JP2006291734A - Refrigerant pump - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a low cost thin refrigerant pump which can be adopted to a unit for which height restriction is severly needed and does not require a cooling plate for a cooling system. <P>SOLUTION: A hermetic vessel including an upper vessel 2 and a lower vessel 4 joined to each other, a pump mechanism part 6 stored in the hermetic vessel, and a motor 3 having an annular recess part 2a formed on an outer side of the upper vessel 2 to fix a stator 8 and having a rotor 10 arranged in the upper vessel 2 in a radial direction outside of the stator 8 are constructed in the refrigerant pump 1. A center shaft 14c of a shaft cylinder 14 is inserted in a center shaft insertion boss 12a formed on a center part of a bearing end plate 12 rotating as one unit with the rotor 10. A flange part 17a of a flanged end plate 17 is fitted and fixed in the lower vessel 4. A pump mechanism part 6 including a shaft cylinder 14 is fastened to the flanged end plate 17 by bolts 18. Refrigerant is made to pass through a lower space 14j and is discharged by driving the pump mechanism part 6 interlocking with rotation of the rotor 10 and the bearing end plate 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerant pump provided in a cooling device that cools a highly heat-generating semiconductor element using a refrigerant.

  FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional refrigerant pump used in an air conditioner or the like. A pump mechanism 42 is accommodated in the sealed container 40, and an electric motor 44 that drives the pump mechanism 42 is It is arranged adjacent to the pump mechanism 42. Further, the electric motor 44 employs an inner rotor system constituted by a stator 46 fixed to the outside of the sealed container 40 and a rotor 48 rotatably attached to the inside of the sealed container 40 (for example, , See Patent Document 1).

In this refrigerant pump, the outer diameter of the hermetic container can be reduced by arranging the stator 46 outside the hermetic container 40 as compared with a configuration in which the pump mechanism and the electric motor are housed in one hermetic container.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-28387 (FIG. 1)

  However, not only a thin refrigerant pump is required for units with severe height restrictions such as notebook PCs and 1U servers, but the above-described refrigerant pump described in Patent Document 1 is used for this purpose in terms of height. There was still room for improvement, and there was a demand for a thinner refrigerant pump.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a thin refrigerant pump that can be used even in units with severe height restrictions.

  To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a refrigerant pump comprising a pump mechanism and an electric motor that drives the pump mechanism, and includes a sealed container having an upper container and a lower container joined to each other, A pump mechanism portion housed in a sealed container; and an electric motor disposed adjacent to the pump mechanism portion and having a stator and a rotor. An annular recess is formed outside the upper container, and the stator is placed in the annular recess. And the rotor is disposed in the upper container radially outward of the stator so as to face the stator, and formed at the center portion of the bearing end plate that rotates integrally with the rotor. The center axis of the shaft cylinder is inserted into the boss, the end plate is fitted and fixed to the lower container, the pump mechanism including the shaft cylinder is fastened to the end plate with a fastening member such as a bolt, and the rotation In conjunction with the rotation of the Wherein the pump mechanism portion so as to drive, characterized in that the liquid refrigerant compressed in the pump mechanism portion is configured to discharge through the lower space of the lower container and the pump mechanism portion.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, a thinner refrigerant pump can be provided by comprising the rotor with the thin rotor of the outer rotor system which has arrange | positioned in the radial direction outer side of the stator, and the thin pump mechanism part. .

1st invention is a refrigerant | coolant pump provided with the pump mechanism part and the electric motor which drives this pump mechanism part, Comprising: The airtight container which has mutually joined the upper container and the lower container, The pump accommodated in this airtight container A mechanism part and an electric motor having a stator and a rotor arranged adjacent to the pump mechanism part are provided, an annular recess is formed outside the upper container, the stator is fixed to the annular recess, and the rotor is fixed Place the center axis of the shaft cylinder into the boss formed in the central part of the bearing end plate that rotates integrally with the rotor, while placing it in the upper container radially outward of the stator so as to face the child, The end plate is fitted and fixed to the lower container, the pump mechanism including the shaft cylinder is fastened to the end plate with a fastening member such as a bolt, and the pump mechanism is driven in conjunction with the rotation of the rotor and the bearing end plate. The liquid compressed by the pump mechanism Medium and those configured to discharge through the lower space of the pump mechanism portion and the lower container.

  Thus, a thin refrigerant pump can be provided by configuring the rotor with an outer rotor type electric motor in which the rotor is arranged radially outward of the stator and the thin pump mechanism.

  In the second invention, a flange is provided on the end plate, and the end plate is fitted and fixed to the lower container by the collar, and the end plate can be securely fitted and fixed to the lower container by the collar portion.

