Sealing member for air conditioner

Abstract

To prevent troubles in connection operation and airtightness of connection pipes even when a seal member for air conditioning is mounted in a reverse direction.SOLUTION: A second connection pipe 20 is fitted into the outer periphery of a first connection pipe 10 in an air conditioning facility 1. An annular seal member 30 for air conditioning is provided between the connection pipes 10, 20. A cylindrical base part 31 of the seal member 30 is fixed to the outer periphery of the first connection pipe 10. Three or more annular pleat parts 32, 32, 33 protrude radially outward from the base part 31. Among these pleat parts, the pleat parts 32 at both ends in an axial direction have lower axial inward deformation resistance than axial outward deformation resistance.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a seal member used to ensure airtightness in air conditioning equipment for temperature control, humidity control, ventilation, etc. of buildings, and particularly to an air conditioning seal member for sealing between connecting pipes in air conditioning members such as air conditioning ducts and air conditioning chambers.

Background Art

[0002] As a connection structure between two air conditioning members such as air conditioning ducts and air conditioning chambers in building air conditioning equipment, it is known to provide connecting pipes at the ends of these air conditioning members respectively, and to fit these two connecting pipes together to form a double pipe (see Patent Documents 1, 2, etc.). An annular seal member is provided in the annular gap between the two connecting pipes. The seal member of Patent Document 1 is provided with pleats at one axial end and the central part of the cylindrical base. The base is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the inner connecting pipe. Each pleat rises so as to incline toward the other axial end side from the outer periphery of the base in the radial direction, and bends halfway and extends straight in the radial direction outward.

[0003] The outer connecting pipe is fitted onto the outer periphery of the inner connecting pipe from the outside of the one axial end, so that a seal member is interposed between these connecting pipes. During the fitting operation of the outer connecting pipe, the pleat is tilted forward in the fitting direction of the outer connecting pipe. Since the rising part of the pleat is inclined forward in the fitting direction, it easily falls. As a result, the resistance received from the seal member during the fitting operation is reduced.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Patent Document 2

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] When attaching the sealing member of the aforementioned Patent Document 1 to the inner connecting pipe, there may be a case where the attachment direction is mistaken and reversed. If so, when fitting the outer connecting pipe into the inner connecting pipe, it is necessary to tilt the rising part of the pleat part in the direction opposite to the tilting direction, which makes it difficult to fit. If forced to fit, the entire sealing member may be pushed and displaced, and there is also a risk of coming off from the inner connecting pipe. In addition, there is also a risk of affecting the airtightness. In view of such circumstances, an object of the present invention is to ensure that even if the sealing member for air conditioning is attached in the reverse direction, the connection operation between the connecting pipes and the airtightness are not impaired.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is an annular sealing member for air conditioning that airtightly seals between a first connecting pipe in air conditioning equipment and a second connecting pipe fitted on the outer periphery of the first connecting pipe, It has a cylindrical base portion attached to the outer periphery of the first connecting pipe, and three or more annular pleat portions protruding radially outward from the base portion and separated from each other in the axial direction. Among these pleat portions, the pleat portions at both ends in the axial direction are characterized in that the deformation resistance in the inner side of the axial direction is lower than the deformation resistance in the outer side of the axial direction.

[0007] According to the sealing member, even if it is attached to the first connecting pipe in the reverse direction, when fitting the second connecting pipe on the outer periphery, the pleat portion that first contacts the second connecting pipe is deformed so as to fall down with low resistance in the front (inner side in the axial direction) of the fitting direction. Therefore, the second connecting pipe can be easily and surely fitted to around the middle in the axial direction of the sealing member. For the second connecting pipe to cross the last pleat portion in the fitting direction, it is necessary to tilt the pleat portion toward the high-resistance side (the outer side in the axial direction, the front in the fitting direction). At this stage, since the portion of the sealing member up to around the middle in the axial direction is sandwiched between the second connecting pipe and the first connecting pipe, even if the second connecting pipe is strongly pushed in, the risk of the sealing member coming off is small. As a result, regardless of the mounting orientation of the sealing member, or even if the sealing member is mounted in the reverse direction, the second connecting pipe can be securely fitted around the outer periphery of the first connecting pipe with the sealing member in between without any trouble. Furthermore, regardless of the mounting orientation of the sealing member, or even if the sealing member is mounted in the reverse direction, the airtightness between the first connecting pipe and the second connecting pipe can be ensured. In particular, since the sealing member has three or more pleat portions, the airtightness can be enhanced compared to the case where there are only two pleat portions (such as in Patent Documents 1 and 2 cited above).

