JPH06221723A - Four-way switch valve for air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a four-way switch valve for air conditoner which is compact-sized with a simple structure. CONSTITUTION:A first, a second, a third and a fourth piping holes 1, 2, 3 and 4 are provided in this order on a cocentric circle at a prescribed pitch on a plane part of a thick disc-shaped valve seat which makes a part of a valve case 10. On an upper surface of the valve seat 5, a rotary valve 9 is provided rotatably which has at least one communication groove 6 to connect independently two adjacent pipe holes of these four piping holes 1 to 4. By rotating the rotary valve 9, switching of operation can be realized between cooling and heating.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a four-way switching valve for an air conditioner used for switching between heating and cooling in an air conditioner using a heat pump type refrigeration cycle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 5, a currently used four-way switching valve has a cylindrical pipe 30 having a first pipe hole 31 at the center and a second pipe hole 32 at the lower center. , A third valve hole 33 and a fourth valve hole 34 are provided in series, and a valve seat 35 having a horizontal cross-section is provided inside out, and a bowl-shaped valve slide 36 is arranged on the upper surface of the valve seat 35. In addition to straddling the valve seat 35, the piston rings 37, 38 are provided on both sides of the valve seat 35.
The piston rod 39 provided with the above is connected to the valve slide 36, and the pressure of the refrigerant in each chamber 40, 41, 42 in the cylindrical cylinder 30 partitioned by the piston rings 37, 38 is switched using the solenoid valve 43. As a result, the valve slide 36 is slid through the piston rod 39 to switch between cooling and heating (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-62).
677).

Further, as a driving means of the valve slide 36, a wax thermoelement having a shaft at a shaft core portion and a bracket connected to a driving source composed of a heater provided so as to cover an outer peripheral portion of the wax thermoelement are interposed. Four-way switching valve (actual open flat 4-
No. 68264), a stepping motor, a geared motor, or a linear motor to drive a screw shaft, and a valve slide is slid through a bracket connected to the tip of the screw shaft. No. 190058) is disclosed, but the basic structure of the four-way switching valve body is the same as that shown in FIG.

In addition, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a main body 51 is composed of a disk-shaped base 49 having a plurality of conducting holes 45, 46, 47 and 48 and a bottomed cylindrical body 50. ,
An elliptic bowl-shaped valve body 52 that opens and closes the conduction hole is slidably arranged on the flat surface of the disk-shaped base 49, and the valve body 52 is arranged outside the main body 51 by an electromagnetic coil 53. With the operation of the above, the plunger 55 is installed inside the pipe-shaped guide 54 provided through the outer peripheral wall of the main body 51, and one end of the valve body 52 is swung through the operating plate 56. Solenoid directional control valve (Shokai 58-127)
No. 276) is disclosed.

Further, a modified example of a bowl-shaped valve body sliding on the same disk-shaped base as described above (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-15566).
No. 9) is also disclosed.

[0006]

The structure of the above-mentioned conventional four-way switching valve utilizing the pressure of the refrigerant is the cylindrical cylinder 3.
A valve seat 35 having the same curved surface as that of the cylinder must be accurately brazed to the center lower part of 0, and the valve slide 36 disposed on the upper surface of the valve seat 35 is always in a pressure contact state. In addition, the means for connecting the piston rod 39 or the bracket so as to be able to slide smoothly and the means for fixing the piston rings 37, 38 to both ends of the piston rod 39 are difficult because the valve slide 36 is located at the center of the cylinder 30. The workability was poor.

Then, by utilizing the magnetomotive force (attracting force) and the spring force (repulsive force) of the spring as the switching operation, each chamber 4 in the cylindrical cylinder can be generated and demagnetized once.
Since a pressure difference is created at 0, 41, 42 and the valve slide is slid for the entire stroke, the pressure difference between the chambers 40, 41, 42 for creating a heating circuit must be continuously applied to the solenoid in the heating state. There was also a problem that the valve slide could not be kept in a heated state because it could not be kept.

Further, in the case of using a wax thermoelement, since the pressure source due to heating is a driving source, malfunction or switching operation tends to become unstable due to the influence of the outside air temperature. Furthermore, the sealing state between the shaft of the shaft core portion and the wax thermoelement has a great influence on the performance, but it is very difficult in terms of manufacturing to perform this sealing reliably, resulting in a high cost.

