Patent Application
20180080681
This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0121484 filed on Sep. 22, 2016, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosures of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to an outdoor unit of an air conditioner having a control box to transmit power and electric signals.
In general, an air conditioner is an apparatus including a refrigeration cycle. In such the air conditioner, there is a separate type air conditioner including an indoor unit disposed in an indoor space and an outdoor unit disposed in an outdoor space.
The outdoor unit of the air conditioner includes an outdoor heat exchanger to exchange heat with outdoor air, a compressor to compress refrigerant, a housing to accommodate the outdoor heat exchanger, and a control box disposed at one side of the housing to receive a connection terminal through which power and electric signals are transmitted to the outdoor unit.
The control box is formed of a metal material in consideration of fire resistance. As described above, since the control box provided with the connection terminal, electromagnetic noise is inevitably generated in the control box.
It is an aspect of the present disclosure to provide an outdoor unit of an air conditioner capable of more efficiently discharging electromagnetic noise generated in a control box of an outdoor unit to the air.
In accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, an outdoor unit of an air conditioner includes an outdoor heat exchanger to exchange heat with outdoor air, a housing to accommodate the outdoor heat exchanger, a control box disposed on one side of the housing and formed of metal material, and an current carrying path to electrically connect the control box and the outdoor heat exchanger.
The current carrying path may further include a base plate made of a metal material, a valve plate made of a metal material disposed on a lower side of the control box and configured to contact the base plate, and a metal tape having one end attached to the control box and the other end attached to the valve plate.
The current carrying path may further include a base plate made of a metal material and a metal tape having one end attached to the control box and the other end attached to the base plate.
The outdoor unit according may further include a compressor to compress a refrigerant, and the current carrying path may further include a base plate made of a metal material, and a partition wall made of a metal and provided on the base plate to partition a space inside the housing into a space for the outdoor heat exchanger and a space for the compressor.
The outdoor unit may further include a connection clip formed of a metal material to electrically connect the outdoor heat exchanger and the partition wall.
The outdoor heat exchanger may include a pair of headers each formed in a hollow tube shape and a plurality of tubes arranged in parallel to each other between the pair of headers, and the outdoor unit may further include a mount bracket installed on an upper end of at least one of the pair of headers and fixed to the housing, and a connection clip installed on the mount bracket and electrically connecting the header and the partition wall.
The header may include a plurality of dividers spaced apart from one another to divide the inner space of the header, and the connection clip may include a contact portion configured to enter into the header and contacts the divider, and a support portion supported by the mount bracket.
The mount bracket may include a boss portion protruded from one side thereof and to which a screw is coupled, the support portion may include a support hole to support the boss portion inside, and the partition wall is fixed to the mount bracket by the screw coupled to the boss portion.
The mount bracket may be made of a resin material.
The outdoor heat exchanger may be made of an aluminum material.
The current carrying path may include a wire connecting the connection clip and the control box.
The housing may include a side plate formed in a rectangular shape with a front surface opened and installed on the base plate, a front plate installed on a front surface of the side plate, and a top plate installed on the side plate and the front plate, and the side plate, the front plate, and the top plate may be made of a resin material.
These and/or other aspects of the disclosure will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the exemplary embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The present disclosure will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying figures, in which exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure.
Parts which are not associated with the description are omitted in order to specifically describe the present disclosure, and like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, but elements are not limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. For example, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, a first element may be termed as a second element, and a second element may be termed as a first element. The term of “and/or” includes a plurality of combinations of relevant items or any one item among a plurality of relevant items.
Hereinafter embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to drawings. In the following detailed description, the terms of “upper side”, “lower side”, “left side”, “right side”, “horizontality”, “verticality” and the like may be defined by the drawings, but the shape and the location of the component is not limited by the term.
Referring to
The indoor unit 10 includes an indoor heat exchanger (not shown) to exchange heat with indoor air, an indoor blowing fan (not shown) to suction and blow indoor air so as to pass the indoor air through the indoor heat exchanger, and an expansion valve (not shown) to decompress and expand the refrigerant.
Referring to
Referring to
Each of the headers 211 is formed in a substantially hollow tube shape and extends vertically. A plurality of dividers 211a (see
The tube 212 has a flat plate shape, and a plurality of channels (not shown) to guide the refrigerant is provided inside the tube 212.
Both the pair of headers 211 and the tubes 212 forming the outdoor heat exchanger 21 are made of metal material to facilitate heat exchange and heat transfer. In this embodiment, the outdoor heat exchanger 21 is entirely made of aluminum.
Referring to
The mount bracket 25 includes a body portion 251 fixed to the housing 24 through a screw, and a mounting portion 252 formed in a hollow tube shape and in which the header 211 is installed. A radial one side of the mounting portion 252 is opened so that the tube 212 may be installed through. Therefore, the outdoor heat exchanger 21 is fixed to the housing 24 through the mount brackets 25.
The mount bracket 25 is made of a resin material so that the outdoor heat exchanger 21 is fixed to the housing 24 while a transmission of the vibration generated in the outdoor heat exchanger 21 to the housing 24 is reduced.
