US2994211A

US2994211A - Home appliance

Info

Publication number: US2994211A
Application number: US804173A
Authority: US
Inventors: Charles C Lehmkuhl; George R Forgy
Original assignee: Whirlpool Corp
Current assignee: Whirlpool Corp
Priority date: 1959-04-06
Filing date: 1959-04-06
Publication date: 1961-08-01
Anticipated expiration: 1978-08-01

Description

1961 c. c. LEHMKUHL EI'AL 2,994,211

HOME APPLIANCE Filed April 6. 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTORS- flzzrs I emye .901

1961 c. c. LEHMKUHL ETAL 2,994,211

HOME APPLIANCE Filed April 6. 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS- fius Unite States Patent 2,994,211 HOME APPLIANCE Charles C. Lehmkuhl, Evansville, and George R. Forgy, Newburgh, Ind., assignors to Whirlpool Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 6, 1959, Ser. No. 804,173 8 Claims. (Cl. 62-262) This invention relates to air conditioners and more particularly to a room air conditioner which is substantially positively sealed against the passage of outside elements between the cabinet and the chassis.

In the installation of a room air conditioner in a room opening, such as a window, it is generally a simple matter to seal the outside of the outer cabinet to the window and to the sill to prevent the passage of the elements thereabout. The sealing of the space between the outer cabinet and the inner chassis is more dilficult and undesirable elements such as insects, air and dirt commonly pass through the conditioner into the room. The air conditioner of this invention provides a simple, inexpensive and positive seal which solves this problem.

The air conditioner of this invention has many advantages. It need not be removed from the window during the winter season because it is substantially sealed against cold. Further, it is comparatively easy to insert the chassis of the air conditioner into the outer cabinet and to remove the same when it is desired, yet a positive seal will be provided automatically each time the chassis is seated.

It is a feature of this invention to provide an air conditioner comprising an outer cabinet adapted to be arranged in a room opening, an inner air conditioner chassis in said cabinet spaced from the cabinet, a resilient sealing member positioned between said chassis and said cabinet in said space and arranged to provide a seal against the passage of outside elements inwardly between the cabinet and the chassis into the room, and means for enclosing the sealing force of the sealing member with increasing pressure of said outside elements thereon.

Another feature of this invention is to provide an air conditioner comprising an outer cabinet adapted to be arranged in a room opening, an inner air conditioner chassis adapted to be removably positioned in said cabinet, said chassis having a sealing surface thereon, and a resilient gasket positioned on the interior of said cabinet and arranged to abut said sealing surface to provide a seal against the passage of outside elements between the cabinet and the chassis when said chassis is in position within the cabinet.

A further feature of this invention is to provide an air conditioner comprising an outer cabinet adapted to be arranged in a room opening and having an opening into said room, an inner air conditioner chassis adapted 'to be removably positioned in said cabinet, said chassis having sloping surfaces on the top, sides and bottom thereof, and an L-shaped resilient gasket positioned on the interior of the top, sides and bottom of said cabinet in a plane substantially parallel to and spaced from said opening, one leg of said gasket being attached to said cabinet and the other extending inwardly from said cabinet a sufiicient distance to abut said sloping surface ,to provide a seal against the passage of the outside ele- 'ments between the cabinet and the chassis.

Other features and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken together with the accompanying drawings. Of the drawings:

' FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the chassis ,of a room air conditioner embodying the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a front view of the outer cabinet of a room air conditioner embodying the invention.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged partial perspective view of one lower corner of the outer cabinet of FIGURE 2 showing details of the sealing gasket.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged partial sectional view taken substantially along the line 44 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary sectional side view of the air conditioner showing a chassis during insertion in the cabinet.

FIGURE -6 is a sectional side view of the cabinet illustrating the sealing of the spaces between the cabinet and chassis.

FIGURE 7 is an enlarged partial View of the gasket and associated structure.

FIGURE 1 illustrates the chassis assembly 10 of a room air conditioner embodying part of the invention. The base pan 11 is formed of heavy gauge sheet metal with an upturned flange 12 completely around the perimeter of the pan, and with embossments 11a (FIGURE 5) in its bottom surface. On the room side of the chassis 10 there is an evaporator housing 14 mounted on the base 11. This housing encloses the refrigerant evaporator which is not shown. As is well known in the air conditioning art, room air is drawn over this evaporator surface where it is cooled and dehumidified and then returned to the room.

