KR20090055542A - Coupler for refrigerant gas injection - Google Patents

Abstract

A coupler for refrigerant injection is provided to make manipulation and handling convenient because the refrigerant inlet valve of the vehicles is automatically opened when the switch is turned on. A coupler for refrigerant injection comprises a body(15) which houses a manifold(12), a valve stem(13) and a valve piston(14), a coupler body(17) which has a ball combined in the leading end thereof, a clamp ring(19) which hangs the ball within the groove portion of a refrigerant injection hole while moving in the axial direction and being loaded by a spring(18a), and a valve stem which contacts in the inner circumference of the valve piston and has a valve O-ring blocking a gas passage. Clamping and sealing are made with one touch by operation of the coupler body.

Description

Coupler for refrigerant gas injection

The present invention relates to a coupler for refrigerant injection, and more particularly to a coupler for refrigerant injection for use in filling a refrigerant gas in a vehicle air conditioning system.

In general, the air conditioner system of the vehicle, the refrigerant gas is naturally leaked after a certain period of time after leaving the vehicle is degraded.

Therefore, when the refrigerant gas is insufficient, the new refrigerant gas is appropriately charged after the residual refrigerant gas is recovered by using the refrigerant gas recovery and charging device.

Usually, the refrigerant gas recovery and charging device is configured to perform a process of recovering and charging the refrigerant gas by automatic or manual mode selection.

In the case of automatic mode selection, the refrigerant gas remaining in the vehicle air conditioner system is once recovered, and the process of injecting new refrigerant gas into the vacuum state of the refrigerant gas pipe by driving the vacuum pump is continuously performed.

In the manual mode selection, the refrigerant gas recovery, the vacuum maintenance, and the refrigerant gas charging step are sequentially performed separately by an operator's operation.

In order to charge the refrigerant gas into the vehicle air conditioning system, a coupler is usually used. Here are a few of the refrigerant injection couplers.

In the case of existing ROBINAIR products, the operator manually inserts them into the vehicle refrigerant inlet, and then pressurizes the valve seat, and the cover surrounding the ball moves forward while clamping the inlet when the pressure is applied.

In addition, the O-ring applied by the spring inside the valve seat seals the inlet side to enable vacuum and injection.

In addition, when removing, pull out the cover to remove it.

The disadvantages of the product are as follows.

First, even after completion of the refrigerant gas injection, the liquid refrigerant column is formed from the air conditioner system of the vehicle to the refrigerant injection gun of the facility through the coupler, which causes a variation in the refrigerant injection amount according to the coupler detachment time by the operator.

In particular, the longer the distance between the coupler (injection hose) in the refrigerant injection gun, the larger the injection amount deviation.

Second, the valve of the vehicle-side refrigerant inlet is closed by the repulsive force of the refrigerant injected when the coupler is detached.

That is, part of the refrigerant injected when the coupler is detached and released into the atmosphere.

Third, it is made of brass and the coupler life is very short.

For other "PCU" products, instead of manually inserting and applying pressure to the vehicle's refrigerant inlet, the operator pulls the cover surrounding the ball and inserts it into the vehicle's refrigerant inlet. If you press the coupler by force, the cover surrounding the ball moves forward while the ball is projected to clamp the inlet.

The O-ring, which is pressurized by a spring inside the valve seat, seals the inlet side to allow vacuum and injection.

In addition, when removing, pull out the cover to remove it.

In the case of this product as well as the above product, there is a disadvantage in that the amount of refrigerant injection caused by the liquid refrigerant column due to the coupler detachment time of the operator occurs, the coupler is not convenient to install, and in particular, lack of workability in a narrow space. .

In addition, a portion of the injected refrigerant is released into the atmosphere by the repulsive force of the injected refrigerant when the coupler is detached.

In order to alleviate these drawbacks, some coupler products have been proposed, which use the air force to open the vehicle's refrigerant inlet valve during automatic clamping and automatic clamping.However, the above-mentioned "ROBINAIR" products also have Not only is it insufficient to solve the problem, it is an automatic clamping method, but the first-time worker has a disadvantage that the use is immature.

In addition, the development of a new coupler is required due to a recent change in the vacuum / injection method of some vehicles.

For example, after the high-pressure side pipeline and the low-pressure side pipeline vacuum in the vehicle, the injection is injected to the high pressure side, so the low pressure side coupler needs a coupler having a blocking function immediately after the completion of vacuum.

