Evaporator with cool storage function

Abstract

An evaporator with a cool storage function includes a cool storage material container disposed at least one of air-passing clearances formed between adjacent refrigerant flow tubes, and fins disposed in air-passing clearances on opposite sides of the cool storage material container. The cool storage material container includes a container body portion joined to the corresponding refrigerant flow tubes, and an outward extending portion which extends from the front edge of the container body portion and projects frontward in relation to the refrigerant flow tubes. Each of the fins has a fin body portion joined to the corresponding refrigerant flow tubes, and an outward extending portion which extends from the front edge of the fin body portion body and projects frontward in relation to the refrigerant flow tubes. The outward extending portions of the fins are brazed to opposite sides of the outward extending portion of the cool storage material container.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An evaporator with a cool storage function in which a plurality of vertically extending flat refrigerant flow tubes are disposed in parallel such that their width direction coincides with an air-passing direction and they are spaced from one another, air-passing clearances are formed such that each air-passing clearance is provided between adjacent refrigerant flow tubes, a cool storage material container filled with a cool storage material is disposed in at least one of the air-passing clearances, and outer fins are disposed in the remaining air-passing clearances, wherein
 the cool storage material container includes a container body portion joined to the corresponding refrigerant flow tubes, and an outward extending portion which extends from a downstream-side edge of the container body portion and projects downstream in relation to the refrigerant flow tubes;   an outer fin disposed in an air-passing clearance adjacent to the air-passing clearance in which the cool storage material container is disposed has a fin body portion joined to the corresponding refrigerant flow tubes, and an outward extending portion which extends from a downstream-side edge of the fin body portion body and projects downstream in relation to the refrigerant flow tubes; and   the outward extending portion of the outer fin is in contact with a corresponding side surface of the outward extending portion of the cool storage material container.   
     
     
         2 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein each of the outer fins disposed in air-passing clearances located on opposite sides of the air-passing clearance in which the cool storage material container is disposed has the fin body portion and the outward extending portion; and the outward extending portions of the outer fins are in contact with the opposite side surfaces of the outward extending portion of the cool storage material container. 
     
     
         3 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein the outward extending portion of the cool storage material container bulges over the entire length in the vertical direction, the outward extending portion bulging outward in relation to the container body portion with respect to a direction along which the refrigerant flow tubes are arrayed; and the outward extending portion has a dimension in a thickness direction thereof greater than a dimension of the container body portion in a thickness direction thereof. 
     
     
         4 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein the outward extending portion of the cool storage material container has a base portion whose dimension in a thickness direction thereof is equal to a dimension of the container body portion in a thickness direction thereof, and a plurality of projecting portions which are provided on the base portion such that the projecting portions are spaced from one another in the vertical direction and which bulge outward from the base portion with respect to a direction along which the refrigerant flow tubes are arrayed. 
     
     
         5 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein the outward extending portion of the corresponding outer fin is brazed to the outward extending portion of the cool storage material container. 
     
     
         6 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein the cool storage material container is composed of two metal plates whose peripheral edge portions are joined together; and the container body portion and the outward extending portion of the cool storage material container are provided by means of outward bulging at least one of the two metal plates. 
     
     
         7 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein an inner fin extending from the container body portion to the outward extending portion of the cool storage material container is disposed in the cool storage material container. 
     
     
         8 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 7 , wherein the inner fin assumes a corrugated shape, and has crest portions extending in the air-passing direction, trough portions extending in the air-passing direction, and connection portions connecting the crest portions and the trough portions. 
     
     
         9 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 7 , wherein the inner fin assumes a staggered shape, and is composed of a plurality of corrugated strips, each of which has crest portions extending in the air-passing direction, trough portions extending in the air-passing direction, and connection portions connecting the crest portion and the trough portion, the corrugated strips being arranged in the air-passing direction and integrally connected with one another such that the crest portions and the trough portions of one of two strips adjacent to each other in the air-passing direction are positionally shifted in the vertical direction from those of the other strip. 
     
     
         10 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein the container body portion of the cool storage material container is brazed to the corresponding refrigerant flow tubes; and grooves are formed in portions of outer surfaces of the container body portion of the cool storage material container, which portions are brazed to the corresponding refrigerant flow tubes. 
     
     
         11 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 10 , wherein the grooves formed in each of the portions of the outer surfaces of the container body portion of the cool storage material container, which portions are brazed to the corresponding refrigerant flow tubes, form a grid. 
     
     
         12 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , comprising a plurality of refrigerant flow tube sets each including a plurality of flat refrigerant flow tubes disposed such that their width direction coincides with the air-passing direction and they are spaced from one another in the air-passing direction; and the container body portion of the cool storage material container is disposed to extend over all the refrigerant flow tubes of the corresponding set, and is joined to the refrigerant flow tubes. 
     
     
         13 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein the container body portion of the cool storage material container has an internal-volume reducing portion which is formed through partial inward deformation of a wall of the cool storage material container and which reduces an internal volume of the cool storage material container. 
     
     
         14 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 13 , wherein the internal-volume reducing portion of the container body portion of the cool storage material container is configured to bulge due to an increase in internal pressure when the internal-volume reducing portion is exposed to a high temperature exceeding a temperature range of use environment. 
     
     
         15 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein a cool storage material charging ratio, which is the ratio of the volume of the charged cool storage material to the internal volume of the cool storage material container is 70 to 90%. 
     
     
         16 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 15 , wherein the cool storage material charging ratio is 70 to 80%. 
     
     
         17 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 1 , wherein
 each of the refrigerant flow tubes in thermal contact with the cool storage material container has a plurality of refrigerant flow channels which are arranged in the width direction of the refrigerant flow tube and are separated from one another by partitions; and   a relation 0.1≦t≦0.4 and a relation 0.64≦h/H≦0.86 are satisfied, where t represents a thickness (mm) of each partition, h represents a height (mm) of each partition, and H represents a tube height (mm), which is a dimension of each refrigerant flow tube in a thickness direction thereof.   
     
     
         18 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 17 , wherein a relation 0.07≦(n×t)/W≦0.31 is satisfied, where n represents the number of the partitions of each refrigerant flow tube, and W represents a width (mm) of each refrigerant flow tube. 
     
     
         19 . An evaporator with a cool storage function according to  claim 17 , wherein the tube height H of each refrigerant flow tube is 12 to 25 mm, and the width W of each refrigerant flow tube is 1.3 to 3.0 mm.