An air-conditioning device includes a heater unit that heats the air to be lead to a vehicle cabin using the heat of the refrigerant compressed by a compressor, a liquid receiver arranged at the downstream side of an outside heat exchanger, a liquid receiver separating the refrigerant lead from the outside heat exchanger into a liquid-phase refrigerant and a gaseous-phase refrigerant and storing the liquid-phase refrigerant, and a restrictor mechanism provided between the heater unit and the outside heat exchanger, the restrictor mechanism decompressing and expanding the refrigerant. When there is a dehumidification request, the operation mode is temporarily switched from a dehumidifying cabin-heating mode which evaporates the refrigerant by an evaporating unit and radiates heat by the heater unit in the state in which the restrictor mechanism restricts the flow of the refrigerant, to the cabin-cooling mode which evaporates the refrigerant by the evaporating unit while promoting the storage of the liquid-phase refrigerant in the liquid receiver.

An expansion valve includes a valve main body having a valve chamber therein, a valve body arranged within the valve chamber, a valve body support member supporting the valve body, an urging member urging the valve body toward a valve seat, an actuating bar pressing the valve body in an opening direction of the valve against urging force generated by the urging member, and a vibration proof spring suppressing vibration of the valve body or the actuating bar. The actuating bar has an outer peripheral surface of which a part constitutes a contact surface slidably contacting with the vibration proof spring, and the contact surface has a shape by which the amount of deformation of the vibration proof spring becomes greater as the valve body goes towards a closing direction of the valve.

An expansion valve using a shape memory alloy spring includes: a valve housing having a first refrigerant flow passage and a second refrigerant flow passage passing through both sides of the valve housing and an opening/closing adjuster receiving space along an opened upper portion of the valve housing; an opening/closing adjuster configured to enter the opening/closing adjuster receiving space and to adjust an opening/closing degree of a valve using a shape memory alloy spring exerting an elastic force at a memory temperature; and a valve cover sealing the opened upper portion of the valve housing.

A thermal expansion valve (TXV) for a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. The TXV includes a first inlet chamber configured to receive refrigerant from a condenser of the HVAC system. The first inlet chamber includes a first portion and a second portion with an aperture therebetween that fluidly connects the first portion and the second portion together. The TXV also has a first outlet chamber through which the refrigerant from the condenser exits the TXV. Bubbles in the refrigerant rise due to buoyancy and are trapped by the partition in the first portion of the first inlet chamber to restrict the bubbles from passing through the TXV to an evaporator of the HVAC system until the bubbles shrink to a size smaller than the aperture.

The present invention provides an expansion valve which is compact and can further enhance muffling performance. The expansion valve includes a valve main body including an inlet passage configured to introduce a high-pressure refrigerant, a valve chamber configured to communicate with the inlet passage, an expansion chamber that includes an orifice configured to reduce a pressure of the refrigerant introduced into the valve chamber, and an outlet passage disposed downstream of the expansion chamber and configured to discharge the refrigerant that passes through the expansion chamber, a rectifier disposed in the valve main body and configured to partition the expansion chamber and the outlet passage, a valve member configured to open and close the orifice, and a valve member driving device configured to drive the valve member. The rectifier includes a hollow convex portion projecting toward the outlet passage and a throttle hole formed at a distal end of the hollow convex portion, and the refrigerant that enters the expansion chamber when the orifice opens passes through the throttle hole and travels toward the evaporator.

A refrigeration device equipped with: a cascade cycle; a storage unit having a storage space for an object to be cooled by a second evaporator; an internal temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the storage space; a control unit that determines a second rotational speed of a second compressor on the basis of a target temperature for the storage space and the detection result from the internal temperature sensor, and that determines a first rotational speed for a first compressor having a prescribed correspondence relationship with the second rotational speed; and a first power supply unit and a second power supply unit that supply power respectively to the first compressor and the second compressor on the basis of the first rotational speed and the second rotational speed determined by the control unit.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an expansion valve with an improved vibration isolation mechanism. Accordingly, in the present invention, the expansion valve includes a valve body, a valve element, a biasing member configured to bias the valve body toward a valve seat, an actuation rod that comes into contact with the valve element and presses the valve element in a valve opening direction against a biasing force of the biasing member, and a vibration isolating spring configured to suppress vibration of the valve element. The actuation rod is inserted into an actuation rod insertion hole provided in the valve body. The vibration isolating spring includes a leg spring having a base portion and a plurality of leg portions extending from the base portion. The leg spring is arranged in the valve chamber such that a center axis of the leg spring is non-coincident with a center axis of the actuation rod insertion hole.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an expansion valve with an improved ring spring.

Accordingly, in the present invention, the expansion valve includes a valve body including a valve chamber, a valve element disposed in the valve chamber, a biasing member configured to bias the valve element toward a valve seat, an actuation rod that presses the valve element in a valve opening direction against a biasing force of the biasing member, and a ring spring disposed between an outer circumferential surface of the actuation rod and an inner circumferential surface of the valve body. The ring spring includes a ring portion, at least three elastic protrusion portions that protrude inward from the ring portion and contact the outer circumferential surface of the actuation rod, and at least one outward protrusion portion that protrudes outward from the ring portion and contacting the inner circumferential surface of the valve body.

In a heat pump system, a suction stabilizer control circuit (SSCC) reduces or eliminates subcooling at the condenser and reduces superheating needed for compressor protection at the evaporator. The SSCC includes a bypass line that bypasses a predetermined portion of flow through a refrigerant liquid transport line around a thermostatic expansion valve (TXV).

A heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) system includes a multi-path expansion device subsystem positioned between a condenser and an evaporator. The multi-path expansion device subsystem includes a flow selector operative to receive a refrigerant from the condenser and selectively deliver the same to a full-load pathway or to a partial-load pathway. The full-load pathway has a modulating valve and a fixed orifice sized for a full-load situation, and the partial-load pathway has a thermal expansion valve (TXV) sized for partial load operation. A controller uses an actuator of the flow selector to choose which pathway is authorized according to certain process logic. Other methods and systems are presented.