Integrated Tractor Cooling Circuit for Battery and Driver Airflow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Small electric-powered tractors without cabins lack effective cooling systems, exposing drivers to adverse environmental conditions, affecting safety and work efficiency, and installing a cabin with a cooling system increases manufacturing costs and reduces marketability.
Innovation Solution
A cooling system for electric-powered tractors that includes a refrigerant circuit, a coolant circuit, and a branch circuit to circulate refrigerant and coolant, with fans and a distributor to supply cooled air to the driver, utilizing excess cooling capacity to improve driver comfort without increasing manufacturing costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If a cabin and cooling system are installed in a small-sized tractor, then driver comfort is improved, but manufacturing costs increase and marketability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the battery cooling function and driver cooling function into a single integrated cooling system. The refrigerant circuit serves both the battery (through the heat exchanger) and the driver (through the evaporator and blower), allowing one system to perform multiple cooling tasks simultaneously, thereby avoiding the need for separate cooling systems and reducing manufacturing costs
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling system is designed with multi-functionality to serve both battery thermal management and driver comfort needs. The refrigerant circuit, heat exchanger, evaporator, and blower work together to provide cooling for both the battery pack and the driver's seating area, making the system universally applicable to multiple cooling requirements in small electric tractors
2Reliability
If a cooling system is added to small electric-powered tractors without cabins, then driver safety and work efficiency are improved, but the complexity of the system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the driver cooling components (evaporator, blower) with the battery cooling components (heat exchanger, refrigerant circuit) into a single integrated system. This merging approach provides necessary cooling functionality for driver safety while avoiding the complexity of separate independent cooling systems
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling system is designed to automatically regulate refrigerant flow through the expansion valve and distribute cooling to both battery and driver areas based on thermal demands. The system self-regulates through thermostatic control and refrigerant circulation without requiring complex manual intervention or additional control mechanisms
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 system effectively cools the driver and battery, enhancing safety and work efficiency while reducing manufacturing costs by utilizing existing cooling components, thus improving marketability.
Implementation Method 1
a heat exchanger configured to exchange heat between the refrigerant and a coolant
Implementation Method 2
an evaporator configured to evaporate the refrigerant expanded in the expander
Implementation Method 3
a blower configured to blow the air, cooled by the evaporator, to an area where a driver is located
Implementation Method 4
a compressor configured to compress the refrigerant
Implementation Method 5
a condenser configured to condense the refrigerant compressed in the compressor
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a cooling system for an electric-powered tractor. The cooling system includes: a refrigerant circuit configured to circulate a refrigerant while repeating a process in which compression and condensation is performed and then expansion and evaporation is performed; a condensation fan configured to supply air; a coolant circuit configured to circulate a coolant and cool a battery with the cold of the coolant; a branch circuit configured to branch off from the refrigerant circuit at a second point and then merge with the refrigerant circuit at a first point, and configured such that the expansion and evaporation of the refrigerant is performed therein; an evaporation fan configured to supply air to be cooled and also supply cooled air to an area where a driver is located; and a distributor configured to distribute a part of the refrigerant to the branch circuit.