of modules forming a manifolds, etc.
- Reference is now made to the Figs. 2 and 3 showing the constructional details of the
manifold module 8a. The main features of themodules - Fig. 2 shows detailed top view of the
manifold module 8a. In this embodiment the module has been cut to achieve its basic outline from a flat aluminium sheet of a thickness h coated at the top and at the bottom by layers of brazing flux clad. The basic outline of the module may also be produced e.g. by cutting slices of a width h from an aluminium bar already having an appropriate profile. In the second method the clad surface is obtained e.g. by coating the slices with a brazing flux clad, inserting clad strips on both faces of the module prior its shaping or any other suitable method of clad treatment. - Regardless of the applied method of producing, the basic outline of the manifold module, the next steps of manufacturing the module involve its shaping e.g. by stamping, cold forming or impact extruding and, where it is necessary, piercing or punching the module in order to form a hollow chambers. These methods allow to differentiate the wall thickness of the shaped elements and to provide modules with ribs and partitions as required.
- As a result of the shaping step, the first or, as in this embodiment, the top face of the
module 8a comprises aflat portion 11 provided with convexperipheral rim 12, which begins and ends at thefront face 10 of themodule 8a and surrounds theside wall 13 of the module. Theflat portion 11 further forms apartition 14 separating the module into the twochambers ribs 16. Finally, theflat portion 11 is provided with top recessedportions heat exchanging tubes portions tubes portions core tubes - In order to reinforce the heat exchanger construction, the width "a" of the part of an aperture formed by the recessed
portion 17b is larger then the width "c" of thechamber 15b, so thatgrooves 18b are formed in the inner hips of theflat portion 11. Thegrooves 18b increase the surface of junction between thetubes 5b and the manifold 2a so that the joint between tube and a stacked manifold is more rigid and the whole construction of the heat exchanger is more durable. Moreover, thegrooves 18b limit the insertion depth of the tubes inside the manifold 2a.Similar groves 18a are formed in the recessedportion 17a of thechamber 15a. Theperipheral rim 12 is also provided withlocks - As shown in Fig. 3, the second or, as in this embodiment, the bottom face of the
module 8a also comprises aflat portion 20 with apartition 21 separating themodule chambers top face 11 of the module, theflat portion 20 is substantially coplanar with the surface of the aluminium sheet or slice that formed the basic outline of the module prior the shaping step. During the shaping of the module, a concaveperipheral recess 22 surrounding theside wall 13 of the module and complementary to theperipheral rim 12 of the top face of the module, as well as bottom recessedportions heat exchanging tubes - The bottom recessed
portions portions grooves flat surface 20. Theperipheral recess 22 is also provided with afemale lock 25a in the form of a semicircular convexity and twolocks 25b, all of the shape and site complementary to themale locks - Referring to Figs. 2 and 3 together, it is visible that the top and bottom faces of reinforcing
ribs 16 are arranged respectively below and above the top and the bottom recessed portions. This arrangement defines outlines of thechambers pipe fittings 9. It is also visible that after assembling the heat exchanger a sufficient vertical clearance, enabling unrestricted flow of refrigerant along thechambers - Fig. 4 schematically shows a "sandwich type" method of assembling the evaporator shown in Fig. 1. Each layer of the exchanger is assembled manually or automatically on the top of the stack of already assembled layers. The process begins with the
bottom modules tubes bottom manifold modules stripe 7 of the heat exchanging fins and the next pair ofmanifold modules manifold 2a by thepipe fittings 9 and manifold 2b bymodule 8c. Theperipheral rims 12, theperipheral recesses 22 and the locks 19, 25 ensure the precise stacking of the manifold by blocking the relative movement of the modules in a plane perpendicular to the manifold longitudinal axis. - Fig. 5 shows another, "load type" method of assembling the heat exchanger according to the invention, which advantageously enables to employ existing stacking machines. The
cores manifolds manifolds tubes portions manifolds caps 26 pushed in thechambers modules caps 26 and thepipe fittings 9 are made from fragments of an aluminium pipe covered by a brazing agent and shaped to correspond to the outline of thechambers caps 26 are clamped at the end to form a closing sealing. - After assembling the heat exchanger 1, it is placed inside an oven where it is brazed, preferably in a so called one shot brazing. During this process the clad fills the gaps between the
peripheral rims 12 and theperipheral recesses 22 of each two adjacent modules, which substantially increase the pressure tightness of manifolds. - Figs. 6 to 7 show the construction of the
manifold module 8c employed as a closing module of a heat exchanger shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 4. As shown the chambers of themodule 8c are provided withhorizontal partitions passage partitions - It is shall be apparent to a person skilled in the art that by appropriate arrangement of manifold modules with separate chambers (
such us module such us module such us module 8c), it is possible to define a so called "pass arrangement", i.e. the manner of flow of heat exchanging medium between the manifolds and tubes of the whole heat exchanger as shown e.g. in Fig. 8. - Fig. 9 shows an embodiment of a
