US20050109489A1

US20050109489A1 - Attachment structure of blower

Info

Publication number: US20050109489A1
Application number: US10/969,199
Authority: US
Inventors: Toyoaki Kobayashi
Original assignee: Denso Corp
Current assignee: Denso Corp
Priority date: 2003-10-23
Filing date: 2004-10-20
Publication date: 2005-05-26
Also published as: FR2861440A1; CN1609421A; DE102004051137A1; JP2005127220A

Abstract

A blower is attached to a heat exchanger through an attachment member. One of the heat exchanger and the attachment member has at least one engagement portion which is detachably engaged by an elastic deformation with a hole portion provided in other one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member. At least one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is deformed before the engagement portion is engaged with the hole portion, and is deflected and reformed when the engagement portion engages with the hole portion. Accordingly, a counteractive force due to a deflection is applied to the attachment member, to be pressed to the heat exchanger. Therefore, a relative movement between the attachment member and the heat exchanger can be restricted, even if a gap is formed therebetween when the attachment member is attached to the heat exchanger.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-363476 filed on Oct. 23, 2003, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an attachment structure for attaching a blower to a heat exchanger. The blower is provided to blow air to the heat exchanger, for example, a radiator in a vehicle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Generally, a blower is attached to a radiator of a vehicle through an attachment member such as a shroud. Protruding portions provided in the radiator are inserted into U-shape grooves provided in the shroud at lower attachment positions of the shroud, so that the shroud is attached to the radiator (for example, refer to JP-A-11-229878). The shroud is fixed to the radiator (i.e., heat exchanger) by using bolts at two upper attachment positions.
The shroud is disposed to shroud a gap between the blower and the radiator, thereby restricting an air flow induced by the blower from bypassing the radiator. Therefore, a cooling capacity of the radiator can be increased.
However, in the attachment structure referring to JP-A-11-229878, fastening members such as the bolts and nuts are necessary in addition to the radiator, the blower and the shroud. As a result, it takes longer time for attaching the blower and for classifying the attachment structure of the blower when being recycled. Therefore, a recycling performance of the attachment structure is deteriorated.
An attachment structure, in which the blower is attached to the radiator without using the bolts or the nuts, is proposed in JP-A-2002-4861. In this attachment structure, protruding portions, which protrude from the radiator, fit with recessed portions provided in the shroud, so that a vertical load (i.e., self-weight) applied to the blower is received by the shroud. Furthermore, engagement protruding portions, which protrude from the radiator, engage with engagement hole portions provided in the shroud, so that a horizontal load (i.e., exciting force) applied to the blower is received by the shroud. However, in this attachment structure, a gap may be formed between the engagement protruding portion and the engagement hole portion due to a dimension difference of the engagement protruding portion, when the shroud is attached to the radiator. In this case, the shroud may be moved relative to the radiator.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above-described problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an attachment structure for attaching a blower to a heat exchanger (e.g. radiator) through an attachment member (e.g. shroud) while a relative movement between the attachment member and the heat exchanger can be restricted.
According to the present invention, an attachment structure includes a heat exchanger for heat-exchanging between air and a fluid therein, a blower for blowing air to the heat exchanger, and an attachment member through which the blower is attached to the heat exchanger. In the attachment structure, one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member has at least one engagement portion, and the engagement portion is detachably engaged by an elastic deformation with a hole portion which is provided in other one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member. In addition, at least one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is deformed before the engagement portion is engaged with the hole portion, and is deflected and reformed due to deformation when the engagement portion engages with the hole portion.
Alternatively, in an attachment structure of the present invention, the heat exchanger has a fitting surface that is arranged opposite to a fitting surface of the attachment member when the engagement portion engages with the hole portion, and one of the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is bent to be tilted with respect to other one of the fitting surfaces before the engagement portion is engaged with the hole portion.
Accordingly, when the attachment member is attached to the heat exchanger, at least one of the attachment member and the heat exchanger has a deflection, so that a counteractive force is applied to the one of the attachment member and the heat exchanger. As a result, the one of the attachment member and the heat exchanger is pressed to the other one of the attachment member and the heat exchanger. Accordingly, even if a gap is formed between the engagement portion and the hole portion when being assembled, the attachment member is not removed from the heat exchanger.