That is, a new concept coupler is required to close the refrigerant inlet valve of the vehicle while the vehicle inlet and the coupler are closed.

Accordingly, the present invention has been devised in view of the above-mentioned point, and adopts one-touch clamping and sealing method to simultaneously insert a vehicle refrigerant inlet into a coupler and clamp it automatically (one-touch), and automatically after refrigerant injection or vacuum completion. It is an object of the present invention to provide a coupler for a refrigerant injection of a new concept that the clamping is released.

In addition, the present invention closes the valve of the refrigerant inlet in a state in which the refrigerant inlet and the coupler of the vehicle is closed immediately after the completion of vacuum or injection, the refrigerant injection coupler that can completely block even the small amount of refrigerant injected originally There is another purpose to provide.

In order to achieve the above object, a refrigerant injection coupler provided in an embodiment of the present invention includes a vehicle side refrigerant injection port at a body and a front end of a manifold, a valve stem, and a valve piston having a refrigerant injection inlet and an air injection inlet. Coupler body having a ball fastened to the line is assembled in a row, the circumference of the coupler body is assembled in a concentric circle clamp ring for walking the ball in the groove portion of the refrigerant inlet while moving in the axial direction while receiving the elastic support of the spring, Inside the body, the valve of the refrigerant inlet port is moved by the valve piston and the valve piston which moves in the axial direction by air pressure to open the gas passage and pushes the valve stem while receiving the elastic support of the spring. In addition to opening and closing, the gas passage is blocked by contacting the inner circumferential surface of the valve piston. Has a structure in which the valve stem having the function of the valve O-ring is assembled in a concentric manner, the clamping and sealing is made in one-touch manner by the operation of the coupler body, and after the completion of refrigerant injection, the valve piston rises with the air pressure disappearing It is characterized in that the valve of the refrigerant inlet can be closed in the state in which the gas passage is blocked by the operation.

Here, the refrigerant injection coupler is assembled to be movable along the axial direction while receiving the elastic support of the spring in the coupler body, and the refrigerant inlet is clamped by the ball while being coupled with the front end of the refrigerant inlet, sealing around the refrigerant inlet. At the same time it is preferable to further include a charge gate to provide a repulsive force when detaching the coupler.

The coupler for refrigerant injection provided by the present invention has the following advantages.

First, the clamping and sealing is made by one-touch operation, and since the refrigerant inlet valve of the vehicle is automatically opened when the switch is turned on, the operation and handling are simple, and thus even the first-time operator can use it easily.

Second, since the valve is automatically closed in a state in which the vehicle injection hole and the coupler are closed immediately after the refrigerant injection is completed, not only the amount of refrigerant injection can be accurately adjusted, but also the source of the refrigerant can be blocked in the atmosphere.

Third, since the spring repulsion force is used when the coupler is detached, coupler detachment is very easy.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 and 2 are a perspective view and a cross-sectional view of a coupler for refrigerant injection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in Fig. 1 and 2, the coupler for the refrigerant injection is a clamping and sealing at the same time by one-touch operation is easy to handle or operate, and the gas passage of the coupler immediately after the vacuum or refrigerant injection is closed By closing the refrigerant inlet valve of the vehicle in the state, it is possible not only to inject the correct amount without variation in the refrigerant injection amount, but also to have a structure in which even a small amount of the injected refrigerant is not released into the atmosphere.

To this end, the three components constituting the coupler body, that is, the manifold 12, the body 15 and the coupler body 17 are fastened side by side and assembled in a cylindrical shape, the coupler is assembled at the bottom Clamp ring 19 in the form of wrapping around the body 17 is assembled concentrically.

The manifold 12 is a portion to which the air line for the operation of the hose and the adapter for the refrigerant injection is connected, the upper end is provided with a refrigerant injection inlet 10 and the air injection inlet 11 is a hose and air line Each can be connected.

In this case, the refrigerant inlet 10 is in communication with the gas passage 27 formed in the valve piston 14 to be described later, the air inlet 11 is a valve piston (inside the body 15) 14) It is in communication with the space portion 28 is formed toward the upper end.

Accordingly, the refrigerant gas supplied through the refrigerant injection inlet 10 may be sent through the gas passage 27 to the vehicle-side refrigerant injection port 100 to be described later, and may be provided through the air injection inlet 11. The air pressure is sent to the space 28 to push the valve piston 14.

