WO2023181722A1

WO2023181722A1 - Heat medium heating device

Info

Publication number: WO2023181722A1
Application number: PCT/JP2023/005388
Authority: WO
Inventors: 健二安本
Original assignee: サンデン株式会社
Priority date: 2022-03-22
Filing date: 2023-02-16
Publication date: 2023-09-28
Also published as: JP2023139884A

Abstract

In this heat medium heating device, cost reduction is facilitated by simplifying the internal electrical connection and by reducing the number of components. The heat medium heating device is provided with a housing which has a heater supported thereinside and has, near the heater, a flow channel through which a heat medium flows, and the housing also has thereinside a control chamber in which a control board for controlling the heater is disposed. The housing is provided with a support protrusion for supporting the control board at a position away from the heater, and with a raised part that comes into thermal-contact with the flow channel of the heat medium and that has a placement surface, which is positioned near the control board and is raised in the protruding direction of the support protrusion. On the placement surface, heat generative circuit components to be connected to the control board are placed.

Description

Heat medium heating device

The present invention relates to a heat medium heating device.

Electric Coolant Heater (ECH) is a device that electrically heats the heat medium (including water, coolant, refrigerant, etc.) flowing through a heat exchanger for air conditioning, etc. A heating element such as an electric wire heater or a PTC (Positive Temperature Coefficient) heater is installed inside.

In the housing of such a heat medium heating device, a control board for controlling the above-mentioned electric heating wire heater and PCT heater is arranged in a housing space that is separated from the flow path of the heat medium. Electrical components such as an IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) mounted on a control board are arranged (see Patent Document 1 below).

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-225074

In a conventional electric heat medium heating device, the control board is arranged in parallel with the heater at a position spaced apart from the heater's installation position in the housing so that the control board does not come close to the heater. Furthermore, since the IGBT mounted on the control board is a switching element that allows a large current to flow through the heater, it itself becomes a heat source. It is being cooled close to

For this reason, in a heat medium heating device equipped with a casing that supports a heater inside and has a flow path through which a heat medium flows near the heater, the control board and IGBT unit are installed in a separated state, and the IGBT In order to connect the terminals of the IGBT to the control board, it is necessary to use a relay component with the terminals inserted, or to provide connection wiring between the IGBT terminals and the control board, making it difficult to electrically connect the two. There is a problem that it becomes complicated and the number of parts increases, resulting in high cost.

The present invention aims to address such problems. That is, an object of the present invention is to simplify internal electrical connections in a heat medium heating device, and to reduce costs by reducing the number of parts.

In order to solve such problems, a heat medium heating device according to the present invention has the following configuration.
A heating medium heating device, comprising a casing in which a heater is supported and a flow path through which a heating medium flows near the heater, and a control chamber in which a control board for controlling the heater is provided in the casing. The casing includes a support protrusion that supports the control board at a position away from the heater, and a mounting surface that is raised in the direction in which the support protrusion protrudes and is close to the control board. What is claimed is: 1. A heat medium heating device, comprising: a raised portion that is in thermal contact with the flow path; and a heat generating circuit component connected to the control board is placed on the placement surface.

The heat medium heating device of the present invention having such features can simplify internal electrical connections and reduce costs by reducing the number of parts.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a heat medium heating device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a heat medium heating device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an enlarged view of main parts of a heat medium heating device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an exploded side view of a heat medium heating device according to an embodiment of the present invention. A vertical cross-sectional view of the main body frame on which the heater, control board, and circuit components are mounted (a cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the heater). A vertical cross-sectional view of the main body frame in which the heater, control board, and circuit components are mounted (a cross-section along the longitudinal direction of the heater). FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a fastening surface of the main body frame.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same reference numerals in different figures indicate parts with the same function, and redundant explanation in each figure will be omitted as appropriate.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the heat medium heating device 1 includes a casing 10 in which a heater 2 is supported and a flow path (not shown) through which the heat medium flows near the heater 2. In the illustrated example, the housing 10 is composed of blocks that can be divided into three, and each block is a main body frame 10A, a lid frame 10B, and a heater support frame 10C.

The housing 10 is provided with an inlet 11 and an outlet 12 for the heat medium. In the illustrated example, the inlet 11 is provided in the heater support frame 10C among the blocks that can be divided into three parts of the housing 10, and the outlet 12 is provided in the main body frame 10A, but the present invention is not particularly limited to this.

