JP2002228303A - Condenser integrated with receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a condenser integrated with a receiver capable of efficiently effecting heat exchange by effectively utilizing a heat exchanging section with cooling fan units the number of which is reduced as small as possible. SOLUTION: The condenser comprises a laterally elongated heat exchange section 15 having a plurality of refrigerant tubes 13 arranged in the vertical direction to connect a pair of upper and lower headers 11 and 12 disposed horizontally and provided with a corrugated fin 14 formed between the refrigerant tubes 13, a receiver 16 extended vertically in parallel with the refrigerant tubes 13 to connect the headers 11 and 12 and splitting the heat exchange section 15 into left and right sub-sections to form a condensation section 15A and a supercooling section 15B and a cooling fan 17 provided at the condensation section 15A side of the heat exchange section 15.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a condenser integrated with a condenser used for an air conditioner or the like and for condensing a refrigerant and a receiver for separating a refrigerant into gas and liquid and discharging a liquid refrigerant.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a refrigeration cycle used in a vehicle air conditioner or the like mainly includes a compressor, a condenser, a receiver, a throttle mechanism, and an evaporator. Among them, the condenser has a function of condensing the gas refrigerant sent from the compressor by exchanging heat with the outside air and supplying the condensed gas refrigerant to the evaporator via the receiver and the throttle mechanism. The receiver installed on the downstream side of the condenser has a function of performing refrigerant control on the condenser outlet, which separates refrigerant condensed by the condenser into gas and liquid, and supplies only liquid refrigerant to the throttle mechanism.

[0003] As shown in FIG. 4, a cooling fan 3 is conventionally provided in the condenser 1 for forcibly sucking outside air and passing through the heat exchange section 2. What is called a propeller fan is generally used for the cooling fan 3. This propeller fan has a plurality of blades and rotates in a circular locus.

[0004] As for the above-mentioned capacitor and receiver, for example, as shown in FIGS.
In addition, there has been proposed an apparatus in which the refrigeration capacity is improved by integrating the receiver 4 and a supercooling unit for supercooling the liquid refrigerant. In addition, the code | symbol 5 in a figure is header 1a, 1b.
It is a partition plate provided inside. In this conventional technique, a pair of left and right headers 1a and 1b are connected by a plurality of refrigerant tubes 2a extending in a horizontal direction, and each refrigerant tube 2a
A heat exchange promoting member, such as a corrugated fin 2b, is provided therebetween to constitute a heat exchange unit 2 for condensing the refrigerant flowing in the refrigerant tube 2a with the passing outside air. Then, the heat exchange unit 2 is vertically divided into two parts to form a condensing part 2A and a supercooling part 2B, and the refrigerant condensed through the upper condensing part 2A is once integrated into one header 1b. It enters the receiver 4 and is separated into gas and liquid. Thereafter, only the liquid refrigerant is sent from the receiver 4 to the lower supercooling section 2B, and is supercooled by the outside air before being sent to the throttle mechanism. Therefore, the temperature of the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant tube 2a of the heat exchange section 2 is higher at the upper portion where the gas refrigerant flows from the compressor, and lower at the lower portion on the outlet side for supplying the liquid refrigerant to the throttle mechanism. In the first conventional example shown in FIG. 5, the receiver 4 and the header 1b are connected by a pipe 6, whereas in the second conventional example shown in FIG. Directly connected.

[0005]

Since a propeller fan is used for the cooling fan 3 of the condenser 1, the outside air uniformly passes through the entire surface of the heat exchange section 2 as shown in FIG. It is difficult to arrange. Such a problem is remarkable in a vehicle air conditioner mounted on a passenger car in which the installation location is a front end in an engine room. That is, since the shape of the condenser 1 and the heat exchange portion 2 thereof tends to be a horizontally long rectangle when viewed from the traveling direction of the vehicle due to restrictions on the installation position, the distance from the rotation trajectory of the circular wing is particularly large in the width direction. Become. For this reason, two cooling fans are used side by side to cover almost the entire surface of the heat exchange unit 2 or to install a shroud (not shown) around the cooling fan 3. I have.

