Heat exchanger

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10780460-B2
Application number	US-201615750591-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 2, 2016
Priority date	Aug 11, 2015
Publication date	Sep 22, 2020
Grant date	Sep 22, 2020

Abstract

A heat exchanger is disclosed having a first cylindrical tube and a lead screw which extends coaxially inside the first cylindrical tube; the inner surface of the first cylindrical tube has guiding grooves, and a cleaning element is secured to the lead screw in such a way that a rotating movement of the lead screw moves the cleaning element in the axial direction along the guiding grooves.

First claim

What we claim is:

1. A heat exchanger comprising:
a first cylindrical tube and a threaded spindle that runs coaxially in the first cylindrical tube, and
a second cylindrical tube arranged coaxially to the first cylindrical tube,
wherein the inner surface of the first cylindrical tube has guiding grooves, and
wherein a cleaning element is secured to the threaded spindle in such a way that rotating the threaded spindle moves the cleaning element in an axial direction along the guiding grooves.

2. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein the outer surface of the first cylindrical tube has a coil that runs spirally in an axially direction.

3. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein the cleaning element is a hollow cylindrical cleaning element having a cylindrical circumference, wherein the inner surface of the cleaning element has a female thread corresponding to the thread of the threaded spindle, and wherein the outer surface of the cleaning element has outer grooves corresponding to the guiding grooves of the inner surface of the first cylindrical tube.

4. The heat exchanger according to claim 3 , in which the cleaning element has recesses in the cylindrical circumference, and said recesses which extend parallel to the axial direction.

5. The heat exchanger according to claim 4 , in which the recesses are equidistantly arranged in the cleaning element in the circumferential direction.

6. The heat exchanger according to claim 3 , in which the female thread of the cleaning element has a diameter that increases in the axial direction.

7. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein an inlet and outlet opening is present for a coolant, so as to admit and discharge coolant into or from a gap between the second cylindrical tube and the first cylindrical tube.

8. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein an inlet and outlet opening is present for a working medium, so as to admit and discharge the working medium into or from a gap between the first cylindrical tube and the threaded spindle.

9. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein a deposit store for contaminants washed away by the cleaning element is connected with the gap between the threaded spindle and the inner surface of the first cylindrical tube.

10. The heat exchanger according to claim 9 , in which a heating element is present and arranged in such a way that contaminants present in the deposit store can be heated.

11. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , in which a position measuring device is present and arranged in such a way that a position of the cleaning element in the axial direction can be measured.

12. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein a drive motor is present for driving the threaded spindle, and wherein a particle barrier is present between the drive motor and the gap between the threaded spindle and the inner surface of the first cylindrical tube.

13. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein the threaded spindle has a trapezoidal profile as the thread profile.

14. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein the threaded spindle has a cross thread as the thread.

15. The heat exchanger according to claim 14 , in which a sliding block connected with the cleaning element is slide mounted in the threaded groove of the cross thread of the threaded spindle.

16. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 comprising more than one heat exchanger connected in series.

17. A method for liquefying a gas using a heat exchanger according to claim 1 , said method comprising:
flowing a coolant between the first and the second cylindrical tube,
flowing a working medium between the first cylindrical tube and the threaded spindle wherein said working medium contains the gas to be liquefied, and
flowing the coolant at a lower temperature than that of the working medium, and
wherein the pressure and temperature of the coolant along with the pressure of the working medium are adjusted in such a way that the gas to be liquefied is liquefied in the working medium through heat exchange with the cooling medium.

18. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the coolant is the same medium as the gas to be liquefied, and wherein the pressure selected for the coolant is lower than that of the working medium.

19. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the gas to be liquefied is nitrogen, helium, oxygen or hydrogen.

Assignees

• Linde Ag

Inventors

• Adler Robert
• Klein Ekkehardt
• Nagl Christoph
• Pollak Andreas

Classifications

• F28G15/08

  Locating position of cleaning appliances within conduits · CPC title

• F28D7/106

  consisting of two coaxial conduits or modules of two coaxial conduits · CPC title

• B08B9/0436

  provided with mechanical cleaning tools, e.g. scrapers, with or without additional fluid jets (B08B9/045, B08B9/047 take precedence) · CPC title

• F28F1/40

  the means being only inside the tubular element · CPC title

• F28G3/10

  having scrapers, hammers, or cutters, e.g. rigidly mounted · CPC title