1. Field
This relates to a compressor and, in particular, to a compressor including refrigerant bypasses, and a refrigerating apparatus including such a compressor.
2. Background
A compressor is a component of a refrigerating cycle that compresses refrigerant gas. Types of compressors may include, for example, a reciprocating compressor in which a refrigerant is compressed by a piston and crank shaft, a rotary compressor in which refrigerant gas is compressed by a rotor and vanes, or a scroll compressor in which refrigerant gas is compressed in compression chambers formed by two inter-engaged scrolls, one rotating relative to the other. The scroll compressor may exhibit higher efficiency and lower vibration and noise compared to the reciprocating compressor or the rotary compressor.
The embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the following drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like elements wherein:
Scroll compressors may be divided into low pressure type scroll compressors and high pressure type scroll compressors based on how refrigerant is supplied into its compression chambers. That is, in a low pressure type scroll compressor, refrigerant may be indirectly drawn into a compression chamber via an inner space of a casing, the inner space of the casing being divided into a suction space and a discharge space. In a high pressure type scroll compressor, refrigerant may be supplied directly into a compression chamber without flowing through the inner space of the casing, and may then be discharged into the inner space of the casing, such that a majority of the inner space of the casing defines a discharge space.
Scroll compressors may also be divided into a tip seal type scroll compressor and a back pressure type scroll compressor based on a sealing mechanism used in the compression chamber. That is, in a tip seal mechanism, a tip chamber disposed at an upper end of wraps of each scroll is raised so as to be closely adhered to a plate portion of a facing scroll. In a back pressure mechanism, a back pressure chamber is formed at a rear surface of one scroll and intermediate pressure oil or refrigerant is induced into the back pressure chamber to render the scroll closely adhered to an opposite scroll due to pressure applied by the back pressure chamber. Typically, a tip seal mechanism is used with a low pressure type scroll compressor, and a back pressure mechanism is used with a high pressure type scroll compressor.
Scroll compressors may also be divided into a fixed capacity type and a variable capacity type based on how refrigerant circulates therethrough. That is, in a fixed capacity type scroll compressor substantially all of the refrigerant discharged therefrom circulates through a closed loop refrigerating cycle, i.e., sequentially through the compressor, a condenser, an expansion apparatus and an evaporator and then back into the compressor. In a variable capacity type compressor, a portion of the refrigerant discharged therefrom is bypassed at a middle portion of a refrigerating cycle and introduced into an intermediate compression chamber of the compressor, while the remainder of the refrigerant sequentially flows through the devices of a closed loop refrigerating cycle and is introduced back into the compressor.
In a variable capacity type scroll compressor having a back pressure passage through which an intermediate compression chamber communicates with a back pressure chamber and an injection passage through which an outlet of the condenser communicates with the intermediate compression chamber of the compressor, an interval between the back pressure passage and the injection passage may adversely affect the performance of the compressor. That is, since a refrigerant at intermediate pressure within the refrigerating cycle is introduced into the intermediate compression chamber via the injection passage, if the back pressure passage and the injection passage are too close to a proceeding direction of a compression chamber, the intermediate pressure refrigerant in the injection passage may leak into the back pressure chamber via the back pressure passage, thereby increasing the pressure inside the back pressure chamber to an unacceptable level, thus not properly maintaining pressure of the back pressure chamber. As a result, a scroll supported by the pressure of the back pressure chamber may be excessively adhered to or pressed against the opposite scroll, thereby incurring frictional loss and abrasion of the wraps, and degrading reliability and performance of the compressor.
As shown in
The hermetic inner space of the casing 10 may be divided into an upper space S1 and a lower space S2 by the main frame 20 and the fixed scroll 40 so that both the upper and lower spaces S1 and S2 are maintained at a high pressure. A bottom portion of the lower space S2 of the casing 10 may be filled with oil for lubrication of the friction components of the compressor. The gas suction pipe SP may penetrate the outer wall of the casing 10 so as to communicate with the upper space S1 of the casing 10, while a gas discharge pipe DP communicates with the lower space S2 of the casing 10.
A shaft accommodation hole 21 may be formed through a center of the main frame 20, and an oil pocket 22 in which oil drawn up through an oil passage 32a of a driving shaft 32 may be formed at an upper end of the shaft accommodation hole 21. A back pressure groove 23 may be formed at an edge of the upper surface of the main frame 20 so as to create a back pressure chamber S3 having an intermediate pressure that is generated when a portion of refrigerant and oil drawn in are mixed together. A sealing groove may be formed in an annular shape within the back pressure groove 23 to receive a sealing member 60 therein such that oil collected in the oil pocket 22 may be maintained at a high pressure. The back pressure chamber S3 may be defined by a combination of the back pressure groove 23 of the main frame 20, a plate portion 41 of the fixed scroll 40 and a plate portion 51 of the orbiting scroll 50.
