Oil separator and air conditioning system thereof

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of oil separation, in particular to an oil separator and an air conditioning system thereof. An oil separator comprises a barrel, an oil return pipe, an air inlet pipe and a spiral guide plate, and a first communicating hole is formed in one end of the barrel; one end of the oil return pipe is inserted into the first communicating hole and is connected with the barrel body through the first communicating hole; one end of the air inlet pipe penetrates through the side wall of the barrel and extends into the barrel; the spiral guide plate is mounted in the cylinder body and spirally extends towards the direction of the first communicating hole around the axis of the cylinder body; and in the axial direction of the cylinder body, the spiral flow guide plate is located between the end, extending into the cylinder body, of the air inlet pipe and the first communicating hole. The oil-gas separator has the advantages that by arranging the spiral flow guide plate, a refrigerant can flow in the rotating direction of the spiral flow guide plate after entering the cylinder body, and then the oil-gas separation effect is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of oil separation, in particular to an oil separator and an air conditioning system thereof. Background Art

[0002] The air conditioning compressor needs lubricating oil for lubrication during operation, but the lubricating oil will be discharged along with the refrigerant when the compressor discharges the refrigerant. On the one hand, the presence of lubricating oil will increase the thermal resistance of the air conditioning system pipeline, reduce the heat transfer effect, and thus reduce the cooling or heating efficiency of the air conditioning system; on the other hand, if the lubricating oil is not returned to the compressor in time, the service life of the compressor will be shortened.

[0003] The oil separator is used to separate the lubricating oil and the refrigerant, and return the separated lubricating oil to the compressor through the oil return pipe. However, the separation efficiency of the existing oil separator is limited. In order to improve the separation efficiency, the method of increasing the volume of the oil separator (increasing the length of the cylinder) is usually adopted. However, such an oil separator occupies a large space and is not convenient for production and assembly. Summary of the invention

[0004] Based on this, the present invention aims at the above-mentioned technical problem and provides an oil separator and an air conditioning system thereof which are beneficial to improving separation efficiency.

[0005] An oil separator, the oil separator comprising: a cylinder, one end of which is provided with a first connecting hole; an oil return pipe, one end of which is inserted into the first connecting hole and connected to the cylinder through the first connecting hole; an air intake pipe, one end of which is penetrated through the side wall of the cylinder and extends into the cylinder; a spiral guide plate installed in the cylinder and extending spirally around the axis of the cylinder in the direction of the first connecting hole; along the axial direction of the cylinder, the spiral guide plate is located between the end of the air intake pipe extending into the cylinder and the first connecting hole.

[0006] In this way, by providing the spiral guide plate, the refrigerant can flow along the rotation direction of the spiral guide plate after entering the cylinder, avoiding the occurrence of turbulence and the like, thereby making the oil-gas separation efficiency higher.

[0007] In one embodiment, a second connecting hole is formed at one end of the cylinder away from the first connecting hole, the oil separator further comprises an air outlet pipe, one end of the air outlet pipe passes through the second connecting hole and extends into the cylinder, the air outlet pipe is connected to the cylinder through the second connecting hole; the spiral guide plate is wound around the outer circumference of the portion of the air outlet pipe extending into the cylinder. With such a configuration, the spiral guide plate does not need to be installed in the cylinder through other additional structures, but can be directly connected to the outer circumference of the air outlet pipe, thereby realizing its own limiting fixation and simplifying the structure.

[0008] In one embodiment, one end of the air inlet pipe extending into the cylinder has a guide surface, and the guide surface is arranged obliquely along the rotation direction of the spiral guide plate. Such an arrangement facilitates the refrigerant to enter the guide area of ​​the spiral guide plate along the oblique direction of the guide surface.

