JP7279305B2 - Electrical component module - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an electrical component module attached to a machine room behind a service panel in front of an outdoor unit of an air conditioner.

A typical air conditioner includes an outdoor unit 10 installed outdoors and an indoor unit 20 installed indoors, as shown in FIG. The outdoor unit 10 and the indoor unit 20 are connected by a refrigerant pipe 30 to form a vapor compression refrigeration cycle.

The outdoor unit 10 includes an outdoor heat exchanger 11 that exchanges heat between the outdoor air and the refrigerant, a blower fan 11F, a compressor 12 that compresses the refrigerant, and lubricant discharged from the compressor 12 and a mixed fluid of the refrigerant. An oil separator 13 for separation, an expansion valve 14 for expanding the inflowing refrigerant and depressurizing it to a predetermined pressure, an accumulator 15 for gas-liquid separation of the inflowing refrigerant, a four-way valve 16 for switching between heating operation and cooling operation, etc. are provided. there is Further, the indoor unit 20 is provided with an indoor heat exchanger 21 that exchanges heat between indoor air and a refrigerant, a blower fan 21F, and the like. Refrigerant piping 30 connects these outdoor heat exchanger 11 , compressor 12 , oil separator 13 , expansion valve 14 , accumulator 15 , four-way valve 16 and indoor heat exchanger 21 . The refrigerant pipe 30 includes a liquid-side refrigerant pipe 30L and a gas-side refrigerant pipe 30G.

As shown in FIG. 10, the interior of the housing 17 of the outdoor unit 10 is partitioned into a heat exchanger chamber 10A and a mechanical chamber 10B in the horizontal direction by a partition plate 171. Exchanger 11 and blower fan 11F are arranged. The machine room 10B houses the compressor 12, the oil separator 13, the expansion valve 14, the accumulator 15, the four-way valve 16, and the like. As shown in 11, it is visible from the outside.

In the machine room 10B, an electrical component module 40 is further arranged at a substantially intermediate position in the vertical direction. The electrical component module 40 includes a control circuit for controlling the overall operation of the air conditioner, a setting circuit for performing various settings of the air conditioner, a display circuit for displaying the state of the air conditioner, and an externally supplied alternating current. It is a module equipped with a converter circuit that converts electric power into DC power and outputs it, an inverter circuit that converts the DC power output from the converter circuit into AC power and outputs it, and other circuits. Multiple electronic components are mounted to realize the circuit. The printed circuit board 41 is configured by one sheet so as to secure a piping space on the inner side of the machine room 10B.

FIG. 11 shows the front of the electrical component module 40 . The printed circuit board 41 is installed in the machine room 10B in an upright posture. The printed circuit board 41 is vertically divided into a low current region 41A and a high current region 41B.

In the weak current area 41A, for example, an electronic component 41A1 such as a microcomputer that constitutes a part of the control circuit, a switch 41A2 that constitutes a setting circuit, a low power connector 41A3 for plugging and unplugging, and a weak current electronic system such as an LED 41A4. parts are installed. In addition, in the high-voltage region 41B, a plurality of high-voltage electronic components for performing power conversion constituting the rest of the control circuit described above, for example, a power device 41B1 such as a converter circuit IC and an inverter circuit IC, a smoothing Heavy-duty electronic components such as a large-capacity electrolytic capacitor 41B2, a DC/AC converter reactor 41B3, and a high-power connector 41B4 are mounted.

A cooler 50 for cooling the heat generated by the power device 41B1 is further arranged in the high-voltage region 41B. This cooler 50 has a heat sink (not shown) attached to the liquid-side refrigerant pipe 30L of the refrigerant pipe 30 . The heat sink is arranged on the front side of the printed circuit board 41 toward the service panel side (not shown) so that the heat generated by the power device 41B1 is transmitted. In the liquid-side refrigerant pipe 30L, the refrigerant condensed in the outdoor heat exchanger 11 flows during cooling operation, and the refrigerant condensed in the indoor heat exchanger 21 and decompressed in the expansion valve 14 flows in the heating operation. The heat sink of the device 50 is cooled, and the temperature of the power device 41B1 is kept below a predetermined value. The air conditioner described above is described in Patent Document 1.

