US2887856A

US2887856A - Air conditioning system

Info

Publication number: US2887856A
Application number: US545218A
Authority: US
Inventors: Daniel D Wile; Adachi Shizuo Robert
Original assignee: REFRIGERATION ENGINEERING Inc
Current assignee: REFRIGERATION ENGINEERING Inc
Priority date: 1955-11-07
Filing date: 1955-11-07
Publication date: 1959-05-26
Anticipated expiration: 1976-05-26

Description

May 26; 1959 D. D. WlLE ET AL AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 7. 1955 llHIIIIIHIIWNIWW INVENTORS paw/5c 0. MICE 6/0200 ,eaeser 0040/ 'IIIIlI/IIIIIII y 26, 1959 8 D. D. WILE ET AL 2,887,856

AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM Filed Nov. 7,- 1955 2 SheetsSheet 2 cau asssae ma-E I'm/e '79 cwm-w/sae m: e gzzgsvau 5 9 PUMP mmwessoe r Lars-7e Ermvrae INVENTIORS,

HTTOQA/EY S United States Patent AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM Daniel D. Wile, Whittier, and Shizuo Robert Adachi, Glendale, Calif, assignors to Refrigeration Engineering, Inc., Los Angeles, cane, a corporation of California Application November 7,1955, Serial No. 545,218 1 Claim. (Cl. 62 -426) This invention relates to air conditioning units and is more particularly concerned with the construction of an air conditioning unit of simple, inexpensive form and which will operate in such manner that it may be installed in a room and will operate at a greatly reduced noise level. We have discovered that we may be able to operate an air conditioning unit of simple form including a casing in which the heat exchange or cooling coil is positioned and wherein we provide a propeller blade type fan for drawing the air into the casing and distributing the same over the coil and discharging the same into the room to be air conditioned and wherein said apparatus functions at a greatly reduced noise level when the axis of the fan is positioned off center in the casing or at a position Which we prefer to refer to as the approximate center of the involute space within the casing.

Other objects and advantages of our invention it is believed will be apparent from the following description hereof as the same is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Figure l is a fragmental side elevation illustrating a space to be air conditioned and having adjacent thereto a closet space Within which the air conditioning unit embodying our invention is positioned.

Figure 2 is a front elevation of the structure illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged elevation of the air conditioning unit embodying my invention.

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 illustrating the unit in exploded condition.

Figure 5 is a top plan view thereof.

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic view of the refrigeration system employed in conjunction with the air conditioning system embodying our invention.

Figure 7 is a modified form of refrigeration or cooling unit applicable for the cooling of water for use in the air conditioning system embodying our invention.

In the preferred embodiment of our invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, we have shown the air conditioning system embodying our invention as applicable for both direct expansion refrigeration and water cooling.

In either case, the coolant whether it be the expanding refrigerant or the refrigerant water, is passed through a coil 2 which is mounted in the casing 1. A typical refrigeration system is illustrated in Figure 6, wherein it is shown that the refrigerant liquid from the storage tank 3 is passed through the expansion valve 4 leading to the coil 2 in which the said liquid is expanded to cool the coil. The gas leaving the coil 2 passes to the compressor 5 in which the gas is compressed and leaving the compressor 5 is passed through the condenser 6 to condense the gas to a liquid prior to its return to the storage tank 3. In the case of the modification illustrated in Figure 7, the evaporator 2 is used to refrigerate or cool water in a tank 8 and the water from the tank 8 is circulated through the coil 2a through the medium of suitable pipe connections 9.

ice

The element embodying our invention is more particularly related to the means employed for circulating and cooling the air as the air is passed over either the

coil

2 or 2a. This unit includes the casing 1 which has an inlet 10 and an outlet 11, the inlet and outlet being upon opposite sides of the coil 2. The casing' 1 is of any desirable construction and is herein illustrated as rectangular in form where the inlet is in the bottom rear portion of the casing and the outlet is at the from vertical face. Mounted within the casing 1 in position to draw air through the inlet 10, distribute the same over the coil 2 and discharge the same through the outlet 11, is a blade type propeller fan 12, which is driven by a suitable electric motor 13. As illustrated, this assembly is supported upon a face plate 14 which is removably positioned in the opening 10. For this purpose the forward edge of the plate 14 is provided with a right angle bend 15 which fits over the horizontal rear edge of a cover plate 16 so that as the plate 14 is thus supported at its forward edge, it may be hinged upwardly to fit ,over the opening 10 and be secured in position by any suitable fastening means such as the screws 17.

There may be fitted upon the face of the plate 14 a filter assembly 18 through which the air to be conditioned is drawn. This filter assembly may be of any suitable or desirable form and its precise construction forms no part of the present invention.

The axis of the supporting drive shaft 19 of the fan 12 is supported in the casing 1 in position offset from the center of the casing and in a position which we define as the involute center of the casing. This we have found to be of great importance for the reasons that it enables us to have more perfect air distribution over the pipes of the coil 2 while maintaining a substantially noiseless operation of the fan in circulating the air. We define the offset position as being substantially at the involute center of the casing 1 for the reason that we found that in shrouding the interior of the casing 1 as illustrated in the dotted lines 20 to form an involute air passage, and mounting the shaft of the fan 12 on the center of this involute casing, that we obtained a very quiet fan operation with a more perfect air distribution over the coil 2. Further development showed us that on removal of the shroud indicated by the dotted lines 20, that the operation remained the same even though the interior of the casing 1 was truly of rectangular cross section. With the fan position as shown, the apparent result is to develop an involute air passage where the spaces which would ordinarily lie outside of such involute passage merely become dead air spaces and do not materially add to or detract from the operation in so far as the development of a satisfactory air distribution over the coil 2 and a quiet fan operation are concerned. As illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings, we prefer to mount the casing 1 in an elevated position within a closet or the like, preferably above or to one side of the door 21 and to provide a suitable louver 22 over an outlet opening through the wall of the door 21 so that the vanes of the said louver may be correctly angled to insure the desired air distribution throughout the space 23 which is to be air conditioned. At the lower portion of the closet and if desired, through an opening formed in the door 21, a second louvered passage 24 is provided having a suitable louver structure therein to insure that the air is drawn from the lower portion of the space 23 as it is returned through the closet to the inlet 10 of the casing 1.

The important development produced by our invention is the provision of an air distributing and conditioning unit which may be mounted in a closet or other space adjacent a room such as the space 23 and which will operate easily and effectually to circulate and cool the air in the room 23 and at the same time will operate Patented May 26, 1959 at a very low noise level, being substantially inaudible. We have here set forth that the fan 12 is operated in 0&- set position and at relatively low speeds. We prefer that the fan operate at speeds of between 400 and 700 r.p.m.

Having fully described our invention, it is to be understood that we do not wish to be limited to the details herein set forth, but our invention'is of the full scope of the appended claim.

We claim:

An air conditioning apparatus, comprising: a relatively fiat substantially rectangular casing structure having an outlet opening in an end wall, and an inlet opening in its bottom wall adjacent the opposite end wall, said inlet opening being'displaced from the center of said casing structure toward one of the side walls, the center of said inlet opening substantially coinciding with an involute figure tangent to theside walls of said casing structure and said opposite end wall; a cooling unit"disposed' within said casing structure adjacent said outlet opening; and a propeller blade-type of fan mounted in said inlet opening for drawing air upwardly ..therethrough for horizontal flow to the walls of said casing structure and discharge through said outlet.

References Cited inthe file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS