Refrigeration – Refrigeration producer – With lubricant handling means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-19
2001-08-21
Buiz, Michael Pwell (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Refrigeration producer
With lubricant handling means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06276165
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a condenser, a coolant system, and an on vehicle air conditioning system.
2. Background Art
As is commonly known, an on vehicle air conditioning system includes a blower fan, an air conditioning unit provided with a heater core for heating type air conditioning, and various types of dampers, a heat source system for introducing high temperature cooling water into the air conditioning system, a coolant system for supplying coolant to an evaporator in the air conditioning unit, and a controller for controlling operations of the on vehicle air conditioning system in response to various conditions determined by the driver's choice such as the temperature.
The coolant system usually includes a compressor for feeding a coolant gas and, in order to lubricate the compressor, it is usual to circulate oil corresponding to several percent of the flow rate of the coolant in the coolant system.
A conventional example of the coolant system is described with reference to FIG.
7
. In
FIG. 7
, the reference numeral
100
denotes a compressor. The compressor
100
has the function of compressing the low temperature and low pressure coolant gas which has been evaporated in an evaporator
101
by absorbing heat in a compartment of the vehicle, and forwarding the coolant as high temperature and high pressure gas coolant.
In the condenser
102
, the high temperature and high pressure gas coolant supplied from the compressor
100
is condensed into liquid through condensation and liquefaction by cooling the gaseous coolant by outside air. The thus liquefied coolant is sent to the receiver
103
to be subjected to gas liquid separation and then supplied to an expansion valve (not shown) as high temperature and high pressure coolant. In this expansion valve, the high temperature and high pressure coolant is subjected to pressure reduction and expansion, so that the coolant is converted into the low temperature and low pressure liquid (atomized) coolant and supplied to the evaporator
101
. In addition, an oil separator
104
is provided at the discharge side of the compressor
100
.
The oil separator
104
is provided in the compressor at the discharge side, where the oil is necessary. The coolant system is constituted such that the oil separated and collected at the discharge side of the compressor is again supplied to the intake side of the compressor.
Since provision of the oil separator allows recovery of the oil before the condenser
102
, an advantageous feature of the conventional on vehicle air conditioning system is obtained in that it is possible to prevent reduction of the heat efficiency due to adhesion of oil on the heat exchanging surfaces of the condenser
102
and to prevent an increase of the boiling temperature of the coolant by incorporation of oil in the coolant. However, a problem is encountered that there may be no space to provide even a small part in the engine compartment of a vehicle, since it is fully occupied by various accessories, which causes the problem that the addition of the oil separator to the engine compartment may not be possible.
As measure to respond to the above problem, it has been considered to integrate the oil separator
104
with the compressor
100
. However, since the oil separator
104
requires a certain space for gas-liquid separation, it is not possible to reduce the volume of the oil separator
104
by merely integrating with the compressor, and the problem of space remains.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a condenser, a coolant system, and an on vehicle air conditioning system which has the function of separating oil from the coolant.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, a condenser is provided, in which left and right headers are connected with coolant tubes and fins, comprising: a mesh disposed at an opening of a coolant inlet in one of said headers, in which at least the coolant inlet is provided: and a return path, which communicates with an intake side of a compressor, is disposed at the lower side of the coolant inlet of said header.
According to the second aspect, a condenser is provided, in which left and right headers are connected with coolant tubes and fins, wherein at least one of the headers provided with said coolant inlet is formed in a cylindrical form; the coolant inlet fitted at said header is formed so as to receive the coolant from a direction along a peripheral wall of the header; and a return path, communicating with the intake side of the compressor, is disposed at the lower side of the coolant inlet of the header.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, in a condenser according to the second aspect, an end portion of the opening of said coolant inlet protrudes towards the inside of the header.
According to the fourth aspect, in a condenser according to the second aspect, a mesh is provided at the opening of said coolant inlet in the header.
According to the fifth aspect, in a condenser according to any one of the first and second aspects, a restrictor is provided in said return path.
According to the sixth aspect, a coolant system of the present invention includes at least a condenser according to any one of claims
1
to
5
and an evaporator.
According to the seventh aspect, an on vehicle air conditioning system is provided which includes a condenser according to any one of claims
1
to
5
.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3494146 (1970-02-01), Valbjorn
patent: 5001908 (1991-03-01), Mayer
patent: 5394710 (1995-03-01), Matsuo et al.
Higuchi Toshiyuki
Nishijima Hideya
Ali Mohammad M.
Buiz Michael Pwell
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
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