Patent Grant
11400510
The present disclosure relates to a fin manufacturing apparatus and a fin manufacturing method.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a fin manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing flattened tube fins that are used, for example, in a heat exchanger. This manufacturing apparatus includes a press device, an inter-row slit device, a cutoff device, and a guide. The press device presses a thin metal plate to form, in the thin metal plate, cutaway portions for insertion of the flattened tubes. The inter-row slit device forms slits on the thin metal plate in which the cutaway portions are formed, thereby forming from the thin metal plate a plurality of strips arranged in the row direction. The cutoff device cuts each of the plurality of strips to a predetermined length. The guide is disposed between the inter-row slit device and the cutoff device and supplies the strips formed by the inter-row slit device to the cutoff device in a state in which the strips are separated from one another.
Patent Literature 1: Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2014-46329
Each of the strips formed by the inter-row slit device has an elongated shape, and thus has a relatively narrow width. This leads to lower rigidity of the strips. Furthermore, employing a configuration in which the openings for insertion of the flattened tubes open on one lateral side of each fin leads to a comb-like structure of the fin, thereby increasing the probability that the strips become caught during conveyance. This increases the probability that the strips curve and warp during conveyance by the guide and the probability that erroneous feeding by the guide occurs. This increases the probability that variance in the length occurs when the cutoff device cuts the strips to the predetermined length. Thus, the manufacturing device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 has difficulty in manufacturing high-quality fins.
The present disclosure is made in view of the above-describe circumstances, and an objective of the present disclosure is to provide a fin manufacturing apparatus and a fin manufacturing method that lower the probability of occurrence of the erroneous feeding and enable manufacturing of high-quality fins.
To achieve the aforementioned objective, a fin manufacturing apparatus according to the present disclosure is a fin manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing fins for attachment to a tube provided with a refrigerant path and includes a first cutting device, a second cutting device, a cutoff device, and a guiding device. The first cutting device forms, by forming in a plate body having thermal conductivity a plurality of openings for tube-insertion and a plurality of slits while leaving uncut portions, strips that each have openings of the plurality of openings along a longitudinal direction of the strip and are partially coupled to each other in a width direction. The second cutting device separates, by cutting the uncut portions via which the strips are coupled to each other, the strips such that each strip has a width of the fin. The cutoff device cuts the separated strips that each have the width of the fin to a predetermined length. The guiding device is disposed between the first cutting device and the second cutting device, and guides and supplies, to the second cutting device, the strips that are partially coupled to each other in the width direction, are arranged in the width direction, and are conveyed in the longitudinal direction.
According to the present disclosure, the strips are maintained partially coupled to each other via the uncut portions during conveyance by the guiding device from the first cutting device to the second cutting device. This allows the strips to have higher rigidity than that a single strip has, thereby lowering the probability that the strips curve and warp during conveyance in comparison to conveyance of the single strip. Thus, the fin manufacturing apparatus can achieve manufacturing of high-quality fins.
Hereinafter a flattened-tube-fin manufacturing apparatus and a flatted-tube-fin manufacturing method according to embodiments of the present disclosure are described.
As illustrated in
Refrigerant that exchanges heat with air flowing the fins 102 flows through the flattened tubes 101. The flattened tubes 101 include metal tubes forming a refrigerant flow path through which the refrigerant flows. Each of the flattened tubes 101 has a cross-sectional shape that is a flattened cartouche-like shape obtained by joining two circles of the same size by tangential straight lines.
The fins 102 are made of a thin metal plate having a rectangular parallelepiped shape. A plurality of cut-and-raised slits 105 is formed on a surface of each fin 102, and the cut-and-raised slits 105 open toward the direction in which the air flowing between the fins 102 flows, that is to say, in the short direction of the fins 102. Formation of the cut-and-raised slits 105 leads to splitting and refreshing of the thermal boundary layer on the surface of the fins 102, thereby improving the efficiency of heat exchange between air flowing between the fins 102 and each of the fins 102.
A plurality of openings 104 are formed, in each of the fins 102, at fixed intervals along the longitudinal direction of the fins 102. The openings 104 are portions into which the flattened tubes 101 are inserted, are formed along the longitudinal direction of the fins 102, and have a shape corresponding to an outline of the cross-sectional shape of the flattened tubes 101. In the present embodiment, the flattened tubes 101 have the elongated cartouche-like cross-sectional shape, and accordingly, the openings 104 are formed in the shape of the elongated cartouche.
Furthermore, in order to stack the plurality of fins 102 with a specific fin pitch, portions of the fins 102 corresponding to openings 103 are cut and raised. Each of the cut-and-raised portions contacts the adjacent fin 102, thereby achieving regular interval spacing between the fins 102.
