Stacked Plastic Heat Exchanger for Dryer Vapor Condensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing clothes dryer and washer dryer systems face inefficiencies in vapor condensation due to limited heat dissipation area and high manufacturing costs of aluminum alloy heat exchangers, leading to reduced condensation efficiency and increased water and energy consumption.
Innovation Solution
A superposed heat exchanger with plastic fins, featuring bent side edges, profiled grooves, and a frame structure, which increases heat dissipation area, enhances heat exchange efficiency, and includes filtering and flushing structures to maintain system performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If aluminum alloy heat exchangers are used, then heat dissipation efficiency is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive aluminum alloy heat exchangers with inexpensive plastic heat exchangers. Although plastic has lower inherent thermal conductivity, the design compensates through increased surface area and optimized structure, achieving acceptable heat dissipation performance at significantly lower manufacturing cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the material parameter from metal to plastic and modifies geometric parameters including increasing the number of heat exchange fins, optimizing fin spacing, and designing specific fin shapes to enhance heat transfer surface area, thereby compensating for the lower thermal conductivity of plastic material.
2Ease of manufacture
If aluminum alloy heat exchangers with limited contact area are used, then manufacturing is simplified, but vapor condensation efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional flat plate design to a three-dimensional structured design with multiple protruding fins. This dimensional expansion dramatically increases the heat exchange surface area, improving vapor condensation efficiency while maintaining manufacturability through molding processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The heat exchanger surface is segmented into multiple discrete fins rather than a single flat surface. This segmentation creates numerous small heat transfer zones that collectively provide large total surface area, enhancing condensation efficiency while allowing simplified individual fin manufacturing.
3Temperature
If heat exchanger surface area is increased, then heat exchange efficiency improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates the heat exchange fins directly into the heat exchanger body as a unified molded structure rather than assembling separate components. This merging approach increases surface area for heat exchange while avoiding the complexity of multiple parts and assembly steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses thin plastic walls and films to create the fin structure, allowing complex three-dimensional heat exchange surfaces to be formed with minimal material and simple manufacturing processes, avoiding the need for thick-walled or heavily braced 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
The solution increases heat exchange efficiency, reduces maintenance costs, and prolongs the service life of the heat exchanger by enhancing its strength and reliability, while also addressing issues of lint accumulation and air flow uniformity.
Implementation Method 1
a first heat exchanger (35) comprising a first plurality of fins (1) superposed upon one another
Implementation Method 2
two opposite side edges of each fin are bent upwards to form a ventilating air path in coordination with an upper fin, and adjacent fins are arranged in a mode of vertical-horizontal alternating so as to form horizontal air paths and vertical air paths independent from each other
Implementation Method 3
Downward profiled grooves are provided in parallel on the fin in a direction vertical to the air path formed by the fin and an upper fin, and an air path formed with a lower fin is divided into a plurality of parallel air paths by the profiled grooves
Implementation Method 4
Downward convex pins are arranged on lower surfaces of two upwards bent side edges of the fin, and downward concave slots are arranged in upper surfaces of other two side edges; and pins of the fins are inserted into slots on lower fins so as to connect an upper and a lower adjacent fins
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a superposed heat exchanger, including a plurality of fins superposed up. Two opposite side edges of each fin are bent upwards to form a ventilating air path in coordination with an upper fin, and adjacent fins are arranged in a mode of vertical-horizontal alternating so as to form horizontal air paths and vertical air paths independent from each other with up-down intervals.