Refrigerant compressor damping element arrangement

Abstract

The invention relates to a refrigerant compressor, comprising a compressor housing (1) that can be hermetically capsuled, and a compressor-motor unit (4) arranged in the housing interior (3) of the compressor housing (1), which is elastically mounted on an inner side of the compressor housing (1) by way of at least one spring element (5), wherein at least one damping element (9) made of an elastomer is provided, in order to damp the transmission of vibrations caused by the compressor-motor unit (4) to the compressor housing (1). The at least one damping element (9) is made of an elastomer that is softer compared to polyamide (PA), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene (ECTFE).

Claims

1. A refrigerant compressor comprising a hermetically sealable compressor housing and a compressor-motor unit disposed in a housing interior of the compressor housing and which compressor-motor unit is elastically mounted on an inner side of the compressor housing via at least one spring element, wherein at least one damping element made of an elastomer is provided in order to dampen the transmission of vibrations caused by the compressor-motor unit to the compressor housing, wherein the at least one damping element is disposed between said at least one spring element and the inner side of the compressor housing and a connecting element is disposed between said at least one spring element and the compressor-motor unit, wherein the at least one damping element is in the form of a mounting element, via which mounting element the at least one spring element is attached to the inner side of the compressor housing in a way that a force-fit connection between an outer jacket surface of the mounting element and a segment of the spring element adjacent to said outer jacket surface of the mounting element is established, wherein the at least one damping element is made of an elastomer that is softer than polyamide (PA), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), and ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene (ECTFE), wherein the Shore A hardness of the at least one damping element has a value between 40 and 80, wherein the at least one damping element is made of a composite material comprising a fluoroelastomer, and/or hydrogenated acrylonitrile butadiene rubber and/or ethylene acrylate rubber, and wherein the mounting element and the connecting element do not overlap; wherein one of the mounting element and connecting element comprises a shape-giving inner element, which shape-giving inner element is surrounded at least in a segment by the mounting element or connecting element to form at least a contact segment of the mounting element or the connecting element; wherein the shape-giving inner element and associated mounting element or connecting element each have a sleeve-like shape.

2. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 1, wherein the Shore A hardness of the damping element has a value between 50 and 65.

3. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 1, wherein the damping element surrounds the inner element on an outer side of the inner element that is turned toward the spring element.

4. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 1, wherein the mounting element and/or the connecting element is in the form of a multicomponent injection molded part.

5. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 1, wherein the at least one spring element is in the form of a helical spring and the at least one damping element projects, at least in a segment, into the helical spring.

6. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 1, wherein the compressor-motor unit is mounted on the inner side of the compressor housing via four of said at least one spring elements, wherein said four spring elements are in the form of helical springs, wherein each helical spring is connected to the compressor-motor unit and/or the inner side of the compressor housing via the at least one damping element.

7. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 1, wherein the at least one damping element is made in the shape of a cap.

8. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 7, wherein a wall thickness of the damping element is between 20% and 40% of an inside diameter of the at least one spring element in the form of a helical spring.

9. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 2 wherein the Shore A hardness of the at least one damping element has a value between 55 and 60.

10. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 1, wherein the at least one spring element is attached to the compressor-motor unit by a force fit.

11. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 5, wherein a wall thickness of the damping element is between 20% and 40% of an inside diameter of the at least one spring element in the form of a helical spring.

12. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 6, wherein a wall thickness of the damping element is between 20% and 40% of an inside diameter of the at least one spring element in the form of a helical spring.

13. The refrigerant compressor as in claim 7, wherein a wall thickness of the damping element is between 25% and 35% of an inside diameter of the at least one spring element in the form of a helical spring.

14. A refrigerant compressor comprising a hermetically sealable compressor housing and a compressor-motor unit disposed in a housing interior of the compressor housing, which compressor housing is elastically mounted on an inner side of the compressor housing via at least one spring element, wherein at least one damping element made of an elastomer is provided in order to dampen the transmission of vibrations caused by the compressor-motor unit to the compressor housing, wherein the at least one damping element is disposed between said at least one spring element and the inner side of the compressor housing, and a connecting element is disposed between said at least one spring element and the compressor-motor unit, wherein the at least one damping element is in the form of a mounting element, via which mounting element the at least one spring element is attached to the inner side of the compressor housing in a way that a force-fit connection between an outer jacket surface of the mounting element and a segment of the spring element adjacent to said outer jacket surface of the mounting element is established, wherein the at least one damping element is made of an elastomer that is softer than polyamide (PA), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), and ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene (ECTFE), wherein the Shore A hardness of the at least one damping element has a value between 40 and 80, wherein the at least one said damping element is made of a composite material comprising a fluoroelastomer, and/or hydrogenated acrylonitrile butadiene rubber and/or ethylene acrylate rubber, and wherein the mounting element and the connecting element do not overlap; further comprising at least one damping element that is disposed between the at least one spring element and the compressor-motor unit, wherein one of the mounting element and connecting element comprises a shape-giving inner element, which shape-giving inner element is surrounded at least in a segment by the mounting element or connecting element to form at least a contact segment with the mounting element or the connecting element, wherein the shape-giving inner element and associated mounting element or connecting element each have a sleeve-like shape.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

(1) The invention will now be explained in more detail by means of an embodiment example. The drawings are examples only and are intended to represent the ideas of the invention but not to limit it in any way or even to conclusively represent it.

(2) Here:

(3) FIG. 1 shows a detail of a refrigerant compressor with damping elements made according to the invention as mounting or connecting elements.

(4) FIG. 2 shows an axonometric view of a damping element in the form of a mounting element.

(5) FIG. 3 shows the helical spring with a damping element and connecting element according to FIG. 1.

(6) FIG. 4 shows a perspective sectional view of a damping element in the form of a part of a mounting element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

(7) FIG. 1 shows a detail of a compressor housing 1 of a refrigerant compressor according to the invention in a sectional view.

(8) The plane of the section runs centrally through a first damping element 9 in the form of a mounting element 6, a spring element 5 in the form of a helical screw, via which a compressor-motor unit 4 of the refrigerant compressor disposed in an internal space 3 of the refrigerant compressor is elastically mounted on an inner side 2 of the compressor housing 1, and through a second damping element 9 in the form of a connecting element 7, wherein the spring element 5 is connected to the compressor-motor unit 4 via the connecting element 7 and to the inner side 2 of the compressor housing 1 via the mounting element 6.

(9) In the embodiment example of the refrigerant compressor according to the invention that is shown, the compressor-motor unit 4 is mounted not via just the one spring element 5 but rather via a total of four spring elements 5, each in the form of a helical spring, to a bottom region of the compressor housing 1.

(10) When the refrigerant compressor is in operation, the vibrations produced by the compressor-motor unit 4 are mainly transmitted to the compressor housing 1 via the spring elements 5. In order to minimize the resulting noise level, it is provided that the damping element 9 in the form of a mounting element 6 and/or the damping element 9 in the form of a connecting element 7 is made of an elastomer. The acoustic transmission function of the vibration system consisting of the compressor-motor unit 4 and the at least one spring element 5 can be affected by the choice of the elastomer so that certain frequency ranges can be damped or suppressed in a targeted way.

(11) In particular, through the use of a damping element 9 according to the invention between each of the four spring elements 5 and the compressor housing 1 or the compressor-motor unit 4 of the refrigerant compressor, a noise level caused by impacts of said components with each other can be considerably reduced.

(12) Since an oil sump consisting of refrigerant and oil usually forms in the bottom region of the refrigerant compressor when the refrigerant compressor is in operation, at least the damping elements 9 in the form of mounting elements 6 are usually at least partially surrounded by a lubricant-oil mixture, which has fundamentally negative effects on the lifespan of the elastomer of which the damping elements are made. In order to keep the damping elements from swelling too greatly or even dissolving, the damping elements 9 are preferably made of a composite material comprising a fluoroelastomer, for example a composite material with the trade name Viton®-A 401C.

(13) Ideally, the composite material that is used in each case is chosen so that the damping elements swell slightly upon contact with the oil sump, which can be as hot as 100° [C], so that there is a force fit connection between spring element 5 and mounting or connecting element 6, 7, dissolving of the damping element 9 can be excluded over sufficiently long refrigerant compressor lifespans, and the Shore A hardness of the damping element 9 takes a value less than or equal to 65, since the optimum noise suppression is achieved at such a hardness.

