Pressure vessel

Abstract

The invention relates to a pressure vessel, particularly to a drier vessel for a vehicle air conditioning installation, and a method for making it. In the production of known pressure vessels, a hollow core body optionally provided with auxiliary winding bodies is provided with an outer winding layer of fibre-reinforced plastic acting to improve the resistance of the vessel to internal pressure. The production of such pressure vessels is rather expensive, because the core body and auxiliary winding bodies have to be separately prepared and formed to the desired shape of the finished pressure vessel. A relatively inexpensive and low-weight pressure vessel particularly suitable for use as a driver vessel in a vehicle air conditioning installation is provided according to the invention by the employ as said core body of a cylindrical standard blank from the mass-production of spray dispensers or beverage containers having at least one open end which is deformed as by press-forming, roll-forming or chasing to the shape of the top portion of the vessel. To further reduce the production costs of the pressure vessel the invention provides that the upper and lower ends of the core body are provided with respective coupling elements by means of which a plurality of core bodies may be interconnected in coaxial alignment to thereby form a winding unit to which the winding layer may be applied in a single operation. The auxiliary winding body is likewise formed of a standard blank from the mass-production of spray dispensers or beverage containers. Standard blanks of the type referred to are commercially available at low cost and in different sizes.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.