Heat Exchanger Alignment Rib for Precise Plate Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing heat exchangers face challenges in maintaining accurate plate alignment during manufacturing, leading to deformation and misalignment, which affects their ability to meet tight positional tolerances and is exacerbated by methods like brazing, swaging, and laser tacking, limiting their use in space-constrained environments.
Innovation Solution
A heat exchanger design featuring an alignment rib with non-cylindrical protrusions that interference fit with openings in adjoining plates, reducing deformation by using lower fixation forces and enhancing alignment, allowing for precise assembly and brazing without significant distortion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If traditional manufacturing methods like brazing, swaging, or laser tacking are used to assemble heat exchanger plates, then the plates can be joined together, but plate misalignment and deformation occur, reducing manufacturing precision
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-forming protrusions on the heat exchanger plates before assembly. These protrusions are created during plate fabrication and serve as alignment features that guide plate positioning during assembly, ensuring accurate alignment before the actual joining process occurs. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for complex alignment procedures during assembly and prevents misalignment and deformation that would otherwise occur with traditional manufacturing methods.
2Manufacturing precision
If swaging or staking techniques are used to maintain plate alignment, then alignment is improved, but the parts deform prior to brazing, affecting braze quality and final part flatness
Solution Approach 1:
The protrusions are pre-formed on the plates during fabrication, establishing alignment features before any assembly or deformation-prone processes. This preliminary action allows plates to be aligned through the geometric fit of protrusions and recesses rather than through forceful deformation methods like swaging or staking, thereby maintaining part flatness and avoiding negative effects on subsequent brazing operations.
3Manufacturing precision
If braze pins are used during brazing to maintain alignment, then alignment is improved, but the parts expand during brazing, causing tolerance shifts and lower tolerances on features
Solution Approach 1:
The alignment protrusions are created during plate fabrication, well before the brazing process. This preliminary establishment of alignment features ensures that plates are precisely positioned before thermal expansion occurs during brazing. The protrusions and recesses create a mechanical constraint system that maintains alignment throughout the brazing process, preventing tolerance shifts that would otherwise occur due to thermal expansion and the need for braze pins.
4Manufacturing precision
If intersecting ridges are used to enhance plate alignment, then alignment is improved, but the vertical thickness of the heat exchanger increases, preventing use in space-constrained environments
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using comprehensive intersecting ridges across the entire plate surface, the patent applies alignment features locally through protrusions and recesses positioned at specific locations where alignment is critical. This localized approach provides sufficient alignment functionality while minimizing the vertical thickness increase, allowing the heat exchanger to fit in space-constrained environments unlike designs requiring full intersecting ridge structures.
Data Source
AI summary
A heat exchanger in a system and manufacturing method for the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger includes an alignment rib positioned in a stack of plates. The alignment rib includes multiple non-circular in cross-section protrusions that mate with openings in adjoining plates in the stack of plates.