JP7689410B2 - heat exchanger - Google Patents

Description

This relates to a heat exchanger having a casing and a header frame attached inside the casing.

FIG. 6 shows a known conventional heat exchanger having a casing 26 and a header frame 23 attached thereto.
6, this conventional heat exchanger has a casing 26 formed of a deep groove-shaped casing body having a pair of opposing side walls 26b and a bottom 26a formed integrally therewith, and a top plate 26c fitted over the bottom 26a at a position opposite to the bottom 26a. A rising portion 27 for connecting to the casing body is formed on the top plate 26c. The rising portion 27 comes into contact with and is joined to the edge of the outer surface of the side wall 26b of the casing body.

In the above-mentioned conventional heat exchanger, the side wall portion 26b of the casing body is formed by drawing. However, when the drawing is deep, such as when the side wall portion 26b is formed, the drawing is difficult, and the molding of the casing body becomes difficult.
One possible solution to this problem is to form the pair of side wall portions 26b and the bottom portion 26a of the casing body as separate members and then assemble these members.

On the other hand, if the above-mentioned solution is adopted, there is a drawback in that when assembling the members 26a, 26b, and 26c constituting the casing 26 with the header frame 23, it is difficult to determine the positioning between these members.
Furthermore, when this solution is adopted, the bottom portion 26a is also formed with raised portions 27 for contacting the pair of side wall portions 26b, just like the top plate 26c. Since the raised portions 27 of these members are formed by bending, their roots are formed with curved surfaces. In this case, during the above-mentioned assembly, the ends of the side wall portions 26b interfere with the curved surfaces of the roots, and gaps 28 are formed at the corners of the header frame 23 between the top plate 26c or bottom portion 26a and the ends of the side wall portions 26b, as shown in FIG.
The occurrence of this gap 28 results in insufficient brazing during brazing, making it easier for fluids such as refrigerant flowing between the heat exchanger core 2 and the casing 26 to leak at the joint between the header frame 23 and the casing 26.

The present invention aims to provide a structure for a heat exchanger having a casing 6 with a top plate 6c, bottom 6a, and side walls 6b formed as separate bodies, and a header frame 3 attached to the inside of the casing 6, in which these components can be easily assembled and in which gaps 28 that could cause fluid leakage between the heat exchanger core 2 and the casing 6 are unlikely to occur.

The present invention as set forth in claim 1 is a core 2 formed by laminating flat tubes 1,
a casing 6 that fits around the outer periphery of the core 2;
a header frame 3 disposed at both ends in a flow direction of a fluid flowing through the core 2 and having an outer frame 4 in contact with an inner surface of the casing 6;
having
In a heat exchanger in which the inner surface of the casing 6 and the header frame 3 are integrally fixed by brazing via the outer peripheral surface of the outer frame 4,
The casing 6 is made up of a pair of top and bottom plates 6c and 6a, which are arranged at both ends of the stacking direction of each of the flat tubes 1, and a pair of side wall plates 6b that connect the plates 6a and 6c in a cylindrical shape.
The ends of the top plate 6c and the bottom plate 6a are formed with raised portions 7 that are bent toward the center of the stacking direction of the flat tubes 1,
At least one corner of the outer frame 4 of the header frame 3 is formed with a protruding piece 5 extending from the outer frame 4,
A notch 8 into which the protruding piece 5 is fitted is formed at a joint between the rising portion 7 of the top plate 6c or the rising portion 7 of the bottom plate 6a and the side wall plate 6b,
The heat exchanger is characterized in that the protruding piece 5 is fixed by brazing in a state where it is fitted into the notched portion 8.

