Heat exchanger mounted to vehicle

Details Heat exchanger mounted to vehicle Heat exchanger mounted to vehicle

2000-03-22

2001-01-02

Atkinson, Christopher (Department: 3743)

Heat exchange

With purge, or drainage, cock or plug

C165S067000, C165S149000, C165S178000, C251S144000, C123S041140, C123S041540

Utility Patent

active

06167946

ABSTRACT:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application relates to and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 11-89795 filed on Mar. 30, 1999, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to heat exchangers which perform heat exchange of fluid, and particularly to a radiator for a vehicle which radiates heat of engine coolant of a water-cooled engine of the vehicle into atmospheric air.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, as shown in
FIG. 4
, a radiator for a vehicle is mounted to the vehicle through an attachment pin
224
having a drain passage therein. Coolant in the radiator is drained through the drain passage in the attachment pin
224
. However, the attachment pin
224
is integrally formed with a header tank
220
of the radiator. Therefore, when the radiator is mounted to a vehicle of a different model and an insertion position of the attachment pin
224
to the vehicle differs, the header tank
220
may need to be modified even when a size of a core portion
210
of the radiator does not need to be changed. As a result, parts of the radiator may need to be made in various types, thereby increasing a manufacturing cost of the radiator. On the other hand, when the header tank
220
is made in a small number of types, a design of the vehicle may need to be modified according to the radiator. As a result, design of the vehicle is largely limited, and mountability of the radiator to the vehicle declines.
Further, recently, whole parts of the radiator are demanded to be made of metal such as aluminum for facilitating recycling of vehicle parts. As shown in
FIG. 5
, when the header tank
220
is made of resin, the header tank
220
is readily modified so that the attachment pin
224
is inserted at a different position in a vehicle of a different model. However, when the header tank
220
is made of metal, it may be difficult to form the header tank
220
into a shape shown in FIG.
5
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a heat exchanger such as a radiator having an improved mountability to a vehicle and manufactured at a relatively low cost.
According to the present invention, a heat exchanger includes a core portion having a plurality of tubes through which fluid flows and a plurality of fins, a header tank communicating with the tubes, a side plate disposed at a lower end of the core portion for reinforcing the core portion, and a bracket through which the core portion and the header tank are mounted to a mounting base. The header tank has a drain outlet through which the fluid in the header tank is discharged. The drain outlet is formed at a lower end of the header tank. The bracket is connected to the side plate, and includes a fluid receiving portion for receiving the fluid from the drain outlet, and a pin portion downwardly extending from the fluid receiving portion to be inserted into the mounting base. The pin portion has a passage through which the fluid is drained. The fluid receiving portion is disposed to face the drain outlet with a predetermined gap therebetween.
As a result, since the bracket is separately formed from the header tank and is connected to the side plate, the heat exchanger is readily mounted to various mounting bases only by changing an attachment position of the bracket to the heat exchanger, without modifying the header tank. Therefore, manufacturing cost of the radiator is reduced. Further, since the fluid receiving portion is disposed to face the drain outlet with the predetermined gap therebetween, the fluid discharged from the drain outlet collides with the fluid receiving portion to reduce its dynamic pressure before being drained through the pin portion. As a result, the fluid is restricted from being scattered while being drained from the heat exchanger.
Preferably, the bracket has a wall portion upwardly extending from an end portion of the fluid receiving portion so that the fluid colliding with the fluid receiving portion is restricted from being scattered by the wall portion.


REFERENCES:
patent: 2613064 (1952-10-01), Huffman
patent: 4006775 (1977-02-01), Avrea
patent: 4449692 (1984-05-01), Rhodes
patent: 4612977 (1986-09-01), Hayashi et al.
patent: 4753289 (1988-06-01), Avrea
patent: 5246202 (1993-09-01), Beamer
patent: 5325914 (1994-07-01), Tanaka
patent: 5429182 (1995-07-01), Hanafusa
patent: 5975197 (1999-11-01), Kado
patent: 401159548 (1989-06-01), None
patent: 406249454 (1994-09-01), None
patent: Y2-7-54019 (1995-12-01), None

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