[0008] It is preferable that the cross-sectional shape orthogonal to the circumferential direction is symmetric with respect to the center line orthogonal to the axial direction. As a result, it is possible to reliably alleviate or eliminate the difference in the ease of fitting and airtightness of the second connecting pipe depending on the orientation of the sealing member.

[0009] It is preferable that the pleat portions at both ends in the axial direction include inclined rising portions inclined in directions approaching each other from the base portion. As a result, regardless of the orientation of the sealing member, the pleat portion that first contacts when fitting the second connecting pipe can be easily tilted forward in the fitting direction along the axial direction, facilitating the fitting of the second connecting pipe. Also, even if the second connecting pipe is strongly pushed in to cross the last pleat portion in the fitting direction, the risk of the sealing member coming off can be reduced.

Advantages of the Invention

[0010] According to the present invention, regardless of the mounting direction of the sealing member for air conditioning, or even if the sealing member is mounted in the reverse direction, the second connecting pipe can be fitted around the outer periphery of the first connecting pipe via the sealing member without any trouble, and the airtightness between the first connecting pipe and the second connecting pipe can be ensured.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0011]

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0012] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, an air conditioning facility 1 is provided in a building. The building may be a single-family house, a condominium, a commercial building, or a factory. The air conditioning facility 1 includes, as air conditioning members, for example, an air conditioning chamber 2 (first air conditioning member) for distribution and an air conditioning duct 3 (second air conditioning member) made of a flexible duct. These air conditioning members 2 and 3 are connected via a connection structure 4. The connection structure 4 includes a first connection pipe 10 provided on the peripheral wall of the air conditioning chamber 2 and a second connection pipe 20 provided at the tip of the air conditioning duct 3.

[0013] As shown in FIG. 6, the connection structure 4 in the connected state has a double-tube structure by fitting the second connection tube 20 onto the outer periphery of the first connection tube 10. An annular gap 4d is defined between these inner and outer connection tubes 10 and 20. The annular gap 4d is hermetically sealed by an annular air-conditioning seal member 30. An annular accommodation recess 15 for the seal member 30 is formed in the first connection tube 10 so as to recess from the outer peripheral surface.

[0014] The material of the seal member 30 is an elastic material such as synthetic rubber, elastomer, synthetic resin, or the like that is difficult to permeate gas. As shown in FIG. 2, the seal member 30 has a base portion 31 and three pleat portions 32, 32, and 33. The base portion 31 is formed in a relatively thick cylindrical shape. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the base portion 31 is attached to the outer periphery of the first connection tube 10 by being accommodated in the seal accommodation recess 15. Both axial end faces 31e of the base portion 31 are rounded so that the cross section is arcuate.

[0015] As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the three pleat portions 32, 32, and 33 are each formed in an annular shape over the entire circumference of the base portion 31 and project radially outward (upward in FIG. 2) from the base portion 31. The three pleat portions 32, 32, and 33 are separated from each other in the axial direction (left and right in FIG. 2) of the base portion 31. Specifically, bent pleat portions 32, 32 are provided at both axial ends of the base portion 31, and an upright pleat portion 33 is provided at the central portion in the axial direction of the base portion 31.

[0016] As shown in FIG. 2, each of the pleat portions 32 at both ends has an inclined rising portion 34, a bent portion 32c, and an upright portion 35. The inclined rising portion 34 rises radially outward from the outer peripheral surface of the base portion 31 and is inclined inward in the axial direction. Therefore, the inclined rising portions 34, 34 of the pleat portions 32, 32 at both ends are inclined in a direction approaching each other. The outer surface 34a of the inclined rising portion 34 is smoothly continuous with the arcuate end face 31e of the base portion 31. The inner surface 34b of the inclined rising portion 34 intersects the outer peripheral surface 31a of the base portion 31 at an acute angle.

[0017] As shown in Fig. 2, each pleat portion 32 is bent at the intermediate portion in the radial direction, and a bent portion 32c is formed. Through the bent portion 32c, the inclined rising portion 34 and the upright portion 35 are continuous. The upright portion 35 extends straight from the bent portion 32c to the outside in the radial direction (upward in Fig. 2) and is orthogonal to the axial direction of the base portion 31.