Preferably, when the engagement portion engages with the hole portion, at least one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is deflected and reformed so that the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member becomes approximately parallel to each other.
For example, at least three the engagement portions are arranged in a line in an arrangement direction perpendicular to an air flowing direction of the heat exchanger, and the one of the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is bent to have a convex shape at an approximate middle area in the arrangement direction before the engagement portion is engaged with the hole portion. The one of the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member can be bent to have a v-shape or a wave shape before the engagement portion is engaged with the hole portion.
Further, the one of the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member can be provided on the attachment member. In addition, the engagement portion can be provided in the heat exchanger, and the hole portion can be provided in the attachment member.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a front view showing a radiator and blowers attached to the radiator by using an attachment structure according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view of the attachment structure at a lower attachment position according to the preferred embodiment, and FIG. 2B is a partial enlarged sectional view taken along a line IIB-IIB in FIG. 2A;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the attachment structure at an upper attachment position according to the preferred embodiment;
FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C are cross-sectional views showing a attaching process of the attachment structure at the upper attachment position according to the preferred embodiment;
FIG. 5 is a disassembled cross-sectional view showing characteristics of the attachment structure according to the preferred embodiment;
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing characteristics of the attachment structure according to the preferred embodiment; and
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing characteristics of an attachment structure in a comparison example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described referring to FIGS. 1-6. In this preferred embodiment, an attachment structure of the present invention is typically used for attaching a blower 20 to a radiator 10 in a vehicle. FIG. 1 is a front view of the radiator 10 and the blower 20 when viewed from a downstream air side to an upstream air side. In this embodiment, the blower 20 is a drawing-type blower disposed on the downstream air side with respect to the radiator 10. The blower 20 draws air from the downstream air side of the radiator 10, so that air is blown to the radiator 10. Alternatively, the blower 20 can also be a forcing-type blower which is disposed on the upstream air side with respect to the radiator 10. The forcing-type blower blows air to push an air flow to the radiator 10.
In this embodiment, the radiator 10 is a heat exchanger for radiating heat to air. The radiator 10 is provided with at least one heat-exchanging core and header tanks 11. Each of the heat-exchanging cores includes plural tubes (not shown) and plural wave-shape fins (not shown). Engine-cooling water circulates in an internal-combustion engine (i.e., vehicle driving source for traveling) to recover heat from the engine, and flows through the tubes to radiate the heat to air. The plural fins are disposed between the adjacent tubes for improving the heat exchanging performance between air and the engine-cooling water. The header tanks 11, communicating with each of the tubes, are disposed at two end sides of the tubes in a longitudinal direction of the tubes, and extend in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the tubes.
In this embodiment, the longitudinal direction of the tubes is arranged to correspond to a vertical direction of the vehicle. Moreover, a longitudinal direction of the header tank 11 is arranged to correspond to a horizontal direction of the vehicle. The engine-cooling water flows from the upper one of the header tanks 11 to each of the tubes in which the engine-cooling water is heat-exchanged, and thereafter is collected in the lower one of the header tanks 11 from each of the tubes.
The tubes and the fins are made of metal (e.g., aluminum in this embodiment). Each of the header tanks 11 includes a core plate (not shown) which is made of metal (e.g., aluminum in this embodiment) to be bonded with the tubes by brazing, and a tank body 11 a made of resin. That is, the core plate and the tank body 11 a are connected to form an inner space of the header tank 11. A part of the core plate of the header tank 11 is plastically deformed to be assembled with the tank body 11 a using a seal member such as a packing (not shown).
Here, the brazing is a bonding technology where the bonding is performed by using a brazing metal or a solder while a base material is not melted, as described in, for example, Connection and Junction Technology (Tokyo Electrical Machinery University Publishing Company).
Generally, the brazing is referred when the bonding is performed by using a metal material with a melting point beyond 450° C., and this metal material is called as the brazing material. In contrast, a soldering is referred when the bonding is performed by using a metal material with a melting point below 450° C., and this metal material is called as the solder.