[0009] In one embodiment, the oil return pipe at least includes a straight pipe section connected to the first connecting hole, the straight pipe section, the outlet pipe, and the cylinder are coaxially arranged, and the axis of the inlet pipe and the axis of the outlet pipe are perpendicular to each other and intersect. With such an arrangement, when the refrigerant enters the cylinder from the inlet pipe, it will directly hit the outlet pipe and perform a spiral circumferential separation motion through the spiral guide plate, which is conducive to the separation of gas and liquid.

[0010] In one embodiment, the shortest distance between the end of the air inlet pipe close to the axis of the cylinder and the air outlet pipe is h, and the range of h is: 1mm≤h≤10mm. This arrangement can prevent the refrigerant from being directly rebounded into the air inlet pipe after impacting and colliding with the air outlet pipe due to the small distance between the air inlet pipe and the air outlet pipe, and also prevent the refrigerant from falling before colliding with the pipe wall of the air outlet pipe or colliding incompletely due to the large distance between the air inlet pipe and the air outlet pipe.

[0011] In one embodiment, along the axis direction of the cylinder, the distance between the air inlet pipe and the spiral guide plate is H, the distance between the air inlet pipe and the end of the air outlet pipe away from the first connecting hole is b, the diameter of the air inlet pipe is a, and the range of H is: a / 2≤H<b. With such a configuration, there will be no blockage due to the distance between the pipe opening and the spiral guide plate being too close, and there will be no inability to exert the effect of the spiral guide plate due to the distance between the pipe opening and the spiral guide plate being too far.

[0012] In one embodiment, along the radial direction of the cylinder, the outer diameter of the spiral guide plate is d, and the inner diameter of the cylinder is D, and the two satisfy 0.6D≤d≤D. This arrangement ensures that the size of the spiral guide plate in the radial direction of the cylinder is large enough to ensure its guiding effect on the refrigerant.

[0013] In one embodiment, the spiral guide plate has at least one spiral turn, and one end of the spiral guide plate close to the first connecting hole is a head, and along the radial direction of the cylinder, the head is located on the back side of the guide surface. This arrangement ensures that the spiral guide plate can be fully utilized.

[0014] In one embodiment, the oil separator also includes a filter screen, one end of which is installed at the connection between the oil return pipe and the cylinder, at least a portion of the filter screen is located in the oil return pipe, and the filter screen protrudes along the axial direction of the cylinder in a direction away from the cylinder to form a filter groove, and the opening of the filter groove faces a direction close to the cylinder.

[0015] The present invention also provides an air conditioning system, comprising the oil separator as described above.

[0016] Compared with the prior art, the present invention provides a spiral guide plate so that the refrigerant can flow along the rotation direction of the spiral guide plate after entering the cylinder, thereby improving the oil-gas separation effect, and the guide surface is inclined along the rotation direction of the spiral guide plate, so the refrigerant will enter the guide area of ​​the spiral guide plate along the inclined direction of the guide surface, avoiding the occurrence of turbulence and the like, making the oil-gas separation efficiency higher. A filter is also added to prevent impurities from entering the compressor through the oil return pipe and reducing the service life of the compressor. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the structure of the oil separator provided by the present invention;

[0018] Figure 2 A front cross-sectional view of the oil separator provided by the present invention;

[0019] Figure 3 A top sectional view of the oil separator provided by the present invention.

[0020] The symbols in the figure mean the following:

[0021] 100, oil separator; 10, cylinder; 11, first connecting hole; 12, second connecting hole; 20, oil return pipe; 21, straight pipe section; 22, curved pipe section; 30, air inlet pipe; 31, guide surface; 40, spiral guide plate; 50, filter screen; 51, filter tank; 60, air outlet pipe. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] In order to make the above-mentioned purposes, features and advantages of the present application more obvious and easy to understand, the specific implementation methods of the present application are described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the following description, many specific details are set forth to facilitate a full understanding of the present application. However, the present application can be implemented in many other ways different from those described herein, and those skilled in the art can make similar improvements without violating the connotation of the present application, so the present application is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0023] It should be noted that when a mechanism is referred to as being "fixed to" or "set on" another mechanism, it may be directly on the other mechanism or there may be a central mechanism. When a mechanism is considered to be "connected to" another mechanism, it may be directly connected to the other mechanism or there may be a central mechanism at the same time. The terms "vertical", "horizontal", "upper", "lower", "left", "right" and similar expressions used in the specification of this application are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent the only implementation method.

