Internal-combustion engines – With heating means
Patent
1998-03-06
2000-02-08
Kamen, Noah P.
Internal-combustion engines
With heating means
237 123C, G05D 2300
Patent
active
060217529
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention pertains to an engine-independent vehicle heater, with a burner head and a flame tube, which is surrounded by a heat exchanger jacket, through which a heat carrier medium flows, wherein the heat exchanger jacket has connections for an inlet and an outlet of the heat exchanger medium, and control sensors, which are connected to a control device that controls the operation of the vehicle heater as a function of the heat carrier temperature measured, are arranged in the area of the connections, and an overheating protection means may also be provided.
A vehicle heater of the above-described type has been known from DE 44 46 829 A1; even though the control device of this vehicle heater makes possible a defined, reliable operation of the heater corresponding to the set points set, the inlet and the outlet of the heat exchanger medium are located at the heat exchanger jacket. Connection lines located there, leading from the vehicle engine, on the one hand, and to the heat exchanger of the interior space of the vehicle, on the other hand, inherently contain auxiliary means, such as a water pump and possibly a bypass line and require a corresponding mounting space in the vehicle. The application and use of such a heater are consequently limited to a certain vehicle model. This is also true because of the fixed arrangement of the control sensors in the device, which make possible only a single, defined operation for an individual vehicle. If, e.g., the design of the prior-art heater is to be simplified and the heat carrier temperature sensor is to be arranged on the outlet side at the beat exchanger jacket, e.g., together with an overheating sensor arranged there, this leads to certain drawbacks in terms of a stable, uniform control operation of the vehicle heat exchanger in the direction of the interior space of the vehicle, because the heater is controlled in this case based on the heat carrier temperature detected at the outlet-side end of the heat exchanger jacket, which is subject to short-term variations, depending on whether the heat user to the interior space of the vehicle is switched on or not (if no bypass line is present).
Based on the known state of the art, the object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle heater of the type described in the introduction, which expands the possibilities of application and use while having a simple design and being reliable in operation.
The basic object of the present invention is accomplished by a heater of the type disclosed in claim 1.
The subject of the present invention is advantageously improved by the features of claims 2 through 8.
Provisions are made according to the present invention for the heat carrier medium also to be able to flow through the heat exchanger jacket in the reversed direction as desired, in which case the connections for the inlet and the outlet of the heat carrier medium are transposed and the control values of the existing control sensors are correspondingly adapted.
The control sensors can now be connected mutually transposed to the control device if the control device has plug-type connections, or the existing control sensors may be mounted mutually transposed at the heat exchanger.
As an alternative, the control device may have for each control sensor at least one alternative control value for a reversed operation, which can be activated during reversed operation. The alternative control value may be activated in this case by a signal, which is, e.g., an electric signal, by means of a vehicle/heater interface, in which case the signal coding may be assigned to a corresponding vehicle model (wire strap, voltage signal) and is therefore independent from the heater.
In a preferred variant of the present invention, the alternative control values are activated automatically by the control device (in a self-learning, self-adapting manner, own logic), especially by the evaluation of the temperature gradient between the control sensors during the operation of the burner.
Consequently, the heater may be used duri
REFERENCES:
patent: 5137445 (1992-08-01), Chu
patent: 5205250 (1993-04-01), Easterly et al.
patent: 5350114 (1994-09-01), Nelson et al.
patent: 5788148 (1998-08-01), Burner et al.
Wacker Heinrich
Wahle Guido
Benton Jason
J. Eberspacher GmbH & Co.
Kamen Noah P.
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