The present invention relates to a compressor.
A compressor is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-163714. The compressor includes a cylinder block, a front housing and a rear housing. The cylinder block is formed with a bearing hole to rotatably support a driving shaft at a center of the cylinder block and is formed with cylinder bores spaced from each other at an interval along a circumferential direction of the cylinder block around the bearing hole. The front housing is attached to a front end of the cylinder block and forms a crankcase therein. The rear housing is attached to a rear end of the cylinder block via a valve plate and forms a suction chamber and a discharge chamber therein.
The valve plate is formed with suction holes communicating the cylinder bore with the suction chamber and discharge holes communicating the cylinder bore with the discharge chamber. A reed type suction valve is provided at the cylinder bore side of the valve plate to open and close the suction holes. A reed type discharge valve is provided at the discharge chamber side of the valve plate to open and close the discharge holes.
A piston is reciprocatably arranged in each cylinder bore. In the crank chamber, a conversion mechanism is provided to convert rotations of the drive shaft into reciprocations of the pistons. With this configuration, when the drive shaft rotates, the pistons reciprocate within the cylinder bores. When the pistons reciprocate, refrigerant is sucked into the cylinder bores from the suction chamber, and the sucked refrigerant is compressed in the cylinder bores and then discharged out from the cylinder bores into the discharge chamber.
In general, even when the piston is located in the top dead center thereof, a small amount of high-pressure refrigerant remains in the cylinder bore since the refrigerant cannot completely be discharged out into the discharge chamber.
Such a residual refrigerant is reexpanded in a suction stroke in which the piston moves from the top dead center to the bottom dead center. The reexpansion amount of the residual refrigerant reduces fresh refrigerant to be sucked through the suction holes from the suction chamber. As a result, the suction amount of the fresh refrigerant decreases and the suction efficiency decreases.
Therefore, the above conventional art is configured such that the high-pressure residual gas which remained in one of the cylinder bores after a compression stroke is discharged to another of the cylinder bores having lower pressure than the one of the cylinder bores. In particular, communication holes are provided which radially extend through the cylinder block so as to connect the cylinder bores to the bearing hole rotatably supporting the drive shaft at the center of the cylinder block. Moreover, a residual-gas bypass passage is formed in a groove shape or in a hole shape on the outer peripheral surface of the drive shaft. As the drive shaft rotates, the residual-gas bypass passage connects one of the cylinder bores having finished a discharge stroke to another of the cylinder bores which has lower pressure than the one of the cylinder bores. In other words, the residual-gas bypass passage connects one of the communication holes which communicates with one of the cylinder bores having finished the discharge stroke to another of the communication holes which communicates with another of the cylinder bores having lower pressure than the one of the cylinder bores. Therefore, the high-pressure residual gas which remained in one of the cylinder bores at the end of the compression stroke can be released to another of the cylinder bores having lower pressure than the one of the cylinder bores.
In the above-mentioned conventional compressor, since the communication holes are open at inner circumference surfaces of the cylinder bores, the communication holes have been required to be machined to prevent bad slide contacts between the inner circumference surfaces of the cylinder bores and outer circumference surfaces of the pistons. This requires high machining accuracy and the manufacturing cost tends to become more expensive.
Moreover, communication holes that communicate the bearing hole provided at the center of the cylinder block with the cylinder bores provided around the bearing hole have comparatively large interior spaces so that the residual gas tend to easily remain in the communication holes.
The present invention is invented based on such a conventional art, and the object of the present invention is to provide a compressor capable of obtain a good slide contact between inner circumference surface of cylinder bores and outer circumference surface of pistons even though a high-pressure residual gas release path is provided.
An aspect of the present invention is a compressor including: a cylinder block formed with cylinder bores spaced from each other in an interval along a circumferential direction of the cylinder block around a drive shaft; a housing attached to the cylinder block via a valve plate through which suction holes are penetrated and forming a suction chamber therein; reed type suction valves disposed on a cylinder bore side of the valve plate and configured to open and close the suction holes, regulation steps recessed, at the periphery of the cylinder bore, from a valve plate side of the cylinder block and configured to limit maximum lift positions of the suction valves; pistons reciprocatably disposed in the cylinder bores respectively and configured to reciprocate with rotation of the drive shaft to perform an suction stroke and a discharge stroke by turns within the cylinder bores; communication holes penetrating through the valve plate at positions opposite to the regulation steps and connecting the cylinder bores and the suction chamber; and a rotary valve configured to be in rotational slide contact with the suction chamber side of the valve plate with covering the communication holes of the valve plate as rotating with the drive shaft; a residual pressure release passage formed in the rotary valve. As the rotary valve rotates, the residual pressure release passage sequentially connects one of the communication holes which communicates with one of the cylinder bores which has finished a discharge stroke and another of the communication holes which communicates with another of the cylinder bores which has a lower-pressure than the one of the cylinder bores.