serpentine heat exchanger 1c of the present invention forming an automotive A/C evaporator. Although in an exchanger of this type the application of modules 8 is not required, their features discussed above are advantageous. - As shown the
evaporator 1 c comprises only onemanifold 2, formed as a stack ofmanifold modules 8e - 8h. Each heat exchanging tube is bent in the middle of its length, forming a U-shaped tubular arrangement fluidly connected with the manifold at its both ends. The arrangements are disposed in parallel at a spacing one on another forming two cores (only thefirst core 3c is shown in the drawing). The heat exchanging means in a form ofheat exchanging fins 7 are placed inside the spaces defined by each tubular arrangement, as well as between each twoadjacent tubes 5c. The whole unit is additionally supported by aclamp 30 fixed to thetopmost module 8h and to thebottommost module 8g in a manner not discussed in detail.Modules 8e - 8h are appropriately provided with horizontal and/or vertical partitions defining the required flow of heat exchanging medium. - Fig. 10 shows a top view of the
module 8e. As shown the chamber of the module is additionally divided into twopipe chambers main chamber 15e separated by reinforcingribs 16.Partition 14 separates thepipe chambers additional partition 31 isolates the pipe chambers from themain chamber 15e. The top face of the module further comprises a male arrow shapedlock 19c complementary with a female lock of the bottom face (not shown). - As shown in Fig. 9 with dashed arrows, the heat exchanging medium flows through the
inlet opening 4 to the right (relative to Fig. 9) portion of themain chamber 15e of themodule 8h having the left portion of themain chamber 15e separated by vertical partition. At the bottom of themodule 8h, behind this partition, the medium starts to flow at the whole width of themain chamber 15e through all modules of themanifold 2 to thebottommost module 8g having a vertical partition closing all themodule chambers module 8g does not comprise thepartition 31, so the heat exchanging medium may freely flow to thepipe chambers pipes 5c and the pipes of the second core (not shown) and chambers of themodules Modules 8f are provided with vertical partitions separating the top and the bottom portions of thepipe chambers adjacent modules 8e. Finally, the medium enters thepipe chambers module 8f at the top, flows to the pipe chambers of thetopmost module 8h where it is directed to the top portion of the leftmain chamber 15e, above the vertical partition, separating the left portion of themain chamber 15e of themodule 8h, and received via theoutlet opening 6. Other possible pass arrangements shall be readily visible to a skilled technician. - Another embodiment of the
manifold module 8i is shown in Fig. 11, where themain chambers main chamber appropriate pipe chamber partition 21. Themodule 8i may also be employed to form a manifold of a serpentine heat exchanger similar to that of Fig. 9, having the inlet and outlet openings e.g. at the opposite sides of the single manifold. - The module 18i is further provided with a pair of
locks 19d close to the edge of therecess 22 which matches the female locks (not shown) formed in the rim of the other face of the module. As shown in the drawing, the recessedportions module 8i are chamfered at thefront face 10 of the module so that that width of the apertures for the heat exchanging tubes, defined by the recessedportions adjacent modules 8i is greater at the outlet of the aperture than inside the module (a1 > a). This feature facilitates sliding-in the tubes inside the manifold. - Fig. 12 shows yet another embodiment of a
manifold module 8j employed to manufacture a gas cooler of an A/C installation having only one cooling core. Themodules 8j are of a semicircular cross-section and are provided with only onechamber 15 separated in the middle bypartition 16 and opening into the apertures for the cooling core tubes formed by the bottom and the top recessedportions chamber 15. - In this embodiment, the top face of the module is provided both with a chamfered
convex rim 12a and aconcave portion 22a. In an assembled manifold, theconvex rim 12a of the top face of themodule 8j surrounds theconcave portion 22b of the bottom face of an adjacent module stacked at the top of this one. Similarly, theconcave portion 22a of the top face of themodule 8j is surrounded by theconvex rim 12b of the bottom face of an adjacent module in a stack. Theflat portions convex lock 19e, while theflat portions - Further, as shown in the drawing, the recessed
portions front face 10 of the module, so that an angle "b1" is created. This feature facilitates the process of inserting the heat exchanging tubes, which is advantageous, in particular in a load type method shown in Fig.5. - Fig. 13 presents top view of one more embodiment of a
