Heat exchangers and air conditioning systems including such heat exchangers

Abstract

A heat exchanger including a pair of header pipes and a plurality of heat transfer tubes extending between and placing the header pipes in communication and extending in parallel to each other to form a parallel-flow type heat exchanger core. The heat exchanger core is bent, so that relative to a center portion of the core, at least one header pipe is offset in the direction of air flow across the heat exchanger. The offset disposition of a larger header pipe may be achieved without increasing a tube insertion length into the header pipe or the reduction or elimination of liquid storing and moisture reducing unit contained in the header pipe. Consequently, heat exchangers achieving enhanced performance may be realized at a lower cost than known heat exchangers. Moreover, methods of producing such heat exchangers may achieve higher productivity.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to heat exchangers, in particular, parallel-flow type heat exchangers, in which heat transfer tubes are disposed between a pair of header pipes in parallel to each other. More specifically, the invention relates to heat exchangers which are suitable for use as condensers of an air conditioning systems for vehicles, particularly, as a subcooling-type condensers. [0003] 2. Description of Related Art [0004] Parallel-flow type heat exchangers, in which heat transfer tubes are disposed between a pair of header pipes in parallel to each other, are known. In such heat exchangers, at least one header pipe requires a relatively large capacity, and a cross-sectional area of the header pipes is required to be greater than a width of each of heat transfer tube extending in parallel, i.e., a width of a heat transfer tube in a direction of air flow across a heat exchanger. For example, in a condenser...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010] Accordingly, a need has arisen to provide a parallel-flow type heat exchanger, in which a cross-sectional area of at least one header pipe is increased, which may employ an offset disposition of the header pipe in a direction of air flow across the heat exchanger without increasing the tube insertion length into the header pipe or a reduct

Problems solved by technology

In such heat exchangers 1, however, because the cross-sectional area of at least one header pipe, i.e., header pipe 3 including unit 11 with the above-described structure, must be enlarged, the following problems ma

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