Heat exchanger with an integrated tank and head sheet
AssigneeLattimore & Tessmer, Inc.
InventorTerry Higgins
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heat exchanger having a core of a plurality of cooling tubes with a tank at each end of the core tubes. The tanks are formed with a plurality of cooling tube receiving apertures along a side portion of the tanks. These apertures receive the ends of the cooling tubes directly into the tanks and are attached to the tubes by brazing. Since the cooling tubes are received in apertures formed in the tanks themselves, the need for a separate head sheet at the end of the core is eliminated thereby eliminating the need for sealing of a head sheet to a separate tank. The tanks are preferably formed in a hydroforming operation to shape the tanks from a tubular blank.
Claims10
A method for making a heat exchanger comprising the steps of:
- placing an elongated tube having at least one open end into a die cavity and closing the cavity and to form an integral piece projecting outward from the side of the tube;
- hydroforming the tube to a desired shaped by filling the tube with a pressurized fluid to deform the tube outward into engagement with the surface of the die cavity;
- the die containing a plurality of chisel points or pierce punches to pierce apertures into the tube along one side portion thereof while the tube is in the die cavity thereby forming cooling tube receiving apertures in the tube;
- after removing the shaped tube from the cavity, closing the at least one open end with an end cap to form a first tank;
- forming a second tank by repeating the above steps;
- providing a plurality of cooling tubes sized to fit into the cooling tube receiving apertures and inserting a first end of each cooling tube into a cooling tube receiving aperture in the first tank and inserting a second end of each cooling tube into a cooling tube receiving aperture in the second tank;
- and
- sealingly joining the cooling tubes to the first and second tanks whereby fluid can flow from the first tank through the cooling tubes to the second tank.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.