Japanese Patent No. 5472364

By the way, although the power device 41B1 radiates heat by the cooler 50 as described above, the reactor 41B3 is cooled by the surrounding air. Therefore, if the amount of heat generated by this reactor 41B3 becomes large, the reactor 41B3 should be placed in another place in the electrical component module 40 away from the printed circuit board 41, considering the adverse effect on other electronic components on the printed circuit board 41. is placed. However, since a reactor that generates a large amount of heat generates a large amount of heat stress, it is necessary to increase the size of the reactor by increasing the heat capacity in order to reduce the heat stress.

On the other hand, recent air conditioners are required to have compact outdoor units with a high degree of freedom in installation, and electrical component modules are also required to be downsized. Desired. In particular, a three-phase AC/DC converter requires three reactors, so miniaturization of the reactor is important.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to make it possible to cool a reactor even when the heat generated by the reactor is large, thereby miniaturizing the reactor and realizing miniaturization of an electrical component module.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 provides an electric component module installed in a machine room in which a refrigerant pipe of an air conditioner is installed. a printed circuit board on which a device is mounted, a first cooler that cools the power device, a fixing plate mounted in the machine chamber with the printed circuit board mounted thereon, a reactor connected to the printed circuit board, and a second cooler for cooling the reactor, wherein the first cooler and the second cooler are arranged in the vertical direction with the second cooler spaced downward from the first cooler. The first cooler has a first heat sink thermally coupled to the power device, the second cooler has a second heat sink thermally coupled to the reactor, and the The reactor is characterized in that it is arranged at a position separated from the surface of the printed circuit board in the same plane direction.
The invention according to claim 2 is the electrical component module according to claim 1, wherein the refrigerant pipe forms a U-shape above the first cooler, and the refrigerant passing through the refrigerant pipe flows from the second After passing through the cooler, it passes through the first cooler, further passes through the first cooler, and then passes through the second cooler, and the reactor is supported by the second cooler . It is characterized by
According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided the electrical component module according to the first aspect, wherein the reactor is supported by the fixing plate attached at a location away from the printed circuit board.

According to the present invention, since the reactor is cooled by the cooler, the size of the reactor can be reduced and the size of the electrical component module can be reduced.

It is a perspective view of an outdoor unit. It is a perspective view of the same outdoor unit which removed the service panel. It is the top view which removed the top panel of the outdoor unit. It is the right side view which removed the right side panel of the outdoor unit. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 4; FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG. 4 and is an explanatory diagram of the reactor cooling structure of the first embodiment; FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a reactor cooling structure of a second embodiment; FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of a reactor cooling structure according to a third embodiment; 1 is a circuit diagram of a refrigerant circuit of an air conditioner; FIG. It is the front view which removed the service panel of the conventional outdoor unit. FIG. 10 is a front view of a conventional electrical component module;

<First embodiment>
Hereinafter, the same reference numerals are given to the same parts as those explained with reference to FIGS. 9 to 11, which explain the first embodiment of the present invention. 1 to 4, the housing 110 of the outdoor unit 100 includes a front panel 111, a service panel 112 on the right side of the front panel 111, a right side panel 113, a left side panel 114, and a top panel. 115, a rear panel 116 and a bottom panel 117, to which legs 118 are attached.

In the following description, the front panel 111 side is the front, the rear panel 116 side is the rear, the right side panel 113 side is the right side, the left side panel 114 side is the left side, the top panel 116 side is the top side, and the bottom panel 117 side is the bottom side. do.

The interior of the housing 110 is partitioned in the left-right direction by a partition plate 119 such that the back side of the front panel 111 is a heat exchanger chamber 110A and the back side of the service panel 112 is a machine chamber 110B. This partition plate 119 constitutes a part of the wall surface of the machine room 110B. The outdoor heat exchanger 11 and the blower fan 11F described with reference to FIG. 9 are arranged in the heat exchanger chamber 110A. The machine room 110B houses the refrigerant pipe 30, the compressor 12, the expansion valve 14, the accumulator 15, the sub-accumulator 15A, the four-way valve 16, and the like. The machine room 110B can be visually recognized from the front side of the outdoor unit 100 by removing the service panel 112 .

Reference numeral 200 denotes an electrical component module, which includes a fixed plate 210 formed of a central plate 211, an upper plate 212 attached to the upper side of the central plate 211, and a lower plate 213 attached to the lower side of the central plate 211; A main board 220 mounted on the front side, a power board 230 mounted on the rear side of the central board 211, a first cooler 240 for cooling a power device 231 mounted on the power board 230 and described later, and a lower board 213. A second cooler 260 is provided to cool a reactor 250 (described later) located on the rear side of the . The reactor 250 is connected to the power board 230 by wiring (not shown). As shown in FIG. 4, the first cooler 240 and the second cooler 260 are attached to the vertically arranged refrigerant pipes 30L1 and are thermally coupled. Thus, in this embodiment, the printed circuit board is divided into the main board 220 and the power board 230 .

