Abstract
An intermediate product for the production of a surface heat exchanger, in particular for building room air conditioning, including a support plate, on one side of which a tube system for conducting a medium is attached and on the other side of which a prefabricated adhesive tape having a manually removable outer protective layer is arranged, wherein the adhesive tape is free of any support.
Claims
1-24. (canceled)
25. An intermediate product for production of a surface heat exchanger, comprising: a support plate; a tube system for conducting a medium attached on one side of the support plate; and a prefabricated adhesive tape attached on another side of the support plate, when the prefabricated adhesive tape has a manually removable outer protective layer, wherein the adhesive tape is free of any support.
26. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein the adhesive tape is substantially free of cavities in a region between the protective layer and an adhesive body.
27. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein the adhesive tape comprises the protective layer and the adhesive body.
28. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein the adhesive tape consists of the protective layer and the adhesive body.
29. The intermediate product according to claim 27, wherein the adhesive body has a thickness of less than 0.1 mm.
30. The intermediate product according to claim 29, wherein the adhesive body has a thickness of less than 0.07 mm.
31. The intermediate product according to claim 27, wherein the adhesive body comprises acrylate adhesive.
32. The intermediate product according to claim 27, wherein the adhesive body comprises foam.
33. The intermediate product according to claim 27, wherein the adhesive body comprises polyurethane, PVC and/or polyethylene foam.
34. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein the adhesive tape is an acrylate foam adhesive tape.
35. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein the adhesive tape is a transfer adhesive tape.
36. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein the adhesive tape has a total thickness of less than 0.2 mm.
37. The intermediate product according to claim 36, wherein the adhesive tape has a total thickness of less than 0.15 mm.
38. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein exactly one prefabricated adhesive tape having a manually removable outer protective layer is arranged on said another side.
39. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein a plurality of prefabricated adhesive tapes having a manually removable outer protective layer are arranged on said another side.
40. The intermediate product according to claim 25, further comprising at least one heat-conducting element that attaches the tube system for conducting the medium to the support plate.
41. The intermediate product according to claim 40, wherein the heat-conducting element is a heat-conducting sheet.
42. The intermediate product according to claim 40, wherein the heat-conducting element is attached to the support plate by an additional prefabricated, support-free adhesive tape.
43. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein the tube system for conducting the medium is directly attached to the support plate.
44. The intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein the support plate is metal.
45. A surface heat exchanger, comprising an intermediate product according to claim 25, wherein the prefabricated adhesive tape attaches the support plate in or on a retaining cassette, wherein the adhesive tape is free of any support.
46. A surface heat exchanger, comprising: a support plate; a tube system for conducting a medium attached on one side of the support plate; at least one heat-conducting element that attaches the tube system to the one side of the support plate; and a prefabricated adhesive tape that attaches the heat-conducting element to the one side of the support plate, wherein the adhesive tape is free of any support.
47. A surface heat exchanger, comprising: a support plate; a tube system for conducting a medium attached on one side of the support plate; at least one heat-conducting element that attaches the tube system to the one side of the support plate; a first prefabricated adhesive tape arranged on an other side of the support plate to attach the support plate in or on a retaining cassette; and a second prefabricated adhesive tape that attaches the heat-conducting element to the support plate, wherein the first adhesive tape and the second adhesive tape are each a support-free adhesive tape.