[0006] However, a system in which two cooling fans are arranged side by side allows the outside air to be introduced substantially uniformly over the entire surface of the heat exchange unit 2, but is disadvantageous in terms of cost. Note that, also in this case, a shroud is generally used. On the other hand, in a system in which one cooling fan is used in combination with a shroud, outside air can be passed over the entire surface of the heat exchange unit 2 as compared with a system without a shroud. However, due to the shape limitation of the condenser 1 being horizontally long, it is unavoidable that the amount of outside air passing at a position far from the rotation trajectory of the wing is reduced, particularly in the width direction. There is a problem that cannot fully demonstrate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as few cooling fans as possible.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a receiver-integrated capacitor capable of efficiently exchanging heat by effectively utilizing a heat exchange unit.

[0008]

The present invention employs the following means in order to solve the above-mentioned problems. In the receiver integrated capacitor according to claim 1, a plurality of refrigerant tubes are vertically arranged by connecting a pair of upper and lower headers arranged horizontally, and a heat exchange promoting member is provided between the refrigerant tubes. A horizontally elongated heat exchange section, a receiver extending vertically in parallel with the refrigerant tube, connecting the headers, dividing the heat exchange section into right and left to form a condenser section and a subcooling section, and the condenser And a cooling fan installed on the unit side.

According to such a receiver-integrated condenser, the pair of headers are arranged horizontally, and the refrigerant tubes and the receiver are arranged in the vertical direction so that the heat exchange part is divided into the right and left by the receiver. The temperature of the refrigerant flowing in the refrigerant tube of the heat exchange unit differs in the horizontal (left / right) direction, such that the condensing unit side into which gas refrigerant flows from the compressor is high and the subcooling unit side that supplies liquid refrigerant to the throttle mechanism is low. Will occur. For this reason, the outside air sucked by the cooling fan installed on the condensing part side flows mainly in the region where the refrigerant having a high refrigerant temperature flows, and even a single cooling fan effectively uses the outside air to efficiently exchange heat. It is possible to do. Also in this case, it is preferable to provide a shroud on the side of the supercooling section without the cooling fan.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of a receiver-integrated capacitor according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As a first embodiment, a receiver integrated capacitor 10 shown in FIG.
A number of refrigerant tubes 13 are vertically arranged at predetermined intervals by connecting between the tubes 1 and 12, and corrugated fins 14 are provided between the refrigerant tubes 13 and 13 as heat exchange promoting members. Refrigerant tubes 13 alternately arranged in the vertical direction
The corrugated fins 14 form a horizontally long rectangular heat exchange portion 15 as a whole. When mounted on a vehicle such as a general passenger car, the receiver-integrated condenser 10 which is horizontally long due to the shape of the engine room is advantageous.

The heat exchanging section 15 is divided into right and left parts by a receiver 16 extending in the vertical direction in parallel with the refrigerant tube 13 and connecting the headers 11 and 12. In addition,
The longitudinal direction of the headers 11 and 12 is divided by a partition plate 22 provided inside. In the illustrated example, the receiver 16
The region on the left side with a large width is the condensing portion 15A, and the region on the right side of the receiver 16 with a small width is the supercooling portion 15B. The receiver 16 is a cylindrical member, and the refrigerant condensed in the condensing section 15A flows in from the upper header 11 and is separated into gas and liquid therein, and only the liquid refrigerant flows out of the lower header 12 to the supercooling section 15B. .
A refrigerant inlet (not shown) for introducing a gas refrigerant from the compressor is provided at an appropriate position near the left end of the header 11, and a refrigerant outlet (not shown) for sending the supercooled liquid refrigerant to the throttle mechanism is provided at the header. 11 is provided at an appropriate position near the right end.

The heat exchanging section 15 thus divided into right and left
A cooling fan 17 composed of a propeller fan is installed on the back side on the side of the condensing section 15A. Around the cooling fan 17, a shroud 18 is provided on the entire rear surface according to the shape of the heat exchanger 15. The cooling fan 17 is provided with a circular ventilation opening 18a in the shroud 18 on the side of the condenser 15A, and is fixedly installed using the shroud 18, a bracket (not shown), or the like.

In the receiver-integrated condenser 10 constructed as described above, the pair of headers 11 and 12 are arranged horizontally, the refrigerant tubes 13 and the receivers 16 are arranged vertically, and the heat exchange section 15 is formed by the receivers 16. Since it is configured to be divided into left and right, the temperature of the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant tube 13 of the heat exchange unit 15 is higher at the condensing unit 15A side where the gas refrigerant flows in from the compressor, and at the subcooling unit 15B side which sends the liquid refrigerant to the throttle mechanism. Lower. That is, the heat exchange unit 15
In the horizontal (left-right) direction, a temperature difference occurs in the horizontal direction (left and right). If the heat exchange unit 15 having such a temperature difference is installed on the condensing unit 15A side where the refrigerant temperature is high, the outside air sucked by the cooling fan 17 Flows around the region where the high-temperature refrigerant flows.

