1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a production method for producing offset-shaped fins, that are acquired by offsetting a corrugation shape of corrugate fins by roller molding, the offset-shaped fins produced by this production method, and a method, and an apparatus for the method, for changing the pitch of the offset-shaped fins that are produced in advance by roll molding, etc, particularly those which are used for inner fins of an oil cooler for a radiator, by increasing or decreasing the pitch to a desired pitch to be actually used.
2. Description of the Related Art
A stacked type heat exchanger that is produced by alternately stacking a plurality of conduit lines and corrugated fins (outer fins) to form a heat exchange core and causes heat exchange between a heat exchange fluid flowing inside the conduit lines and a heat exchange fluid flowing outside the conduit lines is well known. To improve heat transfer efficiency and performance of the heat exchanger in this case, it has been customary to arrange not only outer fins outside the conduit lines but also inner fins inside the conduit lines. Corrugated fins are sometimes used as inner fins in the same way as the outer fins but in this case, the corrugated fins merely increase the heat transfer area and the flow of the fluid inside the conduit lines is likely to become a laminar flow. Therefore, an improvement in heat transfer efficiency cannot be expected. To solve the problem, the construction shown in
Such offset-shaped fins can be processed by a complicated mold mechanism such as a blank holder in press molding and have therefore been produced in the past by intermittent press working shown in
In the offset-shaped fins used for heat exchangers, etc, however, adjacent crests and adjacent troughs of adjacent concavo-convex ridges connect to one another in a relatively long area (about a half of the crest or trough). For this reason, each concavo-convex ridge can be formed only by press machining and roll molding, capable of continuous bending, basically cannot be applied to this shape. When the concavo-convex ridge is formed by roll molding, the portion at which the adjacent crests or troughs connect to one another is pulled back and forth in the direction of the concavo-convex ridge extending and thus undergoes deformation. Another problem is that the material damages the rollers. Therefore, it has been ordinary knowledge that roll molding is difficult to practice.
A method that solves this problem and forms an offset-shaped fin by roll molding is known from Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-221588. The production method of the offset-shaped fins includes a first rolling step (
However, the system of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-221588 in which the offset portion is bent into the trapezoidal shape after processing by applying cutting and bending is limited to the case where the length T of the coupling portion A with the adjacent convex portion offset is smaller than the thickness t of the material as shown in
From the aspect of the reduction of the production cost and the installation area, there are many cases in recent years where products which have a complicated shape and have been produced in the past by press of intermittent working are produced by continuous working by roll molding. Particularly when offset-shaped fins, used for heat exchangers, etc, are roll molded, the tooth shape is not established if the pitch fin is too short because the inclination of the crest portion of the fin becomes too acute. Therefore, the working involving the steps of first processing fins having an offset shape of fin having a predetermined pitch length by roll molding and then reducing the pitch length again to the short fin pitch or increasing the pitch length to the long fin pitch, on the contrary. Furthermore, when a punching step is employed after the change of the fin pitch, suppression of variance of the fin pitch per crest is extremely important because the fin is put into a punching mold.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-63650 or 2002-254113 discloses a technology for reducing or expanding the fin pitch by means of the differences of friction and the number of revolutions of a plurality of sets of rollers. Each of these references can suppress the variance of the mean fin pitch per unit length but cannot suppress the variance of the fin pitch per crest.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-001026 discloses a technology for reducing or expanding the pitch by using a worm gear. Because the contact between the gear and the fin is a point contact, the technology is suitable for a corrugate fin having a small width, but cannot be easily applied to the offset-shaped fin having a large width.
When the fin pitch of the inner fins for a radiator, that have been produced in advance by roll molding, etc, is changed to a desired pitch at the time of the practical use as described above, the prior art technology involves the problem that offset-shaped fins having a large width cannot be reliably changed to the desired fin pitch while minimizing the variance of the fin pitch per crest.
In view of the problems described above, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a production method of offset-shaped fins having an offset shape by continuous roll molding without penetrating and breakage of a material, and the offset-shaped fins produced by this production method.