48. A surface heat exchanger, comprising: a support plate; a tube system for conducting a medium attached to one side of the support plate; and a prefabricated adhesive tape arranged on an other side of the support plate to attach an outer decorative layer to said other side, wherein the adhesive tape is free of any support.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0106] Other advantages and embodiments of the invention become apparent from the dependent claims, which are not cited, and from the following description of the figures, in which:
[0107] FIGS. 1a-1e show, in a series of schematic plan views, the basic components and the production sequence of an intermediate product according to the present invention,
[0108] FIG. 1a shows a support plate,
[0109] FIG. 1b shows a tube system,
[0110] FIG. 1c shows heat-conducting elements,
[0111] FIG. 1c′ shows an adhesive strip on a heat-conducting element of FIG. 1c,
[0112] FIG. 1d shows the tube system mounted on the support plate by the heat-conducting elements,
[0113] FIG. 1e shows a rear view of FIG. 1d,
[0114] FIG. 2 is a highly schematic view, roughly along arrow II in FIG. 1, of a section through the intermediate product according to the invention, omitting some tube portions,
[0115] FIG. 3 is a view according to FIG. 2 of the intermediate product with the protective layer having been partially peeled off,
[0116] FIG. 4 is a view according to FIG. 3 of the intermediate product, or the remainder thereof, with the protective layer having been peeled off and said intermediate product being inserted into a retaining cassette,
[0117] FIG. 5 is a view according to FIG. 4 of an assembled surface heat exchanger according to the method according to the invention,
[0118] FIG. 6 is a highly schematic lateral sectional view through a building room in which the assembled surface heat exchanger according to FIG. 5 has been mounted centrally, omitting the (remainder of the) intermediate product for the sake of clarity,
[0119] FIG. 7 is a highly schematic, perspective view of a double-sided adhesive tape, as used in the prior art,
[0120] FIG. 8 is a highly schematic, perspective view of a support-free, double-sided adhesive tape, as used in the invention, but for the sake of clarity not with the correct dimensions and layer thicknesses, and
[0121] FIG. 9 is a bottom view, for example according to FIG. 1e, of a surface heat exchanger according to the invention comprising a decorative layer attached to the support plate.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0122] Embodiments of the invention are described by way of example in the following description of the figures, also with reference to the drawings. Here, for the sake of clarity, even if different embodiments are involved, identical or comparable parts or elements or regions have been denoted by identical reference signs, sometimes with the addition of lower-case letters or apostrophes.
[0123] Features that are only described in relation to one embodiment can also be provided in any other embodiment of the invention within the scope of the invention. Even if they are not shown in the drawings, such amended embodiments are covered by the invention.
[0124] All the features disclosed are essential to the invention per se. The content of the disclosure of the cited documents and the prior art devices described are hereby incorporated into the disclosure of the application in their entirety, also for the purpose of incorporating individual features or a plurality of features of these documents into one or more claims of the present application.
[0125] First, the series of figures in FIG. 1 shows the manufacture of an intermediate product 10 according to the invention by the manufacturer (cf. FIGS. 1d and 1e).
[0126] According to FIG. 1a, a support plate 11 is first used for the production thereof, for example in the manufacturer's production facilities. The support plate 11 is shown in FIG. 1a by way of its front side 12 and consists substantially of a metal sheet, for example made of aluminium. Here, the support plate 11 preferably has a material thickness of at least 0.3 mm, and in the present embodiment approximately 0.5 mm or 0.6 mm. This material thickness in particular ensures that the support plate 11 can also be described as a metal transfer sheet, since the material thickness provided allows for optimal thermal conduction in the support plate.
[0127] According to FIG. 1b, a tube system 13 in the manner of a tube meander is provided on the front side 12 of the support plate 11. Here, the tube system 13 shown in particular comprises four straight tube portions 14a, 14b, 14c, 14d, which typically exhibit a D-shaped cross section. The three substantially curved portions 15a, 15b, 15c arranged therebetween may, however, retain a round cross section, for example. According to FIG. 1d, this tube system 13 is attached to the support plate 11 by means of heat-conducting elements, for example in the manner of heat-conducting sheets 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d, as shown in FIG. 1c. In this case, the heat-conducting sheets 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d are in particular strip-shaped and can each engage over a straight tube portion 14a, 14b, 14c, 14d and attach to the support plate 11.
[0128] In this sense, in the present embodiment, the curved tube portions 15 are in particular not attached directly to the support plate 11, but instead are only indirectly attached via the straight portions 14 and the heat-conducting sheets 16. The heat-conducting sheets 16 are adhered to the support plate 11 (in particular on both sides of the covered tube portion). Therefore, the heat-conducting sheets may in particular be metal strips having good heat-conducting properties.
[0129] The intermediate product assembled in this way is shown in FIG. 1d in a front view and in FIG. 1e in a rear view.
[0130] The rear view according to FIG. 1e shows that the rear side 19 of the intermediate product 10 and therefore also the rear side of the support plate 11 is provided with a protective layer 17, for example a peel-off film or a peel-off piece of paper coated with silicone, or the like. The protective layer 17 is part of an adhesive tape 31 and serves to cover and protect an adhesive body 20 (virtually not shown in FIG. 1) of the adhesive tape 31 that is arranged on the rear side of the intermediate product 10 and the support plate 11. The intermediate product 10 is intended to be adhered to a retaining cassette using this adhesive tape 31 in the manner described later.
