Aluminum heat exchanger
AssigneeSanden Corporation
InventorsMikio Koisuka, Hisao Aoki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heat exchanger having a flat tube with a plurality of fluid passageways therein, header pipes connected to opposite ends of the flat tube and inlet and outlet tubes connected to the header pipes, respectively. The inlet and outlet tubes are inserted and fitted into the corresponding ones of the header pipes and formed with axial slits in the inserted end portions. The opposite ends of the flat tube extend into header pipes through axial slits in the outer surfaces thereof and are fitted into the axial slits of the inlet and outlet tubes inserted therein. Thus, the inlet tube and the outlet tube are reliably maintained in their desired orientation. The header pipes are made of aluminum brazing sheet and, therefore, are brazed to the aluminum flat tube and the inlet and outlet aluminum tubes.
Claims5
In a heat exchanger comprising a flat metal tube for conducting fluid having opposite first and second ends, a plurality of metal fins fixed onto outer surfaces of said flat metal tube, first and second header pipes fixedly mounted on said opposite ends of said flat metal tube, respectively, so that said flat metal tube communicates with the interior of said header pipes, each of said header pipes having a first end that is open and a second end that is closed, an inlet tube connected to said first end of said first header pipe, and an outlet tube connected to said first end of said second header pipe, the improvement which comprises one of said inlet and outlet tubes having an end portion inserted into said first end of the corresponding interconnected header pipe, said end portion having a cut-away portion in the form of a first axial slit extending axially inwardly from an open end at the adjacent end of said one tube, said first axial slit having an axial intermediate portion slightly smaller than the thickness of said flat metal tube, and a tapered portion diverging towards said open end of said first axial slit, and said first end of said flat metal tube extending into said corresponding interconnected header pipe and being closely fitted into said first axial slit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.