Scroll-type compressor

Details Scroll-type compressor Scroll-type compressor

2001-12-19

2003-05-27

Denion, Thomas (Department: 3748)

Rotary expansible chamber devices

Working member has planetary or planetating movement

Helical working member, e.g., scroll

C418S055500, C418S149000, C418S188000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06568928

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a scroll-type compressor and more particularly to an improvement of sealing structure for securing end surfaces of housings of the compressor.
In general, the scroll-type compressor has a housing in which a fixed scroll member and a movable scroll member are provided. The fixed scroll member has a fixed scroll base plate and a fixed scroll volute portion that extends from the fixed scroll base plate. The movable scroll member has a movable scroll base plate and a movable scroll volute portion that extends from the movable scroll base plate Each volute portion is engaged with each other. The fixed scroll member and the movable scroll member cooperate to form a compression chamber as a compression region. As the movable scroll member orbits about an axis of the fixed scroll member, the compression chamber moves radially inward while its volume decreases.
As a typical prior art, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 8-338376 is known. In this constitution, as shown in
FIG. 4
, a fixed scroll member
111
is used as a center housing. Herein, a scroll-type compressor according to the above publication is turned to a scroll-type compressor as shown in
FIG. 4
at an angle of 180 degrees for convenience. A front housing
112
and a rear housing
113
are respectively secured to front and rear sides of the center housing. The fixed scroll member
111
has a fixed scroll base plate
111
a
and a fixed scroll volute portion
111
b
that extends from the fixed scroll base plate
111
a
. A discharge port
111
c
for discharging compressed refrigerant is formed substantially at the center of the fixed scroll base plate
111
a.
The movable scroll member
118
has a movable scroll base plate
118
a
and a movable scroll volute portion
118
b
that extends from the movable scroll base plate
118
a
. The movable scroll volute portion
118
b
is placed to engage the fixed scroll volute portion
111
b
of the fixed scroll member
111
. The fixed scroll member
111
and the movable scroll member
118
cooperate to form a plurality of compression chambers
120
as a compression region. The movable scroll member
118
is rotated by a drive shaft
114
connected to an external drive source. The movable scroll member
118
orbits about an axis of the fixed scroll member
111
. Thus, the compression chambers are gradually compressed.
Still referring to
FIG. 4
, a ring-shaped fixed plate
126
is placed on an inner wall of the front housing
112
. The front housing
112
is secured to the rear surface of the movable scroll base plate
118
a.
In the above compression mechanism, compression reactive force arises in accordance with compressing the refrigerant in the compression chambers
120
. The compression reactive force in the direction of the axis acts on the fixed plate
126
through the movable scroll member
118
.
In the above prior art, however, dimensional tolerance between height H
1
of the fixed scroll volute portion
111
b
and height H
2
of the movable scroll volute portion
118
b
is required to be adjusted. Therefore, the fixed plate
126
is alternatively fitted between the front housing
112
and the movable scroll member
118
. Thus, a first distal end
111
d
of the fixed scroll volute portion
111
b
and a second distal end
118
d
of the movable scroll volute portion
118
b
are adjusted so that sealing performance is substantially equal at both ends. In this case, a plurality of the fixed plates
126
having different thickness is prepared. For example, each fixed plate
126
has a difference in thickness by 10 micrometer. When a compressor is assembled, the fittest fixed plate
126
is selected from a group of the fixed plates
126
. That is, spare fixed plates
126
are required to be prepared and available for the trial and error. Therefore, the assembly requires a lot of man-hour.
In the above prior art, an O-ring seal
130
for creating a seal is placed between the fixed scroll member
111
and the front housing
112
. To place the O-ring seal
130
, a groove for the O-ring
130
is required to be formed. The groove is required to be accurately formed. Therefore, the machining cost becomes relatively high. Furthermore, such O-rings are required to be excellent in both sealing performance and durability. This also increases costs of the production.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses a scroll-type compressor having a sealing structure that has high sealing performance.
According to the present invention, a scroll-type compressor has a fixed scroll member, a movable scroll member, a rear housing, a front housing and a gasket seal. The fixed scroll member has a fixed scroll base plate and a fixed scroll volute portion. The movable scroll member has a movable scroll base plate and a movable scroll volute portion. The fixed scroll member and the movable scroll member cooperate to form a compression region. The movable scroll member orbits relative to the fixed scroll member to compress refrigerant in the compression region The movable scroll base plate forms a rear surface and a discharge hole. Pressure of the refrigerant discharged from the compression region is applied to the rear surface of the movable scroll base plate for enhancing a sealing effect in the compression region. The rear housing accommodates the fixed scroll member. The front housing is located adjacent to the rear housing for accommodating the movable scroll member. The gasket seal is located in contact with and between the front housing and the rear housing.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4992032 (1991-02-01), Barito et al.
patent: 5040952 (1991-08-01), Inoue et al.
patent: 6193485 (2001-02-01), Ueda et al.
patent: 6264444 (2001-07-01), Nakane et al.
patent: 1087141 (2001-03-01), None
patent: 08-338376 (1996-12-01), None

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