The top surface 16 of the evaporator housing 14 is on a horizontal plane, the right side (not shown) and left side 18 are in vertical planes and extend from the top 16 down to the base 11. The back 17 of the evaporator housing is also in a vertical plane and extends lengthwise from the top 1 6 down to the base :11. At the point of junction between these three vertical members and the top of the housing 14 there is a surface sloping at an angle at approximately 45 away from the room side. The sloping surface, generally designated by the numeral 21, provides the proper surface for sealing with the weather seal gasket 22 as will be described later. An insulated blower wheel housing 23 is attached to the rear of the evaporator housing 14.

At the outside end of the chassis is mounted a condenser 24 within the condenser housing 26. The condenser 24 is of the conventional fin and tube construction. The condenser housing 26 is of sheet metal construction with the top 27, back 28 and sides 29 formed so as to provide a covering around the condenser 24. At the back 28 of the condenser housing is an opening 31 in which is located the condenser fan 32. This fan 32 draws outside air through louvered panels 33 in the sides 30 and back 25 of the outer cabinet 35 which is shown in FIGURE 2, and passes this air over the condenser 24 to provide the necessary cooling. The condenser fan 32 is driven by the fan motor 34. The fan motor 34 is of the conventional double-ended shaft construction and the shaft on the forward end of the motor is connected to the blower wheel (not shown) mounted within the blower wheel housing 23.

Also mounted between the evaporator housing 14 and the condenser housing 26 is the refrigeration compressor 38. The air conditioner operates in the conventional fashion in that a refrigerant is compressed in the compressor 38 and discharged into the conduit 39 which is connected to the inlet of the condenser 24. The compressed refrigerant vapor is cooled and condensed to a liquid within the condenser 24, the outlet of which is connected to the capillary 41. Within the capillary 41 the pressure and temperature of the liquid refrigerant are reduced to provide cold liquid refrigerant in the evaporator (not shown) connected at the outlet of the capillary. After use in cooling room air, warm refrigerant vapor enters the suction line 42, the outlet of which is connected to the compressor inlet 43. Electrical wiring connections have been eliminated for simplicity in the drawings.

The tie plate 44 is mounted between the evaporator housing 14 and the condenser housing 26 by means of screws 45 and provides for stability within the chassis assembly 10. Small gusset plates 46 provide strength and stability at the bottom of the evaporator housing 14.

Mounted to the bottom of the base pan 11 by means of spot welding is a base pan sealing strip 47 which is formed of light gauge sheet metal and which extends across the entire base pan. This base pan sealing strip has a fiat horizontal section 48 and a section 49 at approximately a 45 angle. The base pan sealing strip is located substantially in line with the back 17 of the evaporator hous ing 14 and provides the sealing surface for the weather seal gasket 22 along the bottom of the base pan 11.

Also attached by spot welding to the bottom surface of the base pan 11 are two base pan supports 51. These supports provide proper positioning support of the chassis assembly 10 when installed in the outer cabinet, as best seen in FIGURE 6. These supports also provide front legs so that when the chassis assembly 10 is removed from the outer cabinet 35 and placed on a fiat surface such as the floor, the base pan will sit level and therefore protect the base pan sealing strip 47.

FIGURE 2 illustrates the outer cabinet 35 of the room air conditioner. The outer cabinet 35 comprises a top 50, sides 39 and a back 25 with a narrow inwardly turned flange 56 at the bottom of each side. The sheet metal back 25 at the outside end of the outer cabinet 35 covers the condenser 24. The back 25 and each of the sides 30 of the outer cabinet contain louvered panels 33 for the passage of air. Spot welded to both the side 39 and to the narrow flange 56 are two side rails 58, one on each side. As best seen in FIGURE 3, these side rails are generally L-shaped members having a vertically extending member 59 attached by spot welding to the side 39 of the outer cabinet 35. The side rails 58 contain a bottom horizontal member 61 and extending diagonally upwardly therefrom a short section ending in ahorizontally extending member 62. The upper horizontally extending member 62 is the part which supports the base pan 11 of the chassis when it is inserted into position within the outer cabinet. A short distance from the front of the side rails, the horizontal section 62 is debossed downwardly as shown at 63 to provide a sufficient area for the passage of the weather seal gasket 22.