(14) The cap-shaped design of the mounting element 6 or the connecting element 7 can be seen especially well in FIGS. 2 and 3, where FIG. 2 shows the damping element 9 in the form of mounting element 6 in an axonometric view and FIG. 3 shows the spring element 5 in the form of a helical spring and connected to a mounting element 6 and to a connecting element 7. The mounting element 6 in this case comprises a cylindrical jacket surface, a top wall completing said jacket surface, and, on the side away from the top wall, a stepped contact segment adjoining the jacket surface with a larger outside diameter than the cylindrical jacket surface, where the mounting element 6 contacts the bottom segment with the stepped contact segment.

(15) The mounting element 6 thus has in its internal space a receptacle for a mounting bolt 8, which is disposed on the bottom region of the compressor housing 1 and in most cases is made in one piece with the compressor housing 1 (see FIG. 1). When the mounting element 6 is installed, it is forced onto the mounting bolt 8 so that the mounting element 6 completely surrounds the mounting bolt. The spring element 5 rests with one end on the side of the contact segment facing the spring element 5 and circumferentially surrounds the cylindrical jacket surface of the mounting element 6. Both the mounting element 6 itself and the mounting bolt 8 accommodated in the receptacle of the mounting element 6 thus project at least partly into the internal space of the spring element 5, which is in the form of a helical spring.

(16) The connecting element 7, via which the spring element 5 is connected to the compressor-motor unit 4 when the refrigerant compressor is in operation, or when the connecting element 7 is installed, has essentially the same construction as the mounting element 6, where the connecting element 7 likewise is made in a cap shape and has a cylindrical jacket surface, a top wall completing said jacket surface, and a stepped contact segment. While the spring element 5 in the form of a helical spring contacts the side of the contact segment of the connecting element 7 facing the spring element 5 with its other end and the spring element 5 circumferentially surrounds the cylindrical jacket surface of the connecting element 7, a sleeve-shaped continuation projects from the contact segment of the connecting element 7 in the direction of the compressor-motor unit 4, so as to form an enlarged receptacle in the connecting element 7 with the receptacle surrounded by the cylindrical jacket surface. Looking in the axial direction of the connecting element 7, the sleeve-shaped continuation of the connecting element 7 has a lengthwise extension, which essentially is like that of the segment of the connecting element 7 that projects into the interior of the helical spring and forms the cylindrical jacket surface and top wall. Thus, the connecting element 7 can surround the pin-shaped continuation of the compressor-motor unit 4 even outside of the spring element 5 in order to counteract generation of noise there as well.

(17) When the connecting element 7 is installed, the compressor-motor unit 4 projects with a pin-shaped continuation into the enlarged receptacle of the connecting element 7 and the compressor-motor unit 4 rests on a side of the stepped contact segment on the connecting element 7 turned toward the compressor-motor unit 4.

(18) FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of a damping element 9 according to the invention. Here, the damping element 9 is in the form of a part of a mounting element 6. As such, the damping element 9 forms a contact segment of the mounting element 6, which contact segment, when the refrigerant compressor is in operation, and thus in the installed state of the damping element 9, is turned toward the spring element 5 and is in contact with this spring element 5.

(19) The damping element 9 surrounds, at least in a segment, a shape-giving inner element 10 of the mounting element 6, which is made of a material that is harder than the damping element 9, for example polyamide (PA), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), or ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene (ECTFE).

(20) Thus, both the damping element 9 itself and the shape-giving inner element 10 have a sleeve-like shape, so that the shape-giving inner element 10 can be set on the mounting bolt 8 and the damping element 9 can be forced over the shape-giving inner element 10.

(21) The mounting element 6 of this embodiment can be made in each case as a separate damping element 9 and a shape-giving inner element 10, wherein the two components of the mounting element 6 are not assembled until the installation operation and in the operating state of the refrigerant compressor are connected to each other essentially because of the spring element 5 and the weight of the compressor-motor unit.

(22) Alternatively, the mounting element 6 of this embodiment can, however, also be made of a multicomponent injection molded part, so that the damping element 9 is already joined to the shape-giving inner element 10 during the process of making the mounting element 6.

(23) Similar to the structure of the mounting element 6 just described, the connecting element 7 can also comprise a shape-giving inner element and a damping element forming a contact segment surrounding, at least in a segment, the inner element and forming a contact segment and can be in the form of a multicomponent injection molded part.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

(24) 1 Compressor housing 2 Inner side of compressor housing 3 Inside space of housing 4 Compressor-motor unit 5 Spring element 6 Mounting element 7 Connecting element 8 Mounting bolt 9 Damping element 10 Inner element