The present invention as set forth in claim 2 provides the heat exchanger as set forth in claim 1,
The outer frame 4 is composed of an upper plate portion 4a, a lower plate portion 4b, and a pair of side plate portions 4c abutting the upper plate portion 4a and the lower plate portion 4b.
The protruding piece 5 is formed by horizontally extending end surfaces 5a of the upper plate portion 4a and the lower plate portion 4b on the side of the pair of side wall plates 6b,
The cutout portions 8 are composed of first cutout portions 8a cut from the ends of the rising portions 7 to the bases of the rising portions 7 at the fitting positions of the protruding pieces 5 of the rising portions 7 of the top plate 6c and the bottom plate 6a, and second cutout portions 8b formed by recesses on the end faces of the fitting positions of the protruding pieces 5 of the pair of side wall plates 6b,
The side wall plate 6b is disposed between the side plate portion 4c of the header frame 3 and the rising portion 7 of the top plate 6c and the rising portion 7 of the bottom plate 6a,
This heat exchanger is characterized in that the protruding pieces 5 formed on the upper plate portion 4a and the lower plate portion 4b abut against the second notch portions 8b of the side wall plate 6b, respectively, and abut against the first notch portions 8a formed in the raised portions 7 of the top plate 6c and the bottom plate 6a, respectively, and are fixed by brazing.

In the heat exchanger described in claim 1, a protruding piece 5 provided on at least one corner of the outer frame 4 of the header frame 3 is fitted into a notch 8 provided in a fitting portion of the side wall plate 6b and a rising portion 7 of the top plate 6c or the bottom plate 6a, and the protruding piece 5 is brazed and fixed in a state where it is fitted into the notch 8. This structure makes it possible to position the plates 6a, 6b, and 6c of the casing 6 during assembly before brazing.
Furthermore, in conventional heat exchangers, a gap 28 occurs between the bent portion of the raised portion 7 of the top or bottom plate and the end of the side wall plate. In the present invention, however, the protruding piece 5 provided at the corner of the outer frame 4 of the header frame 3 extends along the top plate 6c or bottom plate 6a and is brazed to effectively close the gap 28 at the bent portion, which is expected to prevent leakage.
Furthermore, the casing 6 is an assembly of a pair of top and bottom plates 6c and 6a, which are arranged at both ends of each flat tube 1 in the stacking direction, and a pair of side wall plates 6b that connect the plates 6a, 6c to form a cylindrical shape. Since deep drawing is not required, the casing 6 can be formed regardless of the height of the heat exchanger core.

The configuration of the invention described in claim 2 allows the casing 6 components to be reliably assembled to the core 2, including the header frame 3, with a simple structure, and also allows the gaps 28 that exist between the bent parts of the top and bottom plates and the side wall plates to be efficiently closed.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of an embodiment of a heat exchanger of the present invention. FIG. 2(A) is a perspective view of a header frame 3 used in the heat exchanger, FIG. 2(B) is an enlarged view of part B in FIG. 2(A), FIG. 2(C) is a plan view of FIG. 2(A), and FIG. 2(D) is a right side view of FIG. 2(A). FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a main part of the heat exchanger, showing an assembled state of a casing 6 of the heat exchanger; FIG. FIG. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional heat exchanger. FIG.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of an embodiment of a heat exchanger of the present invention, FIG. 2(A) is a perspective view of a header frame 3 used in the same heat exchanger, FIG. 2(B) is an enlarged view of portion B of FIG. 2(A), FIG. 2(C) is a plan view of FIG. 2(A) (the bottom view is omitted because it has the same shape as the plan view), and FIG. 2(D) is a right side view of FIG. 2(A) (the left side view is omitted because it has the same shape as the right side view).
As shown in FIG. 1, the main components of this heat exchanger are a core 2 formed by stacking flat tubes 1, a casing 6 which fits around the outer periphery of the core 2, and a header frame 3 which is disposed at both ends in the direction of flow of the fluid flowing inside the core 2 and has an outer frame 4 which abuts against the inner surface of the casing 6.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2(A), the header frame 3 has a short cylindrical outer frame 4 arranged on the core 2 side, an inner frame protruding in the direction opposite the core 2, and an inner flange that connects the outer frame 4 to the inner frame. The outer peripheral surface of the outer frame 4 of the header frame 3 is in surface contact with the inner surface of the casing 6. The outer frame 4 is made up of an upper plate portion 4a and a lower plate portion 4b, and a pair of side plate portions 4c that abut against them, and protruding pieces 5 are formed at the corners of the outer frame 4 of the header frame 3.

