Heat exchange – Flow passages for two confined fluids – Interdigitated plural first and plural second fluid passages
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-10
2001-07-24
Lazarus, Ira S. (Department: 3743)
Heat exchange
Flow passages for two confined fluids
Interdigitated plural first and plural second fluid passages
C165S165000, C165S916000, C123S041330, C123S1960AB, C184S104300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263962
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application relates to and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 10-323744 filed on Nov. 13, 1998, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting structure for an oil cooler which cools engine oil or transmission oil of a vehicle.
2. Related Art
An oil cooler
101
, for performing heat exchange between engine cooling water and engine oil, combined with an oil filter
102
for removing a foreign object in engine oil is illustrated in FIG.
9
.
The oil cooler
101
has a core portion
101
a
for heat exchange. A center bolt
103
made of iron penetrates the center of the core portion
101
a
. By screwing a screw portion
103
a
formed on an end of the bolt
103
together with an engine block
104
, the oil cooler
101
is fixed to the engine block
104
by a flange portion
103
b
of the bolt
103
.
Furthermore, by screwing the oil filter
102
having a filter element
102
a
together with a screw portion
103
c
formed on the other end of the bolt
103
, the oil filter
102
is combined with the oil cooler
101
.
A packing
105
is provided between the oil cooler
101
and the engine block
104
. A packing
106
is provided between the oil cooler
101
and the oil filter
102
.
As illustrated by arrows in
FIG. 9
, oil discharged from an oil pump not shown flows to the core portion
101
a
from a passage
104
a
of the engine block
104
, and is cooled by heat exchange with engine cooling water while passing through the core portion
101
a
, and flows in the filter element
102
a
to remove a foreign object, and reaches an oil main gallery (not shown) of the engine via a hole portion
103
d
formed in the center of the center bolt
103
.
In short, the oil cooler
101
is fastened by the center bolt
103
with a very large force because of a reason described hereinafter. The tightening load is concentrated on a central portion of the oil cooler
101
. Therefore, a ring-shaped collar
101
b
is provided in the core portion
101
a
to bear the load with the collar
101
b
in order to prevent a deformation of the core portion
101
a
caused by the tightening load.
The oil cooler
101
has been requested to be made of aluminum because of the lightening request and the like. However, if the oil cooler
101
is made of aluminum, the center bolt
103
made of iron may be loosened because of aluminum fatigue.
Since aluminum is softer than iron, fatigue is likely to occur on the collar
101
b
which receives the tightening load caused by screwing the center bolt
103
. Furthermore, since the coefficient of linear expansion of aluminum is greater than that of iron, fatigue of the collar
101
b may also be caused by hot-cold cycle, that is a temperature change caused by ON and OFF of an engine. As a result, the center bolt may be loosened, and the oil cooler
101
may be loosened in the vertical direction in
FIG. 9
, and the oil may leak at the packing
105
or
106
.
According to the oil cooler
101
integrally assembled with the oil filter
102
by the center bolt
103
, the center bolt
103
has to be tightened with larger force taking into consideration that the tightening load of the oil cooler
101
decreases as the oil filter
102
is attached and that the bolt
103
should be prevented from being loosened when the oil filter
102
is detached. Accordingly, the fatigue of the collar
101
b
may likely to be caused, and the bolt may likely to be loosened.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made in light of the foregoing problem, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an oil cooler mounting structure which prevents deformation of a core portion caused by tightening load of a center bolt and which prevents loose bolt.
According to an aspect of the present invention, an oil cooler mounting structure for an oil cooler to be mounted on a mounting member, having a core portion for performing heat exchange between engine cooling water and oil includes an installation stay, having a bolt hole, provided around an outer periphery of the oil cooler for fixing the oil cooler on the mounting member by a bolt, and includes a center bolt penetrating the oil cooler and fixed to the mounting member at a first end of the center bolt, and includes an oil filter fixed to a second end of the center bolt.
Accordingly, the oil cooler is fixed to the mounting member via the installation stay provided around the outer periphery of the oil cooler. Thus, the load applied to the core portion may be only an installation load of the oil filter, or may be only the installation load of the oil filter and an installation load of the oil cooler applied via the installation stay. Since both of the loads are relatively small, and they are dispersed on entire portion of the oil cooler. Thus, the respective stresses applied to respective portions of the oil cooler are very small.
Accordingly, a deformation of the core portion is prevented, and a portion corresponding to the collar of the related art can be thinner and thereby increasing the passage area of the core portion to reduce the pressure loss.
Furthermore, since the respective stresses on any portion of the oil cooler is reduced, it is possible to make the oil cooler with aluminum whose strength is lower than that of iron.
Furthermore, the loose bolt of the bolt is prevented because settling of the installation stay is small even if the oil cooler is made of aluminum. In other words, since the thickness of the installation stay can be reduced significantly compared with the total thickness of the collar of the related art, difference in the thermal expansion quantity caused by difference in coefficients of linear expansion of the bolt and the installation stay is significantly reduced, and the loose bolt of the bolt fixing the oil cooler is prevented.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5291969 (1994-03-01), Diederich, Jr.
patent: 5575329 (1996-11-01), So et al.
patent: 5746170 (1998-05-01), Moriya
patent: 5787977 (1998-08-01), Yuasa et al.
Hamada Shinichi
Komoda Shuji
Yamanaka Yasutoshi
Denso Corporation
Harness Dickey & Pierce PLC
Lazarus Ira S.
McKinnon Terrell
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