The blower 20 includes an axis-flow fan 21 for inducing an air flow, and an electric motor 22 for driving and rotating the fan 21.
The fan shroud 30 shrouds a gap between the radiator 10 and the blower 20 to define an air passage (i.e., duct for an air flow) therebetween, so that the blower 20 is restricted from drawing air from the downstream air side with respect to the radiator 10. Accordingly, the air flow induced by the blower 20 does not bypass the radiator 10.
At least one blower 20 (e.g., two as shown in FIG. 1) is attached to the radiator 10 through the fan shroud 30 which corresponds to an attachment member in the present invention. The fan shroud 30 is made of resin (e.g., polypropylene in this embodiment). The motor 22 of each blower 20 is fixed to the fan shroud 30 through fastening members such as bolts.
Next, the attachment structure of the blower 20 to the radiator 10, that is, the attachment structure of the fan shroud 30 to the radiator 10 will be now described.
As shown in FIG. 1, the fan shroud 30 is attached to the radiator 10 at five attachment positions P1-P5. At each of lower attachment positions P4 and P5, a U-shape groove 31 is provided in the fan shroud 30, and a protruding portion 11 b is provided in the tank body 11 a of the radiator 10. The protruding portion 11 b is inserted into the U-shape groove 31 to engage with the U-shape groove 31 as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. Moreover, an umbrella portion 11 c is provided in a tip portion of the protruding portion 11 b, and extends in a direction perpendicular to a protruding direction (i.e., longitudinal direction of vehicle) of the protruding portion 11 b. That is, the umbrella portion 11 c is an enlarged portion extending in a lateral direction of the vehicle. Therefore, the umbrella portion 11 c restricts the protruding portion 11 b from being removed from the U-shape groove 31.
As shown in FIG. 3, at each of upper attachment positions P1-P3, a pair of plate-shape protruding portions 12 (i.e., convex portion) are provided to protrude from the tank body 11 a and a recessed portion 32 is provided in the fan shroud 30. The pair of plate-shape protruding portions 12 are fitted with the recessed portion 32, and respectively contact a left-side surface and a right-side surface of an inner wall defining the recessed portion 32 of the fan shroud 30.
Moreover, at each of the upper attachment positions P1-P3, a flexible engagement protruding portion 13 is provided to protrude from the tank body 11 a between the pair of protruding portions 12, and an engagement hole portion 33 is provided in the fan shroud 30 at a bottom of the inner wall defining the recessed portion 32, as shown in FIG. 3. The plural flexible engagement protruding portions 13 (e.g., three) are arranged approximately in an approximate line with respect to the air flowing direction. Each of the engagement protruding portion 13 engages with each of the engagement hole portion 33 of the fan shroud 30 at the corresponding position, while the pair of plate-shaped protruding portions 12 contact the inner wall surface of the recessed portion 32. That is, the engagement protruding portion 13 of the tank body 11 a is hitched by the engagement hole portion 33 of the fan shroud 30.
An engaging nail portion 13 a is integrally formed with the engagement protruding portion 13 at a tip portion of the engagement protruding portion 13, so that a disengaging of the engagement protruding portion 13 from the engagement hole portion 33 can be restricted.
In the attachment structure according to this embodiment, the protruding portion 11 b of the radiator 10 is firstly inserted into the U-shape groove 31 of the fan shroud 30 at each of the lower attachment positions P4 and P5 as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. Next, at each of the upper attachment positions P1-P3, while the pair of protruding portions 12 are fitted into the recessed portion 32 to contact the inner wall surface of the recessed portion 32, the engagement protruding portions 13 are flexibly and elastically deformed to be inserted into the engagement hole portion 33 as shown in FIGS. 4A-4C. Thus, the fan shroud 30 detachably engages with the radiator 10.
FIG. 5 shows a disassembled state of the engaged structure between the radiator 10 and the fan shroud 30, and FIG. 6 shows an assembled state of the engaged structure between the radiator 10 and the fan shroud 30. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, at the upper attachment positions P1-P3, a fitting surface 11 d of the tank body 11 a is arranged opposite to a fitting surface 30 a of the fan shroud 30 when being assembled. In this case, it is unnecessary for the fitting surface 11 d to contact the fitting surface 30 a. Moreover, when viewed in a direction perpendicular to the air flowing direction (vehicle front-rear direction), the fitting surface 30 a is tilted with respect to the fitting surface 11 d as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. That is, in this embodiment, the fitting surfaces 11 d and 30 a are opposite to each other to be not actually parallel with each other. Further, it is unnecessary for the fitting surfaces 11 d and 30 a to completely overlap, when viewed from the air flowing direction. For example, when viewed from the air flowing direction (front-rear direction), both the fitting surfaces 11 d and 30 a can be offset from each other in a direction (face-back direction of paper in FIG. 6) perpendicular to the air flowing direction.
