Receiver Drier Cap Assembly for Compact Sealing and Filter Replacement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional caps for receiver driers are heavy, costly, and complex to manufacture due to their metal construction, with integrated body and filter designs that hinder part replacement and automation, and suffer from reduced filtering efficiency and thermal instability, leading to cap release.
Innovation Solution
A cap design where the cap body and filter are separated and detachably engaged, with an O-ring installed between them, allowing for easier part replacement and automation, reduced weight, improved filtering, and thermal stability through injection-molded synthetic resin materials and a tool insertion recess for automatic assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the cap body and filter are formed as one body using metal, then the cap has sufficient strength and durability, but the weight increases and manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cap is divided into two separate components: a cap body and a filter element. The filter element is inserted into the cap body, creating a modular structure. This segmentation allows the use of lighter materials while maintaining structural integrity and filtering functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses composite construction where the cap body is made of one material and the filter element is made of another material (typically paper or mesh). This combination provides the necessary strength from the cap body while the filter element contributes filtering capability without significant weight.
2Device complexity
If the cap body and filter are formed as one body, then the structure is simple, but when one component malfunctions the entire cap must be replaced
Solution Approach 1:
By separating the cap into a cap body and a removable filter element, the design enables selective replacement of only the filter element when it becomes clogged or damaged, rather than replacing the entire cap assembly. This improves maintainability while keeping the overall structure relatively simple.
3Reliability
If the O-ring is installed in a groove with smaller inside diameter than the body outside diameter, then the O-ring can be retained, but the O-ring installation becomes difficult and cannot be automated
Solution Approach 1:
The O-ring is pre-installed onto the filter element before the filter element is inserted into the cap body. This preliminary action allows the O-ring to be placed in a more accessible position, facilitating easier and more automated installation compared to trying to install it in a constrained groove after assembly.
Solution Approach 2:
The filter element acts as an intermediary carrier for the O-ring during assembly. The O-ring is first attached to the filter element, which then serves as a handling tool to position the O-ring correctly in the groove during the filtering element insertion process.
4Volume of moving object
If the cap is made compact, then the overall size is reduced, but the filter size must be reduced which degrades filtering effect
Solution Approach 1:
The filter element is nested within the cap body in a space-efficient manner. The filter element is positioned to utilize the internal volume of the cap body effectively, allowing a relatively large filter surface area to be contained within a compact overall cap dimension.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a cap for hermetically sealing receiver driers, in which a cap body and a filter are separated and detachably engaged with each other and an O-ring is installed between the cap body and the filter, thereby facilitating the replacement of parts and the installation of the O-ring, favoring automatic assembly due to a tool insertion groove that can be formed long, achieving compactness of the cap due to the reduction of a total height of the cap when the cap body and the filter are engaged, improving a filtering effect by increasing the size of the filter with the cap being maintained in the same size, and facilitating engagement between the cap body and the filter and preventing the cap body from being released from a tank by discharging the air between the cap body and the filter.