In the illustrated example, the heater 2 is a cartridge type cylindrical heating wire heater, and a pair (two) of the heaters 2 are arranged in parallel in the housing 10, with a part of the heater support frame 10C. The end portion is housed in the main body frame 10A.

A flow path is formed around the heater 2 in the casing 10, through which the heat medium that has flowed in from the inlet 11 flows, and the heat medium that has passed through this flow path and been heated by the heater 2 flows from the outlet 12. It's starting to leak out. External piping (not shown) is connected to the inflow port 11 and the outflow port 12, respectively, and a seal portion is formed at each of these connection portions.

Note that the main body frame 10A of the housing 10 and the heater support frame 10C are airtightly connected with a gasket 13 in between. The aforementioned heat medium flow path is formed within the opening of the gasket 13, and the flow path in the heater support frame 10C that communicates with the inlet 11 and the flow path in the main body frame 10A that communicates with the outlet 12 are formed in the gasket. It communicates within the opening of 13. Furthermore, the heater insertion opening 14 of the heater support frame 10C is sealed by the sealing member 2A by inserting the heater 2, and the connection terminal 2B at the end of the heater 2 is exposed to the control chamber 20 side, which will be described later, of the main body frame 10A. However, the exposed opening (not shown) is sealed by a sealing member 2C.

The casing 10 includes a main body frame 10A on which the control board 3 is supported, a lid frame 10B that covers the control board 3 and is detachably attached to the main body frame 10A, and a heater 2 that is detachably attached to the main body frame 10A. The heater support frame 10C is provided to support the heater support frame 10C. The control chamber 20 is formed by a portion of the main body frame 10A that is opened by removing the lid frame 10B and a space inside the lid frame 10B, and is airtightly separated from the aforementioned heat medium flow path in the housing 10. has been done.

The housing 10 includes a support protrusion 21 that supports the control board 3 on the side of the main body frame 10A facing the control chamber 20, and also includes a protrusion 22 that protrudes in the direction in which the support protrusion 21 protrudes. The control board 3 is supported at the tip of the support protrusion 21 and fixed with a screw 3P, so that the control board 3 is supported parallel to the heater 2 at a position apart from the heater 2 supported within the housing 10.

The raised portion 22 provided on the main body frame 10A of the housing 10 has a mounting surface 22A on its top, and a heat generating circuit component (for example, an IGBT unit) 4 is placed on the mounting surface 22A via an insulating sheet 4F. It is placed there. The mounting surface 22A faces the surface of the control board 3, and the terminals 4A of the circuit components 4 mounted on the mounting surface 22A are connected to the control board 3.

The main body frame 10A and the lid frame 10B of the casing 10 are fastened together with a plurality of screws 15 to form an airtight control chamber 20 therein. A fastening surface 23 for fastening the lid frame 10B with the screws 15 is formed at the outer peripheral end of the main body frame 10A. It includes two short sides located at diagonal positions, and is formed to diagonally cross the side surface of the housing 10 where the inlet 11 and the outlet 12 are provided.

By forming the fastening surfaces 23 between the main body frame 10A and the lid frame 10B in the housing 10 obliquely in this way, the above-mentioned heater insertion opening 14 and the wiring insertion hole described later can be formed in the lid frame 10B of the housing 10. It can be concentrated on an unrelated side surface, and furthermore, the open space of the control room 20 when the lid frame 10B is removed can be enlarged. Thereby, it is possible to improve the ease of handling the heater 2 and the wiring, and it is also possible to improve the workability of attaching and maintaining the control board 3 and the like in the control room 20.

An insertion hole 30 is provided on the side surface of the housing 10 (the side surface of the main body frame 10A), through which the wiring 5 whose end is connected to the control board 3 disposed in the control room 20 passes. In the illustrated example, three insertion holes 30 (

insertion holes

30A, 30B, and 30C) are provided, and two of them are used for HV wiring for passing a large current to the heater 2 via the heat generating circuit component 4. One is provided for communication wiring (for LV wiring) for transmitting control signals of the in-vehicle network to the control board.

In the heat medium heating device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, when the above-mentioned insertion hole 30 is provided on the side surface of the housing 10 (main body frame 10A), the opening of the insertion hole 30 is It is provided on the end surface 16A of the protrusion 16 that protrudes outward from the side surface.

