JP2572083Y2 - Evaporator - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION An evaporator according to the present invention is incorporated in an air conditioner for automobiles to cool air, and the present invention is based on the uniformization of the flow of refrigerant in such an evaporator. The purpose is to make the temperature distribution of the air passing through the evaporator uniform and improve the performance of the evaporator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An air conditioner incorporates an evaporator for evaporating a refrigerant inside and cooling air flowing outside. As such an evaporator incorporated in an air conditioner, a so-called laminated evaporator in which a plurality of metal plates are laminated on each other as described in, for example, JP-A-62-798. It has been known.

As shown in FIG. 4, this laminated evaporator is constructed by laminating a plurality of units 2, 2 each of which is composed of two metal plates 1, 1 in a middle state. ing. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, each metal plate 1, 1 has a flat portion 3 surrounding the entire circumference of each metal plate 1, 1, and a U-shaped shallow first portion formed inside the flat portion 3. The concave portion 4, deep second and third concave portions 5 and 6 formed at both ends of the first concave portion 4, and through holes 7 and 8 formed in the central portions of the second and third concave portions 5 and 6 are formed. Provided. Also, a plurality of convex portions 9 are provided inside the first concave portion 4 so as to disturb the flow of the refrigerant inside the first concave portion 4.

[0004] A plurality of units 2 and 2 constituting a laminated evaporator are formed by abutting two metal plates 1 having the above-mentioned shapes and flat portions 3 of the respective metal plates, and combining them in the middle. The U-shaped portion surrounded by the first recess 4 is a flat tube portion 12 through which the refrigerant flows,
The portion surrounded by the second and third concave portions 5 and 6 functions as a part of the inlet-side tank or the outlet-side tank.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of the units 2 and 2 as described above are provided.
The outer surfaces of the second and third concave portions 5 and 6 are laminated by abutting each other, and the inlet pipe 10 is inserted into one of a pair of spaces formed by the second and third concave portions 5 and 6. The outlet pipes 11 are connected to the other spaces, respectively.

[0006] In the state where the plurality of units 2 and 2 are stacked, the flat tube portions 12 and 12 of the adjacent units 2 and 2 are stacked.
In between, sandwich the corrugated fins 13, 13,
The heat exchange between the air flowing between the adjacent flat tube portions 12 and the refrigerant flowing inside the flat tube portions 12 is preferably performed.

When the above-described stacked evaporator is used, a refrigerant in a gas-liquid two-phase state is sent from the inlet pipe 10 to one space functioning as an inlet-side tank. While the refrigerant flows through the flat tube portions 12 of the units 2, 2,
Evaporation occurs by performing heat exchange with air flowing between the fins 13 provided outside the flat tube portions 12. And it is sent to the other space which functions as an outlet side tank, and is discharged through the outlet pipe 11.

Incidentally, in order to facilitate the manufacture of a laminated evaporator configured and operating as described above, it has been proposed to separate a tank and a unit formed by laminating two metal plates from each other. No. 61-27496. That is,
In the case of the conventional structure shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, since the tank is integrally formed at the end of each unit 2, 2, the deep second, Third recess 5,
6 are formed. However, since the pressing operation for forming the second and third concave portions 5 and 6 needs to be performed simultaneously with the formation of the shallow first concave portion 4, a large force is required at the time of the pressing operation. It is inevitable that the equipment for press-forming the plate 1 becomes large and the equipment cost increases.

In order to solve such a problem, in the case of a laminated evaporator of a separate tank type, as shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, a pair of protruding portions 14a and 14b are formed at one edge at intervals. A U-shaped recess 16 is formed on one side of the metal plate 15 with both ends of the recess 16 continuing to the edges of the pair of protrusions 14a and 14b. A large number of protrusions 17 are formed inside the concave portion 16 to disturb the flow of the refrigerant flowing inside the return channel 18 formed by the concave portion 16, and heat exchange between the refrigerant and the metal plate 15 is performed. Is performed efficiently.

The metal plate 15 having such recesses 16 and projections 17 and 17 allows a long metal plate to pass between a pair of rolls as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-169127. Then, since the concave portion 16 and the projections 17 and 17 can be formed by cutting appropriate portions of the long metal plate, the manufacturing apparatus can be relatively simple. Then, in the case of a laminated evaporator of a separate tank type, which is manufactured using such a metal plate 15, the metal plates 15, 15 are formed as a pair, and the recesses 16, 16 of each other are opposed to each other. By overlapping in the middle and joining each other in a liquid-tight manner,
A pair of joints 19a that are located at both ends of the folded channel 18 and protrude from the edge,
19b, and 20b.