[0018] Due to the cross-sectional shape of each of the bent pleat portions 32 at both ends, the deformation resistance in the axial inner direction is lower than the deformation resistance in the axial outer direction. That is, the pleat portion 32 is likely to fall toward the upright pleat portion 33 side (the inner side in the axial direction), and is less likely to fall toward the side opposite to the upright pleat portion 33 (the outer side in the axial direction).

[0019] The central upright pleat portion 33 extends straight from the base portion 31 to the outside in the radial direction (upward in Fig. 2) and is orthogonal to the axial direction of the base portion 31. The upright pleat portion 33 is thicker than the bent pleat portions 32 at both ends. Also, the upright pleat portion 33 protrudes higher to the outside in the radial direction than the bent pleat portions 32 at both ends. The deformation resistance when the upright pleat portion 33 is tilted to one side in the axial direction (for example, the left side in Fig. 2) and the deformation resistance when it is tilted to the other side in the axial direction (for example, the right side in Fig. 2) are substantially the same.

[0020] As shown in Fig. 2, preferably, the cross-sectional shape orthogonal to the circumferential direction of the seal member 30 is symmetric with respect to the center line CL 30 orthogonal to the axial direction. For this reason, even when the axial direction of the seal member 30 is reversed by 180°, the cross-sectional shape in the connection structure 4 (Fig. 6) is the same and it exhibits the same function. Therefore, when attaching the seal member 30 to the first connecting pipe 10, there is no need to consider the axial direction of the seal member 30. Of the bent pleat portions 32, 32 at both ends of the seal member 30, either one can be directed toward the tip side of the first connecting pipe 10 (the right side in Fig. 3) and either one can be directed toward the air-conditioning chamber 2 side (the left side in Fig. 3). This can facilitate the assembly of the first connecting pipe 10 during the manufacture of the air-conditioning chamber 2. Alternatively, even if the seal member 30 is attached to the first connecting pipe 10 after being reversed by 180° with respect to its original orientation, no problem will occur thereby.

[0021] At the construction site of the air conditioning equipment 1 of the building, the air conditioning members 2 and 3 are connected as follows. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the second connecting pipe 20 is axially aligned with the first connecting pipe 10 and then fitted onto the outer periphery of the first connecting pipe 10. Then, as shown in FIG. 4, the pipe opening portion 21 of the second connecting pipe 20 abuts against the bending fold portion 32A on the frontmost side (right side in FIG. 4) along the fitting direction in the sealing member 30, and deforms the fold portion 32A so as to push it down forward (left side in FIG. 4, inner side in the axial direction) in the fitting direction. Since the bending fold portion 32 has low deformation resistance in the inner side in the axial direction, the bending fold portion 32A can be easily pushed down. In the figure, although the pipe opening portion 21 is expanded, it may be straight without being expanded.

[0022] As shown in FIG. 5, when the second connecting pipe 20 is fitted to around the middle in the axial direction of the sealing member 30, the pipe opening portion 21 abuts against the upright fold portion 33, and deforms the upright fold portion 33 so as to push it down forward (left side in FIG. 6) in the fitting direction.

[0023] Furthermore, the pipe opening portion 21 abuts against the bending fold portion 32B on the rearmost side (left side in FIG. 6) along the fitting direction via the fallen upright fold portion 33 or directly, and pushes the bending fold portion 32B forward (left side in FIG. 5), that is, outward in the axial direction. The bending fold portion 32 has high deformation resistance outward in the axial direction and is difficult to deform.

[0024] As shown in FIG. 6, the second connecting pipe 20 is strongly pushed forward (left side in FIG. 6) in the fitting direction with a force exceeding the deformation resistance outward in the axial direction. As a result, the pipe opening portion 21 rides over the bending fold portion 32B while deforming the bending fold portion 32B and reaches the specified fitting position. Immediately before the pressing step, a portion from the rear end (right in FIG. 6) in the fitting direction in the axial direction of the seal member 30 to around the middle is sandwiched between the second connection pipe 20 and the first connection pipe 10. Therefore, even if the second connection pipe 20 is strongly pressed in, the seal member 30 can be prevented from coming off from the predetermined position on the first connection pipe 10, that is, from inside the seal housing recess 15. As a result, the second connection pipe 20 can be fitted to the specified fitting position without any trouble. As described above, the seal member 30 has a cross-sectional shape symmetric about the center line CL 30 Therefore, regardless of the mounting direction of the seal member 30, or even if the seal member 30 is mounted in the reverse direction, the second connection pipe 20 can be surely fitted by sandwiching the seal member 30 around the outer periphery of the first connection pipe 10 without any trouble.

