JPH06323697A - Oil separator for refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] To provide an oil separator that can easily separate oil contained in refrigerant gas discharged from a refrigerator and that is small in size and has a wide processing flow range separation performance. [Structure] An oil separator is a method of separating in a cold pipe, and has a spiral mechanism for giving a swirling flow to a refrigerant gas, an oil drop hole in a pipe wall, and an oil sump portion of a double pipe outside the pipe, It consists of a mechanism that returns the oil from the bottom oil return pipe to the compressor. A high-performance separation mechanism can be easily achieved by creating an optimum swirling flow.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an oil separator for a refrigerating machine having a mechanism suitable for separating refrigerating machine oil mixed in high pressure refrigerant gas discharged from a compressor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as an oil separator of this type, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
A structure such as 60-106516 is well known, and as shown in FIG. 11, an inlet pipe 52 for the frozen gas 55a is provided on the upper portion of the closed container 51, and an outlet pipe 53 is provided on the upper side surface of the closed container 51. A cylindrical separation plate 54 that is connected and separates oil is vertically installed inside the closed container 51. Refrigerant gas 55a enters through the inlet pipe 52, and the cylindrical separation plate 54
It flows from the upper part to the lower part on the inner side, passes through the lower part as shown by the arrow of the cylindrical separating plate 54, and only the refrigerant gas is discharged from the upper outlet pipe 53 as discharge gas 55b to the outside. Refrigerant gas 55
When the mist-like oil contained in a passes through the inside of the cylindrical separation plate 54, the oil 56 having a large self-weight is separated and accumulated in the lower part. At the bottom of the closed container 51, there is an oil return pipe 55.

[0003]

By the way, in the prior art of the oil separator shown in FIG. 11, a refrigerant gas 55a is introduced into a cylindrical separation plate 54 from a refrigerant gas inlet pipe 52 into a closed container 51.
When the oil contained in the oil passes through the lower side of the cylindrical separation plate 54 and advances toward the upper outlet pipe, the flow direction is reversed, so that centrifugal force acts and the oil having a larger specific gravity than the refrigerant gas. Is a mechanism that drops it down and separates it. However, when the processing flow rate is relatively high, the efficiency is rapidly decreased only by the separation by centrifugation. For higher efficiency, larger geometries must be used to reduce flow rates. In this type of conventional oil separator, the size of the separation structure becomes large, and a space is required when the oil separator is attached to the device, and the entire device becomes large. Further, there are drawbacks such that the mounting work becomes difficult, the amount of oil to be enclosed in the entire device increases, and the cost increases. If the amount of oil discharged from the separator increases, it may cause the performance of the heat exchanger to deteriorate and the malfunction of the expansion valve and the control valve.

An object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism having a simple structure and a high separation efficiency in a refrigerant pipe.

[0005]

The separation mechanism of the present invention separates oil by utilizing the flow of gas in the refrigerant gas pipe. Since the flow in the pipe is made spiral, the refrigerant gas swirls. While flowing, the centrifugal force generated at that time causes the oil with a large specific gravity to flow along the inner wall of the pipe, and a hole through which the oil passes is opened in the inner wall, and the oil is dropped from this hole to separate it. here,
It is important to make the gas in the tube a swirl flow, which affects the separation performance. In order to make the flow of the refrigerant gas in the pipe a swirl flow, a structure in which a spiral plate is inserted in the pipe or a structure in which a spring is inserted has a small passage resistance and a mechanism with a simple structure and good separation performance. Can be achieved.

