KR102565037B1 - PTC unit for Motor-vehicle, PTC heater comprising thereof and air conditioning system comprising thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A PTC unit for a vehicle heater is provided. A PTC unit according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a heating unit including a PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) element; and a heat dissipation unit provided on at least one surface of the heat generating unit, including a heat dissipation substrate and a heat dissipation film provided on at least a portion of an outer surface of the heat dissipation substrate to improve heat dissipation performance. According to this, it is possible to express improved heat dissipation performance without reducing the air permeability and increasing the specific surface area of the heat dissipation part in order to improve the heat dissipation performance, and at the same time, the durability for the heat dissipation performance is excellent. In addition, as the air permeability of the heat dissipation unit is improved, noise and power consumption increase due to excessive use of peripheral devices such as fans can be prevented. Furthermore, since overheating of the PTC module and overload of the PTC module control circuit due to reduced air permeability of the heat dissipation unit are prevented, an expensive high-performance control circuit may not be required, and thus a PTC heater for a vehicle can be implemented at a reduced production cost.

Description

[0001] PTC unit for motor-vehicle, PTC heater comprising its and air conditioning system comprising thereof}

The present invention relates to a PTC module, and more particularly, to a PTC module for a vehicle heater, a PTC heater having the same, and an air conditioner for a vehicle.

Hybrid vehicles or electric vehicles use limited engines or do not use engines, so engine cooling water required for heating is insufficient or engine cooling water cannot be obtained.

In order to prevent this problem, a method of heating the interior of the vehicle using a separate preheating heater for a predetermined time while the engine is heated has been used. Conventional heaters using hot wire coils have a high calorific value, so heating is effective, but there is a risk of fire. The high temperature and the short lifespan of the heating wire caused the inconvenience of frequent repair and replacement of parts.

Accordingly, a heater using a PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) element capable of heating using electric energy of a battery is used as an auxiliary heating device for heating at the initial stage of startup.

The PTC heater has an advantage in that it can be used semi-permanently with a low risk of fire and a long lifespan. As for these PTC heaters, relatively small-capacity heaters have been mainly used, but recently, high-capacity PTC heaters have been demanded and developed according to the needs of users and various types of vehicles, including electric vehicles.

The PTC heater is implemented as a heater unit including PTC elements and a circuit unit that controls on/off of the PTC element, and further includes a fan that blows the heat dissipated from the PTC heater into the vehicle interior, so as to be realized as a vehicle air conditioner. do.

On the other hand, in order to dissipate the heat generated by the PTC element as much as possible, the heater unit employs a heat dissipation member having a structure having a collocated heat dissipation fin or a plurality of discontinuous discontinuous heat dissipation fins, thereby increasing the specific surface area of the heat dissipation fins to realize higher heat dissipation performance. There is an attempt to

However, when the increase in the specific surface area is maximized, the separation distance between the radiating fins becomes too narrow, so that it becomes very difficult for the wind blown by the fan to pass through the PTC heater, resulting in pressure differential and noise. In addition, in order to solve this problem, the fan must be rotated at a faster speed to blow air to the PTC heater at a higher pressure/strength, which further causes noise and power consumption problems of the vehicle due to the fast rotating fan. Furthermore, when the heat generated and radiated from the PTC element does not move smoothly into the interior of the vehicle through the air blown from the fan, a lot of thermal energy is stagnant near the PTC heater, and the stagnant heat energy is provided nearby to control the PTC elements. There is a problem of frequent failure and/or construction of an expensive high-performance control circuit with heat resistance as it causes problems of overheating and performance degradation of the circuit part.

Accordingly, the heat generated by the PTC element is dissipated with excellent efficiency even if the separation distance between the heat dissipation fins is not narrowed, and the use of a high-speed fan or a high-capacity fan is unnecessary, thereby reducing power consumption of the vehicle as a whole and controlling the operation of the PTC element. There is an urgent need to develop a heat dissipation member for a PTC heater capable of maintaining the performance and durability of circuit parts or peripheral electronic components.