Referring again to
The side plate 243 includes a suction port (not shown) through which the outdoor air is suctioned, and the front plate 244 includes a discharge port 244a through which the air heat exchanged with the outdoor heat exchanger 21 is discharged to the outdoor space.
Referring to
The control box 246 receives a connection terminal (not shown) to which wire for power and electric signal transmission is connected. The side plate 243 includes an opening for a worker to connect the wire to the connection terminal at an outside of the housing 24. At the side plate 243, a cover 247 (see
The base plate 241, the partition wall 242, and the valve plate 248 of the housing 24 are formed of a metal material in consideration of the strength. The control box 246 and the cover 247 are formed of a metal material in consideration of fire resistance. In this embodiment, the base plate 241, the partition wall 242, the valve plate 248, the control box 246, and the cover 247 are each formed of a steel material.
The outdoor unit 20 is disposed in an outdoor space and exposed to rain or snow, and thus the side plate 243, the front plate 244 and the top plate 245 are made of a resin material. Therefore, the resin material which does not corrode is used. When the side plate 243, the front plate 244 and the top plate 245 of the outdoor unit 20 are made of the resin material, a weight of the outdoor unit 20 is reduced and easily transported and installed.
As described above, when the outdoor heat exchanger 21 made of an aluminum material and the base plate 241 made of steel are directly contact with each other, galvanic corrosion may occur at a portion directly in contact with the base plate 241.
However, the outdoor heat exchanger 21 is installed on the base plate 241 through the mount bracket 25 formed of the resin material. Therefore the direct contact between the outdoor heat exchanger 21 and the base plate 241 and galvanic corrosion are prevented.
As described above, the control box 246 is formed of a metal material and a connection terminal to connect wire is disposed in the control box 246. Therefore, electromagnetic waves and electromagnetic interference (EMI) may inevitably occur in the control box 246.
Therefore, in order to prevent an occurrence of electromagnetic interference, the outdoor unit 20 of the air conditioner is provided with a current carrying path, or conductor, to electrically connect the control box 246 and the outdoor heat exchanger 21, so that the electromagnetic noise generated from the control box 246 is discharged to the air.
That is, the electromagnetic noise generated in the control box 246 is transmitted to the outdoor heat exchanger 21 having a very large contact area with the air through the current carrying path, so that the electromagnetic noise is discharged to the air through the outdoor heat exchanger 21.
Referring to
Referring to
In this embodiment, the connection clip 26 is installed on the mount bracket 25 provided at an upper end of the header 211 adjacent to the partition wall 242. The connection clip 26 has a contact portion 261 which enters an inside of the header 211 and contacts the divider 211a of the header 211, and a support portion 262 supported on one side of the mount bracket 25.
The mount bracket 25 has a boss portion 251a provided at one side thereof and to which a screw for fixing the partition wall 242 is coupled, and the support portion 262 has a support hole 262a to which the boss portion 251a is inserted and supported.
Therefore, when the connection clip 26 is mounted on the mount bracket 25, the connection portion 261 is connected to the divider 211a of the header 211, and the boss 251a is inserted into the support hole 262a. When the upper end of the partition wall 242 is fixed to the boss portion 251a through the screw in this state, the support portion 262 of the connection clip 26 closely contacts the partition wall 242 and is electrically connected to the connection clip 26.
In this embodiment, the valve plate 248 made of a metal material is disposed below the control box 246, and the valve plate 248 is installed so as to contact the base plate 241. An upper end of the metal tape 249 is attached to the control box 246 and a lower end of the metal tape 249 is attached to the valve plate 248.
The current carrying path is formed between the control box 246 and the outdoor heat exchanger 21 by the metal tape 249, the valve plate 248, the base plate 241, the partition wall 242 and the connection clip 26.
The electromagnetic noise generated in the control box 246 passes through the metal tape 249, the valve plate 248, the base plate 241, the partition wall 242 and the connection clip 26 and transmitted to the outdoor heat exchanger 21. The electromagnetic noise is discharged from the outdoor heat exchanger 21 to the outdoor air passing through the outdoor heat exchanger 21.
In this embodiment, the current carrying path is formed by the connection clip 26, the partition wall 242, the base plate 241, the valve plate 248, and the metal tape 249, but not limited thereto. Referring to
In this embodiment, the valve plate 248 made of a metal material is disposed below the control box 246, and the current carrying path includes the valve plate 248, but this is an example. One end of a metal tape may be attached to the control box 246 and the other end of the metal tape may be attached to the base plate 241 so that the control box 246 may be electrically connected to the base plate 241 only through the metal tape.
As is apparent from the above, the air conditioner according to one aspect of the present disclosure, the current carrying path is formed between the control box and the outdoor heat exchanger disposed in the outdoor unit, so that the electromagnetic noise generated in the control box is transmitted to the outdoor heat exchanger and is discharged to the air through the outdoor heat exchanger.
The present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described above, and it should be clear to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications thereto are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the changes and modifications fall within the scope of the appended claims of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2016-0121484 | Sep 2016 | KR | national |