In this embodiment, when the fan shroud 30 is not engaged with the radiator 10, one (i.e., fitting surface 30 a in this embodiment) of the fitting surfaces 11 d and 30 a is beforehand deformed by bending, and thereby offsetting from the other (i.e., fitting surface 11 d in this embodiment) at two end sides of the arrangement line in which the three engagement protruding portions 13 are arranged. That is, a slant angle between the fitting surface 30 a and the fitting surface 11 d is set at 1.5°, for example, in this embodiment. At an approximate middle part of the arrangement line, the fitting surface 30 a is beforehand bent to protrude to the side of the fitting surface 11 d in the air flowing direction (i.e., vehicle front-rear direction). Therefore, the fitting surface 30 a has a slight bent shape such as a large-angle V-shape, as shown in FIG. 5.
Therefore, when the engagement protruding portion 13 of the radiator 10 engages with the engagement hole portion 33 of the fan shroud 30, the fan shroud 30 is reformed and deflected. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, at each of the upper attachment positions P1 and P3, a deflecting force is applied to the fan shroud 30 by the engagement protruding portion 13 so that the fitting surface 30 a becomes approximately parallel to the fitting surface 11 d. Meanwhile, at a top portion (i.e., at attachment position P2) of the fitting surface 30 a having approximately the large-angle V-shape, the tank body 11 a applies a force in a contrary direction to that of the deflecting force to the fan shroud 30. As a result, the fitting surface 30 a becomes approximately parallel to the fitting surface 11 d. That is, the slant angle between the fitting surface 30 a and the fitting surface 11 d after the radiator 10 and the fan shroud 30 are engaged becomes smaller than the set angle of 1.5° before the radiator 10 and the fan shroud 30 are engaged. Therefore, when the engagement hole portion 33 engages with the engagement protruding portion 13, the fitting surface 30 a becomes approximately parallel to the fitting surface 11 d when being watched by human eyes.
In this embodiment, the fan shroud 30 is beforehand deformed by bending to have approximately the large-angle V-shape in the fitting surface 30 a. When the fan shroud 30 is engaged with the radiator 10, the fan shroud 30 is reformed and deflected, so that a counteractive force due to the deflection is applied to the fan shroud 30 by the engagement protruding portion 13. As a result, the fan shroud 30 is pressed to the tank body 11 a (i.e. side of radiator). Accordingly, a relative movement between the engagement protruding portion 13 and the engagement hole portion 33 can be restricted, even if a gap is formed therebetween when being mounted.
When any one of the fitting surfaces 11 d, 30 a is not deformed (bent) beforehand as shown in FIG. 7, the counteractive force due to the deflection is not applied when the radiator 10 and the shroud 30 are assembled. In this case, a relative movement occurs between the radiator 10 and the fan shroud 30.
(Other Embodiment)
Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiment thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art.
For example, in the above-described embodiment, the fitting surface 30 a of the fan shroud 30 is beforehand bent to be slant with respect to the flat fitting surface 11 d of the radiator 10. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The fitting surface 11 d, or both of the fitting surfaces 11 d and 30 a can be bent to be deformed.
According to the present invention, in order to restrict the relative movement between the attachment member (shroud) and the heat exchanger (radiator), at least one of the fitting surfaces is deflected and reformed when being assembled. In the above-described embodiment, the shroud 30 is deflected and reformed in the assembly because the fitting surface 30 a of the shroud 30 is deformed by bending before the assembly. Instead of the bending, other method can be also used such that the shroud 30 is deflected and reformed when being attached to the radiator 10.
Moreover, a set value of the slant angle between the fitting surface 30 a and the fitting surfaces 11 d can be changed according to the size, material and rigidity of the fan shroud 30, and is not limited to the above-described value.
Moreover, the shape of the engagement protruding portion 13, which is the engagement portion in the present invention, is not limited to that described in the above-described embodiment.
Moreover, in the above-described embodiment, the engagement protruding portion 13 is provided in the radiator 10, and the engagement hole portion 33 is provided in the shroud plate 30 to engage with the engagement protruding portion 13. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the engagement protruding portion 13 can be also provided in the shroud plate 30, and the engagement hole portion 33 can be also provided in the radiator 10.
Moreover, in the above-described embodiment, the attachment structure at the lower attachment positions P4 and P5 is different from that at the upper attachment positions P1-P3. However, the attachment structure at all of the attachment positions can be the same as that at the upper attachment positions P1-P3.
Moreover, in the above-described embodiment, the shroud plate 30 is beforehand bent to protrude to the side of the radiator 10 to have approximately the large-angle V-shape. However, the shroud plate 30 can be also beforehand bent to protrude to a contrary side of the radiator 10 to have approximately the large-angle V-shape. Furthermore, the shroud plate 30 can be also beforehand bent to have a wave shape.
Such changes and modifications are to be understood as being within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. An attachment structure comprising:

a heat exchanger for heat-exchanging between air and a fluid therein;

a blower for blowing air to the heat exchanger; and

an attachment member through which the blower is attached to the heat exchanger, wherein:

one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member has at least one engagement portion, the engagement portion being detachably engaged by an elastic deformation with a hole portion which is provided in other one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member; and

at least one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is deformed before the engagement portion is engaged with the hole portion, and is deflected and reformed due to deformation when the engagement portion engages with the hole portion.

2. An attachment structure comprising:

a heat exchanger for heat-exchanging between air and a fluid therein;

a blower for blowing air to the heat exchanger; and

one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member has at least one engagement portion, the engagement portion being detachably engaged by an elastic deformation with a hole portion which is provided in other one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member;

the heat exchanger has a fitting surface that is arranged opposite to a fitting surface of the attachment member when the engagement portion engages with the hole portion; and

one of the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is bent to be tilted with respect to other one of the fitting surfaces before the engagement portion is engaged with the hole portion.

3. The attachment structure according to claim 2, wherein

when the engagement portion engages with the hole portion, at least one of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is deflected and reformed so that the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member becomes approximately parallel to each other.

4. The attachment structure according to claim 2, wherein:

at least three the engagement portions are arranged in a line in an arrangement direction perpendicular to an air flowing direction of the heat exchanger; and

the one of the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is bent to have a convex shape at an approximate middle area in the arrangement direction before the engagement portion is engaged with the hole portion.

5. The attachment structure according to claim 4, wherein the one of the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is bent to have a wave shape before the engagement portion is engaged with the hole portion.

6. The attachment structure according to claim 2, wherein the one of the fitting surfaces of the heat exchanger and the attachment member is on the attachment member.

7. The attachment structure according to claim 6, wherein the attachment member is made of resin.

8. The attachment structure according to claim 1, wherein:

the engagement portion is provided in the heat exchanger; and

the hole portion is provided in the attachment member.