KR10-2014-0144942

The present invention has been devised in view of the above points, and in order to improve the heat dissipation performance, improved heat dissipation performance can be expressed without structural changes that increase the specific surface area of the heat dissipation part, and at the same time, the heat dissipation performance can be maintained and expressed for a long time An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle PTC unit with excellent durability.

In addition, since the present invention does not require a maximized increase in the specific surface area of the heat dissipation part, deterioration in air permeability due to the heat dissipation part is prevented, and overload of peripheral devices such as fans is prevented. Another object is to provide a PTC unit for vehicles in which an increase in consumption can be prevented.

In addition, the present invention provides a vehicle PTC heater that can reduce the production cost by preventing overheating of the PTC module and overload of the PTC module control circuit due to reduced air permeability of the heat dissipation unit, so that an expensive and high-performance control circuit is not required. It serves another purpose.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner for a vehicle capable of reducing overall power consumption of the vehicle and stably circulating air by smoothly blowing heated air into the vehicle while maintaining an appropriate level of airflow. there is

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a heating unit including a PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) element; and a heat dissipation unit provided on at least one surface of the heat generating unit including a heat dissipation substrate and a heat dissipation film provided on at least a portion of an outer surface of the heat dissipation substrate to improve heat dissipation performance.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the heating unit may include a PTC element and an electrode terminal supporting the PTC element and applying power.

In addition, the heat dissipation substrate may include a heat dissipation plate disposed adjacent to the heat generating unit and a heat dissipation fin fixed on the heat dissipation plate. In this case, the heat dissipation fin may be brazed and fixed to the heat dissipation plate.

In addition, the heat dissipation fin may be provided on the heat sink by bending a plurality of planar heat sinks, or may be provided on the heat sink by being spaced apart from a plurality of planar heat sinks perpendicular to the heat sink at predetermined intervals.

In addition, the heat dissipation film may be provided on a part or all of an outer surface of at least one of the heat dissipation fin and the heat dissipation plate.

In addition, the present invention is a PTC module according to the present invention; and a circuit module electrically connected to the PTC module.

In addition, the present invention is a fan for blowing air to the PTC heater; and a PTC heater according to the present invention for heating the air blown from the fan.

According to the present invention, the PTC unit of the present invention can express improved heat dissipation performance without a structural change that increases the specific surface area of the heat dissipation part while taking a decrease in air permeability to improve the heat dissipation performance, and at the same time, the durability of the heat dissipation performance is excellent. Excellent heat dissipation performance can be expressed for a long period of time.

In addition, as the air permeability of the heat dissipation unit is improved, noise and power consumption increase due to excessive use of peripheral devices such as fans can be prevented. Furthermore, since overheating of the PTC module and overload of the PTC module control circuit due to reduced air permeability of the heat dissipation part are prevented, an expensive high-performance control circuit is not required, and thus, a PTC heater for a vehicle can be implemented at a reduced production cost.

In addition, through this, it is possible to smoothly blow the heated air into the vehicle while maintaining an appropriate level of airflow, thereby reducing the overall power consumption of the vehicle and implementing a vehicle air conditioner capable of stably circulating air.

1 is a perspective view of a PTC module according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2a and 2b are views of a PTC unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2a is a perspective view of the PTC unit, FIG. 2b is an exploded perspective view of the PTC unit, and FIG. 2c is a PTC unit A-A in FIG. 'A drawing showing the cross section of the heat sink along the boundary line,
3 is a view of a heat dissipation unit included in a PTC unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3a is a perspective view of the heat dissipation unit, and FIG. drawings shown, and
4 is a perspective view of a PTC heater according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. This invention may be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly describe the present invention in the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted, and the same reference numerals are added to the same or similar components throughout the specification.

