The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 07, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 05, 1998
Masaya Tanaka, Anjo, JP;
Hiroshi Ishikawa, Hazu-gun, JP;
Satoshi Itoh, Kariya, JP;
Kunio Iritani, Anjo, JP;
Denso Corporation, Kariya, JP;
Abstract
A refrigerant cycle system includes a gas-liquid separator for separating gas-liquid refrigerant into gas refrigerant and liquid refrigerant. The gas-liquid separator has a liquid-suction pipe for introducing liquid refrigerant from the gas-liquid separator to a decompressing unit, and a gas-suction pipe for introducing gas refrigerant from the gas-liquid separator to a compressor. The gas-suction pipe has a suction hole for sucking liquid refrigerant therein, and the suction hole is provided at a position lower than an open end of the liquid-suction pipe. Because a height of a surface of liquid refrigerant in the gas-liquid separator is constantly equal to or higher than the open end of the liquid-suction pipe regardless of change in a heating load of the refrigerant cycle, liquid refrigerant is constantly sucked into the gas-suction pipe from the suction hole. Thus, liquid refrigerant in which lubricating oil is dissolved can be constantly introduced into the compressor, thereby preventing shortage of lubricating oil in the compressor. On the other hand, in the refrigerant cycle, an oil-discharging mode is selectively set at a starting time of a heating mode so that lubricating oil staying in an evaporator is discharged. Therefore, lubricating oil is sufficiently returned to the compressor even when the heating mode is switched from a cooling mode.