A seal member 31 that seals the insertion hole 30 is attached to the end surface 16A of the protrusion 16. Here, the end face 16A is provided with a fixing hole 16B, and by tightening the screw 31P into the fixing hole 16B through the seal member 31, the seal member 31 is attached in close contact with the end face 16A. The sealing member 31 seals the insertion hole 30 in a state in which the wiring 5 is inserted, and includes an insertion sealing portion 31A through which the wiring 5 is inserted.

In the illustrated example, two

insertion holes

30A and 30B are sealed with a seal member 31, and the other insertion hole 30C is sealed with a connector 32. The connector 32 includes a lead-out terminal 32A that is connected to the control board 3, and by connecting the terminal of the communication wiring to the connector 32, the communication wiring is connected to the control board 3.

According to such a heat medium heating device 1, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the raised portion 22 is formed on the housing 10 (main body frame 10A), and the placement surface 22A at the top of the raised portion 22 is controlled. By making the protruding portion 22 close to the substrate 3, the distance H1 from the mounting surface 22A of the raised portion 22 to the control board 3 facing the raised portion 22 can be adjusted to the heat medium flow path formed around the heater 2 from the mounting surface 22A. It is shorter than the distance H2 to 6 (H1<H2).

As a result, the heat generating circuit component 4 placed on the mounting surface 22A via the insulating sheet 4F can be connected to the control board 3 by simply soldering its own terminal 4A to the control board 3. This eliminates the need for relay components and connection wiring for connecting the circuit components 4 and the control board 3, which were conventionally required. Thereby, the electrical connection between the circuit component 4 and the control board 3 can be simplified, and the number of parts can be reduced to reduce costs.

At this time, the distance between the exothermic circuit component 4 and the heat medium flow path 6 becomes larger than that of the conventional case, but the material of the housing 10 (body frame 10A), especially the part where the raised portion 22 is formed, By using a material with high thermal conductivity (for example, an aluminum-based material), the heat medium flow path 6 and the raised portion 22 are in efficient thermal contact, and the heat-generating circuit component 4 is placed in the housing 10. Effective cooling can be achieved by the heat medium flowing through the flow path 6 inside.

In such a configuration, the thermal conductivity of the raised portion 22 is important. For this reason, when the housing 10 is composed of three blocks as described above, the material of the main body frame 10A in which the protrusion 22 is provided is made of a material with particularly high thermal conductivity (it is made of a material different from that of the other blocks). ), the above-mentioned effects can be obtained regardless of the materials of other blocks. In particular, since the heater support frame 10C that supports the heater 2 is required not to dissipate the heat of the heater 2, it is effective to make the heater support frame 10C a separate block from the main body frame 10A in order to obtain the above-mentioned effects. become.

The fixing structure of the circuit component 4 will be explained in more detail using the example shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. In this example, the protrusion direction of the support protrusion 21 that supports the control board 3 is perpendicular to the surface of the control board 3, and the above-mentioned raised portion 22 is raised in the protrusion direction of the support protrusion 21. A positioning portion 22B is provided on the side of the mounting surface 22A and projects along the direction in which the support projection 21 projects (direction perpendicular to the surface of the control board 3). The positioning parts 22B are provided on both left and right sides of the mounting surface 22A, and the insulating sheet 4F is positioned and arranged between the pair of positioning parts 22B. Providing such a positioning portion 22B improves workability when positioning the insulating sheet 4F.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, the circuit component 4 placed on the placement surface 22A is fixed with a fixture 4C whose one end is attached to the main body frame 10A with a fixing screw 4B. Furthermore, a temperature sensor 7 for managing the temperature of the circuit component 4 is mounted on the surface of the control board 3 facing the circuit component 4 . In this example, by making the distance between the control board 3 and the circuit component 4 close, the temperature of the circuit component 4 can be managed by directly mounting the temperature sensor 7 on the control board 3. Thereby, wiring for connecting the temperature sensor 7 to the control board 3 can be omitted, and in this respect as well, it is possible to reduce the number of parts and reduce costs.

As shown in FIG. 6, the end of the heater 2 accommodated in the main body frame 10A is supported around the circumference by a sealing member 2C, and the connection terminal 2B at the end is exposed on the side of the main body frame 10A facing the control room 20. do. In the control room 20, the connection terminal 2B of the heater 2 is connected to the control board 3 via the relay component 2B1.