The driving motor 30 may include a stator secured to the inside of the casing 10 and having a coil 31 to which external power is supplied, a rotor disposed within the stator 31 with a predetermined air gap therebetween so as to rotate by interaction with the stator, and a driving shaft 32 coupled to the rotor by, for example, a shrink fitting, for transferring the rotational force of the driving motor 30 to the orbiting scroll 50. An oil passage 32a may be formed through the driving shaft 32 in a longitudinal direction of the shaft 32, and an oil pump may be installed at a lower end of the oil passage 32a to pump oil from the bottom of the casing 10 into the oil passage 32a.
The fixed scroll 40 may include fixed wraps 42 spirally formed at a lower surface of the plate portion 41 so as to form a pair of compression chambers P. An intake port 43 in direct communication with the gas suction pipe SP may be formed at a side surface of the plate portion 41, and a discharge port 44 through which a compressed refrigerant is discharged up to the upper space S1 of the casing 10 may be formed at a center of the upper surface of the plate portion 41. A back pressure passage 110 that defines a first passage between the compression chambers P and the back pressure chamber S3 may be formed between the wraps 42 forming the compression chambers P at a lower surface of the plate portion 41, namely, at a surface thereof that defines a thrust bearing surface together with the orbiting scroll 50.
The back pressure passage 110, as shown in
The first, second and third back pressure holes 111, 112 and 113 may define one passage that alternately communicates with the pair of compression chambers P. That is, the second back pressure hole 112 may be located between adjacent fixed wraps 42, and the diameter d2 of the second back pressure hole 112 may be less than a thickness t of the wrap 52 of the orbiting scroll 50, as shown in
A blocking member 115 may be coupled to the third back pressure hole 113. For example, in the embodiment shown in
As shown in
In certain embodiments, the fixed wrap 42 and the orbiting wrap 52 may be symmetrically formed with substantially the same wrap length. In certain embodiments, they may be asymmetrically formed with different wrap lengths. For example, the orbiting wrap 52 may be approximately 180° longer than the fixed wrap 42. Other arrangements may also be appropriate.
During operation, when power is applied to the driving motor 30, the driving shaft 32 rotates together with the rotor to transfer a rotational force to the orbiting scroll 50. The orbiting scroll 50 performs an orbiting motion by an eccentric distance on the upper surface of the main frame 20 due to the Oldham's ring, thereby forming a pair of compression chambers P which are consecutively moved between the fixed wrap 42 of the fixed scroll 40 and the orbiting wrap 52 of the orbiting wrap 50. The volumes of the compression chambers P are decreased as are moved toward the center in response to the consecutive orbiting motion of the orbiting scroll 50, thereby compressing refrigerant therein.
Simultaneously, an oil pump provided at the lower end of the driving shaft 32 pumps oil contained in the casing 10 up via the oil passage 32a of the driving shaft 32. A portion of the oil is supplied into the shaft accommodation hole 21 of the main frame 20, and a portion of the oil is dispersed at the upper end of the driving shaft 32 so as to be introduced into the back pressure chamber S3 of the main frame 20. The oil introduced into the back pressure chamber S3 supports the orbiting scroll 50, which is accordingly raised upward the fixed scroll 40. Hence, the fixed wraps 42 and the orbiting wraps 52 are closely adhered to the corresponding plate portions 51 and 41, respectively, thereby sealing the compression chambers P.
In this state, refrigerant is compressed by the continuous orbiting motion of the orbiting scroll 50. The compressed refrigerant partially flows into the back pressure chamber S3 via the back pressure passage 110, so that the pressure within the back pressure chamber S3 may be maintained at a predetermined level. Although only one outlet of the back pressure passage 110, namely, the second back pressure hole 112, is provided, the second back pressure hole 112 alternately communicates with both compression chambers P as the orbiting scroll 50 orbits, allowing oil to be uniformly supplied into each compression chamber P via the back pressure passage 110.
In a variable capacity type compressor, refrigerant may be reintroduced into an intermediate compression chamber of the compressor at a middle portion of a refrigerating cycle, namely, from an outlet of a condenser, so as to increase an amount of refrigerant to be compressed, resulting in an increase in the compression capacity of the compressor.
For example, as shown in
The injection passage 120, as shown in
Depending on the position of the second injection hole 122, refrigerant injected therethrough from the middle portion of the refrigerating cycle may leak into the back pressure chamber S3, possibly degrading compression performance. In order to enhance performance of the compressor, specific positioning of the injection passage 120 with respect to the back pressure passage 110, and more particularly, the second back pressure hole 112 of the back pressure passage 110 and the second injection passage 122 of the injection passage 120, may be established.
