Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Jan Lu

Harry E Eustice

Edwin J Stanke

Michael M Arvaneh

Klaus Philipps

A refrigerant expansion assembly, and method of operation, for use in a vehicle air conditioning system is disclosed. The assembly has a main body including an orifice inlet port, an orifice outlet port, an orifice channel extending between the orifice inlet and outlet ports and including a fixed orifice, an upstream bypass channel extending from the orifice channel between the orifice inlet port and the fixed orifice and including a valve seat, and a downstream bypass channel extending from the orifice channel between the fixed orifice and the orifice outlet port. A bypass valve flange extends from the main body, forming a bypass chamber connected to the upstream bypass channel and the downstream bypass channel, with the ball valve seat adjacent to the bypass chamber. A check ball mounts in the bypass chamber adjacent to the valve seat, and a spring biases the check ball into the valve seat.

Refrigerant expansion assembly with pressure relief

A refrigerant expansion assembly, and method of operation, for use in a vehicle air conditioning system is disclosed. An orifice channel connects an orifice inlet port to an orifice outlet port and includes a valve seat. A variable orifice assembly is mounted in the orifice channel and includes a fixed orifice passage extending axially through a variable orifice body having a sealing flange that can seal against a valve seat via an orifice spring. An orifice bypass valve includes a check ball biased against a ball seat by a bypass spring and selectively allows some of the refrigerant to bypass the variable orifice assembly. The refrigerant expansion assembly may also include a burst disk downstream of the variable orifice assembly.

Variable refrigerant expansion device with pressure relief

A wrench for tightening threaded male and female pipe nuts includes a wrench gear rotatable within a housing and having a nut slot so that the wrench gear can be engaged upon one of the nuts. A pair of pinion drive gears engage with gear teeth of the wrench gear at spaced apart locations on the periphery so that at least one of the pinion drive gears is engaged with the wrench gear at all times during rotation of the wrench gear to tighten the one nut. A nut holding plate has a nut slot and is mounted on the housing by a pin and slot arrangement so that the nut holding plate can shift to enable the nut holding plate to be engaged upon the other nut and hold the other nut stationary while the wrench gear is rotated to tighten the one nut.

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Troy, MI, United States of America

Jan Lu