Refrigeration – Refrigeration producer – Heat exchange between diverse function elements
Utility Patent
1999-02-26
2001-01-02
Doerrler, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Refrigeration producer
Heat exchange between diverse function elements
C062S505000
Utility Patent
active
06167722
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigeration unit, and in particular, to the one which does not cause a risk of depletion of the ozone layer, which is suitable for at least recycling thereof, which is preferable in view of stable operation, and which can aim at enhancing the efficiency and the miniaturization thereof.
2. Prior Art of the Invention
Conventionally, there has been known a refrigeration unit, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. H2-287059, in which coolant is branched on the way from a condenser to an evaporator into a main liquid stream and a substream for super-cooling the main stream liquid through the intermediary of a super-cooing expansion valve so as to enhance the energy saving and the fron gas saving.
In the above-mentioned technology, coolant R
22
which has been used in conventional refrigerating units is not preferable in view the prevention of global warming and deletion of the ozone layer or recycling thereof. Thus, it has been desirable to use coolant in which no chlorine components are contained by a small quantity in order to cope with the above-mentioned problems, and further, the efficiency thereof has to be enhanced for the purpose of energy saving.
In particular, a refrigerating unit using the above-mentioned coolant with no chlorine components offers problems, that is, an air-cooled condenser unit installed outdoors has to be incorporated therein with a receiver so as to have a large-size in comparison with conventional refrigeration units using coolant R
22
, and is disadvantageous in view of the installation space and recycling thereof and the like.
Further, it is difficult to super-cool condensed liquid of HFC group triple-mixed coolant (HFC
125
having a composition ratio of 40 to 48%, HFC
143
having a composition ratio of 47 to 57% or HFC
134
a
having a composition ratio of 2 to 8%) which is nonchlorine group coolant, that is, the heat-exchange volume thereof required for obtaining the same degree of super-cooling as that of coolant R
22
becomes twice as large as that of the latter in view of the physical properties thereof. Further, the air-cooled condenser unit has a low degree of heat-exchanging efficiency, and accordingly, in order to obtain a high degree of super-cooling, the unit has to have a large-size.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is devised in order to solve the above-mentioned problems inherent to the above-mentioned conventional technology, and accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerating unit which does never cause deletion of the ozone layer so as to be suitably recycled for environmental response, which can enhance the efficiency and which is small-sized.,
To the end, according to a fist aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigeration unit having a refrigerating cycle in which a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator are connected in series in the mentioned order, comprising HFC group coolant circulating the refrigerating cycle and a subcooler located between the condenser and the evaporator, wherein the HFC group coolant which is turned into a liquid form, is branched into a main liquid stream and a substream for super-cooling the main liquid stream through the super-cooling expansion valve before it is led into an intermediate pressure part of the compressor.
With this arrangement in which the HFC group coolant is used, it is possible to prevent the global warming and the deletion of the ozone layer, and as well to adapt to the recycling. Moreover, the HFC group coolant is turned from a liquid phase into a wet gas phase by the super-cooling expansion valve so as to super-cool the main liquid stream in the subcooler while the thus evaporated HFC group coolant is led into the intermediate pressure part of the compressor, and accordingly, stable liquid coolant can be obtained so as to obtain a high degree of super-cooling for the main liquid stream, thereby it is possible to enhance the refrigerating capacity.
Further, in a specific form of the above-mentioned arrangement, according to the present invention, the branching on the way from the condenser to the evaporator is made on the outlet side of the subcooler.
Further, the coolant which has branched for super-cooling is sufficiently super-cooled, and accordingly, the super-cooling of the liquid coolant becomes stable.
Further, according to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigeration unit having a refrigerating cycle in which a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator are connected in series in the mentioned order, comprising HFC group coolant circulating through the refrigerating cycle, a subcooler located between the condenser and the evaporator, and a receiver located between the subcooler and the evaporator, wherein the HFC group coolant from the condenser, which has been turned into a liquid phase is branched into a main liquid stream and a substream at the receiver, and the substream super-cools the main liquid stream through the super-cooling expansion valve, and is thereafter led into an intermediate pressure part of a compressor.
With this arrangement, the coolant in the substream for super-cooling, which has been evaporated in the subcooler can be taken out through the receiver, and accordingly, the super-cooling coolant does not contain flash gas so as to obtain highly stable super-cooling for the liquid coolant, thereby it is possible to enhance the degree of super-cooling through the latent heat of vaporization. Accordingly, even with such an arrangement that an air-cooled condenser is used as the condenser, and the receiver is added, the condenser unit as a whole can become compact while no risk of deletion of the ozone layer occurs, thereby it is possible to adapt to the recycling.
Further, according to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigeration unit having a refrigerating cycle in which a compressor, a water-cooled condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator are connected in series in the mentioned order, comprising HFC group coolant circulating through the refrigerating cycle, and a subcooler located between the condenser and the evaporator, wherein the HFC group coolant in a main liquid stream led from the condenser into the evaporator is branched off by a part as a substream from the lower part of the condenser in order to cool the main liquid stream through the super-cooling expansion valve, and the substream is then led into an intermediate pressure part of a compressor.
With this arrangement, the branched substream for super-cooling is taken out from the lower part of the condenser, and accordingly, the HFC group coolant does not contain flash gas, thereby it is possible to achieve stable super-cooling of the coolant. Thus, even though a water-cooled condenser is used, the refrigeration unit can become compact, and since no risk of deletion of the ozone layer occurs, the refrigeration unit can be adapted for the recycling.
Further, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigeration unit composed of a refrigerating cycle in which a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator are connected in series in the mentioned order, comprising HFC group coolant circulating through the refrigerating cycle, a subcooler located between the condenser and the evaporator, a super-cooling pipe line for branching the HFC group coolant from the condenser, a super-cooling expansion valve provided in the super-cooling pipe line, and a screw compressor having an economizer port connected thereto with the super-cooling pipe line and used as the compressor mentioned above. Further, according to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigeration unit composed of a refrigerating cycle in which a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator are connected in series in the mentioned order, comprising HFC coolant circulating through the r
Hirohashi Jun-ichi
Kasezawa Minoru
Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP
Doerrler William
Hitachi , Ltd.
Jones Melvin
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