Heat exchanger with highly flexible use

Abstract

A heat exchanger, comprising a box-like body which delimits inside it at least one heat exchange chamber and has at least one inlet and at least one outlet for the passage through the chamber of combustion products along a preferred path. The box-like body defines at least partly in its side walls at least one duct for feeding a fluid and inside the heat exchange chamber elements are provided and are associated with the supply duct in order to increase the thermal efficiency of the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger comprises a plurality of distinct modular elements which are mutually to interconnected in order to define the box-like body. Each modular element may comprise at least one portion of the heat exchange elements, of the supply duct and of the chamber.

Description

[0001]This application claims priority from European Patent Application No. 11425007, filed Jan. 17, 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a heat exchanger with highly flexible use.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Nowadays heat exchangers are known which are adopted in boilers designed to heat a fluid which is generally constituted by water or diathermic oil.[0004]Such heat exchangers are generally constituted by a monolithic box-like structure which is often made of aluminum and is such as to define inside it at least one heat exchange chamber that can be crossed by hot combustion gases.[0005]The duct for feeding the fluid to be heated, which by convection and conduction absorbs the heat carried by the combustion gases, is provided in the side walls of such box-like structure.[0006]In order to improve the thermal efficiency of such heat exchangers, it is known to provide inside the heat exchange chamber a plural...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015]The aim of the present invention is to provide a heat exchanger with highly flexible use which solves and overcomes, respectively, the above mentioned drawbacks and limitations of conventional heat exchangers.

[0016]Within this aim, an object of the present invention is to provide a heat exchanger with highly flexible use which, thanks to its particular constructive characteristics, is capable of giving the greatest assurances of reliability and safety in use.

Problems solved by technology

This last solution is such as to further increase the thermal efficiency of the exchanger but suffers the drawback that, in order to provide the hollow pins, such pins must have a large cross-section so as to allow circulation of the fluid to be heated inside them.

This fact leads to an increase in the dimensions of the voids between one pin and the next, thus allowing the combustion gases to pass through the heat exchange chamber without adequately flowing over the pins that are present inside it.

In practice, this increase in size does not allow optimum utilization of the heat of the combustion gases that circulate in the heat exchanger.

More specifically, this drawback is felt even more strongly when it is not possible to achieve economies of scale during manufacture, i.e., when the number of heat exchangers to be manufactured is limited to a few units and, especially, when the design specifications have particular nonstandard requirements.

Another drawback of conventional exchangers consists in that, since they are generally provided by means of a monolithic structure obtained by casting, the provision of the internal hollow pins is an operation which is difficult and expensive to perform.

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