To this end, the second injection hole 122 of the injection passage 120 may be formed, as shown in
A diameter 24 of the second injection hole 122 may be substantially the same as a diameter of the second back pressure hole 112, so as to smoothly control the amount of refrigerant injected. The diameter d4 of the second injection hole 122 may be less than a thickness t of the orbiting wrap 52 of the orbiting scroll 50 so as to prevent a refrigerant injected via the injection passage 120 from being leaked into both the compression chambers P due to the injection passage 120 communicating with the compression chambers P.
A temperature of the refrigerant injected into the intermediate compression chamber may be lower than a temperature at the outlet of the condenser 2 but higher than a temperature at a suction side of the compression chamber P, so as to increase the amount of the refrigerant to be injected. That is, as shown in
As described above, in a scroll compressor 1 having the back pressure passage 110 and the injection passage 120, if an angle a formed between the back pressure passage 110 and the injection passage 120 is greater than approximately 30°, the actual pressure within the back pressure chamber 53, as shown in
Consequently, the angle between the injection passage 120 and the back pressure passage 110 may maintain an appropriate phase difference, or angle a therebetween, so as to effectively prevent a refrigerant injected into the intermediate compression chamber via the injection passage from leaking into the back pressure chamber via the back pressure passage without flowing along the proceeding direction of the compression chamber. Hence, during a high capacity operation of the scroll compressor, a refrigerant injected into the intermediate compression chamber via the injection passage at the middle portion of the refrigerant cycle may be combined with a refrigerant sucked into a suction side of the compression chamber, thereby increasing the amount of refrigerant to be compressed, resulting in improved performance.
Similarly, if a scroll compressor as embodied and broadly described herein is applied to a refrigerating apparatus, the efficiency of the refrigerating apparatus may also be improved.
As shown in
In the scroll compressor according to the present invention and a refrigerating apparatus having the same, leakage of the refrigerant from the intermediate compression chamber into the back pressure chamber may be prevented, thereby appropriately maintaining the pressure of the back pressure chamber, and also increasing the amount of refrigerant within the compression chamber, resulting in improved performance of the scroll compressor and the refrigerating apparatus in which it is installed.
A scroll compressor as embodied and broadly described herein may be applied to numerous different types of refrigerating apparatuses, such as, for example, an air conditioning apparatus, a refrigerating/freezing apparatus, or other refrigerating apparatus in which compression of refrigerant is employed.
A scroll compressor as embodied and broadly described herein is capable of maintaining an appropriate pressure inside the back pressure chamber by preventing a refrigerant, injected from the refrigerating cycle into the intermediate pressure via the injection passage, from being drastically leaked from the intermediate compression chamber into the back pressure chamber, and a refrigerating apparatus having the same.
A scroll compressor as embodied and broadly described herein may include compression chambers formed to be consecutively moved as a plurality of scrolls perform a relative motion with being engaged with each other, a back pressure chamber formed at a bearing surface at which the plurality of scrolls come in contact with each other and configured to support the neighboring scrolls, a first passage formed at a scroll and configured so that part of refrigerant compressed in the compression chambers is bypassed to be guided into the back pressure chamber, and a second passage formed at a scroll and configured so that part of refrigerant discharged from the compression chambers into a refrigerating cycle is bypassed at a middle portion of the refrigerating cycle to be supplied back into the compression chambers.
A scroll compressor in accordance with another embodiment as broadly described herein may include a fixed scroll having spiral wraps, and an orbiting scroll having spiral wraps, the spiral wraps orbiting with being engaged with the wraps of the fixed scroll so as to form a pair of compression chambers consecutively moved during the orbiting motion, a back pressure chamber for containing a refrigerant bypassed from the compression chambers being formed at a rear surface of the orbiting scroll, wherein the fixed scroll is provided with at least one back pressure passage formed at the fixed scroll for communicating the compression chambers with the back pressure chamber, and an injection passage through which part of a refrigerant discharged from the compression chambers into the refrigerating cycle is injected back into the compression chambers.
A refrigerating apparatus as embodied and broadly described herein may include a compressor, a condenser connected to a discharge side of the compression, an expansion apparatus connected to the condenser, and an evaporator connected to the expansion apparatus and to a suction side of the compressor, wherein the compressor is a scroll compressor configured so that an angle between an injection passage communicating with an intermediate compression chamber at a middle portion of a refrigerating cycle and a back pressure passage is approximately more than 30°.
Any reference in this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “example embodiment,” etc., means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of such phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with any embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the purview of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other ones of the embodiments.
Although embodiments have been described with reference to a number of illustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that numerous other modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art that will fall within the spirit and scope of the principles of this disclosure. More particularly, numerous variations and modifications are possible in the component parts and/or arrangements of the subject combination arrangement within the scope of the disclosure, the drawings and the appended claims. In addition to variations and modifications in the component parts and/or arrangements, alternative uses will also be apparent to those skilled in the art.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2009-0015847 | Feb 2009 | KR | national |