Evaporator using micro-channel tubes

Abstract

An evaporator utilizes micro-channel tubes, and more particularly, has a structure of a heat exchanger using micro-channel tubes, which is applied to an evaporator of a household air conditioner. The evaporator, using micro-channel tubes, includes a plurality of heat exchanging units, each heat exchanging unit including a plurality of the micro-channel tubes installed between a pair of headers, and an integral header to transmit refrigerant between the neighboring heat exchanging units.

1 . A heat exchanging device comprising: 
 a combining header;    a plurality of singular headers arranged horizontally in parallel with and below the combining header; and    micro-channel tubes extending from the combining header to each singular header,    wherein the combining header transmits refrigerant from one singular header to another singular header via the micro-channels.    
   
   
       2 . The heat exchanging unit according to  claim 1 , 
 wherein the combining header and the singular headers are each laid approximately perpendicular with respect to the micro-channel tubes.    
   
   
       3 . The heat exchanging unit according to  claim 1 , 
 wherein the combining header is divided into a first header unit and a second header unit, and includes a partition having openings for communicating the refrigerant between the first header unit and the second header unit.    
   
   
       4 . The heat exchanging unit according to  claim 3 , wherein 
 the first and second header units are each associated with a plurality of micro-channel tubes, and    each of the first and second header units is divided by a plurality of separators, forming the micro-channel tubes associated with the first and second header units respectively into a plurality of channel groups.    
   
   
       5 . The heat exchanging unit according to  claim 4 , further comprising: 
 a plurality of heat exchanger units are defined, each by the micro-channel tubes extending from the combining header to one of the singular headers;    connections connecting the channel groups of one heat exchanging unit to channel groups of a neighboring heat exchanging unit; and    a plurality of refrigerant circuits that are formed by the connections between the channel groups.    
   
   
       6 . The heat exchanging unit according to  claim 5 , 
 wherein refrigerant flows from upstream micro-channel tubes to downstream micro-channel tubes, and    wherein downstream micro-channel tubes have a cross-sectional area greater than or equal to that of upstream micro-channel tubes.    
   
   
       7 . The heat exchanging unit according to  claim 5 , 
 wherein neighboring refrigerant circuits have flow directions that are opposite to each other.