Refrigeration – Refrigeration producer – With refrigerant treater
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-26
2001-07-24
Buiz, Michael Powell (Department: 1764)
Refrigeration
Refrigeration producer
With refrigerant treater
C062S292000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263695
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a device for recovering and separating from impurities the cooling fluid of a conditioning and/or climatisation system, especially but not exclusively for motor vehicles.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
It is well known that the maintenance of conditioning and/or climatisation systems provides for periodically emptying the system with the recovery of the cooling fluid, which needs to be freed of impurities, especially oil and water vapor, which accumulate during its operation. In the prior art, devices are also known for the recovery of the cooling fluid and its separation from impurities, which comprise:
a container,
an inlet for the fluid/impurities mixture and an outlet for the fluid provided in the top part of said container,
an outlet for impurities provided in the bottom part of said container,
heating means provided within said container to vaporize the cooling fluid separating it from the solid impurities and form the liquid impurities having higher boiling point,
a first duct comprising a compressor for drawing the fluid from said outlet and for feeding, at a higher temperature, said heating means,
a second duct for transferring the fluid from said heating means to a collection tank external to said container.
Said heating means generally comprise a copper coil placed in contact, within the container, with the fluid/impurities mixture collected, mostly in liquid phase, by the conditioning system. By effect of the heating action effected by the coil, the cooling fluid evaporates separating itself from the impurities, which have higher evaporating temperature. The fluid exits the container and is conveyed, by means of the first duct provided with compressor, into the coil located within the container itself. The action of the compressor determines a rise in the temperature of the fluid, inside the coil, with the subsequent heating effect in the container.
With the progressive evaporation of the cooling fluid the liquid phase of the fluid/impurities mixture is enriched in oil and impurities and it is evident that, in order to obtain the total evaporation of the cooling fluid, it is necessary for the mixture top be in direct contact with the coil and in any case an adequate heat exchange surface area is required. Hence, the coil cannot suffice to cause the evaporation of the entire liquid phase of the fluid.
To overcome this drawback the proposal has been advanced, among others, of structuring the heating means in the form of two coils arranged in series, coaxial and positioned one outside the other. However, this solution is not fully satisfactory because, when the level of liquid mixture in the container is very low, the exchange surface is not sufficient to determine a complete and rapid evaporation of the cooling fluid. This entails, in practical use, an undesired permanence of a certain quantity of cooling fluid, highly polluting, amongst the impurities which are expelled at the end of the process.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the present invention therefore is to provide a device by means of which the recovery and separation form impurities of the cooling fluid occur completely and very rapidly.
Said object is attained by means of a device, of the type described above, wherein a portion of the container, adjacent to the base thereof, is enclosed by walls made
4
of heat conducting material and is part of the heating means.
In particular said portion of volume is advantageously enclosed in at least one hollow body—preferably of cylindrical shape—placed in communication with at least one coil and fitted with an inlet for the entrance from the first duct of the compressed fluid.
A device in accordance with the invention yields multiple advantages. In the first place the presence of the portion of heating volume adjacent to the base, an in particular of the cylindrical hollow body, causes the liquid at all times to be in contact wit a sufficiently ample exchange surface. Moreover, this surface being on the bottom of the container, even the late thin layer of liquid is in contact with the heat source, so that all of the liquid can evaporate. Secondly the times required for complete evaporation are considerably reduced since, other parameters being equal, during the final phase the global exchange coefficient changes little, since the liquid always remains in contact with the cylindrical body and therefore the flow rate of processed fluid varies only slightly. In the third place all the cooling fluid is made to evaporate, and therefore it is recovered, without releasing residues into the environment.
These and additional advantages and characteristics of the invention shall be made more evident in the detailed description that follows, made with reference to the accompanying drawing, which schematically shows an embodiment provided purely by way of non limiting example.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2762429 (1956-09-01), Petersen
patent: 2834409 (1958-05-01), Petersrn
patent: 4217765 (1980-08-01), Ecker
patent: 5167126 (1992-12-01), Cartwright
patent: 5263331 (1993-11-01), Sergius
patent: 5377501 (1995-01-01), Muston
patent: 5605054 (1997-02-01), Chen
patent: 588213C (1925-11-01), None
patent: 3617314A (1987-11-01), None
Buiz Michael Powell
Jiang Chen-Wen
North European and Investments H.S.A.
Welsh & Katz Ltd.
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