manifold module 8k for a heat exchanger with two cooling cores. As shown, thefront face 10 of the module is symmetrically slanted from both sides with respect to plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the cooling core tubes, depicted on the drawing by a dashed line. A cross-section of aheat exchanger 1d having manifolds formed as a stack ofmodules 8k is shown schematically in Fig. 14. Theheat exchanger 1d of this type operates as an air flow reducer, behaving similarly to the diffuser, as the air flowing through thecooling cores core 3a and decompressed behind thecore 3b. Rising air flow speed removes water or ash accumulated between the cooling core tubes, so that retention of these substances in the heat exchanging core may be substantially reduced or even avoided. When applied in an A/C evaporator, themodule 8k also decreases or even eliminates a problem of odour occurrence or freezing phenomenon. Heat exchangers of this type may also be installed in the vertical position, i.e. such that the manifolds are mounted horizontally. It should be noted that to achieve the foregoing results it is sufficient if the manifold module is slanted only from one side. - The above embodiments of the heat exchangers according to the present invention are merely exemplary. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and some features may be exaggerated or minimized. It shall be understood to a person skilled in the art that other complementary configurations of the top and bottom faces of the modules are equally possible in order to achieve the object of the invention. It will be also understood to a person skilled in the art that the heat exchanger made according to the principles of the present invention can work as radiator, condenser, evaporator, gas cooler or any of their combinations, preferably linked via a common heat exchanging fins and employed in particular in automotive industry. These and other factors however should not be considered as limiting the spirit of the invention, the intended scope of protection of which is indicated in appended claims.
Claims (20)
- A heat exchanger including at least one heat exchanging core, having a number of substantially flat heat exchanging tubes disposed in parallel at a spacing, and at least one manifold fluidly connected with said at least one heat exchanging core, which is formed as a stack of modules, characterised in that, each manifold module (8) comprises
the first face having a flat portion (11) provided with at least one convex portion (12) and/or at least one concave portion (22) and at least one recessed portion (17) opening at the front face (10) of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube (5) of said at least one heat exchanging core (3) and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube (5), and
the second face having a flat portion (20) provided with at least one convex portion (12) and/or at least one concave portion (22), in configuration complementary with said at least one convex portion (12) and/or at least one concave portion (22) of the first face, and at least one recessed portion (23) opening at the front face (10) of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube (5) of said at least one heat exchanging core (3) and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube (5),
wherein said at least one convex portion (12) of a face of a manifold module (8) is located in said at least one concave portion (22) of a face of adjacent manifold module
and the recessed portions (17, 23) of adjacent manifold modules (8) define the aperture for the end of the heat exchanging tube (5). - The heat exchanger as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that at least one chamber of at least one manifold module (8c, 8d, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i) is separated by partition (27) in a plane parallel to the tubes (5).
- A heat exchanger including at least one heat exchanging core having a number of substantially flat heat exchanging tubes disposed in parallel at a spacing,
characterised in that, it comprises one manifold (2) fluidly connected with said at least one heat exchanging core (3), which is formed as a stack of manifold modules (8), and each heat exchanging tube (5) is at one end fluidly connected with the manifold (2), bent substantially in the middle of its length to form a U-shaped tubular arrangement, and fluidly connected with the manifold (2) at the other end, wherein the heat exchanging means (7) are placed within the tubular arrangements of each tube and between adjacent tubular arrangements, where a number of a manifold modules (8f, 8g, 8h) is provided with partitions in a plane parallel to the tubes (5), which define the required pass arrangement through said at least one heat exchanging core (3). - The heat exchanger as claimed in claim 3, characterised in that each manifold module (8) comprises
the first face having a flat portion (11) provided with at least one convex portion (12) and/or at least one concave portion (22) and at least one recessed portion (17) opening at the front face (10) of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube (5) of said at least one heat exchanging core (3) and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube (5), and
the second face having a flat portion (20) provided with at least one convex portion (12) and/or at least one concave portion (22), in configuration complementary with said at least one convex portion (12) and/or at least one concave portion (22) of the first face, and at least one recessed portion (23) opening at the front face (10) of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube (5) of said at least one heat exchanging core (3) and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube (5),
wherein said at least one convex portion (12) of a face of a manifold module (8) is located in said at least one concave portion (22) of a face of adjacent manifold module
and the recessed portions (17, 23) of adjacent manifold modules (8) define the aperture for the end of the heat exchanging tube (5). - The heat exchanger as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterised in that at least one manifold module (8) is provided with at least one internal rib forming module reinforcement (16) and/or partition (14, 21, 31).