Next, a manufacturing apparatus for, and manufacturing steps of, manufacturing the fins 102 included in the heat exchanger 100 having the above-described configuration are described.
The fins 102 in the description below have the openings 104 opening on one side in the width direction of the fins 102, which differentiates the fins 102 in the description below from those of
As illustrated in
The metal plate 10, which is a workpiece, is made of aluminum and is an unworked elongated thin metal plate body. As illustrated in
The numerical control (NC) feeder 50 intermittently feeds the metal plate 10 to the progressive pressing device 51 in synchrony with the operation of the progressive pressing device 51. More specifically, the NC feeder 50 includes a moving body that grips the metal plate 10 from the upper surface and the lower surface of the thin metal plate 10, and repeatedly performs, in synchrony with the operation of the progressive pressing device 51, the operation of gripping, moving to feed, releasing, and moving to return, thereby achieving intermittent feeding of the metal plate 10 to the progressive pressing device 51.
The progressive pressing device 51 includes a die device 52 and an inter-row slit device 53 along the feeding direction of the metal plate 10, in the order at the die device 52 and the inter-column slit device 53, and machines the metal plate 10 while performing intermittent feeding of the metal plate 10, thereby forming the strips 150. The progressive pressing device 51 further includes a feeding device 54 to perform the intermittent feeding of the metal plate 10.
The die device 52 performs a plurality of pressing steps by pressing the metal plate 10 using a plurality of dies. The pressing steps are performed as follows. As illustrated in
The inter-row slit device 53 is a device that cuts the metal plate 10 using dies. As illustrated in
The feeding device 54 of
The progressive pressing device 51 performs the above-described machining, thereby forming on the metal plate 10 four strips 150 arranged in the width direction, that is, in the row direction, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The strips 150 are conveyed in a state in which both sides of a buffer portion 57 corresponding to a sag are maintained while guiding by pressing at both sides by the guiding device 56. This absorbs the differences in conveying speeds and conveying timings between the progressive pressing device 51 and devices 59-61 described below.
The inter-row cutting device 59 of
The cutoff device 60 of
The stacking device 61 serves as a stacker of the fins 102. Specifically, the stacking device 61 performs suction-retention of the strips 150 each having an elongated shape, moves the strips 150 downward to a position at which stack bars 64 are provided after the cutoff device 60 cuts the strips 150 to a specific length to process the strips 150 into the fins 102, and stops the suction-retention to stack the processed fins 102 on the stack bars 64. Then, the fins 102 are further processed to have the shape illustrated in
A feeding device 62 of
Next, a method for manufacturing the fins 102 performed by the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 having the above-described configuration is described below with reference to
The metal plate 10 having an elongated shape is wound around a hoop-shaped reel (not illustrated) and is pulled out from the reel and intermittently fed by the NC feeder 50 into the progressive pressing device 51.
The die device 52 and the inter-row slit device 53, in synchrony with the operation of intermittently feeding the metal plate 10, perform pressing operation using dies.
The die device 52 forms the plurality of pilot holes 106 illustrated in
Furthermore, the die device 52 forms, every time the metal plate 10 is conveyed, the three circular opening holes 104a that are to serve as the end portions and central portion of the hole 104c for one hole 104c. Then, in the next pressing step, the die device 52 forms the opening holes 104b by straddling the three circular opening holes 104a formed in the metal plate 10. Then in the next pressing step, the die device 52 cuts and raises the areas in the vicinity of the opening holes 104b formed in the metal plate 10, thereby forming the opening holes 104c having the shape of the elongated hole. Then, in the next pressing step, the die device 52 forms the cut-and-raised slits 105 and the openings 103 in the metal plate 10.
The inter-row slit device 53 cuts the metal plate 10 by forming the slits 107a at positions dividing the metal plate 10 into strips each having the width of two fins 102 and trimming both sides of the metal plate 10 and the slits 107d at positions dividing the opening holes 104c having the shape of the elongated hole in the direction of the short axis thereof, as illustrated in
Performing successively and repeatedly the above-described machining in the progressive pressing device 51 enables processing of the metal plate 10 into the pair of the strips 150a and 150b coupled to each other via the uncut portions 108 and the pair of the strips 150c and 150d coupled to each other via the uncut portions 108. The slit 107a completely separates the pair of the strips 150a and 150b from the pair of strips 150c and 150d. The strips 150a, 150b, 150c and 150d forming the two pairs are formed such that the open ends of the openings 104 formed therein are adjacent and face one another.
