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US 5,775,318 AGranted
Forced air condensing furnace and heat exchanger manifold therefor
AssigneeConsolidated Industries Corp.
InventorsPaul M. Haydock, Gerald K. Gable
Life of this patent
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AssigneeConsolidated Industries Corp.
InventorsPaul M. Haydock, Gerald K. Gable
Estimating the term…
A heat exchanger manifold (44) is provided which includes a plurality of manifold inlet openings (58) including sealant means such as grommet means (62) which receive the tube outlets (40c) of the condensing section (34) of a heat exchanger (28). The heat exchanger manifold (44) is made of a corrosion-resistant material such as a polymer such as one sold under the trademark LEXAN.TM. and the grommets (62) are preferably made of a resilient, corrosionresistant polymer such as rubber, e.g., a nitrile rubber. The condensing tubes (38a, 38b, 38c) are slanted to facilitate drainage of the condensate into the heat exchanger manifold (44) and a flue gas outlet (64) and a condensate drain (49) are provided to discharge, respectively, flue gas and condensate from the heat exchanger manifold (44). The condensing tubes (38a, 38b, 38c) are connected to the primary heating section (30) of the heat exchanger (28) through swaged joints (37).
In a forced air furnace comprising (a) a burner assembly, (b) a housing defining a heat exchange chamber, (c) a condensing heat exchanger disposed within the heat exchange chamber and having (i) an exchanger inlet positioned to receive hot combustion product gases from the burner assembly and (ii) a condensing section of the heat exchanger, the condensing section comprising one or more tubes terminating in one or more condensing tube outlets positioned to cause condensate to drain therefrom, (d) primary blower means to force air over the heat exchanger to be heated thereby, and (e) flue gas vent means connected in gas flow communication with the condensing tube outlets, the improvement comprising that:
A heat exchanger manifold for a forced air condensing furnace having a heat exchanger comprising a condensing section comprised of one or more tubes terminating in one or more condensing tube outlets, the heat exchanger manifold comprising a tube sheet and a manifold cover which cooperate to define therebetween an enclosure to receive flue gas and condensate from the furnace, the tube sheet and the manifold cover each being made of a corrosion-resistant polymer, the tube sheet having one or more manifold inlet openings formed therein to receive such condensing tube outlets, seating means formed about the manifold inlet openings to seat thereon resilient sealant means carried in the inlet openings to seal such condensing tubes which are, in turn, carried in the sealant means and received in the manifold inlet openings in gas-tight relation to the enclosure, the heat exchanger manifold further having a flue gas outlet and a condensate outlet formed therein.
A method for joining a condensing tube having an inlet end to a transition tube having an outlet end to form a condensing heat exchanger, the method comprising:
In a heat exchanger comprising a primary heating section comprising a plurality of conduits, having inlets for receiving hot gaseous combustion products from a burner and having outlets for discharging gaseous combustion products, and comprising a condensing section comprising a plurality of condensing conduits each having an inlet for receiving gaseous combustion products from the primary heating section, for allowing condensation of gaseous combustion products therein, the improvement comprising that each condensing conduit inlet communicates exclusively with an associated primary heat exchange section conduit outlet through a swaged joint between them.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.