- The heat exchanger as claimed in claim 5, characterised in that an internal rib forms a partition (31) dividing a chamber of a manifold module (8e) into at least one pipe chamber (15c, 15d), for receiving from and directing the heat exchanging medium to the heat exchanging tubes (5), and at least one separate main chamber (15e, 15f, 15g).
- The heat exchanger as claimed in claim 5, characterised in that it forms a unit comprising at least two heat exchanging cores (3a, 3b) where the chambers of the modules (8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i, 8k) are separated by partitions (14,21).
- The heat exchanger as claimed in claim 7, characterised in that at least one of the partitions (14, 21) is provided with passage (28, 29).
- The heat exchanger as claimed in claim 7 or 8, characterised in that it forms an integrated heat exchanger, such us motor vehicle heating, ventilation and air conditioning integrated unit.
- The heat exchanger as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterised in that at least one manifold (2) is closed with closing caps (9, 26) inserted into outlines of chambers of the topmost and the bottommost manifold modules.
- The heat exchanger as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the front faces (10) of the manifold modules (8k) are at least one-sidedly slanted with respect to the longitudinal axis of the heat exchanging tube (5).
- The heat exchanger as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the manifold modules (8) are shaped by stamping, cold forming or impact extruding and, if appropriate, piercing or punching the module in order to form hollow chambers.
- The heat exchanger as claimed in any of the preceding claims, characterised in that the manifold modules (8) are provided with at least one guiding lock (19, 25).
- The heat exchanger as claimed in claim 1 or 4, characterised in that the area of the apertures defined by the recessed portions (17, 23) of adjacent manifold modules (8) in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the heat exchanging tubes (5) is greater at the outlet of the aperture than inside the module to facilitate the insertion of the heat exchanging tubes (5) inside the manifold.
- The heat exchanger as claimed in claim 1 or 4 or 13, characterised in that the recessed portions (17, 23) are provided with grooves (18, 24) formed in the inner hips of the flat portions (11, 20).
- A method of manufacturing a heat exchanger comprising at least one heat exchanging core comprising a number of substantially flat heat exchanging tubes disposed in parallel at a spacing and at least one manifold fluidly connected with said at least one heat exchanging core, where each manifold is formed by a stack of manifold modules, characterised in that, said method comprises the following steps:(i) the outline defining step of preparing a plurality of elements having a horizontal cross-section substantially corresponding to the cross-section of the manifold;(ii) the shaping step of forming a plurality of the manifold modules, so that each manifold module comprises(a) the first face having a flat portion provided with at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion and at least one recessed portion opening at the front face of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube of said at least one heat exchanging core and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube, and(b) the second face having a flat portion provided with at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion, in configuration complementary with said at least one convex portion and/or at least one concave portion of the first face, and at least one recessed portion opening at the front face of the module, said recessed portion having the width corresponding to that of a tube of said at least one heat exchanging core and matching a part of the transverse cross section of said tube;(iii) the step of stacking the manifold modules one on top of the other in order to form at least one manifold, wherein said at least one convex portion of a face of each manifold module is located in said at least one concave portion of a face of adjacent manifold module and the recessed portions of adjacent manifold modules define the aperture for the end of the heat exchanging tube;(iv) the step of closing the topmost and the bottommost manifold modules;(v) the step of stacking said at least one heat exchanging core by forming layers of the heat exchanging tubes separated by the heat exchanging means;(vi) the step of joining said at least manifold with said at least one core;(vii) the step of brazing the heat exchanger, preferably in a one shot brazing operation.
- The method of manufacturing a heat exchanger according to claim 16, characterised in that, the outline defining step (i) involves cutting substantially flat sheet of metal coated at the top and at the bottom by a brazing layer to achieve the basic outline of the manifold module.
- The method of manufacturing a heat exchanger according to claim 16, characterised in that, the outline defining step (i) involves cutting slices from a metal bar having the basic outline of the manifold module and subsequently coating the slices by a brazing agent or inserting the brazing layers on both faces of each element prior the shaping step (ii).
- The method of manufacturing a heat exchanger according to any of the claims 16 to 18, characterised in that, the shaping step (ii) involves (a) stamping, cold forming or impact extruding the elements formed in the defining step (i) and, if appropriate, (b) piercing or punching the module in order to form a hollow chambers.