The strips 150 formed by the inter-row slit device 53 are conveyed by the guiding device 56 in such a manner that both sides of each pair are held without the pairs formed by separating the strips 150 contacting each other, as illustrated in
Furthermore, as illustrated in
The strips 150 are guided by the guiding device 56 and conveyed, by the feed pins 65 of the feed roller 58 of
Again with reference to
The stacking device 61, in the state in which the fin 102 is suction-held, moves down to the position of the stack bars 64, and then stops the suction-retention to stack the fin 102 on the stack bars 64. The stack bars 64 may be inserted into the openings 104 of the fin 102 or may be inserted into the openings 103 of the fin 102. Repeating the above-described steps can achieve stacking of a specific number of the fins. Then, the fins 102 stacked on the stack bars 64 are conveyed to the next step.
The fin manufacturing apparatus 200 performs the above-described manufacturing steps, thereby manufacturing the fins 102 from the metal plate 10 having an elongated shape.
Here, the buffer portion 57 provided downstream of the progressive pressing device 51 allows the feed roller 58 and the feeding device 62 to have a feeding distance longer than a distance that the feeding device 54 can feed at one time. Thus, the feed roller 58 and the feeding device 62 may operate independently of the feeding device 54 or may operate in synchrony with the feeding device 54.
In the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 according to the present embodiment, the inter-row cutting device 59 is disposed near the cutoff device 60 and the stacking device 61; more specifically, the inter-row cutting device 59 is disposed immediately before the cutoff device 60. Thus, the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 can achieve conveying, to immediately before the cutoff device 60, the strips 150 including the pair of two strips 150a and 150b partially coupled to each other via the uncut portions 108 and the strips 150 including the pair of two strips 150c and 150d partially coupled to each other via the uncut portions 108. Each of the two pairs of strips 150 has rigidity higher than the rigidity that the single strip 150 has. Thus, the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 lowers the probability of occurrence of erroneous feeding of the strips 150, thereby achieving stable conveyance of the strips 150. Whereas feeding a single elongated strip that has a comb-like structure may lead to occurrence of erroneous feeding because such a strip has low rigidity, the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 has low probability of making a mistake in feeding and thus prevents occurrence of various problems such as deterioration in productivity caused by erroneous feeding. Furthermore, the strips 150 are arranged symmetrically and thus the center of gravity is located centrally, thereby preventing the strips 150 from twisting.
Furthermore, in the fin manufacturing apparatus 200, portions of the strips 150 that contact the guiding device 56 during conveyance of the strips 150 are not the openings 104 forming steps at the end portions of the fins 102 but rather are linearly-shaped end portions. This lowers frictional resistance of the strips 150 in the guiding device 56. As a result, the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 enables prevention of damage to the strips 150 caused by friction in the guiding device 56.
The feed pins 65 of the feed roller 58 and the feed pins 63 of the feeding device 62 are inserted into the pilot holes 109 to convey the strips 151. Furthermore, the stack bars 64 of the stacking device 61 are inserted into the pilot holes 109 to stack the fins 102 formed by cutting the strips 151 using the inter-row cutting device 59 and the cutoff device 60. In the present disclosure, the pilot hole 109 is also termed “a pilot hole for insertion of a pin for conveyance”.
Employing the above-described configuration, which includes inserting the feed pins into the pilot holes 109 to convey the strips 151, leads to less probability that deformation of the strips 151 occurs than the probability that deformation of the strip 150 occurs in employing a configuration in which the feed pins are inserted into the openings 103 or the openings 104. This allows the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 to achieve more stable conveyance than in Embodiment 1. Furthermore, employing the pilot holes 109 enables easier stacking of the fins 102 on the stack bars 94 of the stacking device 61 because inserting the stack bars 64 into the pilot holes 109 each having a circular shape can be performed easier than inserting the stack bars 64 into the openings 103 or the openings 104.
Employing such configuration enables forming of the fins 102 that have improved water drainage and improved heating performance.
Employing such configuration leads to reduction of burden on the inter-row cutting device 59 in cutting the uncut portions 108, thereby prolonging working life of the fin manufacturing apparatus 200.
Employing the above-described configuration leads to forming of the uncut portions 111 at the portions of the strips 154 near the heads of the areas that each serve as the fin, thereby enabling the strips 154 to have rigidity higher than that the single strip 154 has. This allows the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 to convey highly rigid strips 154 to immediately before the cutoff device 60. Thus, the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 can achieve stable conveyance without the occurrence of erroneous feeding. Furthermore, various conventional problems caused by erroneous feeding can be eliminated. Furthermore, cutting operation performed by the inter-row cutting device 59 of the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 can be simplified, and thus the inter-row cutting device 59 can have simple configuration. Furthermore, the burden on the inter-row cutting device 59 in performing cutting can be reduced, and thus working life of the fin manufacturing device 200 can be prolonged.
