PISTON COMPRESSOR AND MOBILE REFRIGERATOR COMPRISING SAME

PRIORITY/INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

[0001]Any and all applications for which a foreign or domestic priority claim is identified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the present application are hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of the present disclosure.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002]The present embodiments relate to a piston compressor, and more particularly to a piston compressor with low exhaust pressure pulsation. In addition, the present embodiments further relate to a mobile refrigerator comprising the piston compressor.

BACKGROUND ART

[0003]For piston compressors, vibrations and noises generated during operation have always been problems that the industry has been working to solve, especially in environments where noise requirements are high. However, due to the impact of high-pressure gas in an exhaust process, the piston compressors inevitably generate significant vibrations and high levels of noises.

[0004]For piston compressors with larger sizes and volumes, it is common to use exhaust mufflers with larger volumes to buffer exhaust pressure pulsation and reduce the noise of a refrigeration system. However, for small/miniature piston compressors, such as those used in mobile refrigerators (e.g., vehicle-mounted refrigerators), due to limitations of the size of the piston compressor on the volume of the exhaust muffler and the fact that the gas is always discharged as a single stream in the exhaust process, these types of piston compressors still generate significant exhaust pressure pulsation during operation, resulting in high levels of noises for the entire refrigeration system (refrigerators/air conditioners, etc.).

[0005]Some researchers have proposed using special materials for the compressors to fully utilize an internal space of the compressor and increase the volume of the exhaust muffler to address the aforementioned issues, however, the exhaust muffler for the compressor has high material requirements, including high temperature resistance, high pressure resistance, and oil resistance, which makes it very difficult to obtain such materials. Currently, some researchers have also attempted to use engineering plastics to create an irregularly-shaped exhaust muffler in order to fully utilize the internal space of the compressor and increase the volume of the exhaust muffler as a method to address the aforementioned issues. However, this method requires high demands on engineering plastics and presents difficulties in process implementation.

SUMMARY

[0006]An object of the present disclosure is to solve the aforementioned technical problems in the related art, to at least some extent. Thus, the present embodiments provide a small/miniature piston compressor, such as those used in mobile refrigerators (e.g., vehicle-mounted refrigerators), which at least effectively counteracts or reduces exhaust pressure pulsation and resulting noises in a refrigeration system.

[0007]To this end, the present disclosure proposes a piston compressor, the piston compressor comprising a crankcase, at least two exhaust mufflers, a valve plate assembly, a cylinder head, a connecting pipe and an exhaust pipe. The cylinder head comprises a cylinder head high-pressure chamber, the crankcase comprises a crankcase exhaust passage, and the crankcase exhaust passage is connected to the cylinder head high-pressure chamber of the cylinder head through a one-way exhaust hole in the valve plate assembly. The crankcase and the valve plate assembly each comprise at least two exhaust holes respectively associated with the at least two exhaust mufflers, and the cylinder head high-pressure chamber of the cylinder head is connected to the at least two exhaust mufflers through the corresponding exhaust holes in the crankcase and the valve plate assembly. The connecting pipe connects the at least two exhaust mufflers, and the exhaust pipe is connected to any one of the at least two exhaust mufflers, thereby forming at least two gas discharge paths.

[0008]According to the present disclosure, gas discharged to the cylinder head high-pressure chamber through the crankcase exhaust passage is divided into at least two parts, and the at least two parts of gas form a counteracting effect due to the difference in travel distance between the different discharge paths, thereby reducing gas pressure pulsation, and then reducing the vibrations and noises caused by the operation of the piston compressor.

[0015]According to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the one-way exhaust hole of the valve plate assembly is controlled by a one-way valve.

[0016]According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the first exhaust muffler and the second exhaust muffler are integrated with the crankcase, and are respectively located on two sides of the crankcase exhaust passage. On the basis of this arrangement, the volume of the piston compressor is further reduced, making it suitable for vehicle use.

[0017]According to another aspect, a mobile refrigerator is further provided. The mobile refrigerator comprises a piston compressor according to above aspect, and the mobile refrigerator may be a vehicle-mounted refrigerator, for example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0018]The present embodiments will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the accompanying drawings:

[0019]FIG. 1 shows an exploded view of a piston compressor according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure, which schematically shows a flow direction of exhaust gas;

[0020]FIG. 2 shows a perspective exploded view of a piston compressor according to some embodiments;

[0021]FIG. 3 shows an exploded view of a piston compressor according to a second embodiment, which schematically shows a flow direction of exhaust gas;

[0022]FIG. 4 shows a perspective exploded view of a piston compressor according to a second embodiment; and

[0023]FIG. 5 shows a sectional schematic diagram at an exhaust hole, leading to an exhaust muffler, of a crankcase of a piston compressor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0024]The embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below, and examples of the embodiments are shown in the accompanying drawings, in which the same or similar reference signs refer to the same or similar elements or elements having the same or similar functions. The embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings are exemplary and are intended to be illustrative, but should not be construed as limiting the present claims.

