Expansion Valve Layout for Compact Size and Lower Refrigerant Noise
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Solution Overview
Problem
The reduction in size of air conditioning devices has made it challenging to maintain installation space for expansion valves, and the use of expensive materials, while larger bubble diameters in refrigerant cause noise issues due to bubble entrainment and breakage within the valve chamber.
Innovation Solution
The expansion valve design features a plug mounted to an upper position, reducing vertical size, and incorporates a coil spring with closely spaced coil wires to minimize bubble size and noise by breaking bubbles into finer sizes, without increasing component count.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of stationary object
If the expansion valve is reduced in size to save installation space and reduce material cost, then the valve body becomes more compact and cost-effective, but it becomes more challenging to maintain adequate installation space and may affect performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent repositions the plug from the bottom surface to the upper surface of the valve body, utilizing the vertical dimension differently. This dimensional reconfiguration allows the valve body to be reduced in overall size while maintaining functional requirements and installation space availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The plug position is inverted from the conventional bottom-mounted configuration to an upper-mounted configuration. This inversion resolves the contradiction by enabling compact valve body design while preserving installation flexibility and performance.
2Quantity of substance
If the liquid refrigerant passes through the valve chamber with larger bubble diameters, then the refrigerant flow is maintained, but noise occurs when the bubbles break within the valve chamber
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameter of bubble diameter by introducing a mechanism that breaks large bubbles into smaller bubbles before they enter the valve chamber. This parameter change reduces the noise generated during bubble breakage while maintaining refrigerant flow quantity.
Solution Approach 2:
The bubble breaking action is performed preliminarily before the refrigerant enters the valve chamber. By pre-breaking the bubbles in the refrigerant passage, the harmful noise-generating large bubbles are eliminated before they can cause noise in the valve chamber, while the refrigerant flow is preserved.
3Reliability
If expensive materials are used for the valve body, then the manufacturing quality and durability are improved, but the material cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the design parameters of the valve body, including wall thickness and structural configuration, to achieve adequate durability with reduced material usage. This allows the use of less expensive materials or reduced material quantities while maintaining reliability standards.
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
This configuration reduces the vertical and lateral size of the valve body, decreases material usage and cost, and significantly lowers refrigerant passing noise by minimizing bubble size and noise production upon breakage.
Implementation Method 1
bubbles in the liquid refrigerant are reduced to a finer size by the coil wires of the coil spring when the liquid refrigerant passes through the coil spring
Implementation Method 2
heat of the gas phase refrigerant flowing through the second passage 34 is transferred via the valve member driving rod 36f located in the second passage 34 and the pressure equalizing hole 36e and the diaphragm 36a
Implementation Method 3
The diaphragm driving fluid in the upper pressure operating chamber 36b is gasified by the transferred heat, and a pressure of the gas is applied to an upper surface of the diaphragm 36a
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
In an expansion valve, in a first passage 12 through which a high pressure liquid refrigerant flows, an inlet port 321 includes a large diameter passage portion 13 formed from one side surface to the other side surface of a valve body 30, and a small diameter passage portion 14 that provides communication between the large diameter passage portion 13 on the bottom end thereof and a valve chamber 15. A coil spring 20 provided in the valve chamber 15 biases a valve member 32b toward a valve hole 32a. An O ring 19 that seals between a plug 17 that supports a lower end of the coil spring 20 and the valve body 30 is located below the small diameter passage portion 14 and placed on the opposite side of the bottom end of the large diameter passage 13. Thus, the plug 17 that closes an opening of the valve chamber 15 can be mounted to an upper position, thereby reducing a vertical size of the valve body 30 to further reduce a size of the valve body, and reducing an amount of use of metal materials for the valve body to reduce weight and cost.