The body 15 is a part for accommodating the valve piston 14 to which the valve stem 13 to be described later belongs, and provides a space for the valve piston 14 to move up and down.

The coupler body 17 is a portion to accommodate the charge gate 21 to be described later, to provide a space in which the charge gate 21 can move up and down.

In particular, four ball seating holes 29 are formed around the lower end of the coupler body 17 at intervals of 90 ° and are installed in such a way that the balls 16 are accommodated therein.

At this time, the ball 16 can flow in and out of the ball seating hole 29, and when the refrigerant inlet is mounted, the clamp ring is caught by the groove 110 at the same time as the refrigerant inlet 100 enters the coupler. Pressed by (19) serves to clamp the coupler and the refrigerant injection section.

The clamp ring 19 is elastically supported by a spring 18a interposed therein, and moves up and down, by pressing the ball 16 inside thereof at a position lowered by the force of the spring 18a. It serves to maintain the clamping state between the coupler and the refrigerant inlet.

At this time, the ball seating portion 26 is provided on the lower inner circumferential surface of the clamp ring 19, and in the coupler detachable state, the ball 16 supported by the lower end of the charge gate 21 and positioned outward is located in the ball seating portion 26. ), The clamp ring 19 can always be fixed in the raised position when the coupler is not in use.

As such, when the coupler is connected to the vehicle-side refrigerant inlet, simply insert the refrigerant inlet into the coupler to move the ball 16 inward to catch the groove 110 and at the same time the clamp ring 19 is lowered. Since it is held outside of 16), the coupler can be easily clamped in one touch.

The valve stem 13 and the valve piston 14 are provided as a means for performing a function of supplying and shutting off the refrigerant gas and turning on / off the refrigerant inlet valve.

The valve stem 13 and the valve piston 14 are assembled inside and outside each other while being positioned inside the body 15, and move relative to each other while being operated along the axial direction by air pressure formed in the space 28. Not only serves to block and open the gas passage 27 by, but also serves to open the valve 120 of the vehicle-side refrigerant inlet 100.

To this end, the valve piston 14 is located concentrically in the interior of the body 15, is installed in the form of receiving the elastic support of the spring (18b) interposed between the body 15 side, the inside The gas passage 27 is formed.

The lower end of the valve piston 14 extends to the inside of the coupler body 17, and the upper end of the charge gate 21 is coupled to the inside of the extended lower end in a slidable structure.

And the perch 23 which guides the upper end part of the valve stem 13 is provided in the valve piston 14.

That is, the perch 23 mounted on the inner wall of the piston is installed inside the valve piston 14, and the perch 23 is fixed by the perch retainer 30 coupled to the upper end of the valve piston 14. do.

Here, the flange portion of the perch 23 is provided with a plurality of holes 32 for entering and exiting the refrigerant.

Since the upper end of the valve stem 13 is installed in the tubular body portion of the perch 23 in a slidable structure, the valve stem 13 can be guided during its up and down operation.

The valve stem 13 is interlocked with the valve piston 14 to open and lower the valve 120 of the refrigerant inlet 100 while being lowered, and in close contact with the inner circumferential surface of the valve piston 14. It is a part that serves to block or open the gas passage 27, and is installed in the valve piston 14 in a concentric manner and installed to extend to the lower side of the coupler, the outer circumferential surface of the upper O-ring retainer 24. And the valve o-ring 20 is provided between the flange 25 at the bottom.

At this time, the valve o-ring 20 is in close contact with the inclined surface 31 on the inner circumferential surface of the valve piston 14, so that the gas passage 27 can be blocked.

In addition, a spring 18d is interposed between the O-ring retainer 24 in the valve stem 13 and the perch 23 in the valve piston 14, and is substantially subjected to the force of the spring 18d at this time. The valve stem 13 can be moved downward.

For example, when the valve piston 14 is lowered by the air pressure formed in the space portion 28 of the body 15, the force at this time is transmitted to the valve stem 13 through the spring 18d to provide a valve stem. (13) is lowered, the valve 120 in contact with the end by the lowering of the valve stem 13 is pushed into the valve open state, the valve piston 14 is further lowered, the valve stem 13 Since the inclined surface 31 is separated from the valve O-ring 20 of), the gas passage 27 is opened, and the refrigerant may be charged into the refrigerant inlet 100 through the valve 120 in which the refrigerant is opened.