[0024] In addition, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined as "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In the description of this application, the meaning of "plurality" is at least two, such as two, three, etc., unless otherwise clearly and specifically defined.

[0025] In the present application, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, a first feature being “above” or “below” a second feature may mean that the first feature is directly in contact with the second feature, or the first feature and the second feature are indirectly in contact through an intermediate medium. Moreover, a first feature being “above”, “above” or “above” a second feature may mean that the first feature is directly above or obliquely above the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is higher in level than the second feature. A first feature being “below”, “below” or “below” a second feature may mean that the first feature is directly below or obliquely below the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is lower in level than the second feature.

[0026] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used in the specification of this application have the same meaning as those commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. The terms used in the specification of this application are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit this application. The term "and / or" used in the specification of this application includes any and all combinations of one or more related listed items.

[0027] The air conditioning compressor needs lubricating oil for lubrication during operation, but the lubricating oil will be discharged along with the refrigerant when the compressor discharges the refrigerant. On the one hand, the presence of lubricating oil will increase the thermal resistance of the air conditioning system pipeline, reduce the heat transfer effect, and thus reduce the cooling or heating efficiency of the air conditioning system; on the other hand, if the lubricating oil is not returned to the compressor in time, the service life of the compressor will be shortened.

[0028] The oil separator is used to separate the lubricating oil and the refrigerant, and return the separated lubricating oil to the compressor through the oil return pipe. However, the separation efficiency of the existing oil separator is limited. In order to improve the separation efficiency, the method of increasing the volume of the oil separator is usually adopted, but such an oil separator occupies a large space and is not convenient for production and assembly.

[0029] See also Figure 1-3 In order to solve the problem of low separation efficiency of the existing oil separator 100, the present application provides an oil separator 100 for separating lubricating oil and refrigerant.

[0030] The oil separator 100 includes a cylinder 10, an oil return pipe 20, an air intake pipe 30 and a spiral guide plate 40. A first connecting hole 11 is opened at one end of the cylinder 10. One end of the oil return pipe 20 is inserted into the first connecting hole 11 and connected to the cylinder 10 through the first connecting hole 11. One end of the air intake pipe 30 is penetrated through the side wall of the cylinder 10 and extends into the cylinder 10. The spiral guide plate 40 is installed in the cylinder 10 and spirally extends around the axis of the cylinder 10 in the direction of the first connecting hole 11, wherein, along the axial direction of the cylinder 10, the spiral guide plate 40 is located between one end of the air intake pipe 30 extending into the cylinder 10 and the first connecting hole 11.

[0031] The present application provides a spiral guide plate 40 so that after the refrigerant enters the cylinder 10, it can flow along the rotation direction of the spiral guide plate 40, thereby avoiding the occurrence of turbulence and the like, and making the oil-gas separation efficiency higher.

[0032] One end of the air inlet pipe 30 extending into the cylinder 10 has a guide surface 31, and the guide surface 31 is inclined along the rotation direction of the spiral guide plate 40, so as to facilitate the refrigerant to enter the guide area of ​​the spiral guide plate 40 along the inclined direction of the guide surface 31.

[0033] Furthermore, a second communication hole 12 is formed at one end of the cylinder 10 away from the first communication hole 11, and the oil-gas separator further comprises an air outlet pipe 60, one end of which passes through the second communication hole 12 and extends into the cylinder 10, and the air outlet pipe 60 is connected to the cylinder 10 through the second communication hole 12, and the spiral guide plate 40 is wound around the outer circumference of the portion of the air outlet pipe 60 extending into the cylinder 10. In this way, the spiral guide plate 40 does not need to be installed in the cylinder 10 through other additional structures, but can be directly connected to the outer circumference of the air outlet pipe 60, thereby realizing its own limit fixation and simplifying the structure.

