Heat Exchanger Fin Bending Using Starting Holes for Precision
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional heat exchangers face challenges in achieving high accuracy in dimension and angle due to unstable bending positions of fins, leading to low precision in manufacturing.
Innovation Solution
The heat exchanger design incorporates starting holes with vertex portions that guide the bending of fins, ensuring stable bending by opening cuts from these holes, thereby determining the bending position and maintaining high accuracy in dimensions and angles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If cuts with rectangular tips are formed in fins to bend them, then the fins can be bent to fit limited space, but the bending positions become unstable and manufacturing accuracy decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by forming starting holes with vertex portions at predetermined locations on the fins before the bending process. These vertex portions serve as pre-determined bending start points, ensuring that when cuts are subsequently formed and the fins are bent, the bending occurs at consistent, accurate positions. This preliminary placement of geometric features (vertex portions) enables both space utilization through bending and maintains manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The starting holes with vertex portions act as intermediaries between the cutting process and the bending process. The vertex portions provide a reference feature that mediates the relationship between cut positioning and bending initiation, ensuring that even if cut positions vary slightly, the bending will consistently start at the vertex portion location, thereby maintaining manufacturing accuracy while achieving the required space utilization.
2Volume of moving object
If fins are bent to accommodate limited inner space, then the heat exchanger fits the housing, but the accuracy of dimensions and angles of the heat exchanger becomes low
Solution Approach 1:
The starting holes with vertex portions are formed in advance as reference features that determine the exact bending start positions. This preliminary action ensures that when the fins are bent to achieve compact heat exchanger dimensions, the bending occurs at precise, predetermined locations, maintaining dimensional accuracy while achieving the required compactness for housing installation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the geometric parameter of the fin structure by introducing starting holes with specific vertex portions. This parameter change creates a new reference feature that controls the bending process, allowing the fins to be bent into compact configurations while maintaining precise control over the final dimensions and angles of the heat exchanger.
3Ease of manufacture
If cuts are made in fins to enable bending, then the fins can be shaped, but variations in cut positions and depths lead to unstable bending
Solution Approach 1:
The starting holes with vertex portions serve as intermediaries that decouple the cutting process from the bending position determination. The vertex portions provide a stable reference that is independent of cut position variations, allowing cuts to be made with varying positions and depths while still achieving stable, consistent bending at the vertex portion locations.
Solution Approach 2:
The starting holes are formed as preliminary features before cutting, establishing fixed reference points (vertex portions) that will determine bending positions. This preliminary action ensures that subsequent cutting operations, even with position or depth variations, will result in stable bending at the pre-determined vertex locations, improving both manufacturability and reliability.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
A heat exchanger includes a plurality of plate-shaped fins disposed at intervals, and a plurality of heat transfer tubes disposed to be inserted into through holes of the fins in a direction perpendicular to the fins. In each of the fins, a starting hole is formed between adjacent through holes, and the starting hole serves as a start point of bending of the fins and has a vertex portion at a bending portion of each fin which is close to an edge thereof. In each of the fins, a cut is made to connect the other edge of the fin and a side of the starting hole which is located opposite to the vertex portion of the starting hole. The above each fin is bent at the vertex portion of the starting hole, by opening the cut from the starting hole.