Heat accumulator
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsAkio Mitani, Koji Kashima, Hiroichi Yamaguchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heat accumulator includes a heat storage tank and a latent heat accumulating material which fills the tank. The heat accumulating material remains in a stable supercooled condition at temperatures lower than a predetermined phase transformation temperature, and is released from the supercooled condition by a releasing device. The releasing device includes a holding member, which is mounted on the storage tank such that it is capable of touching the accumulating material and which holds a seed material. A driving mechanism drives the holding member so that the seed material comes into contact with the heat accmulating material for a predetermined period of time, releasing the latter from its supercooled condition.
Claims13
A heat accumulator comprising:
- a heat storage tank;
- a latent heat accumulating material filling the heat storage tank and capable of remaining in a stable supercooled condition at temperatures lower than a specified phase transformation temperature;
- and
- releasing means for releasing the latent heat accumulating material from supercooled condition, the releasing means having a holding member mounted on said heat storage tank in a manner such as to be capable of touching said latent heat accumulating material, a seed material made of the same type of material as said latent heat accumulating material and held by said holding member, and driving means for automatically moving said holding member to bring the seed material into contact with said heat accumulating material for a predetermined period of time and automatically moving said holding member to separate said seed material from said heat accumulating material.
A heat accumulator comprising:
- a heat storage tank;
- a latent heat accumulating material filling the heat storage tank and capable of remaining in a stable supercooled condition at temperatures lower than a specified phase transformation temperature;
- and
- releasing means for releasing the latent accumulating material from a supercooled condition, the releasing means having a seed material made of the same type of material as the latent heat accumulating material, a holding member holding the seed material and supported by the heat storage tank to be movable between a contact position where the seed material touches the heat accumulating material and a no-contact position where the seed material is separated from the heat accumulating material and drive means including first moving means for moving the holding number to the contact position, and second moving means for moving the holding member to the non-contact position, and means for actuating first moving means and then actuating the second moving means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.