[0034] Of course, in other embodiments, the spiral guide plate 40 may also be connected to the inner wall of the cylinder 10 through other connection structures, and is not limited to being directly connected to the outer peripheral side of the air outlet pipe 60 .

[0035] Furthermore, the oil return pipe 20 at least includes a straight pipe section 21 connected to the first connecting hole 11, the straight pipe section 21, the outlet pipe 60 and the cylinder 10 are coaxially arranged, and the axis of the air inlet pipe 30 and the axis of the outlet pipe 60 are perpendicular to each other and intersect. In this way, when the refrigerant enters the cylinder 10 from the air inlet pipe 30, it will directly hit the outlet pipe 60 and perform a spiral circumferential separation motion through the spiral guide plate 40, which is beneficial to the separation of gas and liquid, thereby improving the gas-liquid separation effect of the oil separator 100.

[0036] The oil return pipe 20 further includes a curved pipe section 22 connected to the straight pipe section 21 . The curved pipe section 22 extends in a direction away from the cylinder 10 and is used for connection with an external pipeline.

[0037] It can be understood that the axis of the air inlet pipe 30 may not intersect with the axis of the air outlet pipe 60, but may be staggered and eccentrically arranged, that is, the air inlet pipe 30 is eccentrically arranged relative to the cylinder 10. In this way, when the refrigerant enters the cylinder 10 from the air inlet pipe 30, it will have an eccentric movement trajectory, spirally separate around the inner wall of the cylinder 10, and perform a secondary spiral circumferential separation movement under the action of the spiral guide plate 40, thereby improving the gas-liquid separation effect. Compared with the background technology, on the one hand, the separation effect is enhanced by adding the spiral guide plate 40, and on the other hand, there is no need to increase the length of the cylinder 10 to increase the time of the spiral separation of the refrigerant around the inner wall of the cylinder 10, which is beneficial to reducing the volume of the oil separator 100.

[0038] For further information, see Figure 3 , the shortest distance between the end of the air inlet pipe 30 close to the axis of the cylinder 10 and the air outlet pipe 60 is h, and the range of h is: 1mm≤h≤10mm. It should be explained that the shortest distance h here refers to the shortest distance between the projection of the guide surface 31 of the air inlet pipe 30 on a plane and the tangent of the projection of the outer peripheral wall of the air outlet pipe 60 on the plane. Such a setting can not only avoid the refrigerant being directly rebounded into the air inlet pipe 30 after the impact and collision between the air inlet pipe 30 and the air outlet pipe 60 due to the distance between the air inlet pipe 30 and the air outlet pipe 60 being too small, but also prevent the refrigerant from falling before colliding with the pipe wall of the air outlet pipe 60 or the collision is incomplete.

[0039] Specifically, the value of h can be 1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm, 5 mm, 6 mm, 7 mm, 8 mm, 9 mm, 10 mm, etc. Of course, the value of h can also be selected within the range according to requirements.

[0040] See also Figure 1, along the radial direction of the cylinder 10, the outer diameter of the spiral guide plate 40 is d, and the inner diameter of the cylinder 10 is D, and the two satisfy 0.6D≤d≤D. In this way, the size of the spiral guide plate 40 in the radial direction of the cylinder 10 is ensured to be large enough to ensure its guiding effect on the refrigerant. When the diameter d of the spiral guide plate 40 is equal to the inner diameter D of the cylinder 10, the outer wall of the spiral guide plate 40 abuts against the inner wall of the cylinder 10, and the size of the spiral guide plate 40 is the largest.