Specifically, as shown in Fig. 2(C), at both longitudinal ends of the upper plate portion 4a and the lower plate portion 4b, protruding pieces 5 are formed which are continuous horizontal extensions of the upper plate portion 4a and the lower plate portion 4b toward the side wall plate 6b in Fig. 1. Two of these protruding pieces 5 are formed at both longitudinal ends of the upper plate portion 4a, and two are formed at both longitudinal ends of the lower plate portion 4b. The upper surface of the upper plate portion 4a and the upper surfaces of the pair of protruding pieces 5 extending therefrom are formed as flat surfaces, and the lower surface of the lower plate portion 4b and the lower surfaces of the pair of protruding pieces 5 extending therefrom are also formed as flat surfaces.
At the base position of the protruding piece 5, the lower surface of the upper plate 4a and the upper surface of the lower plate 4b are in contact with both the upper and lower ends of the side plate 4c as shown in Fig. 2(D) . In this example, the longitudinal end faces of the upper plate 4a and the lower plate 4b, except for the end face of the protruding piece 5, are flush with the outer surface of the side plate 4c, and the protruding piece 5 protrudes from the outer surface of the side plate 4c.

The casing 6 is made up of a pair of top and bottom plates 6c and 6a arranged at both ends in the stacking direction of each of the flat tubes 1, and a pair of side wall plates 6b connecting the plates 6a and 6c into a cylindrical shape. As shown in Fig. 1, the top and bottom plates 6c and 6a have raised portions 7 bent toward the middle of the stacking direction of the flat tubes 1 at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the upper and lower plate portions 4a and 4b of the outer frame 4.
A header frame 3 is positioned at the joint between the raised portion 7 of the top plate 6c and the bottom plate 6a and the pair of side wall plates 6b, and a cutout portion 8 is formed in alignment with the position of the protruding piece 5 formed on the header frame 3.
1, the rising portion 7 of the top plate 6c and the bottom plate 6a is formed with a first cutout 8a cut from the end of the rising portion 7 to the base of the rising portion 7 at the fitting position of the protruding piece 5. Also, a second cutout 8b formed by a recess is formed at the fitting position of the protruding piece 5 on the connecting edge of the pair of side wall plates 6b.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the main parts of the heat exchanger, showing the assembled state of the casing 6, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts of the heat exchanger, and FIG. 5 is a side view of the main parts of the heat exchanger.
As shown in Fig. 4, both ends of the core 2 are fitted into the cylindrical outer frame 4 of the header frame 3, so that the work can be performed with the core 2 stabilized. In this case, the outermost surfaces of the flat tubes 1 at the uppermost and lowermost ends in the stacking direction of the core 2 are in contact with the inner surfaces of the upper plate portion 4a and the lower plate portion 4b of the outer frame 4, as shown in Fig. 4.

The outer surfaces of the side plate portions 4c of the pair of header frames 3 are formed as flat planes, and the outer surfaces come into contact with the inner surfaces of the side wall plates 6b of the casing 6. The vicinity of the inner surfaces of the side wall plates 6b that come into contact with the side plate portions 4c is a flat plane. At this time, a total of four protruding pieces 5 protruding from the pair of header frames 3 to the right side of the paper in FIG. 1 are fitted into the second notch portions 8b of the side wall plates 6b arranged on the right side of the core 2. As shown in FIG. 5, the width of the second notch portions 8b is approximately equal to the width of the protruding pieces 5. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the protruding pieces 5 and the second notch portions 8b are fitted into each other. Similarly, on the opposite left side of the paper in the figure, the protruding pieces 5 are fitted into the second notch portions 8b of the side wall plates 6b arranged on the left side of the core 2. In this state, the above-mentioned end faces 5a of the protruding pieces 5 protrude from the outer surfaces of the side wall plates 6b.
By employing the configuration of the protruding piece 5 and the second notch portion 8b, it becomes easier to position the core 2, the header frame 3, and the side wall plate 6b relative to each other.