Therefore, it is possible to increase the temperature difference between the mainstream of the outside air sucked by the cooling fan 17 and the refrigerant,
Even if only one cooling fan 17 is used, the refrigerant can be condensed by efficiently exchanging heat by effectively utilizing the temperature difference with the outside air. In addition, on the side of the supercooling section 15B through which the main flow of the outside air sucked by the cooling fan 17 does not pass, the outside air flow passes through the provision of the shroud 18, so that
Cooling by heat exchange with the outside air becomes possible. Further, the heat exchange unit 15 is connected to the receiver 16 connecting the headers 11 and 12.
, The overall configuration including the receiver 16 can be made thinner, and the rigidity can be improved.

In the second embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3,
The radiator 30 for cooling the engine is integrated so as to sandwich it, and the receiver integrated condenser 10, the cooling fan 17 and the shroud 18 are arranged before and after. In this embodiment, the cooling module 17 is used to cool the condenser 10 and the radiator 30 at the same time, and the condenser 10 and the radiator 30 are mounted on the vehicle assembly line at the same time. It is a thing.

In this case, the upper tank 3 of the radiator 30
1, a receiver integrated capacitor 10 and a shroud 1
Brackets 32 and 33 for integrating the brackets 8 are provided. On the receiver integrated capacitor 10 side, a pair of left and right brackets 19 are attached to the upper header 11,
The bracket 32 of the radiator 30 and the bolt 34 are integrated by tightening. On the shroud 18 side, a pair of left and right brackets 20 provided on the upper portion are integrated with a bracket 33 of the radiator 30 by tightening bolts 35. The lower portions of the receiver integrated capacitor 10 and the radiator 30 are supported on the vehicle body by a pair of left and right legs 21 (see FIG. 1) to which anti-vibration rubber and the like are attached.

Even with such a configuration, the cooling fan 17 is arranged on the condenser section 15A side of the receiver integrated condenser 10 so that the refrigerant can be efficiently condensed by the outside air. Further, since the bracket 19 used for integration can be fixedly attached to the header 11, it is advantageous in terms of strength for the integration of the receiver integrated capacitor 10 and the cooling module, and it is easy to take measures against engine and running vibration and resonance in the vehicle. become. The configuration of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[0018]

According to the condenser integrated with a receiver of the present invention described above, the cooling fan is disposed on the condenser side of the heat exchange section divided into right and left by the receiver, so that one cooling fan is provided in the horizontally long heat exchange section. Is installed, since the main flow of the outside air passes through the region where the refrigerant temperature is the highest, the refrigerant can be efficiently condensed by a large temperature difference between the outside air and the refrigerant. Further, the horizontally long heat exchange section can be efficiently cooled by one cooling fan, which is advantageous in terms of cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A and 1B are diagrams showing a first embodiment of a receiver integrated capacitor according to the present invention, wherein FIG. 1A is a front view and FIG. 1B is a plan view showing a cross section of a shroud.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a receiver-integrated capacitor according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a main part showing an assembled state of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of attaching a cooling fan to a condenser as a conventional technique.

5A and 5B show a first conventional example in which a capacitor and a receiver are integrated, wherein FIG. 5A is a plan view and FIG. 5B is a front view.

6A and 6B are diagrams showing a second conventional example in which a capacitor and a receiver are integrated, wherein FIG. 6A is a plan view and FIG. 6B is a front view.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Condenser integrated with receiver 11, 12 Header 13 Refrigerant tube 14 Corrugated fin (Heat exchange promotion member) 15 Heat exchange part 15A Condensing part 15B Supercooling part 16 Receiver 17 Cooling fan 18 Shroud

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A horizontally long heat exchange section comprising a pair of horizontally arranged upper and lower headers connected to each other to vertically arrange a plurality of refrigerant tubes and a heat exchange promoting member provided between the refrigerant tubes. A receiver that extends in the vertical direction in parallel with the refrigerant tube, connects the headers, divides the heat exchange unit into left and right portions to form a condensation unit and a supercooling unit, and on the condensation unit side of the heat exchange unit A receiver-integrated condenser comprising: a cooling fan installed therein.