Hereafter, compressors according to embodiments of the present invention will be explained with reference to drawings.
First, an embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to
Overall Structure of the Compressor
The compressor 1 of the present embodiment is a swash plate type variable capacity compressor as shown in
Between the valve plate 9 and the rear housing 6, a gasket 53 intervenes to maintain sealing of the suction chamber 7 and the discharge chamber 8. Between the valve plate 9 and the cylinder block 2, a gasket 54 (see
The valve plate 9 is formed in an approximately circular disk shape. The valve plate 9 is formed with suction holes 11 communicating the cylinder bores 3 with the suction chamber 7, and discharge holes 12 communicating the cylinder bores 3 with the discharge chamber 8.
In the suction chamber 7, a suction valve plate 55 (refer to
The suction valve plate 55 is formed as an elastic thin plate (for example, a metallic thin plate etc.) and is sandwiched between the valve plate 9 and the cylinder block 2 as shown in
Annular grooves 11c and 12c (refer to
The drive shaft 10 is rotatably supported by center through holes 14 and 18 of the cylinder block 2 and the front housing 4 via radial bearings 15 and 19, and thereby, the drive shaft 10 is rotatable in the crank chamber 5.
The thrust bearing 20 intervenes between an inner surface of the front housing 4 and a front side of a rotor 21 fixed to the drive shaft 10 in the crank chamber 5. The thrust bearing 16 intervenes between a step portion formed on the drive shaft 10 and the adjustable screw 17 fixed to the center through hole 14 of the cylinder block 2. This configuration stops axial movements of the drive shaft.
In the crank chamber 5, a conversion mechanism is provided to convert rotation of the drive shaft 10 into reciprocation of the pistons 29. The conversion mechanism includes the rotor 21 as a rotation member fixed to the drive shaft 10, a swash plate slidably and inclinably attached to the drive shaft 10, and a connection mechanism 40 connecting the rotor 21 and the swash plate 24 such that the rotor 21 and the swash plate 24 rotate as one unit with permitting variation of the inclination angle of the swash plate 24. The pistons 29 each is attached to an outer peripheral portion of the swash plate 24 with a pair of hemispherical piston shoes 30 and 30. When the swash plate 24 rotates, the pistons 29 reciprocate in the cylinder bores 3 according to the inclination angle of the swash plate 24. As the pistons 29 reciprocate, refrigerant is sucked from the suction chamber 7 into the cylinder bores 3 through the suction holes 11 of the valve plate 9, and compressed within the cylinder bores 3, and then the compressed refrigerant is discharged out into the discharge chamber 8 through the discharge holes 12 of the valve plate 9.
When the swash plate 24 moves toward the cylinder block 2 against a return spring 52, the inclination angle of the swash plate 24 decreases, and when the swash plate 24 moves away from the cylinder block 2 against a return spring 51, the inclination angle of the swash plate 24 increases.
In order to change the refrigerant discharge capacity, the inclination angle of the swash plate 24 is controlled to change the piston stroke. Based on a pressure difference (pressure balancing) between crank chamber pressure Pc at the rear side of the piston 29 and suction chamber pressure Ps at the front side of the piston 29, the inclination angle of the swash plate 24 is changed and the piston stroke is changed. Therefore, a pressure control mechanism is provided in the variable capacity compressor. The pressure control mechanism has a gas releasing passage (not shown) communicating the crank chamber 5 with the suction chamber 7 and a gas supplying passage (not shown) communicating the crank chamber 5 with the discharge chamber 8, and a control valve 33 provided in a middle of the gas supplying passage and configured to control to open and close the gas supplying passage.
Regardless of opening or closing of the control valve 33, refrigerant gas is released from the crank chamber 5 through the gas releasing passage into the suction chamber 7.
When the control valve 33 opens the gas supplying passage, high-pressure refrigerant gas flows from the discharge chamber 8 into the crank chamber 5 through the gas supplying passage, and thereby, the pressure in the crank chamber 5 rises. As the pressure in the crank chamber 5 rises, the swash plate 24 moves toward the cylinder block 2 and the inclination angle of the swash plate 24 decreases. Therefore, the piston stroke becomes small and the discharge amount of the compressor 1 decreases.
On the other hand, when the control valve 33 closes the gas supplying passage, the pressure difference between the suction chamber 7 and the crank chamber 5 reduces to be zero. Then, the swash plate 24 moves away from the cylinder block 2 to increase the inclination angle of the swash plate, the piston stroke becomes large and the discharge amount of the compressor 1 increases.