Here, in the case of the valve o-ring 20, the pressing shape by the spring 18d can be kept constant by the O-ring retainer 24, and is excessively pressed by the spring 18d through the flange 25. Can be prevented.

The charge gate 21 is provided as a means for enabling one-touch sealing together with one-touch clamping of the coupler.

The charge gate 21 is slid into contact with the refrigerant inlet 100 and serves to maintain the airtightness of the connection at the same time the clamping is completed.

To this end, the charge gate 21 is installed concentrically in a slidable structure inside the coupler body 17, and is interposed therebetween by a spring 18c interposed therebetween with the wall surface side of the body 15. You will always receive elastic support downwards.

The charge gate 21 is provided with an O-ring at two positions up and down for sealing.

That is, two O-rings are provided at one upper portion fitted into the valve piston 14 and one lower portion in contact with the refrigerant inlet side.

Accordingly, when the refrigerant inlet 100 is inserted into the coupler, the charge gate 21 at this time is pushed upward in contact with the end of the refrigerant inlet 100, and subsequently clamped by the ball 16. When this is completed, at the same time, the charge gate 21 may be sealed while accommodating the end of the refrigerant inlet 100.

That is, clamping and sealing can be performed simultaneously with the coupler one-touch fastening.

The charge gate 21 also serves to facilitate the detachment of the coupler.

That is, since the fuel inlet is pushed out from the coupler by using the repulsive force of the spring 18c which is compressed at the same time as the clamping release with the fuel inlet side, the coupler can be easily detached without effort.

Here, a stopper ring 22 is provided at the rear of the internal charge gate 21 of the coupler body 17 to limit the movement of the charge gate 21. Excessive reverse operation or refrigerant injection does not exceed the reverse limit due to the refrigerant pressure.

Therefore, the operation state of the refrigerant injection coupler configured as described above is as follows.

3A and 3B are cross-sectional views illustrating an operating state of a refrigerant injection coupler according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, first, a worker connects the coupler to the vehicle-side refrigerant in a state where a hose for injection of refrigerant gas and an airline for operation of the coupler are connected to the manifold 10 on the upper side of the coupler. After inserting into the injection hole 100, it is pushed with a small force.

At this time, the refrigerant injection hole 100 enters the inside of the charge gate 21 and is inserted between the O-rings to form a seal, and the charge gate 21 is slightly retracted.

Here, the charge gate 21 is stopped by the stopper ring 22 so as not to exceed the reverse limit due to the refrigerant pressure at the time of excessive backward movement or refrigerant injection by the operator's force.

In addition, the charge gate 21 is continuously sealed by the spring (18c) to ensure a stable sealing, and provides a repulsive force when the coupler is detached.

In addition, when the charge gate 21 is pushed up and the ball 16 reaches the position of the groove portion 110 of the refrigerant inlet 100, the clamp ring 19 is lowered by the spring 18a, and the ball continues. Clamping is made at the same time as pushing the 16 into the groove 110.

That is, the operator can effectively clamp and seal by the one-touch fastening method by a simple operation of inserting the coupler into the refrigerant inlet.

When an operator presses a start button (not shown) of a device (not shown) to which a hose for refrigerant gas injection is connected, compressed air delivered through the air injection inlet 11 of the manifold 10 is connected to a valve piston ( 14, the valve piston 14 is lowered.

When the valve piston 14 is lowered, the valve stem 13 assembled in association with it is also lowered while pressing the cock of the valve 120 at the refrigerant inlet 100 to fully open the valve.

Subsequently, when the valve piston 14 is lowered further by using the remaining stroke, the valve o-ring 20 of the valve stem 13 falls from the inner inclined surface 31 of the valve piston 14 and the gas passage 27 Is fully open, i.e., the valve stem 13 is fixed while pressing the valve cock and the valve piston 14 is lowered further, so that the gas passage 27 is fully opened, from which the filling of the refrigerant gas Will be done.

After the vacuum or refrigerant injection, when the air pressure applied to the valve piston 14 is discharged by a separate switch (not shown) operation, the compressed spring 18b pushes up the valve piston 14.

When the valve piston 14 is pushed up, the valve O-ring 20 of the valve stem 13 is pressed against the inclined surface 31 of the valve piston 14, so that the gas passage 27 is closed first, in which case the valve O-ring 20 Is able to maintain the closed state under the pressure of the spring 18d. If the valve piston 14 continues to pull the valve stem 13 and rises further, the valve stem 13 holding the valve cock falls and the refrigerant inlet The valve 120 of 100 is also completely closed.

