Refrigeration – Gas controller or director – Gas forcing means – e.g. – cooler unit
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-11
2001-02-13
Doerrler, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Gas controller or director
Gas forcing means, e.g., cooler unit
Reexamination Certificate
active
06185954
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to an air conditioning system such as a self contained unit ventilator or similar system having a blower or fan discharging air into a discharge duct. More particularly, the present invention is directed to the optimum scroll housing about the fan or blower and to the optimum discharge diffuser design. Alternatively, the invention is also applicable to terminal devices such as fan coil units.
A self contained unit ventilator is a typical packaged air conditioner in that it contains a complete air conditioning system including a serially linked indoor heat exchanger, compressor, outdoor heat exchanger, and an expansion device leading back to the indoor heat exchanger. The outdoor heat exchanger is in fluid communication with outdoor ambient air and, unless the unit ventilator is configured as a heat pump, acts as a condenser. The indoor heat exchanger is in fluid communication with the space to be conditioned and typically acts as an evaporator. The self contained unit ventilator is typically used in classroom or hotel applications and the incremental reduction of size of the unit ventilator provides significant competitive advantages.
Typically the indoor and outdoor sections are separated from each other by a physical barrier and each section includes a blower or fan moving air through the respective indoor or outdoor heat exchanger. For purposes of the present invention, the term blower and the term fan are used interchangeably and are intended to apply to all air moving devices. The blower or fan is often a cross flow tangential blower having a scroll housing about it where the fan's discharge leads into a discharge/diffuser duct. The scroll housing radially expands about the blower and guides the blower's discharge into the diffuser duct. A cutoff separates the blower input from the blower discharge.
It is desirable to minimize the fan's energy consumption while maximizing the diffusion of the fan's output. It is even more important to minimize the generation and radiation of acoustical sounds by the overall unit ventilator and particularly by the blower.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object, feature and advantage of the present invention to solve the problems of the prior art terminal devices.
It is an object, feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a scroll housing and diffuser duct arrangement for a tangential blower which minimizes energy losses, which minimizes the generation and radiation of acoustic sound, and which maximizes the flow diffusion of the blower's discharge.
It is an object, feature and advantage of the present invention to eliminate the line-of-sight transmission of acoustical sound between an air conditioning blower and a space which is being conditioned.
It is an object, feature and advantage of the present invention to optimize the scroll housing and cutoff to maximize the pressure and flow provided by a tangential fan without increasing the size of the fan.
It is an object, feature and advantage of the present invention to provide a short discharge duct to convert the kinetic energy of the fan discharge velocity into some potential energy through the use of a diffusing section of duct.
It is an object, feature and advantage of the present invention to provide an optimum flow path through a diffusing section of duct so as to minimize energy losses while minimizing flow separation.
The invention applies to all blowers or fans having a scroll housing or a discharge diffuser duct. Such blowers or fans are typically referred to as tangential, centrifugal, squirrel cage, or crossflow blowers or fans. A compact centrifugal fan is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,996 to Smiley, a centrifugal fan is also shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,515 to Moore et al., and a tangential fan is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,758 to Ames et al., all of which are commonly assigned with the present invention and hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention provides an air conditioning unit. The unit comprises a housing having a first half and a second half where the first half of the housing contains an indoor heat exchange coil and a blower moving air through said coil from at least a housing inlet to a housing outlet. The blower discharges into a diffuser duct having a diffuser section with a first segment and a second segment where the first and second segments have first and second respective and differing angles of diffusion.
The invention further provides the second half of the housing containing a compressor and outdoor heat exchange coil; wherein the indoor heat exchange coil, the compressor and the outdoor heat exchange coil are serially linked into an air conditioning circuit.
The present invention further provides a cross flow blower housing. The housing comprises a scroll housing section having an expanding scroll section from a starting line to a finishing line; and a linear housing section contiguous with the finishing line of the scroll housing section and extending linearly therefrom. The housing also includes a cutoff section having a first segment angle at a first angle relative to the linear housing section and having a second segment angle at a second angle relative to the linear housing section.
The present invention also provides a blower having a diameter D and an axis. The blower comprises a scroll housing about the fan having a starting line located a radial distance R
i
from the fan axis, and including a scroll expansion section starting at the beginning line and radially expanding in arc to a finishing line R
f
relative to the fan axis. The blower includes a linear diffusion segment starting at the finish line and continuing linearly therefrom at a first distance. The blower also includes a fan diffuser arranged to separate a blower intake of the blower from a blower discharge of the blower. The fan diffuser has a cutoff end proximal the blower, a first segment continuing from the cutoff in a direction away from the blower and expanding from the linear portion at a first angle for a first distance, and a second expansion segment located after the first expansion segment and continuous therewith. The second expansion segment expands from the linear portion at a second angle for a second distance.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3096931 (1963-07-01), Eck
patent: 3504617 (1970-04-01), Merklin et al.
patent: 4014625 (1977-03-01), Yamamoto
patent: 4264273 (1981-04-01), Grzina
patent: 4735551 (1988-04-01), Schilling
patent: 5141397 (1992-08-01), Sullivan
patent: 5156524 (1992-10-01), Forni
patent: 5279515 (1994-01-01), Moore et al.
patent: 5293758 (1994-03-01), Ames et al.
patent: 5570996 (1996-11-01), Smiley, III
“Self-Contained Unit Ventilator Heat Pump and Air Conditioning Models”, UV-DS-2, Jul. 1997, First Printing.
Air Cooled Self-Contained Unit Ventilator Heat Pump and Air Conditioner Models THPB, TACB, TSCB-IOM-1, Jun. 1997.
“Self-Contained Unit Ventilators”, MP-S-643.3, May 1997.
McClellan Glenn J.
Smiley III William A.
American Standard Inc.
Beres William J.
Doerrler William
Ferguson Peter D.
Jones Mel
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