Then, the joints 19a, 19b of the plurality of elements 20, 20 are connected to the first and second tanks 21,
22, slit-shaped connection holes 2 formed on the side surfaces
3 and 23, and the outer peripheral surfaces of the joints 19a and 19b and the inner peripheral edges of the connection holes 23 and 23 are brazed to each other in a liquid-tight manner. Each of the tanks 21 and 22 is constituted by combining a bottom plate 33 and a top plate 34 in the middle state as shown in FIG. 7 and brazing them in a liquid-tight manner with each other. It is formed on the bottom surface of the bottom plate 33. At the same time, fins (not shown) are provided between the adjacent elements 20. The inside of the first tank 21 is divided into an inlet chamber 25 and an outlet chamber 26 by being partitioned by a partition wall 24 fixed to an intermediate portion. Refrigerant outlet 2 on the side
8 are provided respectively.

In the case of the stacked evaporator of the separate tank type configured as described above, the inside of the space formed by the first and second tanks 21 and 22 and the return flow channel 18 provided in the plurality of elements 20 and 20 is formed. Can be divided into first, second, third and fourth chambers as shown in FIG. That is, the first tank 2
A first chamber 29 comprising an inlet chamber 25 existing in one half (the right half of FIG. 8) and an upstream half of the elements 20 and 20 in a part (the right half of FIG. 8). The second chamber 3 is provided downstream of the one chamber 29 and includes a downstream half of the partial elements 20, 20 and a half of the second tank 22 (the right half of the figure).
0 and the element 20 provided on the downstream side (left side in the figure) of the second chamber 30 and in the other half (left half in the figure) and the remaining part (left half in the figure) of the second tank 22. , 20 on the downstream side of the third chamber 31 and the other half of the first tank 21 (the left half of FIG. 2) and the remaining element 20. , 20 on the downstream half.

When a refrigerant is fed from the refrigerant inlet 27 into the stacked evaporator divided into the first to fourth chambers 29 to 32 as shown by an arrow a in FIG. As shown by an arrow b in the drawing, it flows in the first chamber 29, and a part of the turn-back channel 18 of some of the elements 20, 20 flows as shown by an arrow c in FIG. enter in. The refrigerant flowing in the second chamber 30 as indicated by the arrow d, and flowing to the downstream end of the second chamber 30 is then discharged to the second tank 2.
After flowing through the inside of the tank 2 in the direction of arrow e in FIG. 10 along the axial direction of the tank 22 and entering the third chamber 31, the remaining elements 20, 20 constituting the third chamber 31 are turned back It flows through the flow path 18 as shown by an arrow f in FIG. Further, the refrigerant flows through the folded portion of the folded flow path 18 of the remaining elements 20 and 20, as indicated by an arrow g in FIG.
And flows in the fourth chamber 32 as shown by an arrow h. And it exists at the downstream end of the fourth chamber 32.
The refrigerant that has flowed to the other half of the first tank 21 (the left half of FIG. 8) then flows from the refrigerant outlet 28 to the arrow i in FIG.
Outflow as indicated by.

[0014]

However, the stacked evaporator disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-169127, which is constructed and operates as described above, still has the following problems to be solved. There is a point. That is, in order for an evaporator having a plurality of parallel flow paths (corresponding to the folded flow path 18) to exhibit sufficient performance, the amount of refrigerant flowing in each flow path must be uniform. is necessary. If a large amount of refrigerant flows through some of the plurality of parallel flow paths and the amount of refrigerant flowing through the remaining flow paths decreases, the amount of heat exchange of the entire evaporator cannot be secured, and The performance of the vessel will deteriorate.

On the other hand, in the case of the stacked evaporator configured and operated as described above, the amount of the refrigerant flowing in each flow path cannot always be equalized. For example, the refrigerant inlet 27 is provided at the center of one half of the first tank 21, and the refrigerant sent from the refrigerant inlet 27 into the one half is connected to the refrigerant inlet 27. A large amount of water flows into a flow path that is close to the one-half central portion.
Then, the amount of inflow into the flow path that is far from the refrigerant inlet 27 and that is opened near both ends of the one-half portion is reduced.