As shown in FIG. 1, the PTC module 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a heating unit 120 and a heat dissipation unit 110 equipped with PTC elements (not shown) and is arranged side by side in parallel. It includes a plurality of PTC units (100, 101, 102), and the first electrode terminal 200 interposed between the PTC units, the PTC unit (100, 101, 102) and the side surface of both side surfaces of the first electrode terminal 200 disposed side by side to fix them Support members 410 and 420, the PTC units 100, 101, and 102, the first electrode terminal 200, and the side support members 410 and 420 fixed in the central portion, and end caps 310 and 320 for fixing both ends thereof. may further include.

As shown in FIG. 2A , the PTC unit 100 may include a heating unit 120 and heat dissipation units 110 and 110' provided on both sides of the heating unit. Unlike FIG. 2A, the heat dissipation units 110 and 110' may be implemented as a PTC unit by being provided only on one side of the heating unit 120, but both sides of the heating unit 120 in order to dissipate the heat emitted from the heating unit 120 as much as possible. can be provided in In addition, the PTC unit 100 may include a coupling member 130 for fastening the heating unit 120 and the heat dissipation unit 110 together.

As shown in FIG. 2B, the heating unit 120 may include a plurality of PTC elements 122 and a second electrode terminal 121 capable of supporting the elements while applying power to the PTC elements 122. can

The PTC element 122 is a resistor exhibiting a rapid increase in resistance value above a specific temperature, and in the case of a known element exhibiting such physical properties, it may be used without limitation, and may be, for example, a barium titanate-based semiconductor.

A plurality of PTC elements 122 may be spaced apart in the length direction of the second electrode terminal 121 and provided to the electrode terminal 121 . At this time, the PTC element 122 is attached through a separate adhesive member while in contact with the surface of the second electrode terminal 121, or the second electrode terminal 121 is physically seated and coupled to the PTC element 122. The PTC element 122 may be coupled to the coupling portion by a fitting method.

The second electrode terminal 121 may be a positive electrode terminal or a negative electrode terminal depending on the electrical configuration of the PTC module 1000 .

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 1, the first electrode terminal 200 opposite to the polarity of the second electrode terminal 121 provided in the PTC unit 100 may be interposed between the PTC units 100. As shown in FIG. 2B, an insulating member 150 may be provided on one surface of the heat generating part of the PTC unit 100, and through this, an electrical short caused by the first electrode terminal 200 disposed adjacent to the heat dissipating part 110 may be prevented. It can be prevented.

The heat dissipation unit 110 is to dissipate heat generated from the PTC element of the above-described heating unit 120 into the air, and includes heat dissipation materials 111 and 112 .

As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B , the heat dissipating materials 111 and 112 may include a heat dissipating plate 112 disposed adjacent to the heat generating unit 120 and a heat dissipating fin 111 fixed on the heat dissipating plate 112 . .

The heat dissipation plate 112 is a planar plate for increasing the contact area with the heating part 120, and may be a known heat dissipation material, and may be a metal, non-metal or thermally conductive filler, for example, graphene, graphite, carbon black, etc. It may be a thermally conductive plastic having a filler of.

The heat dissipation fin 111 may have a structure in which a contact area with air is maximized in order to rapidly radiate heat conducted through the heat dissipation plate 112 into the air as quickly as possible. For example, as shown in FIG. 2A , in the heat dissipation fin 111 , a planar heat sink may be bent multiple times so that one surface of the bent heat sink in the longitudinal direction may be fixed to the heat sink 112 . Alternatively, a plurality of planar radiators may be spaced apart at predetermined intervals and fixed on the heat sink 112 by erecting the planar radiators vertically to increase a contact area with air. However, the specific structure and shape of the heat dissipation fin 111 is not limited thereto, and the structure and shape of the heat dissipation fin provided in the vehicle heater may be employed without limitation.

