Carrier Corporation

Robert H L Chiang

Neelkanth S Gupte

Steven J Spencer

Daniel P Gaffaney

Xin Liu

A heat transfer tube (,) for use in an application, such as a shell and tube type air conditioning system condenser, in which a fluid flowing through the heat exchanger external to the tubes condenses by transfer of heat to a cooling fluid flowing through the tubes. The tube has at least one fin convolution (,) extending helically around its external surface (,). A pattern of notches (,) extends at an oblique angle (&agr;) across the fin convolutions at intervals about the circumference of the tube. There is a spike (,) between each pair of adjacent notches. The fin convolution, notches and spikes are formed in the tube by rolling the wall of the tube between a mandrel and, first, a gang of finning disks (,) and, second, a notching wheel (,). Because, during the manufacture of the tube, of the interaction of the rotating and advancing tube and the notching wheel, the angle (&bgr;) of inclination of the axis of the tip of the spike is oblique with respect to the notch angle. The maximum width (W,) of the spike is greater than the width (W,) of the proximal portion of the fin convolution.

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Manlius, NY, United States of America

Robert H L Chiang