Heat exchanger and heat pump system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10449833-B2
Application number	US-201615739501-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2016
Priority date	Aug 19, 2015
Publication date	Oct 22, 2019
Grant date	Oct 22, 2019

Abstract

A heat exchanger and a heat pump system capable of reducing the amount of a refrigerant that accumulates in an outdoor heat exchanger during heating operation, and of decreasing the appropriate amount of refrigerant during heating operation. A vehicle-external heat exchanger is provided with a hollow first header, a hollow second header provided facing the first header, and a plurality of tubes provided between and communicating with the first header and the second header. The first header is provided with a partition plate that divides the interior of the first header. A first opening formed on a partition plate side between the upper end of the first header and the partition plate. When functioning as an evaporator, the refrigerant is supplied from the lower part of the first header or of the second header, and the first opening serves an outflow port for the refrigerant.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A heat exchanger comprising:
a hollow first header;
a hollow second header provided facing the first header; and
a plurality of tubes disposed between the first header and the second header and communicating with the first header and the second header;
the first header being provided with a partition plate dividing an interior of the first header;
the first header being provided with a first opening on a partition plate side in a divided section defined between an upper end of the first header and the partition plate;
the first header being provided with a second opening formed on an upper end side of the first header with respect to the first opening in the divided section;
with the heat exchanger functioning as an evaporator, a refrigerant being supplied from a lower part of the first header or of the second header, and the first opening serving as an outflow port for the refrigerant; and
with the heat exchanger functioning as a condenser, the refrigerant being supplied from the second opening and flows to the lower part of the first header or of the second header.

2. A heat pump system comprising:
the heat exchanger according to claim 1 ;
a first circuit connected with the heat exchanger, a refrigerant flowing through the first circuit with the heat exchanger functioning as an evaporator; and
a second circuit connected with the heat exchanger, the refrigerant flowing through the second circuit with the heat exchanger functioning as a condenser.

3. The heat pump system according to claim 2 comprising:
the heat exchanger;
the first circuit; and
the second circuit;
the heat pump system being applied as a vehicular air conditioning system.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Heavy Ind Thermal Systems Ltd

Inventors

• Saito Katsuhiro
• Hase Tomoki
• Nakagawa Nobuya
• Nakado Koji

Classifications

• F25B13/00

  Compression machines, plants or systems, with reversible cycle (defrosting cycles F25B47/02) · CPC title

• F25B39/02

  Evaporators · CPC title

• B60H1/3213

  for increasing the efficiency in a vehicle heat pump · CPC title

• F28D2021/0084

  Condensers · CPC title

• F28F9/0202

  Header boxes having their inner space divided by partitions · CPC title