[0041] See also Figure 2 , along the axis direction of the cylinder 10, the distance between the air inlet pipe 30 and the spiral guide plate 40 is H, the distance between the air inlet pipe 30 and the end of the air outlet pipe 60 away from the first connecting hole 11 is b, the diameter of the air inlet pipe 30 is a, and the range of H is: a / 2≤H<b. In this way, a / 2≤H can ensure that when the air in the air inlet pipe 30 enters the cylinder 10 from the pipe mouth, it will not be blocked because the distance between the pipe mouth and the spiral guide plate 40 is too close, and the spiral guide plate 40 will not be unable to play its role because the distance between the pipe mouth and the spiral guide plate 40 is too far.

[0042] Of course, in other embodiments, if the overall size of the oil separator 100 changes significantly, the shortest distance h between the end of the air inlet pipe 30 close to the axis of the cylinder 10 and the air outlet pipe 60, and the distance H between the air inlet pipe 30 and the spiral guide plate 40 are not limited to the above ranges, but should be flexibly adjusted according to work requirements.

[0043] The spiral guide plate 40 has at least one spiral turn, and one end of the spiral guide plate 40 close to the first connecting hole 11 is a head, and along the radial direction of the cylinder 10, the head is located on the back side of the guide surface 31. It should be explained that the direction facing the guide surface 31 is the front side of the guide surface 31, and the opposite direction is the back side of the guide surface 31. The head is located on the back side of the guide surface 31, which can ensure that the refrigerant will inevitably fall onto the spiral guide plate 40 after flowing out from the guide surface 31, so that the entire spiral guide plate 40 can be fully utilized, and the refrigerant will not directly fall onto the spiral guide plate 40 of the next layer or the bottom end of the cylinder 10.

[0044] The spiral guide plate 40 has at least one spiral turn to ensure the refrigerant guiding effect and gas-liquid separation effect. For example, in this embodiment, the spiral guide plate 40 has three spiral turns, and in other embodiments, it can also be set to two, four or five turns.

[0045] The oil separator 100 further includes a filter screen 50, one end of which is installed at the connection between the oil return pipe 20 and the cylinder 10, at least part of the filter screen 50 is located in the oil return pipe 20, and the filter screen 50 protrudes along the axial direction of the cylinder 10 in a direction away from the cylinder 10 to form a filter slot 51, and the opening of the filter slot 51 is oriented in a direction close to the cylinder 10. In this way, the filter screen 50 can filter impurities in the lubricating oil, prevent the impurities from entering the compressor through the oil return pipe 20, and reduce the service life of the compressor. In addition, the opening direction of the filter slot 51 is oriented in a direction close to the cylinder 10, that is, the lubricating oil will first enter the filter slot 51 through the opening of the filter slot 51. Affected by the structure of the filter screen 50, the filter screen 50 is not easy to deform under the pressure of the lubricating oil, and the filter screen 50 is prevented from being squeezed by the lubricating oil, resulting in the filter screen 50 being easily deformed toward the inside of the filter slot 51, thereby effectively ensuring the filtering area of ​​the filter screen 50 and improving the filtering effect of the filter screen 50.

[0046] Furthermore, along the axial direction of the cylinder 10 and along the direction from the cylinder 10 to the oil return pipe 20 , the inner diameter of the filter 50 tends to decrease, thereby improving the filtering effect of the filter 50 .

[0047] The present invention also provides an air conditioning system, comprising the oil separator 100 as described above.

[0048] Compared with the prior art, the present invention provides a spiral guide plate 40 so that after the refrigerant enters the cylinder 10, it can flow along the rotation direction of the spiral guide plate 40, thereby improving the oil-gas separation effect, and the guide surface 31 is tilted along the rotation direction of the spiral guide plate 40, so the refrigerant will enter the guide area of ​​the spiral guide plate 40 along the tilt direction of the guide surface 31, avoiding the occurrence of turbulence and the like, making the oil-gas separation efficiency higher. A filter screen 50 is also provided to prevent impurities from entering the compressor through the oil return pipe 20 and reducing the service life of the compressor.

