In a throttle device, a guide section including a small-diameter hole which slidably guides a guide stem of a needle member is formed upstream side portion from a communicating hole-in a guide tube.

An expansion and isolation valve, specifically an electric expansion and isolation valve for operation with the coolant R744, featuring a valve body arranged in a valve body chamber, a seal seat, and a seal, which are arranged along an axial movement direction of the valve body in the expansion valve. The expansion valve is further designed such that in a closed state of the expansion valves, there is a pressure bypass to the valve body chamber, and preferentially, that a valve body diameter at the positions of the seal seat and the seal corresponds with the respective seal diameters.

Systems and methods are presented for improving stabilization of a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. More specifically, the systems and methods include a heat-flow modulator for regulating an exchange of thermal energy between a flow of refrigerant and a sensory bulb. The exchange of thermal energy allows an expansion valve to respond to a refrigerant temperature using an actuator, which is coupled to the sensory bulb. The heat-flow modulator is formed of a body that includes a first contact surface and a second contact surface. The first contact surface is thermally-coupled to a suction line of the HVAC system, which conveys the flow of refrigerant. The second contact surface is thermally-coupled to the sensory bulb. In one instance the heat-flow modulator has variable volume depending on how installed. Other systems and methods are presented. Variable heat-flow modulators are also presented.

An expansion valve according to one embodiment includes a body having a valve hole, a valve element which opens and closes a valve section by moving toward and away from the valve hole, and a shaft one end side of which connects to a drive section and the other end side of which connects to the valve element through the valve hole, the shaft transmitting the drive force, generated by the drive section, to the valve element. Here, the shaft is so provided as to run through an insertion hole formed axially with the valve hole in the body. The insertion hole is formed in the body by a cutting work, and has a support that supports the shaft and a diameter-enlarged part that is open to a downstream side of the valve hole and whose diameter is larger than that of the support.

A refrigerant circuit for cooling a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) unit of an air conditioning system includes a condenser for condensing refrigerant vapor. A heat sink includes a supply conduit assembly adapted to receive a first portion of a subcooled refrigerant fluid from the condenser and a discharge conduit assembly adapted to discharge a superheated refrigerant vapor to an accumulator. The subcooled refrigerant fluid transitions to the superheated refrigerant vapor upon absorbing heat from the VFD unit thermally coupled to the heat sink. The accumulator supplies the superheated refrigerant vapor to a compressor. An expansion valve expands a second portion of the condensed refrigerant fluid. An evaporator evaporates the expanded second portion of the refrigerant fluid. A compressor compresses the evaporated refrigerant vapor from the evaporator and the superheated refrigerant vapor received from the accumulator.

An expansion valve includes a shaft for transmitting the drive force to a valve element and a vibration-proof spring, set between the body and the shaft, which generates the sliding friction by biasing the shaft. The vibration-proof spring includes a spring body of a hollow tube shape, a spring part, which is integrally formed with a side wall of the spring body, and a bulging portion formed on the spring part in a protruding manner such that the tip of the bulging portion is placed opposite to a part of the shaft. When the bulging portion abuts against the shaft inserted to the vibration-proof spring, the spring part is placed in a position along the spring body or is warped outwardly from the spring body, so that the elastically reactive force resulting from the warped spring part allows the shaft to slide in a stabilized manner.

An air-conditioning apparatus is capable of suppressing refrigerant flow noise regardless the refrigerant state of an inlet of an expansion mechanism. In parallel to a flow control valve, an opening and closing valve that opens and closes a refrigerant passage and an expansion mechanism having porous bodies capable of passing a refrigerant therethrough are connected in series with each other. In a heating mode, in the case where a controller stops an operation of one or more of a plurality of indoor units and causes the other indoor unit(s) to operate, the flow control valve of the stopped indoor unit is fully closed and the opening and closing valve of the stopped indoor unit is opened.

A thermal expansion valve comprises a valve body and a valve core member. The valve body is provided with a first connecting chamber, a lower cavity with a transmission member built in, and a first sealing member for separating the first connecting chamber and the lower cavity. A fifth pressure-bearing surface and a sixth pressure-bearing surface, pressed by a cold medium in the first connecting chamber in opposite directions, are disposed on a side wall of the valve core member. The first sealing member comprises a first flexible sealing element, disposed between the transmission member and an upper end portion of the valve core member and having a first edge portion connected to the valve body in a sealing manner. A sum of an effective stress area of a first pressure-bearing surface of the first flexible sealing element and a stress area of the fifth pressure-bearing surface is substantially equal to a sum of an effective stress area of a third pressure-bearing surface of the upper end portion of the valve core member and a stress area of the sixth pressure-bearing surface. Through the design of the structure of the thermal expansion valve, in an aspect, reliability of sealing between the valve body and the upper end portion of the valve core member can be ensured, sensitivity of the valve is improved, and difficulty of manufacturing the valve body and the valve core member can be reduced; and in another aspect, pressure influence caused by the cold medium in the first connecting chamber on the movement of the valve core member can be eliminated.

An automotive evaporator heat exchanger is provided having a hybrid expansion device configured to aliquot refrigerant across the refrigerant tubes. The hybrid expansion device includes a first stage refrigerant pressure drop device and a second stage refrigerant pressure drop device. The first stage refrigerant pressure drop device is a TXV configured to receive and expand a liquid phase refrigerant into a first mixture of two phase refrigerant and the second stage refrigerant pressure drop device is a tube extending within the inlet manifold configured to expand the first mixture of two phase refrigerant into a second mixture of two phase refrigerant. The tube includes a plurality of orifices and a tube diameter large enough to prevent resistance to refrigerant flow, but, small enough to prevent the first mixture of two phase refrigerant flow from separating into liquid and vapor strata.

A plurality of coolant piping lines are connected via valve, body flange members, which include respective recesses which are notched toward respective piping line insertion holes into which respective coolant piping lines are inserted, projections which are projected from respective recesses, and screw insertion holes which are arranged on a respective projection or recess, recesses and projections being combined with one other to make continuous screw insertion holes into which a fixing screw is inserted to fix the flange members.