US 2006/0219284 A1Published application

Thermoelectric conversion unit

AssigneeYamaha Corporation

InventorsYuma Horio, Takahisa Tachibana, Naoki Kamimura

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Abstract

A thermoelectric conversion unit can easily be attached to and detached from a heater, in which lower electrodes are formed on the upper surface of a lower substrate, placed in opposition to an upper substrate, on the lower surface of which are formed upper electrodes; end faces of thermoelectric elements are bonded to both the electrodes to form a thermoelectric conversion module. A heat-absorbing member having a protruding engagement portion is installed on one of the substrates of the thermoelectric conversion module, and a heat-releasing member is installed on the other substrate, to form a thermoelectric conversion portion. A heat-conducting portion having a engagement hole portion is installed on the outer peripheral surface of a lamp, to form the light-source lamp portion. By engaging the protruding engagement portion with the engagement hole portion, the light-source lamp portion can be detachably attached to the thermoelectric conversion portion. The reflector, heat-absorbing member and heat-releasing member are formed from aluminum or an aluminum alloy.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A thermoelectric conversion unit including a thermoelectric conversion module and a heater, in which the thermoelectric conversion module is attached to the heater to generate electric power using heat from the heater, wherein:

the thermoelectric conversion module comprises:
a pair of insulating units placed in opposition;
a plurality of electrodes formed at predetermined locations on opposing inside surfaces of the pair of insulating units;
a plurality of thermoelectric elements having end faces connected to the electrodes on both the opposing inside surfaces;
a heat-absorbing unit attached to one of the insulating units;
and
a heat-releasing unit attached to the other insulating unit;
the thermoelectric conversion unit comprises an attachment/detachment unit for attaching detachably the heat-absorbing unit to the heater;
the heater heats the insulating unit to which the heat-absorbing unit is attached;
and
the thermoelectric conversion unit generates electric power by using temperature difference arisen between the end portion of the insulating units to which the heat absorbing unit is attached and the end portion of the insulating unit to which the heat-releasing unit is attached.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.