Modular Heat Pump System Design to Reduce Assembly Complexity
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing heat pump systems for the domestic sector face significant challenges in offering a wide variety of models with minimal effort in design, packaging, and assembly, leading to high manufacturing and service costs due to individual assembly and complex configurations.
Innovation Solution
A modular heat pump system comprising multiple module types (refrigeration circuit, hydraulic, and hot water modules) with interchangeable components and standardized connections, allowing for various configurations and performance variants to be easily assembled and combined, reducing production time and costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If heat pump systems are manufactured with individual assembly and complex configurations to offer a wide variety of models, then design diversity and customer customization are improved, but manufacturing effort, packaging complexity, and assembly time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The heat pump system is divided into modular components (compressor module, evaporator module, condenser module, control module) that can be independently manufactured and then assembled. This segmentation allows standardization of each module while enabling flexible combinations to create diverse system configurations, thereby reducing overall assembly complexity and manufacturing effort.
2Adaptability or versatility
If heat pump systems are manufactured with individual assembly and complex configurations to offer a wide variety of models, then design diversity and customer customization are improved, but packaging effort and service complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the system into standardized modules, each module can be packaged separately in uniform containers. This reduces packaging complexity compared to custom-packaging entire assembled systems, while still allowing diverse configurations to be created from the same set of packaged modules.
3Productivity
If heat pump systems use modular design with standardized connections, then manufacturing effort and assembly time are reduced, but the ability to offer diverse configurations may be limited
Solution Approach 1:
The modular components are designed with universal interfaces and standardized connections that can accommodate multiple configuration types. For example, the compressor module can be universally connected to different evaporator and condenser modules, allowing rapid assembly of various system configurations while maintaining assembly efficiency.
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 modular design significantly reduces manufacturing and assembly efforts, enables quick production and delivery, and allows for compact warehousing, while providing a high degree of design diversity with minimal component variations, thus lowering costs and enhancing customer customization.
Implementation Method 1
heat is removed from the ambient air and transferred to a refrigerant, which is conducted in a refrigerant circuit in a manner known per se and brought to a higher temperature level
Implementation Method 2
the heat pump system comprises a refrigeration circuit module (8), a hydraulic module (10) and a hot water module (12)
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3A~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
The invention relates to a modular heat pump system, which has, as module types, a refrigeration circuit module (8), a hydraulic module (10), a hot water module (12), and optionally a heat source module (22), in particular for a split installation. For each module type, a plurality of module variants, in particular of different power classes, can be assembled by suitably combining the individual components. By combining the module types (8, 10, 12, 22), different module variants and different heat pump types or heat pumps of the same type having different power can be assembled in a simple manner. The planning complexity and production complexity are kept low by this modular design.