Refrigeration – Refrigeration producer – With refrigerant treater
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-12
2002-04-09
Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Refrigeration producer
With refrigerant treater
C062S503000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06367282
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automobile air conditioner and more particularly to a desiccator container for automobile air conditioner with improved adaptability.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Air conditioning is important in providing a comfortable environment for passenger(s) in an automobile while driving. This is especially true in a high temperature outdoor environment. Conventionally, it is impossible to completely prevent water from entering the air conditioning system of an automobile. The problem of refrigerant pipes of air conditioning system containing water is that the heat exchange efficiency of the system is lowered due to the mixing of refrigerant and water. Hence, the performance of automobile air conditioner is degraded and the load of compressor is increased. As a result, the consumption of energy (e.g., fuel) is significantly increased. An improvement to above problem is the installation of a desiccator container in the air conditioning system for absorbing water contained in refrigerant. It is found that there are a variety of desiccator containers commercially available. For example, a conventional cylindrical desiccator container
7
is shown in
FIG. 1
wherein an inlet connector
71
at one end of an inlet line
711
and an outlet connector
72
at one end of an outlet line
721
are oppositely provided on the circumferential surface of desiccator container
7
and a test connector
73
is provided between inlet connector
71
and outlet connector
72
. Desiccator container
7
is provided in a predetermined position of refrigerant pipe such that water contained in refrigerant may be absorbed by the container
7
when refrigerant is circulated through the refrigerant pipe. A probe of a test device (not shown) may be coupled to test connector
73
for measuring the remained amount of desiccator in order to determine whether it is necessary to replace the current desiccator container
7
with a new one. Another conventional cylindrical desiccator container
7
is shown in
FIG. 2
wherein outlet connector
74
and test connector
73
are oppositely provided on the circumferential surface of desiccator container
7
and inlet connector
71
is equally spaced apart from outlet connector
74
and test connector
73
. Still another conventional cylindrical desiccator container
7
is shown in
FIG. 3
wherein all inlet connector
71
, outlet connector
72
, and test connector
731
are provided on the top of desiccator container
7
. In view of above, it is impossible to replace one type of desiccator container
7
(e.g., the one shown in
FIG. 1
) with another type of desiccator container
7
(e.g., the one shown in
FIG. 2
) if the former does not function normally. This may increase the manufacturing and maintenance costs of desiccator containers which are inevitably borne on automobile component manufactures and consumers accordingly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a desiccator container provided in a predetermined position of a refrigerant pipe of an automobile air conditioner for absorbing water contained in refrigerant circulated in the refrigerant pipe, the desiccator container comprising an inlet connector, an outlet connector, a test connector, a pair of first bolts, a pair of second bolts smaller than the first bolts, four first threaded holes, and three second threaded holes smaller than the first threaded holes. This can increase the adaptability of the desiccator container, thereby reducing the manufacturing and maintenance costs.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4939904 (1990-07-01), Carlisle, Jr.
patent: 5038578 (1991-08-01), Manz et al.
patent: 5201195 (1993-04-01), Gavlak et al.
patent: 5479790 (1996-01-01), Bottum, Jr. et al.
patent: 5515696 (1996-05-01), Hitchison
patent: 6170288 (2001-01-01), Incorvia
patent: 6178772 (2001-01-01), Incorvia
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