It is a second object of the invention to provide a pitch changing method, and a pitch changing apparatus, that can reliably reduce or expand a pitch of wide offset-shaped fins produced in advance by roll molding, etc, to a desired pitch, and can minimize variance of the fin pitch per crest.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a production method of offset-shaped fins including a first step of bending a flat sheet-like material 40A into a concavo-convex shape by a pair of first rollers 5 and 5′ having concavo-convex ridges 51 and 51′ formed on the surface thereof to form a corrugate sheet 40B; a second step of cutting slopes of the concavo-convex ridges 42 of the corrugate sheet by a pair of second rollers 6 and 6′ having cutting edges 61 and 61′ arranged in an offset arrangement to form an offset portion 43; and a third step of bending the offset portion 43 offset and cut in the second step by a pair of third rollers 7 and 7′ having concavo-convex ridges 71 and 71′ arranged in an offset arrangement on the surface thereof. Consequently, the offset-shaped fins 4 can be produced stably and continuously by roll molding without catch and breakage of the material and the production cost as well as the installation area can be reduced.
In the production method of the offset-shaped fins according to the invention, an offset amount D (see
In the production method of the offset-shaped fins according to the invention, gaps G (see
In the production method of the offset-shaped fins according to the invention, intermediate rollers 8 for guiding the sheet material under molding are arranged between the first roller 5, 5′ and the second roller 6, 6′ and between the second roller 6, 6′ and the third roller 7, 7′. Accordingly, the intermediate roller 8 guides the sheet material and can limit its movement, and stable roll molding of the offset-shaped fins 4 can be conducted.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there are provided offset-shape fins 4 produced by the production method of offset-shaped fins described above. Consequently, the offset-shaped fins 4 can be produce by roll molding in the same way as press molding.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pitch changing method of offset-shaped fins involving the steps of supplying offset-shaped fins between at least one pair of pitch changing rollers each having a tooth shape formed on an outer periphery thereof and rotating while meshing with the other so that at least one pair of pitch changing rollers clamps the offset-shaped fins between them, allows them to pass through the pitch changing rollers and changes their pitch, wherein each tooth shape of at least one pair of pitch changing rollers is substantially similar to a profile shape of a transverse section of the offset-shaped fins on each roller side in a traveling direction of the offset-shaped pins after the pitch change by one pair of pitch changing rollers.
According to still another aspect of the invention, there is provided a pitch changing apparatus of offset-shaped fins including at least one pair of pitch changing rollers each having a tooth shape formed on an outer periphery thereof and rotating while being meshed with the other so that at least one pair of pitch changing rollers clamps the offset-shaped fins between them, allows them to pass through the pitch changing rollers and changes their pitch, wherein each tooth shape of at least one pair of pitch changing rollers is substantially similar to a profile shape of a transverse section of the offset-shaped fins on each roller side in a traveling direction of the offset-shaped pins after the pitch change by one pair of pitch changing rollers.
According to the construction described above, each tooth shape of at least one pair of pitch changing rollers, in particular, is substantially similar to the profile shape of the transverse section of the offset-shaped fins on each roller side in the traveling direction of the offset-shaped pins after the pitch change by one pair of pitch changing rollers. Therefore, the pitch of the offset-shaped fins can be reliably changed to a predetermined and desired pitch by causing at least one pair of pitch changing rollers to clamp the offset-shaped fins between them, by passing the offset-shaped fins through the pitch changing rollers and by changing their pitch, and the variance of the pitch per crest can be suppressed to minimum. When the pitch changing method and the pitch changing apparatus according to the invention are combined with the production line of the offset-shaped fins by roll molding, the speed of production of the offset-shaped fins having a desired fin pitch and extremely little variance of the fin pitch per crest can be increased, and the production cost, the installation cost, installation area and the energy cost can be drastically reduced.
The present invention may be more fully understood from the description of preferred embodiments of the invention, as set forth below, together with the accompanying drawings.
A production method of offset-shaped fins according to the present invention and the offset-shaped fins produced by this production method will be explained hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In this case, it has been customary to insert and arrange inner fins 3 into the heat transfer tube 1, as shown in
Incidentally, it is also possible to use the offset-shaped fins 4 as the outer fins 2.
Next, a production method of the offset-shaped fins according to this embodiment will be explained.