[0025] The air conditioning members 2 and 3 are connected via the connection pipes 10 and 20 thus fitted together. And, by interposing the seal member 30 in the annular gap 4d between the connection pipes 10 and 20, the airtightness of the connection portion can be ensured. As described above, the seal member 30 has a cross-sectional shape symmetric about the center line CL 30 Therefore, regardless of the mounting direction of the seal member 30, or even if the seal member 30 is mounted in the reverse direction, the airtightness is not affected.

[0026] In addition, since the seal member 30 has three pleat portions 32, 32, and 33, the airtightness can be enhanced as compared with the case where there are only two pleat portions (such as in Patent Documents 1 and 2 cited above). The inventors measured the leakage amounts of a seal member 30 having a cross-sectional shape with three pleat portions (FIG. 2) and a seal member in which one of the bent pleat portions 32 was omitted to have two pleat portions (comparative example) in the internal pressure range of 100 Pa to 2000 Pa (gauge pressure). As a result, the leakage amount of the comparative example was less than 1 / 5 of the pass / fail reference value, whereas the leakage amount of the seal member 30 was less than 1 / 6 of the pass / fail reference value, and it was confirmed that the airtightness was enhanced according to the product of the present invention.

[0027] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit thereof. For example, the number of pleats may be three or more, not limited to three, and may be four or more. Among three or more pleats, the intermediate pleats other than both axial ends may be upright pleats 33 or bent pleats 32. When the number of pleats is odd, it is preferable that the central pleat is an upright pleat 33. The seal member only needs to have lower deformation resistance in the axial inner direction than in the axial outer direction at the pleats at both axial ends, and the cross-sectional shape does not necessarily have to be symmetric with respect to the center line CL 30 and may not be symmetric. The two air-conditioning members to be connected are not limited to the air-conditioning chamber 2 and the air-conditioning duct 3, and may be two air-conditioning ducts, an air-conditioning duct and an outlet member, an air-conditioning duct and a ventilation port member, an air conditioner (air conditioner) and an air-conditioning duct, etc. The air-conditioning chamber is not limited to the distribution chamber, and may be a mixing chamber that mixes air-conditioning air and outside air.

Industrial Applicability

[0028] The present invention can be applied to, for example, the seal structure of the connection part of an air-conditioning chamber or an air-conditioning duct.

Explanation of Signs

[0029] 1 Air-conditioning equipment 2 Air-conditioning chamber (first air-conditioning member) 3 Air-conditioning duct (second air-conditioning member) 4 Connection structure 4d Annular gap 10 First connection pipe 15 Annular seal accommodation recess 20 Second connection pipe 21 Pipe orifice part 30 Air-conditioning seal member CL 30 Center line orthogonal to the axial direction 31 Base 31a Outer peripheral surface 31e Axial end face 32 Bent fold part (fold part) 32A Front fold part along the insertion direction 32B Rear fold part along the insertion direction 32c Bending part 33 Upright fold part (fold part) 34 Inclined rising part 34a Outer surface 34b Inner surface 35 Upright part

Claims

1. An annular air-conditioning sealing member for hermetically sealing between a first connecting pipe in an air-conditioning apparatus and a second connecting pipe fitted around the outer periphery of the first connecting pipe, having a cylindrical base portion attached to the outer periphery of the first connecting pipe, and three or more annular corrugated portions protruding radially outward from the base portion and spaced apart from each other in the axial direction of the base portion. Among these corrugated portions, the corrugated portions at both axial ends have a lower deformation resistance in the inner direction of the axial direction than in the outer direction of the axial direction. The air-conditioning sealing member is characterized in that the corrugated portions at both axial ends include inclined rising portions inclined so as to approach each other radially outward from the base portion, and straight portions continuous with the tips of the inclined rising portions via bent portions and extending radially outward so as to be orthogonal to the axial direction.

2. The air-conditioning sealing member according to claim 1, wherein a cross-sectional shape orthogonal to the circumferential direction is symmetric with respect to a center line orthogonal to the axial direction.

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