[0025]First, with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a piston compressor according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The piston compressor comprises a crankcase 1, a first exhaust muffler 13, a second exhaust muffler 23, a valve plate assembly 2, a cylinder head 3, a connecting pipe 4 and an exhaust pipe 5, wherein the cylinder head 3 comprises a cylinder head high-pressure chamber, the crankcase 1 comprises a crankcase exhaust passage, the crankcase exhaust passage is connected to the cylinder head high-pressure chamber of the cylinder head 3 through a one-way exhaust hole in the valve plate assembly 2, the connecting pipe 4 connects the first exhaust muffler 13 and the second exhaust muffler 23, and the exhaust pipe 5 is connected to the first exhaust muffler 13. The piston compressor is provided with two gas discharge paths for discharging gas entering the cylinder head high-pressure chamber. In a first gas discharge path, gas enters the first exhaust muffler 13 sequentially through a first exhaust hole 11 in the valve plate assembly 2 and a first exhaust hole 12 in the crankcase 1, and then is discharged through the exhaust pipe 5; and in a second gas discharge path, gas enters the second exhaust muffler 23 sequentially through a second exhaust hole 21 in the valve plate assembly 2 and a second exhaust hole 22 in the crankcase 1, then further enters the first exhaust muffler 13 through the connecting pipe 4, and then is discharged through the exhaust pipe 5.

[0026]In this embodiment, the gas discharged to the cylinder head high-pressure chamber through the crankcase exhaust passage is divided into two parts, one part of exhaust gas is discharged through the first gas discharge path, and the other part of exhaust gas is discharged through the second gas discharge path. The two parts of exhaust gas form a counteracting effect due to the difference in travel distance between the different discharge paths. This counteracts and reduces gas pressure pulsation, thereby reducing the vibrations and noises caused by the operation of the piston compressor.

[0027]Further, with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, a piston compressor according to a second embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The configuration of the piston compressor is essentially the same as the first embodiment, except that the exhaust pipe 5 is connected to the second exhaust muffler 23. In the second embodiment, the two parts of exhaust gas also have differences in travel distance between the different discharge paths, which also effectively counteracts and reduces gas pressure pulsation, thereby reducing the vibrations and noises caused by the operation of the piston compressor.

[0028]Further, FIG. 5 shows a sectional schematic diagram at an exhaust hole, leading to an exhaust muffler, of a crankcase of a piston compressor according to the present disclosure. It can be seen from FIG. 5 that the muffler of the piston compressor of the present disclosure is integrated with the crankcase, and the muffler and the crankcase are respectively located on two sides of the crankcase exhaust passage. On the basis of this arrangement, the volume of the piston compressor is further reduced, making it suitable for vehicle use.

[0029]It should be understood that, the piston compressor with a plurality of gas discharge paths according to the present embodiments is highly advantageous for refrigeration equipment with size and space limitations. This is because the piston compressor according to the present disclosure is not affected by an increase in size and space caused by the need for an exhaust muffler with a larger volume.

[0030]Moreover, according to another aspect, a mobile refrigerator is involved, such as a vehicle-mounted refrigerator, the mobile refrigerator comprising a piston compressor according to any of the above embodiments. With the above advantages of the piston compressor, the vibrations and noises during the operation of the vehicle-mounted refrigerator comprising the piston compressor are significantly reduced and lowered.

[0031]In the description of the present disclosure, it should be understood that the orientations or the position relationship indicated by the terms such as “upper”, “lower”, “inner”. “outer” and “side” are based on the orientations or the position relationship shown in the accompanying drawings, which is only for ease of description of the present disclosure and for simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the devices or elements referred to necessarily have a specific orientation structure and operation, and therefore cannot be construed as limiting the present claims.

[0032]Furthermore, the terms “first”, “second” and “third” are merely used for the description purpose, and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance. Therefore, the features defined with “first”, “second” and “third” can explicitly or implicitly comprise one or more of the features.

[0033]Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown and described above, it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are merely exemplary and should not be construed as limiting the present claims, and those of ordinary skill in the art may perform changes, modifications, replacements and variations to the embodiments described above within the scope of the present teaching.