Further, a device using a stepping motor or the like is very expensive, and the cost of the four-way switching valve is high.

The switching valves having the structures disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. S58-127276 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. S59-155669 all have a pipe-shaped guide 54 outside the main body.
Since the electromagnetic coil 53 is provided via the plunger 55, the plunger 55 is passed through the guide 54, and the valve body 52 in the main body is oscillated through the operating plate 56, the main body 52 itself becomes compact, but Since the electromagnetic coil 53 is large and projects outside the main body 52, the balance is poor, and the work of hermetically connecting the main body 52 and the electromagnetic coil 53 through the guide 54 is very troublesome. Therefore, the reality is that it has not been put to practical use.

[0011]

A four-way switching valve according to the present invention is a four-way switching valve which is basically a basic structure of the four-way switching valve itself, and has a thick disk shape which is a part of a valve case 10. The first piping hole 1, the second piping hole 2, the third piping hole 3, and the fourth piping hole 4 are provided concentrically on the flat surface portion of the valve seat 5 at a predetermined pitch, and on the upper surface of the valve seat 5, Among the first to fourth piping holes, a rotary valve 9 having at least one communication groove 6 which independently connects two adjacent piping holes is rotatably provided.

As a typical means for rotating the rotary valve 9, for example, a small DC motor is used.
In addition to the means for decelerating the rotation of the motor with a gear to rotate the operating shaft 8 provided at the upper center of the rotary valve 9, a tooth profile is formed on the outer periphery of the rotary valve 9 and the tooth profile is used for rotation. You can also

[0013]

By rotating the rotary valve 9 by 90 °, it is possible to switch between two adjacent pipe holes of the first to fourth pipe holes 1, 2, 3, 4. The detailed operation will be described based on an embodiment.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which reference numeral 5 denotes a thick disk-shaped valve seat which also serves as a part (bottom wall) of a valve case 10. is there. As shown in FIG. 2, the valve seat 5 has a first pipe hole 1, a second pipe hole 2,
The 3rd piping hole 3 and the 4th piping hole 4 are provided in the concentric circle at an equal pitch.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a thick disk-shaped rotary valve. The rotary valve 9 has a lower surface on which a communicating groove 6 connecting the first piping hole 1 and the second piping hole 2 and a third piping hole 3 are formed. Communication grooves 7 that connect the fourth piping holes 4 are symmetrically provided, and an operating shaft 8 is vertically provided at the center upper portion thereof, and the lower surface is in contact with the upper surface of the valve seat 5 and is rotatable and slidable. It is provided. The rotary valve 9 does not necessarily need to be provided with the two communication holes 6 and 7 in a thick disk shape, but can be rotated or swung with a thick fan shape provided with at least one communication hole. May be provided.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a cylindrical valve case. The valve case 10 is provided with a partition wall 12 having a shaft hole 11 at the center thereof, and an upper part of the partition wall is a machine room 13 in which a drive unit can be installed. ing. The valve case 10 covers the rotary valve 9 in the space below the partition wall 12 and is airtight on the upper surface of the valve seat 5 so that the rotary shaft 9 is passed through the central shaft hole 11 and projected into the upper machine chamber 13. Fixed to.

An IC 14 is installed in the machine room 13 of the valve case 10.
The rotation of a small DC motor 15 driven by a signal of the rotary valve 9
The operating shaft 8 of the
Two microswitches 17, 1 arranged at 0 ° position
A drive device for reversibly rotating the actuating shaft 8 by 90 ° by incorporating a lever 19 projecting orthogonally to the actuating shaft 8 is incorporated in the device 8.

The motor 15 does not necessarily have to be reversibly rotated, but may be rotated by 90 ° in the same direction. Further, the driving means of the rotary valve 9 is not limited to the small DC motor 15 and other rotating means may be used.

Reference numeral 20 is a communication pipe that connects the first piping hole 1 to the space below the partition wall 12 of the valve case 10. Since the first piping hole 1 is always on the high pressure side during operation, this pressure is maintained. By guiding it into the valve case 10, it acts as a force for pressing the upper portion of the rotary valve 9 against the valve seat 5, so that the sealing property between the valve seat and the rotary valve improves,
The cooling and heating capacity can be improved. However, the communication pipe 20 is not always necessary.