[0006]

The high-pressure refrigerant gas compressed by the compressor of the refrigerating device generates a swirling flow when passing through the oil component mechanism part in which the spirally wound plate is inserted in the pipe, and centrifugal force is exerted on oil having a large specific gravity. Works, so it flows while swirling along the inner wall surface of the pipe. The oil flowing through many holes in the inner wall is stored in the oil reservoir of the double pipe provided outside. The accumulated oil is returned to the compressor side by the return pipe. The change of the flow speed of the swirling flow of the refrigerant gas can be improved by changing the number of spiral turns.
The effect of the centrifugal action of the refrigerant gas is determined by the flow of the swirling flow, and thus the separation performance is also determined.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 2 shows a side view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 shows an enlarged front view of the separation mechanism portion of FIG. 1, FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7 show application examples, and FIGS. 10 and 10 show an application example of the separation part shown in FIG. 7, and FIG. 11 shows a conventional structure. FIG. 1 shows an overall side view of an oil content mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a refrigerant gas pipe, 2
Is an oil sump which is a double pipe, 3 is an oil return pipe, 4 is a twist-wound plate, 4a is a part shown by a broken line, and a part corresponding to the back side of the twist-wound plate is shown, and 5 is an oil Indicates a punched hole.
Next, the operation of the oil separation mechanism shown in FIG. 1 will be described. Although not shown here, the refrigerant gas a discharged from the compressor of the refrigerating apparatus advances as shown by the arrow a, and at the twist-wound plate 4, the refrigerant gas a becomes a swirling flow on the inner wall of the pipe 1 at that time. Due to the centrifugal force generated in the oil, the oil having a large specific gravity flows while swirling along the inner wall of the pipe 1 and falls into the oil sump 2 from the oil drain hole 5 opened in the inner wall of the pipe 1. Oil sump part 2
The oil that has dropped to the compressor is returned from the oil return pipe 3 to the compressor. The centrifugal force is easily changed by changing the twist winding pitch of the twist wound plate 2, and therefore the separation performance is also changed. The separation performance changes even if the length of the twist-wound plate 4 is changed.
The separation structure is simple, and since it can be separated inside the pipe, it does not take up space and is inexpensive. FIG. 2 is a side view showing that the oil sump portion 2 is a double pipe and the inside is the refrigerant pipe 1
This is for the purpose of providing a structure in which a large amount of oil 6 can be accumulated in the oil sump portion 2 because it is located at the upper position. FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the twist-wound plate 4, and as can be seen from the figure, when the inner wall of the pipe 1 and the tip of the twist-wound plate 4 are in contact with each other, the swirling of the refrigerant gas a is good. Therefore, the separation performance is also improved.

Next, an application example of the oil separation mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. As a method of giving a swirling flow to the refrigerant gas a, a spring 4b is inserted in the pipe, and it can be used even in a place where the refrigerant pipe 1 is bent, and the separation performance can be changed by changing the pitch of the spring 4b. You can This separation mechanism is inexpensive because of its simple structure.

Next, an application example of the oil separation mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. This method is a mechanism in which a fan 7 is mounted between the refrigerant pipes 1 and the fan 7 is rotated by the flow force of the refrigerant gas a and hits the blades of the fan 7 to blow off the oil and separate the oil. 8 is a shaft, 9 is a refrigerant gas passage, and 10 is a bearing. When the flow of the refrigerant gas a is fast, the rotation of the fan 7 is fast, and a large amount of oil can be blown off, so that the separation performance is improved. There is an advantage that the separation performance can be improved also by changing the shape, inclination, and number of blades of the fan 7. Further, there is an advantage that the separation performance can be improved by changing the size of the blade of the fan 7.

Next, an application example of the oil content mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. Although the separation mechanism is basically the same as that of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, it has a spiral shape 4c as a mechanism for swirling the flow of the refrigerant gas a in the pipe. Spiral shape 4c
Can be made easily. Furthermore, spiral shape 4c
Since the swirling speed of the refrigerant gas a changes by changing the pitch of, the centrifugal force also changes and the oil separation performance can be easily improved.