Although the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 delimits the product length L based on the central portions of the openings 104 corresponding to the cutting positions 112 as illustrated in
Furthermore, the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 according to Embodiment 5 can have simple configuration, because the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 according to Embodiment 5 cuts only one uncut portion 111 to obtain one fin 102 whereas the inter-row cutting device 59 according to the embodiments other than Embodiment 5 cuts a plurality of the uncut portions 108 to obtain one fin 102. Arranging the simplified function of the inter-row cutting device 59 in the stacking device 61 enables conveyance of, to the stacking device 61, a plurality of the strips 154 that is obtained by performing cutting at the cutting positions 112 using the cutoff device 60, has a width equal to the width of two tube-fin and is provided near the head thereof the uncut portion 111. Thus, the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 can convey the strips 154 to the stacking device 61 in a stable state.
Although the progressive pressing device 51 of the fin manufacturing apparatus 200 according to Embodiment 1 includes the inter-row slit device 53, the inter-row slit device 53 may be any other cutting device that can cut the metal plate 10 into the shape described in Embodiment 1. A fin manufacturing apparatus 300 according to Embodiment 6 is an apparatus that includes a roll cutting device 66.
The roll cutting device 66 performs cutting that the inter-row slit device 53 described in Embodiment 1 performs. Specifically, the roll cutting device 66 includes two roll-shaped cutting blades disposed in the vertical direction to sandwich the metal plate 10. The roll cutting device 66 rotates these cutting blades in synchrony with the operation of the progressive pressing device 51. Thus, the roll cutting device 66 cuts the metal plate 10 when portions of the metal plate 10 at which the slits 107a and the slits 107d are to be formed reach the cutting position. When portions of the metal plate 10 corresponding to the uncut portions 108 reach the cutting position, the roll cutting device 66 drives the cutting blade provided upward or downward from the metal plate 10 in the vertical direction so as not to cut the metal plate 10. As a result, the roll cutting device 66 cuts the metal plate 10 into the shape described in Embodiment 1.
The above-described configuration, which includes roll-shaped cutting blades that rotate, prevents occurrence of wear only at specific portions of the cutting blades included in the roll cutting device 66. Thus, the cutting blades included in the roll cutting device 66 are less subject to wear than cutting blades that are included in the inter-row slit device 53 and in which only a specific portion is used by the inter-row slit device 53 to perform cutting. As a result, working life of the fin manufacturing apparatus 300 can be prolonged. Furthermore, the cutting blades of the fin manufacturing apparatus 300 merely rotate, and thus a driving unit that drives the cutting blades of the fin manufacturing apparatus 300 can be smaller than a driving unit included in the inter-row slit device 53. As a result, the progressive pressing device 51 of the fin manufacturing apparatus 300 can be miniaturized, and manufacturing cost can be reduced.
Although embodiments of the present disclosure are described above, these embodiments are examples, and thus the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments. For example, the uncut portions 108 of the present disclosure are not limited to the shape, arrangement and number of the uncut portions 108 described in the above-described embodiments. Per the present disclosure, any configuration may be employed by which the progressive pressing device 51 forms a plurality of the openings 104 for tube-insertion in the metal plate 10 and forms a plurality of the slits 105 while leaving the uncut portions 108. Thus, any shape, arrangement and number of the uncut portions 108 that can achieve the configuration may be employed.
Furthermore, although the above-described embodiments describe examples in which two strips are coupled to each other via uncut portions, the uncut portions may be formed such that three strips or more are arranged in the width direction and are partially coupled to the adjacent strip via the uncut portions. Furthermore, although the above-described embodiments describe examples of forming fins from aluminum metal, the material of the fin 102 is not particularly limited to aluminum metal and may be other material that has high thermal conductivity. For example, the material may be an aluminum alloy or a carbon material.
The structure of each fin 102 is not limited to the structure described in the embodiments, and may be another structure. For example, the fin 102 may have a shape, such as the shape as illustrated in
Although a flattened tube is described as an example of the tube 101, the tube 101 may have any cross-sectional shape that allows refrigerant to flow through the inside of the tube 101. The tube 101 may have, for example, a circular, oval or polygonal cross-sectional shape.
Although an example of employing the inter-row slit device 53 and the inter-row cutting device 59 to cut the metal plate by pressing is described, any other cutting mechanism that can achieve cutting of the metal plate may be employed. For example, a cutting mechanism using a blade, a laser, or the like, may be employed.
The foregoing describes some example embodiments for explanatory purposes. Although the foregoing discussion has presented specific embodiments, persons skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. This detailed description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the invention is defined only by the included claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2017-249159, filed on Dec. 26, 2017, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP2017-249159 | Dec 2017 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2018/046778 | 12/19/2018 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2019/131377 | 7/4/2019 | WO | A |
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