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US 7,007,743 B2Granted
Header tank with integral mounting flange
AssigneeDelphi Technologies, Inc.
InventorsChris A. Calhoun, Terry Joseph Hunt, David A. Southwick, Karl Paul Kroetsch, Krzysztof Wawrocki, Khalid El Moutamid, Yusuke Matsunaga, Laurent Art
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A one-piece header tank includes side edges that are overlapped and brazed together to form a joint positioned within the interior of the tank. The tank also includes an integrally formed mounting flange that may be fabricated without jeopardizing the leak integrity of the tank.
Claims18
A heat exchanger tank for a cooling system comprising;
- a single sheet of material having a cladding on at least one surface thereof and extending through a rectangular cross-section defining a tube wall having tube holes therein and a parallel joint wall spaced from said tube wall with spaced parallel sidewalls interconnecting said joint and tube walls to define a chamber and opposed open ends for permitting fluid flow through said tank,
- said tank characterized by said joint wall including a tab integrally formed therewith and extending from said joint wall into said chamber and a first of said sidewalls disposed in sealing engagement with the outside of said tab to thereby enclose said tab within said chamber,
- said first sidewall extending above said joint wall and said tab to define a mounting flange for mounting said tank on the cooling system, and
- said flange being of a double thickness of said sheet to define a primary wall and a reinforcing wall.
1 more element
A method of fabricating a heat exchanger tank comprising the steps of;
- forming a single sheet of material having a cladding on at least one surface thereof to define a tank extending through a rectangular cross-section with a tube wall, a parallel joint wall spaced from the tube wall, spaced parallel sidewalls interconnecting the joint and tube walls to define a chamber having opposed open ends,
- forming an integral tab extending from the joint wall into the chamber,
- disposing a first of the sidewalls into engagement with the exterior of the tab to enclose the tab within the chamber, and
- brazing the first sidewall to the tab,
- extending the first sidewall upwardly above the joint wall and the tab to project outwardly from the joint wall to define a flange, and
- doubling the sheet defining the flange to further define a primary wall and a reinforcing wall.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.