[0131] Typically, to ensure that it is easy to remove or peel off, the protective layer 17 comprises a grip face 18, which may for example be provided by a protruding film region or simply a region of the underside of the film (which is associated with the adhesive body 20).
[0132] When FIGS. 1c and 1c′ are considered together, it can also be seen that, in addition to the adhesive tape 31, the intermediate product also provides the use of another, support-free adhesive tape in the form of an adhesive strip 30. The heat-conducting elements 16 can be adhered to the front side 12 of the support plate 11, namely likewise by means of a double-sided, support-free adhesive tape 30.
[0133] Here, FIG. 1c′ shows that an adhesive strip 30 can be attached to each tab base 35 of a heat-conducting element 16. For the purpose of installing the heat-conducting element 16 on the support plate 11, a strip protective layer 33 can be manually peeled off, such that the heat-conducting element 16, which engages over the tube system 13, can be adhered to the front side 12 of the support plate 11 by means of the exposed strip adhesive body 34.
[0134] With regard to FIG. 1c′, it is noted that, for the sake of clarity, the strip protective layer 33 is shown as already having been peeled off from the adhesive strip 30′ shown on the left.
[0135] Therefore, the adhesive strip 30 can come from the same adhesive tape source as the adhesive tape 31 which is associated with the other side 19 of the support plate 11. Optionally, however, it is fabricated in a different way, for example in a strip form rather than in a sheet form, or, however, identical strips can be used on both sides of the support plate 11, and therefore typically a plurality thereof can be used on the side 19.
[0136] The finished intermediate product 10 according to FIG. 1d/e is typically manufactured separately by a surface heat exchanger manufacturer. It is, however, intended to be inserted into a retaining cassette which is not located at the manufacturer's site according to the invention.
[0137] In this sense, the intermediate product denoted by reference sign 10 in FIG. 1 constitutes an easy-to-handle, transportable and easy-to-store unit which can be shipped or transported in a logistically simple manner (since shipping without the particularly heavy retaining cassette is possible, for example).
[0138] Typically, the easy-to-handle intermediate product denoted by reference sign 10 in FIG. 1 for assembling a surface heat exchanger is then transported to another/a remote site, at which the assembly of the surface heat exchanger takes place (by bringing together the intermediate product and a retaining cassette), as shown in particular in the series of FIGS. 2 to 5.
[0139] Here, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view through the intermediate product 10 approximately according to the arrows II in FIG. 1d, but with two straight tube portions being omitted. Therefore, for the sake of clarity, only two of the actual four straight tube portions 14 of the tube system 13 are shown in FIG. 2 by way of example. According to FIG. 2, the tube portions 14 are D-shaped in cross section and are fastened to the front side 12 of the support plate 11 by the heat-conducting sheets 16, on either side in the present embodiment (by an adhesive strip 30, 30′ that does not have a protective layer and is free of any support).
[0140] FIG. 2 also shows that the adhesive tape 31 is arranged on the rear side or underside 19 of the support plate 11, the adhesive body 20 of which is covered by a protective layer 21, in particular over its entire surface. The protective layer 21 is used in particular to make it easier to handle and transport the intermediate product 10 in the sense that the intermediate product 10 does not adhere to another object during transport due to the adhesive body 20.
[0141] The intermediate product 10 shown in FIG. 2 is then already at a second site, wherein this is possibly the installation site, for example, i.e. the building room in which the surface heat exchanger is intended to be attached, for example. In principle, this may, however, be the installation site only in the sense that the assembly of the surface heat exchanger takes place in a neighbouring room, a neighbouring building or outside the destination building or in a space adjacent to the destination room. Alternatively, the second site may also be (slightly) different from the installation site. For example, the finished intermediate product 10 according to FIG. 2 may first be transported from the locality of the manufacturer to a locality of an installer which is in the vicinity of the installation site.
[0142] In any case, according to FIG. 3, the protective layer 21 or protective film 21 can be easily manually removed or peeled off at a second site, which is advantageously the installation site. In this way, the adhesive body 20 of the intermediate product 10 is exposed. To do this, a user can use their hand to engage behind a grip face 18 of the protective layer 21.