In the main body frame 10A, the control chamber 20 in which the control board 3 is housed is formed inside the surrounding fastening surface 23, as shown in FIG. Here, the screws 15 for fastening the main body frame 10A and the lid frame 10B are fastened inside the control chamber 20 so as not to protrude outward from the periphery of the main body frame 10A (casing 10). In the embodiment of the present invention, by bringing the circuit component 4 closer to the control board 3, relay components and connection wiring that connect the two are omitted, thereby securing a fastening space for the screws 15 inside the control chamber 20. In this way, by arranging the fastening space for the screws 15 inside the control room 20, it is possible to eliminate the protruding portion of the casing 10 to the outside, which makes it easier to install the heat medium heating device 1 in a vehicle or the like. It becomes possible to reduce the installation space (space saving).

The heat medium heating device 1 described above is installed in a vehicle such as a hybrid car or an electric car, and in the case of a hybrid car, it is used as an auxiliary heat source for supplying heat to supplement the insufficient waste heat of the engine. In this case, it is applied to vehicle air conditioners as an alternative heat source that supplies heat in place of an engine that does not exist.

As an example, in the case of a hybrid vehicle, LLC (Long Life Coolant) for cooling the engine flows as a heat medium in the flow path of the heat medium heating device 1 and is heated by the heater 2 . The LLC circuit is installed in the vehicle air conditioner, and the LLC heat heated by the engine or heat medium heating device 1 is used to heat the refrigerant circulating in the refrigerant circuit installed in the vehicle air conditioner. The room is heated and cooled. Furthermore, in both hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, the heating circuit in which antifreeze circulates is provided with a heating medium heating device 1 together with a heater core, and the heating medium heating device 1 is used as a heat source for heating the antifreeze. Sometimes, air heated by a heater core is blown into the passenger compartment.

Furthermore, in the case of an electric vehicle, the refrigerant of the refrigerant circuit flows through the flow path of the heat medium heating device 1, and the refrigerant is heated by the heater 2. The refrigerant circuit itself serves as a heat source for the vehicle air conditioner as a heat pump, but the heat medium (water) of the heat medium circuit (water circuit) that exchanges heat with the refrigerant circuit is passed through the flow path of the heat medium heating device 1. Hot water can be obtained and used as a heat source for a vehicle air conditioner or for temperature control of objects to be temperature controlled, such as batteries.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above in detail with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to these embodiments, and the design may be changed without departing from the gist of the present invention. Even if there is, it is included in the present invention. Moreover, the above-described embodiments can be combined by using each other's technologies unless there is a particular contradiction or problem in the purpose, structure, etc.

1: Heat medium heating device,
2: Heater, 2A, 2C: Seal member, 2B: Connection terminal, 2B1: Relay part,
3: Control board, 3P: Screw,
4: Circuit parts (IGBT unit),
4A: Terminal, 4B: Fixing screw, 4C: Fixing tool, 4F: Insulating sheet,
5: Wiring, 6: Flow path, 7: Temperature sensor,
10: Housing, 10A: Main frame, 10B: Lid frame, 10C: Heater support frame,
11: Inlet, 12: Outlet, 13: Gasket, 14: Heater insertion port,
15: Screw, 16: Projection, 16A: End surface, 16B: Fixing hole,
20: Control room, 21: Support projection,
22: Raised portion, 22A: Placement surface, 22B: Positioning portion, 23: Fastening surface,
30 (30A, 30B, 30C): Through hole,
31: Seal member, 31A: Penetration seal portion, 31P: Screw,
32: Connector, 32A: Pull-out terminal

Claims

A heating medium heating device, comprising a casing in which a heater is supported and a flow path through which a heating medium flows near the heater, and a control chamber in which a control board for controlling the heater is provided in the casing. And,
The casing includes a support protrusion that supports the control board at a position away from the heater, and has a mounting surface that protrudes in a protruding direction of the support protrusion and is close to the control board, and Equipped with a ridge that makes thermal contact with the flow path,
A heat medium heating device characterized in that a heat generating circuit component connected to the control board is placed on the placement surface.
The heat medium heating device according to claim 1, wherein a distance from the mounting surface to the control board is shorter than a distance from the mounting surface to the flow path.
The heat medium heating device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the placing surface has a positioning portion for positioning the circuit component.
The casing includes a main body frame on which the control board is supported, and a lid frame that covers the control board and is detachably attached to the main body frame, and the control chamber is provided inside the lid frame. The heat medium heating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the heat medium heating device is formed.
5. The heat medium heating device according to claim 4, wherein the casing includes a heater support frame that detachably supports the heater with respect to the main body frame.