Next, a residual pressure release mechanism 70 will be explained.
The compressor of the present embodiment further includes communication holes 83 (
The residual pressure release mechanism 70 is provided on the rear side of the valve plate 9 (the rear housing 6 side of the valve plate 9). The residual pressure release mechanism 70 is provided with a rotary valve 71, a stopper 73 and an elastic member (in this embodiment, a coil spring 75 as a spring). The rotary valve 71, the stopper 73 and the coil spring 75 are arranged in the suction chamber 7 as shown in
The rotary valve 71 is formed with a cylindrical boss part 71a and a main part 71b outwardly extending from the boss part 71a and formed in a circular disk shape as shown in
The stopper 73 is formed with a cylindrical boss part 73a and a flange part 73b outwardly projected from the boss part 73a in a circular disk shape as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
When the rotary valve 71 which is in close contact with the valve plate 9 rotates with the drive shaft 10, the residual pressure release passage 71c on the rotary valve 71 rotates, and thereby, connections occur sequentially between one of the communication holes 83 which communicates with one of the cylinder bores 3 having finished a compression stroke (a discharge stroke) and another of the communication holes 83 which communicates with another of the cylinder bores 3 having lower-pressure than the one of the cylinder bores 3.
In particular, the valve plate 9 is formed with the communication holes 83 provided at positions facing to the regulation steps 59 of the cylinder bores 3. The residual pressure release passage 71c includes an inlet port 71f, an outlet port 71h, and a connection part 71g connecting the inlet port 71f and the outlet port 71h. The communication holes 83 are located on rotational tracks of the inlet port 71f and the outlet port 71h but out of a rotational track of the connection part 71g.
With this configuration, as the rotary valve 71 rotates, the inlet port 71f of the residual pressure release passage 71c connects with the communication hole 83 of one of the cylinder bores 3 having finished a compression stroke one by one, and the outlet port 71h of the passage 71c connects with the communication hole 83 of another of the cylinder bore 3 having lower-pressure than the one of the cylinder bores 3 one by one. Therefore, the high-pressure residual gas remaining in one of the cylinder bore 3 which has finished a discharge stroke flows into another of the cylinder bores 3 having lower-pressure than the one of the cylinder bores 3.
In this embodiment, the communication holes 83 of the valve plate 9 are penetrated from the bottoms of the annular grooves 11c which are formed around the suction holes 11.
Effect
Next, effects of this embodiment will be explained.
The compressor 1 of this embodiment includes the communication holes 83 extending through the valve plate 9 at the positions opposite to the regulation steps 59 of the cylinder bores 3 and connecting the cylinder bores 3 and the suction chamber 7, and the rotary valve 71 configured to rotate with the drive shaft 10 with covering the communication hole 83 of the valve plate 9 and be in rotational slide contact with the suction chamber side of the valve plate 9. The rotary valve 71 is formed with the residual pressure release passage 71c. As the rotary valve 71 rotates, the residual pressure release passage 71c interconnects by turns one of communication holes 83 of the valve plate communicating with one of the cylinder bores 3 having finished discharge and another of the communication holes 83 of the valve plate communicating with another of the cylinder bores 83 having lower pressure than the one of the cylinder bores having finished discharge.
Therefore, the high pressure residual gas which remained in the one of the cylinder bores 3 without being discharged out in a compression stroke thereof escapes from the one of the cylinder bores 3 (that is, a cylinder bore 3 in an early stage of a suction stroke) into another of the cylinder bores 3 having lower-pressure than the one of the cylinder bores 3 concerned (that is, a cylinder bore 3 in a early stages or a middle stage of a compression stroke). Thus, the reexpansion of the high pressure residual gas decreases in a suction stroke, and the suction efficiency improves.
Unlike the above-mentioned conventional art (for example, JP2005-163714), no openings are formed on an inner circumferential surface of the cylinder bore 3, so that good slide contact between the inner circumferential surface of the cylinder bores 3 and an outer circumferential surface of the piston 29 can be obtained.
Moreover, since the communication hole 83 of the valve plate 9 extends through the valve plate 9, the inside space of the communication hole 83 tends to be smaller than the conventional art (for example, JP2005-163714) which has communication holes extending through from a bearing hole at a center of a cylinder block to a cylinder bore provided around the bearing hole. Therefore, the suction efficiency improves further.
Furthermore, since the communication holes 83 of the valve plate 9 are provided at the positions opposite to the regulation steps 59, this configuration allows to use spaces 85 between the regulation steps 59 and the valve plate 9.