  The third invention uses a material having high thermal conductivity for the lower container, and the cooling efficiency is improved when the lower container is cooled in close contact with the semiconductor element.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the outer shape of the shaft cylinder is configured to be slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the lower container, and the discharge pipe is brazed to the side surface of the lower container. And a discharge pipe can be disposed on the side surface of the lower container, which enables a compact and simple configuration.

  The fifth invention uses a non-magnetic material for the upper container, and the thickness of the upper container positioned between the stator and the rotor is set to be thinner than the thickness of the other parts. The gap with the rotor is reduced, eddy current loss can be reduced, and an efficient electric motor can be provided.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(Embodiment 1)

  FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of a refrigerant pump according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a refrigerant pump 1 according to the present invention includes a sealed container composed of an upper container 2 and a lower container 4 whose opening side ends are joined to each other, and a pump rotatably attached to the lower container 4. It is comprised by the mechanism part 6 and the electric motor 3 attached to the side surface of the upper container 2 adjacent to the pump mechanism part 6, and the electric motor 3 is fixed to the stator 8 arrange | positioned on the outer side of the upper container 2. It is comprised with the rotor 10 arrange | positioned inside the upper container 2 facing the child 8. FIG. In addition, a suction pipe 11 through which liquid refrigerant is sucked is connected to the upper container 2, and a discharge pipe 13 from which the refrigerant compressed by the pump mechanism unit 6 is discharged is connected to the side surface of the lower container 4. ing.

  The material of the upper container 2 is a non-magnetic material such as stainless steel, and the thickness is set to about 1.5 mm. The thickness of the portion located between the stator 8 and the rotor 10 is the thickness of the other portion. It is thinner than the thickness, for example, set to 0.6 mm. Moreover, as the lower container 4, a material having high thermal conductivity such as copper is used.

The upper container 2 has an annular recess 2a formed on the outside thereof, and a stator 8 is press-fitted and fixed to the annular recess 2a. On the other hand, the rotor 10 is disposed inside the upper container 2 radially outward of the stator 8 so as to face the stator 8. Further, a bearing end plate 12 that rotates integrally with the rotor 10 is attached to the inside of the upper container 2, and a shaft cylinder 14 that rotatably supports the bearing end plate 12 is attached to the end plate 17 with a collar by a bolt 18. Fastened and fixed. Further, the flange portion 17 a of the end plate with the flange is press-fitted and fixed inside the lower container 4.

  The shaft cylinder 14 has a base portion 14b in which a pump mechanism portion accommodating chamber 16 is formed, and a central shaft 14c that protrudes from the center of the base portion 14b toward the bearing end plate 12 and rotatably supports the bearing end plate 12. The central shaft 14 c is loosely inserted into the central shaft insertion boss 12 a of the bearing end plate 12. The inner rotor 20 is fitted and fixed to the central shaft insertion boss 12a. A lower space 14j is provided between the lower portion of the shaft cylinder 14 and the lower container 4.

  Along with the rotation of the bearing end plate 12, the central shaft insertion boss 12a formed at the center of the bearing end plate 12 is in sliding contact with the bottom surface of the shaft cylinder 14, and the central shaft insertion boss 12a, the shaft cylinder 14, and the end plate 17 with a flange are fitted. The pump mechanism section 6 is disposed in the pump mechanism section accommodation chamber 16 in the space formed between the two and the bearing end plate 12 and is driven in conjunction with the rotation.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II of FIG. 1 and shows a cross-sectional view of the pump mechanism unit 6. As shown in FIG. 2, the pump mechanism unit 6 is configured in the pump mechanism unit accommodation chamber 16. An inner rotor 20 and an outer rotor 22 are rotatably attached, and a pump chamber 24 is formed between the inner rotor 20 and the outer rotor 22.

  While the center axis 14c of the shaft cylinder 14, the center axis insertion boss 12a of the bearing end plate 12 and the inner rotor 20 are arranged concentrically, the pump mechanism housing chamber 16 is formed eccentrically, and the outer rotor 22 is arranged concentrically in the pump mechanism housing 16. In addition, the surface facing the upper container 2 of the bearing end plate 12 has a complementary shape with the inner surface of the upper container 2, and the radially outer side is formed in a ring shape. Further, the side surface of the central shaft 14c of the shaft cylinder 14 is subjected to nitriding treatment, so that the wear of the central shaft 14c is reduced as much as possible.

  The inner rotor 20 and the outer rotor 22 housed in the pump mechanism housing chamber 16 and meshing with each other have complementary convex portions and concave portions, respectively, and the number of convex portions (tooth portions) of the inner rotor 20 is the number of the outer rotor 22. It is set to be smaller than the recess. Accordingly, when the bearing end plate 12 rotates together with the rotor 10 in the direction of the arrow A, the inner rotor 20 also rotates integrally, and the outer rotor 22 that meshes with the inner rotor 20 also rotates in the direction of the arrow A. The pump chamber 24 rotates in the direction of arrow A while changing its volume, and exhibits a pump action.

  FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the flanged end plate 17 has a crescent-shaped suction groove 14 d communicating with the pump chamber 24. On the opposite side of the suction groove 14d, a crescent-shaped discharge hole 14g that connects the space between the shaft cylinder 14 and the lower container 4 and the pump chamber 24 is formed. The shaft cylinder 14 is also formed with a first communication groove 14h extending radially inward from the discharge hole 14g. The first communication groove 14h is formed in the longitudinal direction of the surface of the central axis 14c of the shaft cylinder 14. The second communication groove 14i communicates with the second communication groove 14i. On the other hand, the outer ring portion of the bearing end plate 12 has a plurality of communication holes 12b extending in the radial direction and communicating between the outer side and the inner side of the ring portion.

  In the refrigerant pump 1 according to the present invention having the above-described configuration, when a pump action is generated in the pump mechanism section 6, liquid refrigerant is sucked from the suction pipe 11 and sucked into the pump chamber 24 of the pump mechanism section 6 through the suction groove 14d. The The liquid refrigerant sucked into the pump chamber 24 is compressed by the pump mechanism unit 6 and then discharged to the lower space 14j through the discharge hole 14g formed in the base portion 14b of the shaft cylinder 14, and the shaft cylinder 14 and the lower container 4 are discharged. Is discharged from the discharge pipe 13 through the lower space 14j therebetween.

  The refrigerant compressed by the pump mechanism unit 6 further passes through the first and second communication grooves 14h and 14i to a sliding contact portion between the center axis 14c of the shaft cylinder 14 and the center axis insertion boss 12a of the bearing end plate 12. The refrigerant introduced into the space between the bearing end plate 12 and the upper container 2 returns to the suction groove 14d through the communication hole 12b.

  Further, since the end surface of the lower container 4 is formed in a flat shape, a semiconductor element (not shown) can be attached in close thermal contact with the end surface of the lower container 4, and the heat generated in the semiconductor element is It is transmitted to the liquid refrigerant flowing through the lower space 14 j via the end face of the lower container 4, undergoes a phase change from the liquid refrigerant to the vapor refrigerant, and is then discharged from the discharge pipe 13.

  As described above, the refrigerant pump according to the present invention employs an outer rotor type electric motor in which a stator is attached to the annular recess of the upper container and a rotor facing the stator is provided on the radially outer side. It can also be applied to cooling refrigerant pumps such as laptop computers, 1U servers, blade servers, and the like that are severely restricted.

The longitudinal cross-sectional view of the refrigerant | coolant pump in Embodiment 1 of this invention II sectional view of FIG. II-II sectional view of FIG. A longitudinal sectional view of a conventional refrigerant pump

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Refrigerant pump 2 Upper container 2a Annular recessed part 3 Electric motor 4 Lower container 6 Pump mechanism part 8 Stator 10 Rotor 11 Intake pipe 12 Bearing end plate 12a Center axis insertion boss 12b Communication hole 13 Discharge pipe 14 Shaft cylinder 14b Base part 14c Center axis 14d Suction groove 14g Discharge hole 14h First communication groove 14i Second communication groove 14j Lower space 16 Pump mechanism housing chamber 17 End plate with collar 17a Collar 18 Bolt 20 Inner rotor 22 Outer rotor 24 Pump chamber

Claims (5)

A refrigerant pump comprising a pump mechanism and an electric motor that drives the pump mechanism,
A sealed container having an upper container and a lower container joined to each other; a pump mechanism portion accommodated in the sealed container; and an electric motor disposed adjacent to the pump mechanism portion and having a stator and a rotor. An annular recess is formed on the outer side of the stator, the stator is fixed to the annular recess, and the rotor is disposed in the upper container radially outward of the stator so as to face the stator. The shaft of the shaft cylinder is inserted into a boss formed at the center of the bearing end plate that rotates integrally with the rotor, the end plate is fitted and fixed to the lower container, and the shaft cylinder is included in the end plate. The pump mechanism portion is fastened with a fastening member such as a bolt, and the pump mechanism portion is driven in conjunction with the rotation of the rotor and the bearing end plate so that the liquid refrigerant compressed by the pump mechanism portion is Below the pump mechanism and the lower container Coolant pump, characterized by being configured to discharge through the space. The refrigerant pump according to claim 1, wherein a flange is provided on the end plate, and the end plate is fitted and fixed to the lower container by the collar. The refrigerant pump according to claim 1, wherein a material having high thermal conductivity is used for the lower container. 2. The refrigerant pump according to claim 1, wherein the outer shape of the shaft cylinder is configured to be slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the lower container, and a discharge pipe is disposed on a side surface of the lower container. The non-magnetic material is used for the upper container, and the thickness of the upper container located between the stator and the rotor is set to be thinner than the thickness of the other parts. The refrigerant pump as described in any one of them.