Next, an application example of the oil separation mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. The separation mechanism shown here does not give a swirl flow to the flow of the refrigerant gas a, but separates it by utilizing the change in volume with respect to the flow. By inserting the baffle plate 4d and flowing the refrigerant gas. It is a mechanism that separates by repeating compression, expansion, and diffusion. Further, application examples of the repeating structure of compression, expansion and diffusion action are shown in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10. The baffle plate 4e shown in FIG. 8 has a structure in which the tip portion p has an R shape so that the refrigerant gas can smoothly flow through the gap between the inner wall of the refrigerant pipe and the baffle plate 4e. This is to reduce the passage resistance. next,
The baffle plate 4f shown in FIG. 9 has a structure in which each volume is changed with respect to the flow, and is a mechanism that can relatively improve the separation performance for the same size of the separation mechanism. Next, the baffle plate 4j shown in FIG.
The baffle plate 4j has a structure in which a gap with j is changed in repetition of compression, expansion and diffusion for each volume. The separation performance is improved by disturbing the flow of the refrigerant gas a. There is an advantage that the pressure loss is small with respect to the value of the separation performance.

From FIG. 1 described so far to FIG. 7 of an application example.
The separating mechanism up to has been described with respect to the flow of the refrigerant gas in the horizontal direction, but it can be used for the flow in the vertical direction of the refrigerant pipe, and the pipe may be bent. It is a completely different separation mechanism from the conventional oil separation mechanism, especially from the mechanism for separating oil in the refrigerant gas pipe,
Since there are no restrictions due to the size or the usage conditions of the refrigeration system, a high-performance separation mechanism can be achieved.

[0013]

According to the present invention, since the structure of the oil separator, which has been a drawback so far, is large, the usability is poor.
Alternatively, in the flow separation performance of the refrigerant gas, the rotational speed changes due to the capacity control of the compressor, so the discharge amount of the refrigerant gas changes and the processing flow velocity of the oil separator also changes. The separation performance of the oil separator has an effect on the processing flow rate, and the separation performance is significantly deteriorated as the processing speed increases, and the performance of the refrigeration system is also deteriorated by oil. The separation mechanism developed this time has the advantage of separating oil in the refrigerant pipe and that the separation performance is not affected by changes in the processing flow rate. Furthermore, since the separating mechanism has the same shape as that of the refrigerant pipe, has an easy structure, and is small in size, it can be manufactured at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the overall structure of an oil separator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the separation mechanism shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of an application example.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of an application example.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an application example.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of an application example.

8 is a cross-sectional view of an application example of a baffle plate that is the separation mechanism shown in FIG.

9 is a cross-sectional view of an application example of a baffle plate that is the separation mechanism shown in FIG.

10 is a cross-sectional view of an application example of the baffle plate that is the separation mechanism shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view of a conventional overall structural view.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Refrigerant gas pipe, 2 ... Oil sump part, 3 ... Oil return pipe, 4 ... Twist-wound plate, 4a ...
4b ... spring shape, 4c ... spiral shape, 4d, 4e,
4f, 4j ... baffle plate, 5 ... oil drain hole, p ... tip portion.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Susumu Nakayama 502 Jinritsucho, Tsuchiura-shi, Ibaraki Machinery Research Institute, Hiritsu Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Inside the factory (72) Inventor Kenji Togusa 390 Muramatsu, Shimizu City, Shizuoka Prefecture Hitachi Ltd. Shimizu factory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An oil separator for separating mist-like oil contained in a high-pressure refrigerant gas discharged from a compressor of a refrigerating apparatus, in which a flow in a tube is made into a spiral flow to separate oil by centrifugal force and to separate the oil. An oil separator of a refrigerating device, characterized in that the oil thus collected falls from a hole in the inner wall into an oil reservoir of a double pipe provided outside and returns the separated oil. 2. The mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the mechanism for making the flow in the pipe into a spiral flow is such that one plate has a spiral shape, the diameter is approximately the same as the pipe inner diameter, and the number of turns is the longitudinal direction of the pipe, and centrifugal force is applied. Oil separator of refrigeration equipment equipped with a separation mechanism by. 3. The oil separator of a refrigerating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mechanism for making the flow in the pipe a spiral flow has a separation mechanism by centrifugal action in which a spring having a size and shape similar to the pipe inner diameter is inserted. 4. A mechanism according to claim 1, wherein a fan is installed in the pipe, the fan is rotated by the flow force of the refrigerant gas, and the rotating force of the fan blows off and separates the oil by the inertial force generated by the rotation of the blades. Oil separator for refrigeration equipment.