[0143] After removal of the protective layer 21, a black colour impression, for example, can then appear when looking at the underside of the support plate 11. This colour impression can be produced by a black-coloured adhesive body 20 of the adhesive tape 31, for example, or in an alternative embodiment (not shown), by a separate coating on the underside of the support plate 11 which would thus be arranged between the support plate 11 and the adhesive body 20, wherein a substantially transparent adhesive body has to be used in this case.
[0144] The protective layer 21 is preferably removed according to FIG. 3 immediately before the remainder 22 of the intermediate product is adhered into or onto the retaining cassette 23, as shown in FIG. 4. The remainder 22 of the intermediate product 10, in particular comprising the exposed adhesive body 20, the support plate 11 and the tube system 13 and the heat-conducting sheets 16, can then be brought closer to the inner face 24 of the retaining cassette in an insertion direction E and can be adhered thereto, in particular over its entire surface, by means of the exposed adhesive body 20 of the adhesive tape 31. In this case, this adhesion takes place in a substantially plane parallel manner by the plate plane P being brought towards the attachment plane B of the retaining cassette 23 in a plane parallel manner until it adheres to an attachment face 25 of the retaining cassette 23. No tools, aids or the like are generally required for this purpose. A user can do this manually, in particular by exerting pressure on the rear side 24 of the support plate approximately in the insertion direction E after placing the remainder 22 of the intermediate product 10 into or onto the retaining cassette 23 or the attachment face 25.
[0145] The assembled surface heat exchanger is then denoted by reference sign 26 in FIG. 5. This in particular comprises an adhesive tape 32 that does not have a protective layer (which corresponds to the adhesive tape 31 without the protective layer 17, i.e. the adhesive body 20).
[0146] Another embodiment, which provides that the attachment face 25 of the retaining cassette 23 is provided by a preferably black non-woven material that is arranged in the retaining cassette, is not shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. This optional non-woven material has acoustic and visual properties, inter alia, and can be inserted into the cassette 23 in advance in a separate method step.
[0147] If the surface heat exchanger 26 has been assembled according to FIGS. 2 to 5 remotely from the installation site, the surface heat exchanger 26 can then be transported from the second site, for example the site of the local installer, to the installation site, in particular the intended building room. If, however, the surface heat exchanger 26 has been assembled at the installation site, the final installation of the assembled surface heat exchanger 26 can then (according to FIG. 6) be carried out.
[0148] FIG. 6 shows the surface heat exchanger 26 in a completely installed state, in which the surface heat exchanger 26 has been attached or fastened to a ceiling 27 of a building room 28. For the sake of clarity, however, FIG. 6 only shows the retaining cassette of the surface heat exchanger 26, without the remainder 22 of the intermediate product 10. However, the fully installed surface heat exchanger 26 of course contains all the components shown in FIG. 5.
[0149] To install the surface heat exchanger 26, the retaining cassette 23 may for example comprise installation faces, which are indicated in FIG. 6 and are omitted from FIG. 5 for the sake of clarity, and can in particular be attached to the side edges 29 of the retaining cassette 23 (cf. FIG. 5).
[0150] In FIG. 6, the surface heat exchanger 26 is installed on the ceiling 27 in a cascaded arrangement together with other surface heat exchangers 26′ and 26″. The complete installation also includes, inter alia, the surface heat exchanger 26 being connected to the other surface heat exchangers 26′ and/or 26″ with regard to its tube system, such that continuous conduction of a fluid flowing through the tube system 13 on the ceiling 27 is ensured.
[0151] With regard to FIG. 6, it is noted that many more or less than three of the surface heat exchangers shown can of course be used on the ceiling. In particular, the surface heat exchangers may not only be arranged beside one another, as shown in the sectional view according to FIG. 6, but may also be arranged in succession in relation to the other spatial direction.
[0152] It is common to all the forms of arrangement that the surface heat exchangers 26 form what is known as a climate-control ceiling, which provides air conditioning of the room 28. If a coolant, for example cooled or cold water, flows through the tube systems or tube system, the climate-control ceiling can have a cooling effect. If, however, the room 28 is intended to be heated, a heated medium, for example hot water, can flow through the tube systems 13 of the surface heat exchangers 26.
