Scroll Compressor Through-Shaft Design Eliminates Dead Space
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional scroll type positive displacement compressors and pumps experience seal separation during the last 180 degrees of the compression cycle, leading to dead space and reduced compression ratio and efficiency due to cantilevered shaft configuration and non-symmetric axial thrust.
Innovation Solution
A scroll type positive displacement assembly with a fixed scroll and an orbiting scroll where the orbiting scroll orbits without rotating, featuring an eccentric and eccentric bearing with a shaft passing through the scrolls, ensuring continuous sealing contact during the entire compression cycle and reducing dead space, with mathematical equations defining the scroll geometry to maintain correct sealing contact and optimize compression cavity volume.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If conventional scroll configuration with cantilevered shaft is used, then structural simplicity is maintained, but dead space is created and compression ratio is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a conventional cantilevered shaft configuration to a through-shaft configuration that passes through both scrolls, fundamentally changing the structural dimensionality. This allows the shaft to be positioned centrally rather than at one end, eliminating the dead space created by the cantilevered arrangement while maintaining structural simplicity through the symmetric through-shaft design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs asymmetric scroll geometries with different inner and outer radii configurations to optimize the compression chamber shape. By carefully selecting asymmetric parameters (different inner radii for fixed and orbiting scrolls, different outer radii), the design eliminates dead space while maintaining continuous sealing contact, improving compression ratio without excessive complexity.
2Device complexity
If seal separation occurs during compression cycle, then mechanical simplicity is maintained, but compression efficiency is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent ensures continuous sealing contact between the fixed and orbiting scrolls throughout the entire compression cycle by optimizing the scroll geometry parameters. The mathematical relationships between inner radii, outer radii, and wrap angles are specifically designed to maintain uninterrupted sealing contact, eliminating the seal separation that occurs in conventional designs and thereby maintaining high compression efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes specific geometric parameters including the inner radius of the fixed scroll, inner radius of the orbiting scroll, outer radius of the orbiting scroll, and wrap angle to achieve continuous sealing contact. By carefully adjusting these parameters within defined relationships, the design maintains mechanical simplicity while ensuring the sealing surfaces remain in continuous contact throughout the compression cycle.
3Device complexity
If non-symmetric axial thrust is present, then conventional shaft configuration is maintained, but mechanical inefficiencies increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent deliberately employs asymmetric scroll geometries with different inner and outer radii to balance the axial thrust forces. By optimizing the asymmetric parameters, the design creates a configuration where the non-symmetric axial thrust is minimized or balanced, reducing mechanical inefficiencies and energy losses while maintaining the simplicity of the conventional shaft configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes geometric parameters including the ratio of inner to outer radii, wrap angles, and scroll thickness to control and balance the axial thrust forces. By adjusting these parameters within specific relationships, the design reduces non-symmetric axial thrust and associated mechanical inefficiencies while maintaining structural simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
A scroll type positive displacement assembly includes a first scroll and a second scroll, where the second scroll is configured to orbit with respect to a center of the first scroll without rotating with respect to the first scroll. Together, the first scroll and the second scroll define a compression chamber between two seal points where the first scroll and the second scroll contact one another as the second scroll orbits with respect to the first scroll during a compression cycle, and the two seal points come together proximate to a discharge port between the first scroll and the second scroll such that there is at least substantially no dead space between the first scroll and the second scroll at an end of the compression cycle. For example, the two seal points remain in sealing contact during at least one hundred and eighty (180) degrees of the compression cycle.