Showa Aluminum Kabushiki Kaisha

Katsuhisa Suzuki

Toshinori Tokutake

Hirosaburo Hirano

Wataru Ouchi

Ryoichi Hoshino

Hironaka Sasaki

Masayoshi Okamoto

A tube for heat exchangers is a flat tube which either includes a pair of plane walls which are spaced a predetermined distance from one another, the plane walls respectively having one lateral ends integrally connected to each other by a U-shaped bent portion, the plane walls further having their other lateral ends which abut against to be tightly secured to one another, or alternatively, the flat tube includes as the plane walls a pair of preformed plates having the abutted and soldered portions at both lateral ends. The tube further includes one or more curved lugs integral with and protruding inwardly from an inner surface of each plane wall, and the curved lugs respectively having innermost tops so that the innermost tops protruding from one plane wall bear against the inner surface of the other plane wall or against the innermost tops of the other curved lugs protruding from said other plane wall. The tube is thus of an improved pressure resistance despite its minimized height or thickness, and the manufacturing process of the tube involves no difficulty to produce the tubes at a high productivity and lower manufacturing cost.

Tube for heat exchangers and a method for manufacturing the tube

A tube for heat exchangers is a flat tube which either comprises a pair of plane walls which are spaced a predetermined distance from one another, the plane walls respectively having lateral ends integrally connected to each other by a U-shaped bent portion, the plane walls further having other lateral ends which abut against and are tightly secured to one another, or alternatively, the flat tube comprises a pair of preformed plates having abutted and soldered portions at both lateral ends. The tube further comprises one or more curved lugs integral with and protruding inwardly from an inner surface of each plane wall, and the curve lugs respectively have innermost tops so that the innermost tops protruding from one plane wall bear against the inner surface of the other plane wall or against the innermost tops of the other curved lugs protruding from said other plane wall. Th tube is thus of an improved pressure resistance despite its minimized height or thickness, and the manufacturing process of the tube permits the production of tubes at a high productivity and lower manufacturing cost.

A heat exchanger includes a heat exchanger body and fasteners used to mount the body on an automobile or the like. The heat exchanger body comprises flat tubes and fin members alternatingly stacked on each other and a pair of hollow headers, with the ends of each tube being connected in fluid communication with the headers. Each fastener comprises a contacting concave portion with a shape which allows it to fit on an outer peripheral surface of a header, a hooking portion protruding from an end of the concave portion, and a fastening portion extending outwardly from another end of the concave portion. The concave portion is placed in close contact with the peripheral surface of the header, with a hook end of the hooking portion being inserted in between two adjacent tubes. The fasteners are soldered to the heat exchanger body and become integral with it.

Heat exchanger

An evaporator is provided having a core portion with an inlet and an outlet; a fluid path for allowing a cooling fluid to pass through, the path being formed in a zigzag form so that the fluid passes through the core portion at least three times; and the fluid path having an increasingly large cross-sectional area from the inlet toward the outlet.

Growing community of inventors

Utsunomiyashi, Japan

Katsuhisa Suzuki