EGR Cooler

An EGR cooler comprising:

• a cooler housing which has a top wall, a bottom wall, and sides walls bounding an interior having a rectangular cross section along a length of the cooler housing;
• a coolant inlet through which engine coolant enters the interior and a coolant outlet through which coolant exits the interior;
• a coolant core comprising lengthwise extending straight, flat-walled tubes for conveying exhaust gas through the coolant core, the tubes being arranged side-by-side with their flat walls separated from flat walls of adjacent tubes by intervening spaces;
• the tubes collectively having a rectangular cross section smaller than the rectangular cross section of the interior along the lengths of the tubes;
• an inlet header plate comprising side-by-side through-slots, with each of which an entrance end of each tube registers, each tube being joined to the inlet header plate to secure and seal the tube wall entrance end around the outside of the tube wall to the inlet header plate;
• an outlet header plate comprising side-by-side through-slots, with each of which an exit end of each tube registers, each tube being joined to the outlet header plate to secure and seal the tube wall exit end around the outside of the tube wall to the outlet header plate;
• the inlet header plate and the outlet header plate being captured with respect to the cooler housing;
• and
• supports for supporting at least one of the tubes on each of the top, the bottom, and the side walls of the cooler housing, each support comprising a base plate on at least one of the tubes and a spring plate on the respective base plate which bears against the respective wall on the interior of the cooler housing, the supports for supporting at least one of the tubes on the top and the bottom walls being at the same first location along the lengths of the tubes, the supports for supporting at least one of the tubes on the side walls being at the same second location along the lengths of the tubes, the second location being between the first location and the outlet header plate, and the tubes being free of support on the top wall, the bottom wall and the side walls between the first location and the inlet header plate.