Vertical oil separator

Abstract

A vertical oil separator for separating oil from a refrigerant gas and oil mixture on the high side of a refrigeration / chiller system comprising, a vertical housing having an upper chamber with a cylindrical sidewall and tangentially oriented inlet for the refrigerant gas and oil mixture, said upper chamber having a refrigerant gas outlet therefrom, said housing also having a lower chamber below the upper chamber with an oil outlet therefrom, a baffle constructed and arranged in said housing to define said upper and lower chamber, at least one oil filter in said upper chamber for removing oil out of the mixture and transferring such oil downwardly from the upper chamber.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates generally to the commercial and industrial refrigeration art. More particularly, the invention is directed to improvements in vertical oil separators for efficiently separating oil and refrigerant gas on the high side of a refrigeration system. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The maintenance of lubricating oil in a refrigeration system compressor is critical to its efficient operation and life span. Clearly the compressor is the principal driving force in any refrigeration or chiller system—it compresses refrigerant gas and discharges it on its high pressure side to a condenser in which the gas is condensed to a liquid phase, and thence it passes to an evaporator or like cooling coil through an expansion device reducing the refrigerant's pressure and permitting absorption of heat and expanding the liquid phase gas back to a gaseous phase on the low suction side of the compressor. All types of compressors—reciprocating, s...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention is a vertical oil separator for separating oil from a refrigerant gas and oil mixture in a refrigeration / chiller system. It includes an upper oil separation chamber with a cylindrical side wall and a tangentially oriented inlet for the refrigerant gas and oil mixture, a lower oil collection chamber below the upper chamber with an oil outlet, a baffle constructed and arranged in the housing between the upper and lower chambers, and a filter device in the upper chamber for entrapping oil out of the mixture and transferring such oil downwardly from the upper chamber past the baffle into the lower chamber. The invention provides an efficient oil-refrigerant separator section and a liquid oil reservoir section, and it is easily serviced and economic. The oil separation invention also includes an oil receiving mesh that accumulates and holds oil in liquid form without re-entrainment back into the refrigerant discharge vapor."

Problems solved by technology

It is clear that the lubricating oil serves no useful purpose outside the compressor.

Oil does not have as good heat transfer capability as the refrigerant and will reduce the efficiency of the condenser and evaporator functions.

Such oil separators, as discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,478,050; 4,506,523; 5,133,671; and 5,271,245, are known for separating oil from the high side refrigerant gas and oil mixture, but these and other prior oil separators are deficient in performance, cost, size, system complexity and other limiting factors.

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