The sheet material 40A processed into the corrugation shape sheet 40B in the first step is subsequently introduced between a pair of second rollers 6 and 6′ that are similarly arranged at up and down positions and the second lower roller 6 turns clockwise and the second upper roller 6 turns counter-clockwise. As shown in a partial enlarged view of
The corrugation shape sheet 40C offset and cut in the second step is subsequently introduced between a pair of third rollers 7 and 7′ that are similarly arranged at up and down positions and the third lower roller 7′ turns clockwise and the third upper roller 7 turns counter-clockwise. As shown in a partial enlarged view of
As explained above, in the production method of the offset-shaped fins according to this embodiment, cutting and bending of the offset portions 43 of the corrugation shape sheet 40B are the second and third steps, respectively. Consequently, roll molding can be carried out without penetrating the offset-shape fins 4 into the roller. Because the posture of the concavo-convex bond portions 41 offset does not change (remains flat) and deformation can be suppressed, breakage of the bond portions 41 can be suppressed and stable processing of the offset-shape fins 4 can be conducted. Peeling of the sheet material from the rollers 6 and 7 can be improved and penetrating and breakage of the sheet material can be suppressed by setting the offset amount D of the cutting edges 61 and 61′ to about the sheet thickness and by securing the gaps G between the bending teeth of the corrugation shapes 71 and 71′ that are arranged in the offset arrangement.
In the embodiment described above, the offset-shape fins 4 are produced through the three steps, that is, the first, second and third steps. However, the bending step into the corrugation shape as the first step can be omitted. In this case, bending into the corrugation shape and cutting of the offset portion are simultaneously carried out in the second step described above.
As explained above, as the present invention can produce the offset-shaped fins by roll molding, high speed processing of the offset-shaped fins becomes possible and a processing cost, an installation cost, an installation area and an energy cost can be drastically reduced.
Incidentally, the offset-shaped fins according to the invention can be appropriately used as the inner fins of an oil cooler, as a heat exchanger.
Next, a method for changing the pitch of the offset- shaped fins and an apparatus for the method will be explained with reference to FIGS. 11 to 14.
The offset-shaped fins shown in
More concretely, each tooth shape of the pair of pitch-changing rollers is shaped into a shape substantially similar to the profile shape of the transverse section of the offset-shaped fin in the traveling direction on the side of each roller after the pitch change by the pair of pitch changing rollers. Here, the term “profile shape of the transverse section of the offset-shaped fin in the traveling direction on the side of each roller” has the following meaning. In the transverse section of the offset portion shown in
The reason is as follows. If the direct reduction ratio is too great, the difference between the pitch P of the offset-shaped fin before it is supplied to the pitch changing rollers and the pitch of the offset-shaped fins outputted after reduction, that is, the difference of the tooth pitch between the pair of pitch changing rollers to clamp the fin, is so great that the rollers fail to satisfactorily clamp the offset-shaped fin but crush the fin. Therefore, when the pitch reduction amount is great, the process is preferably carried out, dividedly, as described above. When the fin pitch is lowered below the target pitch and is again returned to the target pitch Po, variance of the fin pitch P resulting from spring-back can be suppressed. These factors also hold true of the case where the fin pitch P is increased.
Turning back to
Incidentally, three pairs of pitch changing rollers are not always necessary. To reduce the pitch from a pitch P of 3.0 mm to a pitch P of 2.8 mm, for example, the pitch P may be reduced at a time by using only a pair of pitch changing rollers. In other words, the number of pairs of pitch changing rollers may be selected depending on the pitch P to be changed.
In the present invention having the construction described above, each tooth shape of at least one pair of pitch changing rollers has a shape substantially similar to the profile shape of the sectional shape in the traveling direction of the offset-shaped fins on the roller side after the pitch change by the pair of pitch changing rollers. Therefore, as the offset-shaped fins pass through at least one pair of pitch changing rollers while being clamped between the rollers, the pitch of the offset-shaped fins can be reliably changed to the desired pitch set in advance and variance of the fin pitch for each crest can be reduced to minimum. Eventually, when the pitch changing method and the pitch changing apparatus for the offset-shaped fins according to the present invention are combined with a production line of offset-shape fins by roll molding, the production of the offset-shaped fins having a desired fin pitch and extremely small variance of the fin pitch for each crest can be produced at a high speed by a continuous process, and the production cost, the installation cost and the energy cost can be drastically reduced.
While the invention has been described by reference to specific embodiments chosen for the purposes of illustration, it should be apparent that numerous modifications could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the basic concept and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2005-227035 | Aug 2005 | JP | national |
2005-288414 | Sep 2005 | JP | national |