That is, since the refrigerant inlet valve is also closed while the coupler side gas passage is first blocked, the refrigerant gas can be prevented from being released into the atmosphere.

When the coupler is detached and the clamp ring 19 is pulled up, the ball 16 fixed to the clamp ring 19 has a degree of freedom. At this time, the coupler is refrigerant by the force of the spring 18c that pushes the charge gate 12. Depart from the inlet.

That is, the coupler can be easily detached using the spring repulsion force.

At this time, the clamp ring 19 is fixed in the raised position by the ball 16 to be seated in the ball seating portion 26.

In the above, certain preferred embodiments according to the present invention have been illustrated and described. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and a person of ordinary skill in the art may vary without departing from the spirit of the technical idea of the present invention described in the claims below. Will be able to carry out the change.

1 is a perspective view of a coupler for refrigerant injection according to an embodiment of the present invention

2 is a cross-sectional view of a coupler for refrigerant injection according to an embodiment of the present invention

3A and 3B are cross-sectional views showing an operating state of a coupler for refrigerant injection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10 Inlet for refrigerant injection 11 Inlet for air injection

12 Manifold 13 Valve stem

14: valve piston 15: body

16: ball 17: coupler body

18a, 18b, 18c, 18d: spring 19: clamp ring

20: valve O-ring 21: charge gate

22: stopper ring 23: perch

24: oil retainer 25: flange

26: ball seating portion 27: gas passage

28: space part 29: ball seating hole

30: pitch retainer 31: slope

32: Hall

Claims (6)

Vehicle-side refrigerant inlet 100 at the tip and body 15 for receiving manifold 12, valve stem 13 and valve piston 14 having refrigerant inlet 10 and air inlet 11. Coupler body 17 having balls 16 fastened to Around the coupler body 17, a clamp ring 19 for moving the ball 16 into the groove 110 of the refrigerant inlet 100 while moving in the axial direction while receiving elastic support of the spring 18a is concentric. Are assembled into Inside the body 15, while receiving the elastic support of the spring (18b) while moving in the axial direction by the air pressure to open the gas passage 27 and at the same time push the valve stem 13 and the valve piston (14) A valve o-ring having a function of opening and closing the valve 120 of the refrigerant inlet 100 while being moved by the valve piston 14 inwardly and in contact with the inner circumferential surface of the valve piston 14 to block the gas passage 27. The valve stem 13 having 20) is assembled concentrically, Clamping and sealing is performed in one-touch manner by the operation of the coupler body, and the valve of the refrigerant inlet is closed in a state in which the gas passage is blocked by the upward movement of the valve piston with the air pressure disappearing after the refrigerant injection is completed. Coupler for refrigerant injection, characterized in that. The method of claim 1, wherein the inside of the coupler body 17 is assembled so as to be movable along the axial direction while receiving the elastic support of the spring (18c), and the refrigerant inlet 100 is ball while binding with the front end of the refrigerant inlet (100) And a charge gate (21) which seals around the refrigerant inlet after being clamped by (16) and provides a repulsive force when the coupler is detached. The stopper according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the back of the charge gate 21 inside the coupler body 17 stops the rear end of the charge gate so as not to exceed the reverse limit due to the refrigerant pressure during excessive backward movement by the operator or during refrigerant injection. Coupler for refrigerant injection, characterized in that the ring 22 is provided. The valve piston (14) of claim 1, wherein the valve piston (14) includes a perch (23) installed on an inner circumferential surface and guides an upper end portion of the valve stem (13), and is interposed between the perch (22) and the valve stem (13). A coupler for refrigerant injection, characterized in that the spring (18d) can push the valve stem (13). 2. The valve stem (13) according to claim 1, wherein the valve stem (13) is provided with an o-ring retainer (24) and a valve o-ring (20) formed on the spring (18d), which are capable of maintaining the pressed shape of the valve o-ring (20) by the spring (18d). Refrigerant injection coupler comprising a flange (25) to prevent excessively pressed by. The coupler for refrigerant injection according to claim 1, wherein the clamp ring (19) can be fixed in a raised position using the ball seating portion (26) of the lower inner circumferential surface of the ball (16).

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