Curved heat exchanger and method of manufacturing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11644244-B2
Application number	US-202217591683-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2022
Priority date	Sep 3, 2019
Publication date	May 9, 2023
Grant date	May 9, 2023

Abstract

A heat exchanger has an upper manifold with a first curved section; a lower manifold spaced from and extending parallel to the upper manifold and having a second curved section; a plurality of refrigerant tubes, and a plurality of corrugated fins. Each corrugated fin is formed by a strip having radiused portions alternating with planar portions, and the radiused portions are in contact with the respective adjacent refrigerant tubes. Each of the fins has a curve-inner edge and a curve outer edge and at least one edge of the curve-inner edge and the curve outer edge of at least one fin has a recessed portion in the planar portions that is recessed inward toward a center of the core.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of making a curved heat exchanger, the method comprising the following steps:
assembling parts of the heat exchanger, the parts, after assembly, form a flat heat exchanger including:
an upper manifold having a straight elongated shape;
an lower manifold spaced from and extending parallel to the upper manifold;
refrigerant tubes, each refrigerant tube of the plurality of refrigerant tubes extending along a tube length with one tube end attached to the upper manifold and another tube end attached to the lower manifold; and
corrugated fins, each of the corrugated fins inserted between two respective adjacent ones of the refrigerant tubes, the refrigerant tubes and corrugated fins defining a core having a plurality of air channels for airflow from a first face of the core to a second face of the core, each of the corrugated fins being formed by a strip having radiused portions alternating with planar portions, wherein the radiused portions are in contact with the respective adjacent ones of the refrigerant tubes;

driving an edge tool along the first face of the core between the respective adjacent ones of the refrigerant tubes in a direction parallel to each of the refrigerant tubes so as to form a respective recessed portion in a plurality of the planar portions; and
bending the upper manifold, the lower manifold, the second manifold, and the core about a common bending axis extending parallel to the refrigerant tubes to form a curved portion of the heat exchanger, wherein the curved portion of the heat exchanger includes the recessed portions.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the edge tool is driven along the first face of the core at such a depth that the recessed portions are recessed by a depth within a range of 2% to 50% of a local-core depth of the heat exchanger.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of driving the edge tool along the first face also bends the fin downward toward the lower manifold.

4. The method according to claim 1 , comprising the further step of driving the edge tool along the first face of the core between additional two adjacent refrigerant tubes so as to form the recessed portion in a plurality of the planar portions of a different one of the plurality of corrugated fins.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first face including the recessed portions is a curve-inner face of the core.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first face including the recessed portions is a curve-outer face of the core.

7. The method according to claim 1 , comprising the further step of driving the edge tool or a different edge tool along the second face of the core between the respective adjacent refrigerant tubes or between different adjacent refrigerant tubes in a direction parallel to the refrigerant tubes so as to form further respective recessed portions in a plurality of the planar portions.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the edge tool is a folding tool and the recessed portions are formed by folded-down edge portions.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the edge tool is a scoring tool and the recessed portions are formed by cut edge portions.

Assignees

• Mahle Int Gmbh

Inventors

• Rosen John
• Kent Scott

Classifications

• F28F9/0243

  Header boxes having a circular cross-section · CPC title

• F28F1/126

  consisting of zig-zag shaped fins (F28F1/105 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F28D1/05383 Primary

  with multiple rows of conduits or with multi-channel conduits (F28D1/05391 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F28F2215/04

  Assemblies of fins having different features, e.g. with different fin densities · CPC title

• B21D53/02

  heat exchangers {or parts thereof}, e.g. radiators, condensers {fins, headers}(making finned or ribbed tubes by fixing strip material or the like to tubes B21C37/22) · CPC title