The operation of the four-way switching valve 21 having the above structure is as follows. As shown in FIG. 4, the four-way switching valve 21 is arranged in the outdoor unit 22 of the air conditioner, and the first piping hole 1 of the valve seat 5 is heated to the outlet side of the compressor 23 and the second piping hole 2 is heated. The exchanger 24, the third pipe hole 3 are connected to the inlet side of the compressor 23, and the fourth pipe hole 4 is connected to the 3/8 service valve 25.
(Connected to the heat exchanger of the indoor unit) Each is connected via a pipe.

Rotary valve 9 of the four-way switching valve 21
When the first communication hole 6 and the second communication hole 2 are brought into communication with each other as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. Since the pipe holes 4 of 4 simultaneously communicate with each other, the cooling operation is performed. 2 and 4 (A), the rotary valve 9 is rotated 90 ° to
The state of FIG. 4B, that is, the communication groove 6 is formed in the second pipe hole 2
And the third pipe hole 3 are brought into communication with each other, and at the same time, the communication groove 7 is brought into communication with the first pipe hole 1 and the fourth pipe hole 4 to switch to heating operation.

[0022]

According to the present invention, the structure of the four-way switching valve is the simple structure as described above, and the small DC motor is used as the drive source. Therefore, it is easy to process the piping hole in the valve seat and assemble the four-way switching valve itself. In addition, a complicated mechanism for utilizing the pressure difference is not required, and a bulky member such as an electromagnetic coil is not provided in a protruding shape from the valve case. The switching operation is possible, and it is not necessary to maintain the energized state even in the heating state unlike the conventional product.

Further, since a small DC motor is used as a drive source and all the driving means and control means are built in a valve case having the same diameter as the valve seat, the entire four-way switching valve can be downsized and provided at low cost. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view of a four-way switching valve according to the present invention.

2 is a bottom view of FIG. 1 during cooling.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of FIG. 1 during heating.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of an air conditioner incorporating a four-way switching valve according to the present invention, where (A) shows a cooling operation and (B) shows a heating operation.

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional side view of a conventional four-way switching valve that utilizes a pressure difference of refrigerant.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional plan view of a conventional four-way switching valve that uses a disk-shaped base and a bowl-shaped valve body.

FIG. 7 is a vertical side view of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 1st piping hole 2 2nd piping hole 3 3rd piping hole 4 4th piping hole 5 Valve seat 6 Communication groove 7 Communication groove 8 Working shaft 9 Rotary valve 10 Valve case 11 Shaft hole 12 Partition wall 13 Machine room 14 IC 15 Motor 16 Gear 17 Micro switch 18 Micro switch 19 Lever 20 Communication pipe 21 Four-way switching valve

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A first pipe hole 1, a second pipe hole 2, a third pipe hole 3 and a fourth pipe hole 4 are formed in a flat surface portion of a thick disk-shaped valve seat 5 which is a part of a valve case 10. A rotary valve 9 which is provided on concentric circles at a predetermined pitch in sequence and has at least one communication groove 6 which independently connects two adjacent pipe holes of the four pipe holes on the upper surface of the valve seat 5. Is rotatably provided, and the rotary valve 9 is rotated to switch between a cooling operation and a heating operation. A four-way switching valve for an air conditioner. 2. A first pipe hole 1, a second pipe hole 2, a third pipe hole 3 and a fourth pipe hole 4 are formed on a flat surface portion of a thick disk-shaped valve seat 5 which is a part of the valve case 10. A rotary valve 9 provided concentrically on the concentric circles at a regular pitch, and symmetrically provided on the upper surface of the valve seat 5 with communication grooves 6 and 7 independently connecting two adjacent pipe holes of the four pipe holes. Rotatably provided,
A four-way switching valve for an air conditioner, characterized in that the rotary operation and the heating operation are switched by rotating the rotary valve 9. 3. The four-way switching valve for an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein a drive source for rotating the rotary valve 9 is a small DC motor 15. 4. The four-way switching valve for an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the first piping hole 1 and the inside of the valve case 10 are connected by a communication pipe 20.