Heater

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9937772-B2
Application number	US-201414519820-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2014
Priority date	Oct 21, 2013
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

A heater, particularly for a motor vehicle, having at least one heating element for heating air and a control unit, which has a control circuit, arranged on a printed circuit board, for controlling the at least one heating element, whereby the at least one heating element has ribs and a contact strip, whereby a contact strip section is arranged on the circuit board of the control circuit and forms a connection between the at least one heating element and the control circuit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A heater for a motor vehicle, the heater comprising:
at least one heating element for heating air; and
a control unit that has a control circuit arranged on a printed circuit board for controlling the at least one heating element,
wherein the at least one heating element is a contact strip having ribs extending therefrom,
wherein a section of the contact strip is arranged on the circuit board of the control circuit and forms a connection between the at least one heating element and the control circuit, and
wherein some of the ribs of the at least one heating element are arranged on the circuit board and realize a cooling for electronic modules of the control circuit.

2. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein the section of the contact strip is detachably connected to the circuit board.

3. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein a connector is arranged on the circuit board, via the connector a fixation and/or contacting of the section of the contact strip on the circuit board is achieved.

4. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein a length of the section of the contact strip is formed greater than a fourth of a width or greater than half of the width of the circuit board.

5. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one heating element and/or the circuit board of the control circuit are arranged at least in sections or regions in a housing.

6. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein electronic components of the control circuit are cooled via the section of the contact strip.

7. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein the section of the contact strip is arranged within a housing of the heater or the control unit.

8. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein the section of the contact strip is arranged outside of a housing.

9. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one heating element is a first heating element and the heater has a further heating element.

10. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one heating element is a flat metal strip with the ribs extending therefrom along at least a portion of the length of the flat metal strip.

11. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one heating element is a PTC heating element.

12. The heater according to claim 1 , wherein a connector is provided between the contact strip and the printed circuit board, such that the connector forms the connection between the at least one heating element and the control circuit.

13. The heater according to claim 12 , wherein the connector has pins extending therefrom that contact pads on the printed circuit board.

14. The heater according to claim 12 , wherein the at least one heating element is a flat metal strip with the ribs extending therefrom along at least a portion of the length of the flat metal strip, and wherein one end of the flat metal strip directly contacts the connector.

Assignees

• Mahle Int Gmbh

Inventors

• Gries Jean-Philippe

Classifications

• H05B2203/023

  Heaters of the type used for electrically heating the air blown in a vehicle compartment by the vehicle heating system · CPC title

• H05B3/24

  heating conductor being self-supporting · CPC title

• F24H2250/04

  Positive temperature coefficients [PTC]; Negative temperature coefficients [NTC] · CPC title

• F24H3/0441

  Interfaces between the electrodes of a resistive heating element and the power supply means · CPC title

• F24H3/0435

  Structures comprising heat spreading elements in the form of fins · CPC title