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:
Mar. 09, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 18, 2002
Hyeong-Joon Seo, Suwon, KR;
Gyoo-Ha Jung, Suwon, KR;
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Suwon, KR;
Abstract
An air conditioner and method of detecting a refrigerant leakage in the air conditioner in which the entire refrigerant pipe of the air conditioner is sectioned based on expansion valves into a plurality of sections, the sections are checked one by one to quickly detect a refrigerant leakage from the sections and an exact position of a broken or loosened area of the refrigerant pipe causing such a refrigerant leakage is found. In the method of detecting a refrigerant leakage in the air conditioner, comprising a compressor, an expansion valve, an outdoor heat exchanger, and an indoor heat exchanger connected to one another by a refrigerant pipe, the refrigerant pipe is sectioned into a high pressure section extending from the outlet port of the compressor to the inlet port of the expansion valve, and a low pressure section extending from the outlet port of the expansion valve to the inlet port of the compressor. A pressure sensor is provided on the refrigerant pipe within the low pressure section. A control unit detects a refrigerant leakage in the low pressure section by comparing a variation in refrigerant pressure sensed by the pressure sensor with a preset variation in the refrigerant pressure in accordance with a normal operation without the refrigerant pipe having a refrigerant leakage, during a refrigerant leakage detection mode.