However, as described above, the air blown from the fan of the vehicle air conditioner is blown from one side of the heat radiating unit through the empty space of the radiating fin to the other side. In order to increase the contact area between the air and the radiating fin, the number of bending is increased, When the heat radiating part is implemented by providing a radiating fin with a narrow gap between the bent parts or by providing as many planar heat radiating elements as possible at very narrow intervals, it is very difficult for air to pass through the heat radiating part due to the narrowed air passage. There is a problem that noise occurs due to the differential pressure. Accordingly, even if the heat radiation efficiency of the PTC module is very excellent, there is a problem in that the radiated heat cannot be smoothly transferred to the inside of the vehicle and thus cannot play a role as an air conditioner. In addition, as the heat radiated from the PTC module 1000 is prevented from moving inside the vehicle, it affects other parts around the PTC module 1000, for example, a control circuit, thereby reducing performance or increasing power consumption due to overload. there is a problem with On the other hand, in order to pass air through the narrowed air passage, it is required to blow air from one side of the PTC module to the other side at a very high pressure, and for this, a fan disposed on one side of the PTC module must rotate at a higher speed. However, the increase in rotational speed of the fan further increases the noise of the vehicle according to the fan noise and increases the power consumption of the fan.

Accordingly, the heat dissipation unit 110 according to the present invention includes a heat dissipation film 180 provided on at least a part of the outer surface of the above-described heat dissipation substrates 111 and 112 as shown in FIG. 2C. As the heat dissipation film 180 increases the heat dissipation performance of the heat dissipation substrates 111 and 112, excessive structural changes of the heat dissipation fins to increase the contact area with air can be minimized, thereby preventing the air passage from being narrowed. There is an advantage in that the overall power consumption of the vehicle can be reduced and the unit cost can be lowered by avoiding the configuration of an expensive control circuit due to excessive use of a fan and heat generation.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the heat dissipation film 180 may be coated including the outer surface of the heat dissipation fin 111, which is a portion of the heat dissipation base material that directly contacts air.

In addition, as the heat dissipation film 180 improves heat dissipation performance, there is an advantage in that it can be used as a heat dissipation part even if the structure does not maximize the specific surface area of the heat dissipation fin. Specifically, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the heat dissipation fin 113 among the heat dissipation substrates 113 and 114 has a smaller number of bends compared to the heat dissipation fin 111 shown in FIGS. 2A and 2C, and the separation distance between the bent parts is wide. However, although the specific surface area of the radiating fin 113 of FIG. 3A is smaller than that of the radiating fin 111 of FIG. 2A, the radiating fin 113 has the same shape as that of FIG. Compared to the case where a radiating fin without a radiating film is adopted as a radiating part, similar or higher heat radiating performance can be expressed. Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 3B, the heat dissipation films 181 and 181' may be provided on both the outer surface of the heat sink 114 and the outer surface of the heat dissipation fin 113, and heat dissipation among the outer surfaces of the heat dissipation substrate. The portion where the film is formed may be changed according to the purpose, and may be formed on some or all of the outer surface of any one of the heat dissipation plate 114 and the heat dissipation fin 113 .

The heat-dissipating films 180, 181, and 181' may be oxide films formed by subjecting a heat-dissipating substrate to a known method, for example, anodizing. The heat sink 114 and the heat sink fins 113 of the heat dissipation base material may be coupled through an interference fit method or a fastening member such as a bolt/nut, but such a combination method is difficult to completely eliminate the gap between the heat sink and the heat sink fins, so the air conditioner When the wind blown from the fan passes through the heat dissipating material, there is a problem in that noise due to vibration of the heat dissipating material may be significantly generated. Accordingly, the heat dissipation fin 113 may be integrally fixed on the heat dissipation plate 114 through brazing bonding, and through this, noise generation may be remarkably reduced. However, the brazing bonding as described above is usually performed at a high temperature of 450° C. or higher. When a heat radiation fin and/or a heat radiation plate equipped with a heat radiation film are bonded to each other by brazing, the heat radiation film is inevitably exposed at a high temperature for a long period of time. As a result, the heat radiation film Another problem of deterioration arises. In particular, when the heat-dissipating film is a heat-dissipating coating layer including an adhesive material and a heat-dissipating filler, a high treatment temperature of 450° C. or higher may cause carbonization of the adhesive material and/or the heat-dissipating filler.