[0153] Merely for the sake of clarity, it is noted with regard to FIG. 6 that the surface heat exchangers 26 could of course also be arranged on the walls 29, depending on the application.
[0154] In this case, a typical surface heat exchanger 26 has a width b of approximately 60 cm, in particular of between 50 and 70 cm. The surface heat exchanger 26 may have identical dimensions in the other spatial direction or, alternatively, may typically also have dimensions that are approximately twice as long, i.e. a length of approximately 120 cm or in particular between 100 cm and 140 cm. Typically, in this case, precisely one (remainder of the) intermediate product 22 is arranged within a retaining cassette or an intermediate product is installed within said retaining cassette.
[0155] FIGS. 7 and 8 show, highly schematically and in portions in some cases, the difference between a double-sided transfer adhesive tape, as used according to the invention (FIG. 8), and a double-sided adhesive tape comprising a support from the prior art (FIG. 7).
[0156] While the adhesive tape 31 according to FIG. 8 used according to the invention merely comprises an adhesive body 20 and a protective layer 21 (wherein, for the sake of clarity and owing to the schematic representation, these are not shown to scale in particular in relation to their thickness and are not shown in the correct ratio relative to one another either), a double-sided support tape comprising a support, as shown in FIG. 7, consists of many more layers: said tape thus comprises a central support 36 and a layer of primer material 37 and 37′ on either side. This serves to attach the respective adhesive masses 38 and 38′ to the support 36. According to FIG. 7, the adhesive tape comprising the support then comprises a protective layer 21′.
[0157] The large number of different layers alone suggests that the double-sided adhesive tape comprising the support according to FIG. 7 is thicker overall and for example has a total thickness of greater than 0.2 mm, while the support-free adhesive tape 31, as used in the invention, has a considerably lower total thickness, for example of less than 0.15 mm.
[0158] Even if this cannot be seen from FIG. 8, in reality it can be provided that the adhesive body 20 in the adhesive tape 31 has a lower thickness of approximately 0.06 mm, for example, than the protective layer 21 (which can consist of silicone paper, for example, and can have a thickness of approximately 0.08 mm).
[0159] Lastly, FIG. 9 shows a bottom view in another embodiment, which corresponds to a view approximately according to FIG. 1e, in which the underside 19 of the carrier plate does not, however, comprise (or no longer comprises) a protective layer, but instead already comprises a decorative layer 39 arranged thereon.
[0160] In the embodiment shown, this decorative layer 39 is a non-woven material, in particular an acoustic non-woven material, for example.
[0161] In this case, according to FIG. 9, the decorative layer 39 in particular has a pattern (which is checked in this example) which can be printed onto the decorative layer or the non-woven material, for example.
[0162] FIG. 9 does not show the microperforations in the decorative layer 39, however, which in principle serve to improve the acoustic properties of the surface heat exchanger 40 as a whole.
[0163] The decorative layer 39 is adhered to the underside 19 of the surface heat exchanger 40, and specifically by the adhesive body 20 of the adhesive tape 32 indicated at one corner in FIG. 9.
[0164] Normally, in this case, as shown in FIG. 9, the decorative layer 39 of course does not have a “dog ear” in the region of one corner. This view is merely intended to show that, below the decorative layer 39, but above the underside 19 of the support plate 11, there is also the adhesive body 22, by means of which the decorative layer 39 is directly fastened to the underside 19 of the carrier plate 11.
[0165] As shown in this view of the underside 19 of the support plate 11 or the slightly modified surface heat exchanger 40 that is shown, as a whole, this is also an easy-to-handle, ready-to-use and transportable unit which is produced at the first site. Therefore, a surface heat exchanger 40 according to the invention can be transported to the intended site in a logistically simple manner.
[0166] The production of a surface heat exchanger 40 of this kind comprising a decorative layer essentially corresponds to the production as shown in FIG. 1, after which, however, the protective layer 17 is peeled off and the decorative layer 39 is attached.
[0167] In order to install a surface heat exchanger 40 of this kind comprising a decorative layer 39, it may for example comprise installation means or may interact with room-side or ceiling-side installation means. It is typically not adhesively bonded into a retaining cassette, since the underside comprising the decorative layer 39 is intended to be visible.