Moreover, in the compressor 1 of this embodiment, the annular grooves 11c are formed around the suction holes 11 on the front side of the valve plate 9 (the cylinder bore 3 side of the valve plate 9).
With the annular grooves 11c, the suction valves 57 easily open, and the suction efficiency further improves. And since the communication holes 83 are provided at the annular grooves 11c of the valve plates 9 (i.e., since the communication holes 83 are provided in thin portions of the valve plate 9), length of the communication holes 83 become small. Therefore, the suction efficiency further improves because the inside spaces of the communication holes 83 becomes smaller and dead volume becomes smaller.
The compressor 1 of the embodiment has the through hole 81 of the valve plate 9 to allow the drive shaft 10 extend into the suction chamber 7, so that the rotary valve 71 is directly or indirectly connected to the drive shaft 10 in the suction chamber 7 to rotate with the drive shaft 10.
Therefore, the rotary valve 71 and the drive shaft 10 rotates together with such a simple structure.
In the compressor 1 of this embodiment, the stopper 73 is provided which is fixed to the drive shaft 10 and configured to rotate with the drive shaft 10 in the suction chamber 7, and the rotary valve 71 is axially slidably and rotatably fitted to the drive shaft 10 and axially slidably and unrotatably connected to the stopper 73 such that the rotary valve 71 and the drive shaft 10 rotates as one unit. And the rotary valve 71 is biased towards the valve plate 9 by the elastic member 75 compressed between the stopper 73 and the rotary valve 71.
Therefore, the rotary valve 71 is in close contact to the valve plate 9 firmly. With this, the compression efficiency improves because the high pressure compression medium compressed within the cylinder bores 3 hardly leaks from the suction holes 11 of the cylinder bores 3, through clearance between the valve plate 9 and the rotary valve 71, into the suction chamber 7.
If the pressure in the cylinder bore 3 goes up extremely high, the rotary valve 71 lift up away from the valve plate 9, and the superfluous pressure in the cylinder bore 3 can be released out into the suction chamber 7. Therefore, the safety of the compressor 1 improves.
Moreover, the coil spring 75 does not touch the rear housing 6, so that vibration of the rotary valve 71 is prevented from being transmitted to the rear housing 6 through the coil spring 75. Thereby, the compressor 1 of this embodiment improves the vibration suppression.
In the embodiment, the stopper 73 of the coil spring 75 rotates with the rotary valve 71, it is unnecessary to provide a thrust bearing between the coil spring and the stopper or between the coil spring and the rotary valve. This brings about low cost manufacturing because such an expensive thrust bearing is unnecessary.
The present invention is not limited only to the embodiment described above.
First Modification
For example, the above embodiment has the residual pressure release passage which has one inlet port and one outlet port, but the residual pressure release passage may have two or more outlet ports 71h-1 and 71h-2 such as a modification shown in
Second Modification
The above embodiment has the communication holes 83 which penetrate from the bottoms of the annular grooves 11c recessed around the suction holes 11, but the communication holes 83 may be provided outside the annular grooves 11c like a modification of a valve plate 9 shown in
Third Modification
Even though the above embodiment has six cylinder bores 3, a modification shown in
Fourth Modification
In the above embodiment, the rotary valve 71 is rotatably and axially slidably fitted to the drive shaft 10 and is unrotatably and axially slidably connected to the stopper 73 so that the rotary valve 71 rotates with the drive shaft 10 as the rotary valve 71 is axially slidable with respect to the drive shaft. In the present invention, the rotary valve 71 may be axially slidably and unrotatably fitted to the drive shaft 10, without engaging with the stopper 73. For example, in case of directly transmitting the rotation of a drive shaft 10 to a rotary valve 71 without a stopper 73, the drive shaft 10 is provided with a slide guide portion having the same noncircular sectional shape as extending along the axial direction and the rotary valve 71 is provided with a fitting hole in which the slide guide portion is fitted, so that the rotary valve 71 can be axially slidably and unrotatably connected to the drive shaft 10. If the sectional shapes of the slide guide portion and the fitting hole are a regular polygon (for example, right hexagon) or a spline shape, etc., the slide guide portion and the fitting hole are easy to fabricate.
Fifth Modification
The above embodiment uses the swash plate (rotary cam plate 24); however the present invention can use a wobble plate (non-rotary cam plate).
Sixth Modification
In the above embodiment, the swash plate 24 is directly attached to the drive shaft 10, but the swash plate 24 may attached to the drive shaft 10 via a sleeve.
Seventh Modification
The connection mechanism 40 is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment.
The present invention can be implemented with various other modifications without departing from technical scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2006-203061 | Jul 2006 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP2007/064486 | 7/24/2007 | WO | 00 | 4/27/2009 |