In addition, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 3A, the heat dissipation fin 113 of the heat dissipation material may have a complex shape in which a collage is formed to increase the specific surface area, and a heat dissipation coating layer is formed on the outer surface of the complex shape heat dissipation fin 113 The process of making is not easy, and even if the heat dissipation coating layer is formed, it is difficult to form a uniform thickness, and it may be difficult to express even heat dissipation performance.

Accordingly, the heat radiation films 180, 181, and 181' may be oxide films. When an oxide film is provided as a heat dissipation film, deterioration of the heat dissipation film due to brazing bonding performed under the above-mentioned high temperature conditions is prevented, and the heat dissipation film can be uniformly formed on the complex or miniaturized heat dissipation fins and heat sinks. there is

The oxide film may be formed through a known method, and may be formed through, for example, anodizing.

On the other hand, the present invention implements a PTC heater for a vehicle, including a PTC module 1000 having a plurality of PTC units according to the present invention described above as shown in FIG. 4 and a circuit module 2000 electrically connected to the PTC module.

The circuit module 2000 is a control circuit that controls the current applied to the PTC element, and may include a power input unit 2100 through which current flows into the PTC heater and a PTC control terminal 2200 that controls the PTC heater. The circuit module 2000 is a known control circuit provided in a PTC heater for a vehicle, and since a module including the same can be selected and used without limitation, the present invention is not particularly limited thereto, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In addition, the present invention may be implemented as an air conditioner for a vehicle including a blower for blowing air toward the PTC heater and the PTC heater according to the present invention for heating the air blown from the blower.

The blower may include a fan and a drive unit for driving the fan, and may employ a known configuration provided in a vehicle, so the present invention is not particularly limited thereto.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the spirit of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments presented herein, and those skilled in the art who understand the spirit of the present invention may add elements within the scope of the same spirit. However, other embodiments can be easily proposed by means of changes, deletions, additions, etc., but these will also fall within the scope of the present invention.

100: PTC unit 110, 110', 110 ": heat radiation material
111,111',113: heat sink 112,112',114: heat sink
121: second electrode terminal 130: fastening insulator
150: insulating member 180, 181, 181 ': heat radiation film
200: first electrode terminal 310,320: end cap
410,420: side support member 500: fastening member

Claims (9)

A heating unit including a PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) element and a heat dissipation unit provided on at least one surface of the heating unit,
a heat dissipation substrate including a heat sink disposed so that one side of the heat dissipation unit is adjacent to the heat dissipation unit and a heat dissipation fin fixed on a surface opposite to the side of the heat sink adjacent to the heat dissipation unit; And a heat-dissipating film provided on at least the heat-dissipating fin of the heat-dissipating substrate,
The heat dissipation fin includes a plurality of non-bent parts that are face-matched with the heat sink and spaced apart in a first direction, and a plurality of bent parts that protrude from the non-bent parts between adjacent non-bent parts and are bent to be spaced apart from each other, and each of the non-bent parts A PTC unit for a vehicle heater in which a length in a first direction is longer than an interval between non-bent portions in a first direction and an interval between bent portions is larger than an interval in the first direction. delete According to claim 1,
The heat dissipation film is an oxide film PTC unit for a vehicle heater. According to claim 1,
The PTC unit for a vehicle heater in which the heat radiating fin is bonded and fixed to the heat radiating plate by brazing. A PTC module provided with a plurality of PTC units according to any one of claims 1, 3 and 4; and
A PTC heater for a vehicle comprising a circuit module electrically connected to the PTC module. delete delete delete delete

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