Heat exchangers
AssigneeUnipart Group, Limited
InventorGraham G. Lardner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heat exchanger such as a motor vehicle radiator of the tube 5 and corrugated fin 6 type has clamping members 7 to hold the fin and tube matrix together to resist outward pressure pulsations. The clamping members are located in position by means of arms 9 which are rigidly connected to the rim 8 of a tube plate into which the tubes 5 are connected, or to any other part of the respective header tank. Sliding movement is permitted between the arms 9 and clamping members 7, so that differential thermal expansion between the clamping members 7 and the tubes 5 which have liquid running through them is taken up by the relative movement of the arms 9 and the clamping members 7. Because the clamping members 7 are of uniform section, and are not directly shaped to be secured to the header tanks, lower tooling costs are possible.
Claims3
A heat exchanger, said heat exchanger comprising a pair of header tanks formed from a plastic material and having axially rigid arms molded integrally therewith;
- a matrix including a plurality of tubes extending between the header tanks and airways located between the tubes, and clamping members which are substantially box-shaped in cross-section disposed parallel to the tubes on each side of the matrix;
- said axially rigid arms extending into the clamping members and having a telescoped sliding fit thereon whereby each clamping member is in contact with the matrix but each of the arms can slide relative to its associated clamping member in a direction parallel to the tubes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.