Scroll Compressor Axial Guide Support Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Compressors in automotive technology require lightweight and compact designs, but existing solutions face challenges in providing optimal support and lubrication to prevent wear and ensure efficient operation.
Innovation Solution
The axial guide supports the compressor body base with a sliding body that is movable between the axial support face and a carrier element, allowing for two-dimensional movement and lubrication, utilizing guidance with play and micro-recesses to maintain a lubricant film, and coupling elements to prevent free rotation, using materials like cast steel, aluminum alloys, and spring steel for enhanced performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a sliding body is introduced between the axial support face and carrier element, then lubrication is improved and wear is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A sliding body is introduced as an intermediary element between the axial support face of the compressor body base and the carrier element. This sliding body carries a guide pin that moves within a guide recess in the axial guide, creating an intermediate lubricated contact surface that reduces wear on the primary support surfaces while enabling controlled transverse movement.
Solution Approach 2:
The sliding body is made from porous material that can absorb and retain lubricant. This porous structure allows the sliding body to store lubricant within its matrix and release it during operation, ensuring continuous lubrication of the contact surfaces between the sliding body and both the axial support face and carrier element, thereby reducing wear without requiring complex external lubrication systems.
2Reliability
If the sliding body is made movable in two dimensions, then lubrication is optimized, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The sliding body is designed with dynamic movement capabilities in two dimensions (transverse to the center axis) rather than being fixed in a single position. This dynamic design allows the sliding body to adapt its position during compressor operation, optimizing lubricant distribution across the contact surfaces while accommodating manufacturing tolerances through controlled movement rather than requiring extremely tight fixed-position tolerances.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide recess in the axial guide is designed with specific dimensional relationships (width and depth ratios) that create a controlled movement path for the guide pin. This dimensional design allows the sliding body to move in a controlled orbital pattern with a guiding orbital radius that is a fraction (0.01 to 0.5) of the compressor orbital radius, transforming a potentially uncontrolled two-dimensional movement into a controlled orbital motion that optimizes lubrication while maintaining manufacturability.
3Ease of manufacture
If guidance with play is used for the sliding body, then ease of manufacture is improved, but positioning precision decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide pin and guide recess combination serves multiple functions: it provides mechanical guidance for the sliding body, allows controlled movement with play for ease of assembly, and creates an orbital motion pattern that optimizes lubrication. The guide recess dimensions are specifically designed (width 1.5 to 5 times the guide pin diameter, depth 0.1 to 0.5 times the width) to simultaneously achieve all these functions, making the same structural element universal for multiple requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The guidance system uses controlled play (clearance) between the guide pin and guide recess rather than tight interference fits. The specific dimensional parameters (guide recess width and depth ratios) are optimized to transform the potentially harmful play into a beneficial orbital movement that enhances lubrication. This parameter optimization allows easy assembly with standard tolerances while maintaining sufficient positioning accuracy for compressor operation.
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 configuration achieves reduced wear, improved lubrication, and efficient operation by providing optimal support and lubrication, ensuring the compressor body moves smoothly and quietly while maintaining structural integrity and longevity.
Implementation Method 1
the sliding body that is arranged between the axial support face and the carrier element creates the possibility of providing an optimum supply of lubricant
Implementation Method 2
guidance with play allows the two-dimensional movability of the sliding body to be achieved in a simple manner and for the permitted extent thereof to be established
Data Source
AI summary
To be as lightweight and compact, for example for automotive technology, a scroll compressor further includes an axial guide that supports the movable compressor body to prevent movements in the direction parallel to a centre axis of the stationary compressor body and, in the event of movements, guides it in the direction transverse to the centre axis. A coupling prevents the movable compressor body from rotating freely. The axial guide supports a compressor body base, which carries the scroll vane, of the second compressor body against an axial support face, in that the axial support face abuts a sliding body such that it is slidable transversely to the centre axis. The sliding body is slidable transversely to the centre axis, on a carrier element that is arranged in the compressor housing.