The refrigerant that has reached the downstream end of the second chamber 30 is
When the refrigerant flows as shown by the arrow e in FIG. 10 and reaches the upstream end of the third chamber 31, the pressure of the refrigerant flowing in the direction of the arrow e becomes higher toward the downstream side. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 11, the amount of the refrigerant sent into the plurality of return flow paths 18 constituting the third chamber 31 depends on the return flow path 18 existing on the downstream side (right side in FIGS. 10 and 11). It will be more.

In particular, in the case of the stacked evaporator configured as described above, as shown in FIG. 12, the tip of the joint 19a (19b) formed on each element 20 is the first (second). The protrusion protrudes into the tank 21 (22), and the protruding portion functions as a weir. And since this protruding portion becomes a resistance against the flow of the refrigerant, the resistance of the refrigerant flowing through the laminated evaporator is large, and not only the amount of the refrigerant flowing through the laminated evaporator cannot be increased, but also the flow of the refrigerant is reduced. Strong tendency to bias.

In order to eliminate the bias of the refrigerant, the mounting position and the flow path area of the refrigerant inlet 27 communicating with the inlet chamber 25 of the first tank 21 and the refrigerant outlet 2 communicating with the outlet chamber 26 are required.
To some extent, this can be achieved by devising the mounting position of 8 and the flow path area, or devising the position of the partition 24 fixed in the first tank 21. However, in the case of a relatively large evaporator in which the number of stacked elements 20 and 20 is increased, these measures cannot sufficiently reduce the deviation in the flow rate.
The evaporator of the present invention solves the above-mentioned disadvantages.

[0019]

The evaporator according to the present invention has a U-shaped recess formed on one side of a metal plate having a pair of protruding portions formed at one edge and spaced from each other. The metal plates are formed in a state of being continued to the edges of the pair of projecting portions, and the metal plates are formed as a pair, and are superposed in the middle while the concave portions are opposed to each other to be liquid-tight with each other. By joining, an element having a U-shaped folded flow path, and a pair of joints located at both ends of the flow path and protruding from an edge portion, each joint of the plurality of elements is referred to as a second joint. First, the outer peripheral surface of each joint and the inner peripheral edge of each connection hole are liquid-tightly joined to each other by inserting into the slit-shaped connection holes formed on the side surfaces of the second tank, respectively, and between the adjacent elements. Fins are provided, and the refrigerant is fed to one side of the first tank whose middle part is partitioned by a partition. In the evaporator constituted by providing a port and a refrigerant take-out port on the other side, respectively, a portion inserted into the inside of the first and second tanks at the edge of the joint is arc-shaped. It is characterized by being cut out.

[0020]

With the evaporator of the present invention configured as described above,
The operation itself when performing heat exchange between the refrigerant flowing inside the evaporator and the air flowing outside the evaporator is the same as that of the above-described conventional evaporator. In particular, in the case of the evaporator of the present invention, since the edge of the flow portion is cut off in an arc shape, an increase in liquid flow resistance due to the edge of the flow portion is minimized. As a result, the amount of the refrigerant flowing in the evaporator can be increased, and the tendency of the flow of the refrigerant to be uneven is reduced, so that the performance of the evaporator can be improved.

[0021]

1 to 3 show an embodiment of the present invention.
The feature of the present invention is that the edges of the joints 19a (19b) of the plurality of elements 20 are cut out in an arc shape.
Since it is the same as the stacked evaporator disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 69127, a duplicate description will be omitted, and only the features of the present invention will be described below.

Joining portions 19a (19b) provided at a plurality of elements 20 constituting a core portion of the stacked evaporator and located at both ends of a return flow path 18 of each element 20 as distribution parts.
Is inserted into the first (second) tank 21 (22) through the slit-shaped connection hole 23. An arc-shaped notch 35 is provided at the edge of the joint 19a (19b) to project the joint 19a (19b) into the first (second) tank 21 (22). The amount has been reduced.