Connecting the two side rails -8 together in the immediate area of the debossment 63 is the cabinet bottom front 64. This cabinet bottom front 64 has a debossed area 66 extending for nearly the full length of the part and a downwardly extending leg 67 at the very front. The downwardly extending leg 67 is provided .to abut the inside edge of the window stool at the time the outer cabinet 35 is installed within the window frame.

The side rails 58 contain tabs 52 formed from the vertical sides 59, the outer portions of the tab serving to horizontally position and guide the base pan 11 during the time the chassis is being inserted within the outer cabinet 35.

The weather seal gasket 22 completely encircles the inside surface of the outer cabinet 35 as is seen in FIG- UR'ES 3 and 4. The gasket 22 is held in place on all four sides by the gasket retainers generally indicated by the numeral 53.

The cross section of the gasket 22 and the gasket retainer 53 are shown clearly in FIGURES 4 and 7. The gasket is made of a resilient material such as rubber and is generally L-shaped. It consists of a long vertically extending leg member 13 at right angle to the plane of the mounting surface 15. The horizontally extending mounting leg 19 is generally triangular in shape to provide for easy insertion and positive retention of the gasket by the gasket retainers 53. The gasket retainers 53 are formed of light gauge sheet metal and are designed to be spot welded at the horizontal surface 20 to the inside of the outer cabinet top 50, the sides 30 and to the cabinet bottom front 64. The gasket retainers also include a diagonally extending section 36 coinciding with the triangular-shaped mounting leg 19 of the gasket 22 and an inwardly-turned leg 37 under which the gasket 22 is snapped at the time of its insertion.

The manner in which a seal is obtained between the outer cabinet and the chassis is illustrated in FIGURES 5 and 6 which show the insertion of the important part of the chassis 10 within the outer cabinet 35. FIGURE 5 illustrates the relationship of the outer cabinet 35 and the chassis 10 when the chassis is only partially inserted within the outer cabinet. The main lower surface 40 of the base pan 11 is seen to be riding on the horizontally extending surface 54 of the side rails 58. The debossed portion 11a at the rear of the base pan is forcibly bending the weather seal gasket 22 backward. Because of the design of the gasket, the long vertical leg 13 may be turned in this extreme condition and the triangular mounting section 19 will still retain the gasket 22 under the gasket retainer 53.

FIGURE 6 illustrates the chassis assembly finally positioned within the outer cabinet. It will be observed that the base pan sealing strip 4-7 has now made contact with the weather seal gasket 22 along the bottom of the outer cabinet 35, and that the sloping surface 21 along the top of the evaporator housing 14 has now made contact with the gasket mounted to the top of the outer cabinet. The sloping surface 21 at the two vertical sides of the evaporator housing also makes contact with the weather seal gasket mounted to the sides of the outer cabinet in a similar manner.

FIGURE 7 shows the contact achieved by extending leg 13 of the gasket 22 and the sloping surface 21 of the evaporator 14. This same close contact is made with the base pan sealing strip 47, thus providing a seal extending around the entire outer cabinet 35 and the chassis 10. This seal provides the desirable features which have been discussed, yet still permitting easy insertion of the chassis.

Having described our invention as related to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings, it-is our tention that the invention be not limited by any .of the details of description, unless otherwise specified, but rather be construed broadly within its spirit and scope as set out in the accompanying claims.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. An air conditioner, comprising: an outer cabinet having top, bottom and side walls adapted to be arranged in a room opening; an inner air conditioner chassis in said cabinet spaced from the cabinet; a sealing surface positioned in said space and extending about said chassis and said cabinet walls; a resilient gasket having a freely movable sealing lip positioned between said chassis and the top, bottom and side walls of said cabinet in said space and arranged to abut said sealing surface to provide a seal against the passage of outside weather elements inwardly between the cabinet and the chassis into the room.

2. An air conditioner, comprising: an outer cabinet having top, bottom and side walls adapted to be arranged in a room opening; an inner air conditioner chassis adapted to be removably positioned in said cabinet, said chassis having a sealing surface thereabout; and a resilient gasket on the interior of the top, bottom and side walls of said cabinet having a freely movable, inwardly extending leg normally abutting against the said sealing surface to provide a seal against the passage of outside weather elemen-ts inwardly between the cabinet and the chassis.

