Compact Fan With Integrated Housing And Winglets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fans in vehicle cooling systems face challenges in achieving a compact design with reduced noise and increased efficiency, while integrating a protective grille.
Innovation Solution
A compact fan design incorporating a one-piece plastic housing with integrated inlet nozzle, cylindrical flow guide, guide vane, and diffuser, utilizing external rotor motors and profiled vanes with winglets to minimize noise and enhance efficiency, along with a small gap between impeller blades and the flow guide to reduce losses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a compact fan design is implemented with integrated housing components, then space utilization is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple housing components (inlet nozzle, cylindrical flow guide, guide vane, and diffuser) into a single integrated housing structure. This merging of components achieves a compact fan design while the use of injection molding technology enables efficient manufacturing of the complex integrated structure, resolving the contradiction between compactness and manufacturing ease.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated housing performs multiple functions simultaneously: it serves as the inlet nozzle, cylindrical flow guide, guide vane support, and diffuser structure. This multi-functionality reduces the overall fan volume while consolidating manufacturing into a single component process, addressing both compactness and manufacturing complexity.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If the gap between impeller blade tips and cylindrical flow guide is reduced, then noise generation is decreased, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The impeller and cylindrical flow guide are designed as an integrated assembly where the blade tip gap is minimized through precise injection molding. This integration allows the gap to be controlled during the molding process itself, achieving low noise operation without requiring post-manufacturing adjustments or extremely tight tolerances on separate components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes the gap parameter between impeller blade tips and the cylindrical flow guide to a specific small value that minimizes noise generation. Through injection molding technology, this optimal gap parameter is achieved with sufficient precision without requiring excessive manufacturing complexity, balancing noise reduction with manufacturability.
3Volume of moving object
If external rotor motors are used, then compact design is improved, but motor complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The external rotor motor design allows the rotor itself to serve as the motor housing, eliminating the need for a separate motor casing. This multi-functionality achieves compact dimensions while the modular design of the external rotor motor keeps the internal complexity manageable, resolving the contradiction between size and complexity.
4Productivity
If profiled vanes with winglets are implemented, then efficiency is increased, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies profiled vanes with winglets specifically at the blade tips and optimized curvature in critical flow regions, rather than complicating the entire vane structure. This localized application of complex geometry achieves efficiency improvements while keeping the overall device complexity manageable through injection molding capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes specific geometric parameters of the vanes including curvature radius, winglet angle, and profile shape to maximize efficiency. These parameter optimizations are achieved through injection molding technology that can produce complex curved surfaces, balancing efficiency gains with manufacturing feasibility.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution results in a more efficient and quieter fan operation by reducing noise generation and increasing static efficiency, with the compact design allowing for space-saving integration of the motor and protective grille, and improved performance through efficient fluid acceleration and velocity reduction.
Implementation Method 1
The inlet nozzle (1.1) of the housing has the task of accelerating the fluid from the suction-side space with as little loss as possible and has a special, narrowing contour in the flow direction for this purpose
Implementation Method 2
With their special profile, these guide vanes (1.3), which reduce the circumferential component of the outflow speed, contribute significantly to increasing the static efficiency of the fan
Implementation Method 3
The flow passes downstream of the impeller (2), deflected by the guide vanes (1.3), into the diffuser (1.5), i.e. into an expanding flow channel. The diffuser (1.5) reduces the axial component of the outflow velocity in particular, which contributes to a further increase in the efficiency
Implementation Method 4
which are provided in the region of the radially outer edge with flow elements, which are designed as flow obstacles for a running around this radially outer edge from the pressure side to the suction side compensating flow
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
The invention relates to an energy-efficient fan for use, in particular, in air conditioning and refrigeration technology, comprising a housing (1), an impeller (2), a drive motor (5), and a protective grille (3). The housing (1) is made of plastic in one piece and consists mainly of an inlet nozzle (1.1) that narrows in the direction of flow, a cylindrical flow guide (1.2), a diffuser-like extension (1.5), guide vanes (1.3) at the hub end of which a motor mount (1.4) is attached, a device for attaching the protective grille (3), and a device for attaching the housing (1) to a suitable device or building. The impeller (2) is rotatably mounted about a central axis and consists of a central hub with blades attached to it, which are provided with flow elements (winglets) in the region of their radial outer edge.The drive motor (5) is an external rotor motor, which is designed either as a three-phase asynchronous motor (AC motor) or as an electronically commutated direct current motor (EC motor).