As described above, since the arc-shaped notch 35 is provided at the edge of the joint 19a (19b) existing at the end of the return flow path 18, the joint 19a (19b) is formed.
The increase of the liquid flow resistance due to the edge of the rim is minimized.
As a result, the amount of the refrigerant flowing in the stacked evaporator can be increased, the tendency of the flow of the refrigerant to be biased is reduced, and the temperature distribution of the air that has passed through the stacked evaporator is made uniform. Performance can be improved.

The size of the notch 35 formed in each joint 19a (19b) can improve the performance of the laminated evaporator to some extent even if it is the same for all the joints 19a (19b).
If the size is different, the performance can be further improved. For example, the edge of the joint 19a inserted into the connection hole 23 formed on one side of the first tank 21 is shown in FIG.
The larger the distance x from the refrigerant inlet 27 provided in the center of one half of the first tank 21 shown in (1), the larger the notch, and the smaller the distance x from the refrigerant inlet 27, the smaller the notch. Then, a plurality of folded flow paths having one end opened at one half of the first tank 21 through the refrigerant inlet 27 into the one half of the first tank 21 and flowing in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 18, 18 flow evenly.

Also, the connecting portion 19b inserted into the connecting hole formed in the downstream half portion (the upstream end portion of the third chamber 31 (FIG. 10)) of the second tank 22 (FIGS. 8 to 9). If the edge is cut away toward the upstream side, the refrigerant flowing from the upstream side to the downstream side in the second tank 22 flows through the second tank 22 as shown by an arrow e in FIGS. Flows into the plurality of return flow paths 18, 18 having one ends opened in the downstream half portion thereof without bias.

[0026]

Since the evaporator of the present invention is constructed and operates as described above, it is possible to make the amounts of refrigerant flowing in a plurality of parallel flow paths constituting the evaporator substantially equal. To equalize the temperature distribution of the air passing through the evaporator,
The performance of the evaporator can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged view AA of FIG.
FIG.

FIG. 2 is a view corresponding to an arrow B in FIG. 10;

FIG. 3 is a view corresponding to the view in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 10;

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a first example of a conventional laminated evaporator.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a metal plate constituting the evaporator.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line DD of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a partially exploded perspective view showing a second example of a conventional laminated evaporator.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing an assembled state.

FIG. 9 is a side view of the same.

FIG. 10 is a schematic perspective view showing the flow of a refrigerant.

11 shows a state in which the refrigerant flows unevenly, and FIG.
The figure corresponding to the -E cross section.

FIG. 12 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line AA of FIG. 8;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 metal plate 2 unit 3 flat portion 4 first concave portion 5 second concave portion 6 third concave portion 7 through hole 8 through hole 9 convex portion 10 inlet tube 11 outlet tube 12 flat tube portion 13 fin 14a protrusion 14b protrusion 15 metal plate 16 Concave part 17 Projection 18 Turn-back channel 19a Joint 19b Joint 20 Element 21 First tank 22 Second tank 23 Connection hole 24 Partition wall 25 Inlet chamber 26 Outlet chamber 27 Refrigerant inlet 28 Refrigerant outlet 29 First chamber 30 Second room 31 Third room 32 Fourth room 33 Bottom plate 34 Top plate 35 Notch

Claims (3)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] A U-shaped recess is formed on one side of a metal plate having a pair of protrusions formed at one end and spaced from each other, and both ends of the recess are continuous with the edges of the pair of protrusions. The U-shaped folded flow path is formed by forming these metal plates into a pair and overlapping them in the middle in a state where the concave portions are opposed to each other and liquid-tightly joining each other. When,
Slits formed at both ends of the flow path and having a pair of joints protruding from the edge, and each joint of the plurality of elements formed on the side surfaces of the first and second tanks, respectively. The outer peripheral surface of each connecting portion and the inner peripheral edge of each connecting hole are liquid-tightly joined to each other, fins are provided between adjacent elements, and the intermediate portion is partitioned by a partition wall. In an evaporator configured by providing a refrigerant inlet on one side of one tank and a refrigerant outlet on the other side, the first and second tanks are connected at the edge of the joint. An evaporator characterized in that the part inserted inside is cut out in an arc shape. 2. The evaporator according to claim 1, wherein the edge of the joint inserted into the connection hole formed on one side of the first tank is largely cut away closer to the refrigerant inlet. . 3. An end portion of a joint portion inserted into a connection hole formed in a downstream half portion of the second tank, the edge of the joint portion being notched larger toward the upstream side. Evaporator.