- The method of manufacturing a heat exchanger according to any of the claims 16 to 19, characterised in that, the step (vi) of joining said at least manifold with said at least one core is performed simultaneously layer by layer with the step (iii) of stacking the manifolds modules, the step (v) of stacking said at least one heat exchanging core and the step (iv) of closing the topmost and the bottommost manifold modules.
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EP06012575A EP1870658A1 (en) | 2006-06-20 | 2006-06-20 | A heat exchanger and a method of manufacturing thereof |
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EP06012575A EP1870658A1 (en) | 2006-06-20 | 2006-06-20 | A heat exchanger and a method of manufacturing thereof |
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WO2010108992A1 (en) * | 2009-03-26 | 2010-09-30 | Valeo Systemes Thermiques | Heat exchanger, particularly an air-conditioning condenser |
FR2962200A1 (en) * | 2010-06-30 | 2012-01-06 | Valeo Systemes Thermiques | Exchange unit for bundle of heat exchanger of motor vehicle in air conditioning field of vehicle, has tube block whose right end is assembled in connection opening to permit communication between volume of channel and volume of tubes |
WO2013040707A1 (en) * | 2011-09-19 | 2013-03-28 | Heat-Line Corporation | Modular energy transfer unit with common inlet and common outlet |
FR3045800A1 (en) * | 2015-12-21 | 2017-06-23 | Valeo Systemes Thermiques | THERMAL EXCHANGER, IN PARTICULAR FOR MOTOR VEHICLE |
FR3045805A1 (en) * | 2015-12-21 | 2017-06-23 | Valeo Systemes Thermiques | THERMAL EXCHANGER, IN PARTICULAR FOR MOTOR VEHICLE |
CN110530178A (en) * | 2019-09-27 | 2019-12-03 | 浙江银轮机械股份有限公司 | Heat exchange layer, fuse and heat exchanger |
CN115200266A (en) * | 2021-04-09 | 2022-10-18 | 东芝开利株式会社 | Heat exchanger and refrigeration cycle device |
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US6170567B1 (en) | 1996-12-05 | 2001-01-09 | Showa Aluminum Corporation | Heat exchanger |
US6032728A (en) | 1998-11-12 | 2000-03-07 | Livernois Research & Development Co. | Variable pitch heat exchanger |
DE19859756A1 (en) | 1998-12-23 | 2000-07-20 | Behr Gmbh & Co | Heat exchanger with modular construction has each module with duct sections the a stepped profile to clip together with similar modules to form a large heat exchanger |
US20020023743A1 (en) | 2000-07-03 | 2002-02-28 | Jung Jong Dae | Head assembly of heat exchanger for vehicle |
DE10112697A1 (en) | 2001-03-16 | 2002-09-19 | Behr Gmbh & Co | Heat transfer radiator has adjacent segments with connection regions for insertion into each other |
JP2003287390A (en) * | 2002-03-27 | 2003-10-10 | Mitsubishi Electric Corp | Heat exchanger and air conditioner using this heat exchanger |
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WO2010108992A1 (en) * | 2009-03-26 | 2010-09-30 | Valeo Systemes Thermiques | Heat exchanger, particularly an air-conditioning condenser |
FR2943776A1 (en) * | 2009-03-26 | 2010-10-01 | Valeo Systemes Thermiques | HEAT EXCHANGER, ESPECIALLY AIR CONDITIONING CAPACITOR |
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WO2013040707A1 (en) * | 2011-09-19 | 2013-03-28 | Heat-Line Corporation | Modular energy transfer unit with common inlet and common outlet |
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FR3045805A1 (en) * | 2015-12-21 | 2017-06-23 | Valeo Systemes Thermiques | THERMAL EXCHANGER, IN PARTICULAR FOR MOTOR VEHICLE |
WO2017109349A1 (en) * | 2015-12-21 | 2017-06-29 | Valeo Systemes Thermiques | Heat exchanger, in particular for a motor vehicle |
WO2017109354A1 (en) * | 2015-12-21 | 2017-06-29 | Valeo Systemes Thermiques | Heat exchanger, in particularl for a motor vehicle |
CN110530178A (en) * | 2019-09-27 | 2019-12-03 | 浙江银轮机械股份有限公司 | Heat exchange layer, fuse and heat exchanger |
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CN115200266B (en) * | 2021-04-09 | 2024-03-26 | 东芝开利株式会社 | Heat exchanger and refrigeration cycle device |
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