In this assembled state, the top plate 6c and the bottom plate 6a are fitted together as shown in Fig. 3. At this time, the first cutouts 8a formed in the rising portions 7 of the top plate 6c and the bottom plate 6a are fitted onto the protruding pieces 5 protruding from the outer surfaces of the side wall plates 6b of the casing 6.
The adoption of the configuration of the protruding piece 5 and the second cutout portion 8b and the configuration of the first cutout portion 8a facilitates the relative positioning of the header frame 3 and the bottom plate 6a, the side wall plate 6b, and the top plate 6c that constitute the casing 6. In this state, the joint edge portion of the side wall plate 6b is sandwiched between the side plate portion 4c of the header frame 3 and the rising portion 7 of the top plate 6c and the rising portion 7 of the bottom plate 6a.

Since the first cutout portion 8a is cut from the end of the raised portion 7 to the base of the raised portion 7, the protruding piece 5 moves relatively along the first cutout portion 8a to the base of the raised portion 7 of the top plate 6c or the bottom plate 6a, resulting in the state shown in Figures 4 and 5.
As described above, the upper surface of the upper plate portion 4a and the upper surfaces of the pair of protruding pieces 5 extending therefrom are flat surfaces. The inner surface of the top plate 6c, which is in surface contact with these flat surfaces, is also flat. In other words, the first cutout portion 8a cuts out the bent portion between the top plate 6c and the rising portion 7, which is the cause of a gap (leakage), to form a flat surface.
Similarly, the lower surface of the lower plate portion 4b and the lower surfaces of the pair of protruding pieces 5 extending therefrom are also flat surfaces, and the inner surface of the bottom plate 6a, which comes into surface contact with these flat surfaces, is also flat.
Since the contact surfaces of the upper plate portion 4a and its protruding piece 5 and the first notch portion 8a of the top plate 6c, and the contact surfaces of the lower plate portion 4b and its protruding piece 5 and the first notch portion 8a of the bottom plate 6a are all formed by flat surfaces, there is no risk of gaps occurring that could cause leakage.

The assembly of the core 2, the header frame 3 and the casing 6 is fixed by brazing at the contact portions of each part.
In this example of the heat exchanger, an annular groove is formed between the inner frame of the header frame 3, its inner flange, and the casing 6, and a seal ring (not shown) is placed in the annular groove. Then, a tank body (not shown) is fitted onto the header frame 3 via the seal ring, and the crimping claws on the edge of the opening of the casing 6 are crimped onto the tank side.
A first fluid, such as a gas to be cooled, flows inside each flat tube 1 of the core 2, and a second fluid, such as a refrigerant, flows between the outer surface of each flat tube 1 and the inner surface of the casing 6, and heat is exchanged between the first fluid and the second fluid.

In the conventional heat exchanger shown in FIG. 7, a gap 28 is formed between the bent portion of the raised portion 27 of the top plate 26c or the bottom plate 26a and the end of the side wall plate 26b, and there is a risk of leakage of the second fluid such as a refrigerant from this portion.
When configured as shown in Figure 4, as described above, the protruding pieces 5 provided at the corners of the outer frame 4 of the header frame 3 extend along the top plate 6c or the bottom plate 6a, making it possible to effectively block the gap between the bent portion of the raised portion 7 of the top plate 6c or the bottom plate 6a and the end of the side wall plate 6b, thereby preventing leakage of the second fluid.

In addition, the casing 6 is an assembly of a pair of top and bottom plates 6c and 6a, which are arranged at both ends of each flat tube 1 in the stacking direction, and a pair of side wall plates 6b that connect the plates 6a and 6c into a cylindrical shape. This eliminates the need for deep drawing, and allows the casing 6 to be molded regardless of the height of the heat exchanger core.

In this example, a two-pass flow path that makes a U-turn and then folds back is formed as the flow path of the second fluid, but this is not limited to this and the present invention can also be applied to a heat exchanger in which a one-pass flow path without a fold back is formed.
In this example, three bridges are formed at intervals in the stacking direction of the flat tubes to improve the strength of the inner frame. However, the bridges may be omitted. If the tank (not shown) and the casing 6 are connected by brazing or the like without a seal ring, there is no need to form the inner frame of the header frame 3.

The present invention can be applied to heat exchangers with a casing having a header frame, such as charge air coolers.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Flat tube 2 Core 3 Header frame 4 Outer frame 4a Upper plate portion 4b Lower plate portion 4c Side plate portion 5 Projecting piece 5a End surface

6 Casing 6a Bottom plate 6b Side wall plate 6c Top plate 7 Raised portion 8 Cutout portion 8a First cutout portion 8b Second cutout portion

23 Header frame 24 Outer circumferential surface 24a Upper plate portion 24b Lower plate portion 24c Side plate portion

26 Casing 26a Bottom 26b Side wall 26c Top plate 27 Raised portion 28 Gap

Claims (2)

A core (2) formed by laminating flat tubes (1);
A casing (6) that fits around the outer periphery of the core (2);
a header frame (3) disposed at both ends of the core (2) in a flow direction of a fluid flowing through the core (2) and having an outer frame (4) abutting against an inner surface of the casing (6);
having
In a heat exchanger in which an inner surface of the casing (6) and the header frame (3) are integrally fixed by brazing via an outer peripheral surface of the outer frame (4),
The casing (6) comprises a pair of top and bottom plates (6c and 6a) arranged at both ends of each of the flat tubes (1) in the stacking direction, and a pair of side wall plates (6b) connecting the plates (6a) and (6c) in a cylindrical shape,
The ends of the top plate (6c) and the bottom plate (6a) are formed with raised portions (7) that are bent toward the middle of the stacking direction of the flat tubes (1),
At least one corner of the outer frame (4) of the header frame (3) is formed with a protruding piece (5) which is an extension of the outer frame (4),
A notch (8) into which the protruding piece (5) is fitted is formed at a joint between the rising portion (7) of the top plate (6c) or the rising portion (7) of the bottom plate (6a) and the side wall plate (6b),
The heat exchanger is characterized in that the protruding piece (5) is fitted into the notched portion (8) and fixed by brazing. 2. The heat exchanger according to claim 1,
The outer frame (4) is composed of an upper plate portion (4a), a lower plate portion (4b), and a pair of side plate portions (4c) abutting against the upper plate portion (4a),
The protruding piece (5) is formed by horizontally extending end faces (5a) of the upper plate portion (4a) and the lower plate portion (4b) on the pair of side wall plates (6b) side,
The cutout portion (8) comprises a first cutout portion (8a) cut out from an end of the rising portion (7) to a base of the rising portion (7) at a fitting position of the protruding piece (5) of the rising portion (7) of the top plate (6c) and the bottom plate (6a), and a second cutout portion (8b) formed by a recess on an end face of the fitting position of the protruding piece (5) of the pair of side wall plates (6b);
The side wall plate (6b) is disposed between the side plate portion (4c) of the header frame (3) and the rising portion (7) of the top plate (6c) and the rising portion (7) of the bottom plate (6a);
a heat exchanger characterized in that protruding pieces (5) formed on the upper plate portion (4a) and the lower plate portion (4b) abut against second notched portions (8b) of the side wall plate (6b) and abut against first notched portions (8a) formed in the raised portions (7) of the top plate (6c) and the bottom plate (6a), respectively, and are fixed by brazing.

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