[0049] The technical features of the above-described embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0050] The above-mentioned embodiments only express several implementation methods of the present invention, and the descriptions thereof are relatively specific and detailed, but they cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the invention patent. It should be pointed out that, for ordinary technicians in this field, several variations and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present invention, and these all belong to the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the patent of the present invention shall be subject to the attached claims.

Claims

1. An oil separator, characterized in that: The oil separator comprises: A cylinder (10), wherein a first communication hole (11) is formed at one end of the cylinder (10); an oil return pipe (20), one end of which is inserted into the first communicating hole (11) and connected to the cylinder (10) through the first communicating hole (11); an air intake pipe (30), one end of which is passed through the side wall of the cylinder (10) and extends into the cylinder (10); A spiral guide plate (40) is installed in the cylinder (10) and surrounds the axis of the cylinder (10) and spirally extends toward the first connecting hole (11); Wherein, along the axial direction of the cylinder (10), the spiral guide plate (40) is located between one end of the air inlet pipe (30) extending into the cylinder (10) and the first connecting hole (11).

2. The oil separator according to claim 1, characterized in that: A second communicating hole (12) is formed at one end of the cylinder (10) away from the first communicating hole (11); the oil separator further comprises an air outlet pipe (60); one end of the air outlet pipe (60) passes through the second communicating hole (12) and extends into the cylinder (10); the air outlet pipe (60) is connected to the cylinder (10) via the second communicating hole (12); The spiral guide plate (40) is wound around the outer circumference of the portion of the air outlet pipe (60) extending into the cylinder (10).

3. The oil separator according to claim 2, characterized in that: One end of the air inlet pipe (30) extending into the cylinder (10) has a guide surface (31), and the guide surface (31) is arranged to be inclined along the rotation direction of the spiral guide plate (40).

4. The oil separator according to claim 3, characterized in that: The oil return pipe (20) comprises at least a straight pipe section (21) connected to the first connecting hole (11); the straight pipe section (21), the air outlet pipe (60), and the cylinder (10) are coaxially arranged; and the axis of the air inlet pipe (30) and the axis of the air outlet pipe (60) are perpendicular to and intersect each other.

5. The oil separator according to claim 3, characterized in that: The shortest distance between the end of the air inlet pipe (30) close to the axis of the cylinder (10) and the air outlet pipe (60) is h, and the range of h is: 1mm≤h≤10mm.

6. The oil separator according to claim 2, characterized in that: Along the axial direction of the cylinder (10), the distance between the air inlet pipe (30) and the spiral guide plate (40) is H, the distance between the air inlet pipe (30) and an end of the air outlet pipe (60) away from the first connecting hole (11) is b, the diameter of the air inlet pipe (30) is a, and the range of H is: a / 2≤H<b.

7. The oil separator according to claim 1, characterized in that: Along the radial direction of the cylinder (10), the outer diameter of the spiral guide plate (40) is d, and the inner diameter of the cylinder (10) is D, and the two satisfy 0.6D≤d≤D.

8. The oil separator according to claim 3, characterized in that: The spiral guide plate (40) has at least one spiral turn, and one end of the spiral guide plate (40) close to the first connecting hole (11) is a head. Along the radial direction of the cylinder (10), the head is located on the back side of the guide surface (31).

9. The oil separator according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that: The oil separator further comprises a filter screen (50), one end of which is mounted at the connection between the oil return pipe (20) and the cylinder (10), at least a portion of the filter screen (50) is located in the oil return pipe (20), and the filter screen (50) protrudes along the axial direction of the cylinder (10) in a direction away from the cylinder (10) to form a filter groove (51), and the opening of the filter groove (51) is oriented in a direction close to the cylinder (10).

10. An air conditioning system, characterized in that: Comprising the oil separator as described in any one of claims 1-9.

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