3. An air conditioner, comprising: an outer cabinet having top, bottom and side walls adapted to be arranged in a room opening and having an opening into said room;

an inner air conditioner chassis adapted to be removably positioned in said cabinet, said chassis having sloping surfaces on the top, sides and bottom thereof; and an L- shaped resilient gasket positioned on the interior of the top, bottom and side walls of said cabinet in a plane substantially parallel to and spaced from said opening, one leg of said gasket being attached to said cabinet and the other extending inwardly from said cabinet a suflicient distance to abut said sloping surfaces to provide a seal against the passage of the outside elements between the cabinet and the chassis.

4. An air conditioner, comprising: an outer cabinet having top, bottom and side walls adapted to be arranged in a room opening and having an opening into said room; an inner air conditioner chassis adapted to be removably positioned in said cabinet having mounted thereon means for cooling and conditioning room air including a base pan, an evaporator and a housing therefor; said housing resting on said base pan and including substantially vertical back and sides and a substantially horizontal top, the areas of junction between the vertical back and sides and the horizontal top defining short surfaces sloping away from said opening; a base pan sealing strip positioned on the bottom of said pan substantially in line with said surfaces and having a section sloping away from said opening; and a resilient gasket positioned on the interior of the top, bottom and side walls of said cabinet having a flexible, freely movable leg normally abutting said sloping surface and said sloping section to provide a seal against the passage of the outside elements inwardly between the cabinet and the chassis.

5, The device of claim 4 wherein said surface and said section slope at an angle of about 45.

6. An air conditioner, comprising: an outer cabinet adapted to be arranged in a room opening and having an opening into said room; an inner chassis adapted to be removably positioned in said cabinet having mounted thereon means for cooling and conditioning room air including a base pan, an evaporator and a housing therefor; said housing resting on said base pan and including a substantially vertical back and sides and a substantially horizontal top, the point of junction between the vertical back and sides and the horizontal top defining a short surface sloping away from said opening; a base pan sealing strip positioned on the bottom of said pan substantially in line with said surface and having a section sloping away from said opening and arranged to cooperate with said surface; an L-shaped resilient gasket positioned on the interior of the top, sides and bottom of said cabinet in a plane substantially parallel to and spaced from said opening, one leg of said gasket having a generally triangular shape with the base of said triangle abutting said cabinet; and means for holding said gasket in position on said cabinet; the other leg of said gasket extending away from said cabinet a suflicient distance to abut said sloping surface and said sloping section to provide a substantially positive seal against the passage of the outside elements between the cabinet and the chassis.

7. An air conditioner, comprising: an outer cabinet adapted to be arranged in a room opening and having an opening into said room; an inner chassis adapted to be removably positioned in said cabinet having mounted thereon means for cooling and conditioning room air including a base pan, an evaporator and a housing therefor; said housing resting on said base pan and including a substantially vertical back and sides and a substantially horizontal top, the point of junction between the vertical back and sides and the horizontal top defining a short surface sloping away from said opening; a base pan sealing strip positioned on the bottom of said pan substantially in line with said surface and having a section sloping away from said opening and arranged to cooperate with said surface; an L-shaped resilient gasket positioned on the interior of the top, sides and bottom of said cabinet in a plane substantially parallel to and spaced from said opening, one leg of said gasket having a generally triangular shape with the base of said triangle abutting said cabinet; and a gasket retainer adapted to be attached to the surface of said cabinet having a diagonally extending section adapted to substantially coincide with the triangularshaped leg of said gasket and an inwardly turned retaining leg under which said gasket is snapped at the time of insertion; the other leg of said gasket extending away from said cabinet a sufiicient distance to abut said sloping surface and said sloping section to provide a substantially positive seal against the passage of the outside elements between the cabinet and the chassis.

8. The device of claim 7 including a plurality of said gasket retainers.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,011,078 Replogle Aug. 13, 1935 2,269,205 Hubbard Jan. 6, 1942 2,525,868 Cornanidis Oct. 17, 1950 2,777,303 Slattery Jan. 15, 1957 2,799,062 Cal-Ian July 16, 1957 2,826,048 Wheeler Mar. 11, 1958