On the main substrate 220, electronic components of a weak current system such as electronic components constituting a part of the control circuit and other electronic components are mounted on the front side facing the service panel. The electronic components on the main board 220 are not shown because they are not directly related to the present invention, but they include an LED lamp as an indicator, a display setting circuit including DIP switches and button switches as an operation unit, and a part of the control circuit. A control IC such as a microcomputer, a plurality of connectors arranged in the periphery, an EMC filter circuit for countermeasures against external noise and spontaneous noise including capacitors and common mode choke coils, and an expansion valve 14 and a four-way valve 16 are driven. These include a drive circuit, a temperature detection circuit connected to a thermistor (not shown) that detects the temperature of the pipe 30, and the like.

Further, the power board 230 is mounted on the rear side thereof so as to face the back plate 116 with high-voltage electronic components that constitute the power device 231 and the rest of the control circuit. The electronic components on the power board 320 are a diode bridge for rectification, an IGBT element, an FRD element for high-speed operation, an electrolytic capacitor for smoothing, and the like, although they are not shown. A reactor that generates a large amount of heat is not mounted on the power board 230 .

FIG. 5 shows a cross section taken along line AA of FIG. The first cooler 240 consists of a first heat sink 241 made of aluminum to which a power device 231 having a lead 231a soldered to a power board 230 is attached with a screw B1, and a steel plate that presses a refrigerant pipe 30L1 against the first heat sink 241 from the rear side. and a screw B2 for fixing the first cover 242 to the first heat sink 241, which is located between the power board 230 and the rear plate 116. As shown in FIG. A first heat transfer sheet 243 is interposed between the first power device 231 and the first heat sink 241 .

The first heat sink 241 is formed with two curved recesses 241a into which the refrigerant pipes 30L1 are fitted. The first cover 242 is attached to the first heat sink 241 with screws B2 in a state in which the hook 242a on one side end is engaged with one corner 241b of the first heat sink 241 to press the refrigerant pipe 30L1 against the curved recess 241a. can be attached to Two refrigerant pipes 30L1 are arranged side by side in the horizontal direction on the rear side of the fixed plate 210 and arranged in the vertical direction. 230a is an opening formed in the power board 230 and 211a is an opening formed in the center plate 211 of the fixing plate 210. These openings 230a and 211a are used to attach the power device 231 to the first heat sink 241 with screws B1. formed. This screwing operation is performed with the main board 220 removed.

As described above, the heat generated in the power device 231 is radiated to the refrigerant pipe 30L1 via the first heat sink 241, so the power device 231 is effectively cooled.

FIG. 6 shows a cross section taken along line BB of FIG. This FIG. 5 shows the cooling structure of the reactor 250 of this embodiment. The reactor 250 comprises a coil 251 and a core 252 coupled to the coil 251, and provided with a flange 253 for attaching to the core 252 with screws. The second cooler 260 includes a second heat sink 261 made of aluminum to which the flange 253 of the reactor 250 is attached with a screw B3, a second cover 262 made of steel that presses the refrigerant pipe 30L1 against the second heat sink 261 from behind, and A screw B4 for fixing the second cover 262 to the second heat sink 261 is provided. A second heat transfer sheet 263 is interposed between the reactor 260 and the heat sink 261 .

The second heat sink 261 is formed with two second curved recesses 261a into which the refrigerant pipes 30L1 are fitted. The second cover 262 is attached to the heat sink 261 with screws B4 in a state in which the hook 262a on one side end is engaged with one corner portion 261b of the second heat sink 261 and the refrigerant pipe 30L1 is pressed against the second curved concave portion 261a. can be attached to

The second cooler 260 is arranged behind the lower plate 213 of the fixed plate 210 and below the first cooler 240 . As described above, the heat generated in the reactor 250 is radiated to the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant pipe 30L1 via the core 252 and the heat sink 161, so that the heat is effectively cooled.

As described above, in this embodiment, the reactor 250 is cooled by the second cooler 260. Therefore, even if the reactor 250 generates a large amount of heat, the shape of the reactor 250 can be reduced. As a result, it is suitable for miniaturization of the outdoor unit 100 .

<Second embodiment>
FIG. 7 shows the cooling structure of the reactor 250 of the second embodiment. In the cooling structure of the reactor 250 of the first embodiment, the second cooler 260 is attached to and thermally coupled to the refrigerant pipes 30L1 arranged vertically side by side in the left-right direction on the rear side of the fixed plate 210. Forced cooling of the reactor 250 was performed. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, in order to cool the reactor 250, two refrigerant pipes 30L2 arranged side by side in the vertical direction are used. That is, the second cooler 260A is used in which the second heat sink 261 is attached and thermally coupled to the refrigerant pipe 30L2 arranged in a direction different from that of the refrigerant pipe 30L1. The second cooler 260A has exactly the same cooling structure as that described with reference to FIG. 6 except for the refrigerant pipe 30L2, and can similarly cool the reactor 250, enabling its size reduction.

In the second embodiment, a second heat sink 261 is attached to and thermally coupled to the refrigerant pipe 30L2 that is piped in the horizontal direction on the rear side of the fixed plate 210, and the reactor 250 is thermally coupled to the second heat sink 261. Therefore, when three reactors 250 for a three-phase AC/DC converter are cooled by one second cooler 260A, the three reactors 250 are arranged side by side along the refrigerant pipe 30L2. This eliminates the need to expand the vertical space in the machine room 110B.

<Third embodiment>
FIG. 8 shows the cooling structure of the reactor 250 of the third embodiment. In the third embodiment, the reactor 250 is cooled using the second cooler 260B attached to and thermally coupled to the two refrigerant pipes 30L3 arranged side by side in the longitudinal direction in the machine room 110B. In the third embodiment, the flange 253 of the reactor 250 is attached to the rear side of the lower plate 213 of the fixed plate 210 with screws B5, and the coil 251 of the reactor 250 is connected to the second cooler 260B via the second heat transfer sheet 263. , the reactor 250 is cooled. Since the portion of the reactor 250 that generates a large amount of heat is the portion of the coil 251, the cooling effect is increased by directly cooling the coil 251 with the second cooler 260B.

In the third embodiment, the refrigerant pipe 30L3 arranged in the left-right direction on the rear side of the fixing plate 210 is used. That is, a second heat sink 261 is attached to and thermally coupled to the refrigerant pipe 30L3 arranged in a direction different from that of the refrigerant pipes 30L1 and 30L2, and the coil 251 of the reactor 250 is thermally coupled to the second heat sink 261. Therefore, when three reactors 250 for a three-phase AC/DC converter are cooled by one third cooler 260B, the three reactors 250 are arranged side by side in the left-right direction along the refrigerant pipe 30L3. This eliminates the need to expand the vertical space in the machine room 110B.

30L, 30L1, 30L2, 30L3: refrigerant piping 100: outdoor unit, 110: housing, 110A: heat exchanger room, 110B: machine room, 111: front panel, 112: service panel, 113: right side panel, 114: Left side panel, 115: top panel, 116: rear panel, 117: bottom panel, 118: stand, 119: partition plate 200: electrical component module, 210: fixing plate, 220: main board, 230: power board, 240 : first cooler, 250: reactor, 260, 260A, 260B: second cooler

Claims (3)

In the electrical component module installed in the machine room where the refrigerant piping of the air conditioner is installed,
A printed circuit board on which a power device of a control circuit for controlling the air conditioner is mounted, a first cooler that cools the power device, and a fixing plate mounted in the machine room with the printed circuit board mounted thereon. , a reactor connected to the printed circuit board, and a second cooler for cooling the reactor,
The first cooler and the second cooler are attached to the refrigerant pipe arranged vertically with the second cooler spaced downward from the first cooler, and the first cooler is the a first heat sink thermally coupled to a power device; the second cooler having a second heat sink thermally coupled to the reactor; An electrical component module characterized by being arranged at a remote location. In the electrical component module according to claim 1,
The refrigerant pipe is U-shaped above the first cooler, and the refrigerant passing through the refrigerant pipe passes through the second cooler, then the first cooler, and then the first cooler. An electrical component module , wherein the reactor passes through the first cooler and then the second cooler, and the reactor is supported by the second cooler. In the electrical component module according to claim 1,
The electrical component module, wherein the reactor is supported by the fixing plate attached at a location away from the printed circuit board.

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