PRESSURE POSITIONING GRILLE FOR? L ACCOMMODATION D? AN AIR CONDITIONER
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to air conditioners and, more particularly, to a protective grid for a cooling coil of an air conditioner. The units of an air conditioner called "window air conditioners" are commonly used for residential and similar applications and generally include closed cooling circuits that have an evaporator and a condenser. The unit is normally divided by a separation in the evaporator section and the condenser section. The evaporator section communicates with the air in the room to be conditioned and the condenser section communicates with the external air as is the ambient air. The refrigerant flows through a refrigerant circuit absorbing heat from the room's air in the evaporator and discharging the heat energy to the outside air in the condenser. The conventional refrigeration circuit is completed by adding a compressor, an expansion device, and the appropriate connections between the components. Said air conditioning unit usually includes a base tray that supports all the components and an external housing that surrounds the entire unit. The front of the evaporator or the interior section includes an interior grid, which has openings in it to direct the internal hot air inside the evaporator and discharge openings therein to direct the air back to the room. The outer section of the housing includes a plurality of openings in the sides and upper part thereof, which serve as inlet openings for the cooled air which flows in and out of the outer section after passing through the cooling coil, which is mounted vertically on the back of the outer section. Because the cooling coil includes a multitude of fragile heat exchanger fins thereon, the protective air vents of a grid of some type are commonly provided to cover the back of the cooling coil to protect the fins of any hurt. It is common in practice, in larger air conditioning units, that the rear part of the unit housing be substantially open and that the protective grid be formed from a plurality of perpendicularly extended cable segments, which are soldered to the wall sections forming the perimeter of the open back of the housing. These grids must be welded to the housing before applying the finish paint coat to the housing. It is considered desirable that the housing of an air conditioning unit can be manufactured from a prepainted sheet metal material. Furthermore, the possibility of installing a protective grid in a housing formed from a prepainted metal material without the need to weld the grid to the housing is considered desirable. Said soldier would require the removal of the paint from the housing in the area in which the grate would be welded to it and would also require touch-up paint since the heat of the weld would damage the pre-applied paint. An air conditioning unit is provided, which includes an outer section, which has a cooling coil mounted therein and an outer protective housing partially covering the outer section. The housing has a substantially rectangular opening therein in a relation covered with the cooling coil. The opening is defined by at least two separate parallel coplanar wall sections, each of which has a predetermined width. A flexible protective grid, which is configured to substantially cover the rectangular opening, has two edges on it, which are separated from one another by a distance substantially equal to the separation of the wall sections. Each of the edges are integrally formed with these two or more narrower rigid spaced extensions, which project perpendicularly therefrom. Each of the narrow extensions has a length that is smaller than the predetermined width of the wall sections. Each of the sections is provided with conformations, which are formed in places corresponding to the location of each of the narrow extensions. The conformations are configured to mechanically receive and retain the narrow extensions, which are formed on a first edge of the grid without being injured away from the grid. The narrow extensions at the second edge of the grid are thereafter received and mechanically retained with their respective retaining shapes upon flexing the grid. After assembly of the extensions on the second edge of the grid, the grid returns to its non-deformed condition and then with this positively mounts in the opening. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be better understood and its objects and advantages will be obvious to those skilled in the art with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a perspective view of an air conditioner, which illustrates the features of this invention; Figure 2 is a rear perspective view of the housing of an air conditioner of the type illustrated in Figure 1 with the rear grille not installed; Figure 3 is a rear view of the air conditioner of Figure 1 with the rear grille installed; Figure 4 is an enlarged view of the section identified as Figure 4 of Figure 3; and Figure 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5-5 of Figure 3. Figure 1 illustrates an air conditioning unit 10 which generally includes an interior section 12 and an exterior section 14. The conditioner of air is covered by a substantially rectangular housing 16 and is adapted to be placed in a rectangular opening in an exterior wall or in a window in a room to be cooled, with the interior section 12 viewing within the room, as is conventional. The inner section 12 includes an inner grid section 18, which includes inlet ventilation grilles 20 and a discharge assembly 22. During the operation of the air conditioner, air from the space being conditioned by the unit is sucked by the action of an evaporator fan (not shown) through the air inlet vents 20 and directed through an evaporator coil (not shown) where the air cools. The cooling air is then directed back to the room to be cooled through the air discharge assembly 22. Looking now to Figures 2 and 3, the air conditioning unit 10 also includes, as is conventional, an exterior coolant for the air exchanger 24, or coil, hereinafter the "cooling coil 24". The cooling coil 24 is fluidly interconnected with a compressor (not shown) and with the evaporator of the unit in a conventional manner to provide cooling of a room in which the unit is installed. In operation, ambient air enters the housing 16 through a plurality of inlet air vent 26 located in the upper and side portions of the housing 16. The ambient air is sucked through the inlets 26 by the operation of an outdoor fan (not shown) and is directed through the cooling coil 24 before it leaves from the rear part 28 of the cooling coil and through a large rectangular opening 30 in the housing 16, which is in a relation covered with the rear part 28 of the cooling coil 24. As best seen in Figures 3 and 5, the rear part 28 of the cooling coil 24 is defined by a plurality of vertically extended heat exchange fins 32, which serve to facilitate the transfer of heat from the hot refrigerant that runs through the coil 28 to the air flowing through sta. The fins 32 are extremely fragile and are protected by a protective grille in a rectangular shape covered 3. As will now be described in detail, the grid 34 is fixed to the housing 16 without requiring welding or other supplemental fastening tools. In the preferred embodiment, the housing 16 is formed from a prepainted steel sheet material, which is mechanically interconnected in several overlapped joints 36, also requiring no welding or additional mechanical succession means. The large opening 30 covering the cooling coil 24 is defined by a pair of vertically spaced parallel coplanar wall sections 38 on the left and right sides of these, as can be seen in Figures 2 and 3. interior of the opening 30 are defined by a pair of horizontally extended coplanar wall sections 40 and 42, respectively. A protective grid 34 is formed from a plurality of horizontally spaced-apart spaced cable lengths 46, which are in a covered relationship with a plurality of vertically spaced apart cable lengths 48. The horizontal cable sections 46 and vertical 48 are fixed each other by welding at each of the intersections 50 between them. In this interconnected manner, the horizontal and vertical cable sections define an outer perimeter which is only slightly smaller in dimension than the opening 30. Two of the horizontally extended cable lengths 46 are provided with lateral extensions 52, which extend from the outer perimeter of the grid by a distance less than the width of the side wall sections 38. As can be seen in Figures 4 and 5, each of the extensions 52 extends for a portion of its length 54 in a plane coplanar with the grid 34 and then undergoes a fold of "dog leg" 56 and ends in an external section 58, which is in a plane 60 separated back from the plane of the grid 34. Again, as best can be seen in Figures 4 and 5, each of the side wall sections 38 is provided with conformations 62 adapted to receive each of the grid extensions 52 within them. The conformations 62 each include a rearward arcuate shifted section 64 adjacent the inner edges 66 of the side wall sections 38. The arched sections 64 are formed by piercing a vertically extended cut 68 in the side wall section 38 and partially deforming and moving the material adjacent to the cut backwards. The arcuate section 64 defines a support surface 70 which together with the back surface 72 of the adjacent section of the side wall section 38, serves to receive and support the section 54 of the extension 52 and the outer section 58, respectively. In this manner, the fold 56 provides the transition between the two support surfaces and thus allows the extensions 52 to be received within the conformations 62 with the grid 44 supported in a substantially coplanar relationship with the opening 30, as it is illustrated in Figures 3, 4 and 5. It should be appreciated that the cable sections forming the grid 44 are flexible and, consequently the mounting of the grid within the opening is carried out by inserting the extensions 52 on one side of the grid within its coupling conformations 62, and then, flexing the grid to thereby insert the extensions 52 on the other side of the grid within its coupling conformation 62.