Jacket Plate Corner Deformation for Heat Exchanger Brazing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing water-cooled charge air coolers (WCACs) face challenges in sealing the liquid side, particularly where the jacket joins the core plates, leading to inefficiencies in fluid containment and brazing processes.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves deforming jacket plates to match the geometry of adjacent components, allowing for a fluid-tight joint through brazing without additional material, using inwardly and outwardly folded flaps and end tongues that are brazed to core and side plates, creating a recess at the corner to reduce curvature and enhance brazeability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional jacket plates are used with standard geometry, then manufacturing is simpler, but brazing quality and fluid-tight sealing are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The jacket plate corners are pre-deformed during manufacturing to match the geometry of adjacent components before brazing. This preliminary geometric preparation ensures proper fit and brazeability during assembly, eliminating the need for complex adjustments during the brazing process itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The deformation is applied locally only to the corner regions of the jacket plates where they join with core and side plates, while the rest of the plate maintains its standard geometry. This localized modification improves brazing quality at critical joints without significantly increasing overall manufacturing complexity.
2Ease of manufacture
If jacket plates are deformed to match adjacent component geometry, then brazing becomes easier and more reliable, but manufacturing process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The corner deformation of jacket plates is performed as a preliminary manufacturing step before assembly. This advance preparation simplifies the brazing operation by ensuring proper geometric matching, while the deformation process itself can be integrated into existing plate forming operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The geometric parameters of the jacket plate corners are modified through controlled deformation to match the adjacent components. This parameter change optimizes the fit and brazeability without fundamentally altering the manufacturing process flow.
3Reliability
If additional material is added to achieve fluid-tight joints, then sealing reliability improves, but device complexity and material usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of adding material to achieve sealing, the solution inverts the approach by deforming the existing jacket plate material to match the geometry of adjacent components. This geometric adaptation achieves fluid-tight joints without adding extra material or structural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The corner geometry parameters of the jacket plates are changed through deformation to create proper sealing surfaces. This parameter modification achieves reliable sealing by matching geometries rather than by adding material layers or complex sealing structures.
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 approach ensures a reliable, fluid-tight seal and improved brazeability, enhancing the sealing efficiency of the liquid side in WCACs and applicable to various heat exchangers, reducing the need for extra material and improving the structural integrity of the joint.
Implementation Method 1
The area of the jacket plate at a corner between the folded flap and the jacket plate is deformed to form a recess into the jacket plate, and an outer side of the jacket plate corner is deformed to reduce the curvature radius of the jacket plate corner
Implementation Method 2
allowing for an easy brazing of the three components (jacket plate, side plate and core plate) without the need for addition of material
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
A fluid-tight joint (50) for a heat exchanger comprising a first plate (11, 21) through which a slot (11a, 11b, 21a, 21b) is formed, a second plate (43, 44) having an end (43a, 43b, 44a, 44b) inserted in a fluid-tight manner into the slot and brazed to the first plate (11, 21), and a third plate (41a, 41b, 42a, 42b) comprising a folded flap (41c, 41d, 42c, 42d), wherein the third plate (41a, 41b, 42a, 42b) is overlapping with, and is brazed to the second plate (43, 44), and the flap (41c, 41d, 42c, 42d) is overlapping with, and is brazed to the first plate (11, 21),, wherein an area of the third plate (41a, 41b, 42a, 42b) at a corner between the folded flap (41c, 41d, 42c, 42d) and the third plate (41a, 41b, 42a, 42b), hereinafter third plate corner, is deformed to form a recess (51) into the thickness of the third plate (41a, 41b, 42a, 42b), and wherein an outer side of the third plate corner is deformed to match a corner between the second plate (43, 44) and the first plate (11, 21).