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Hermetic compressor

Hermetic compressor description/claims

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2007-0071331, filed on Jul. 16, 2007 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a hermetic compressor, and, more particularly, to a hermetic compressor having improved configuration of a cylinder head to more efficiently attenuate noise and vibration of refrigerant discharge.

2. Description of the Related Art

Generally, a hermetic compressor is used as a refrigerant compression unit employed in a refrigeration cycle of a refrigerator or air conditioner. The hermetic compressor includes a hermetic container forming an external appearance thereof, and a suction pipe and discharge pipe provided, respectively, at opposite sides of the hermetic container. The suction pipe is used to guide a refrigerant, having passed through an evaporator of the refrigeration cycle, into the hermetic container. The discharge pipe is used to guide the refrigerant, which was compressed in the hermetic container, to a condenser of the refrigeration cycle.

In addition, a compression unit to compress the refrigerant and a drive unit to generate a drive force required to compress the refrigerant are installed in the hermetic container by means of a frame.

Of the above mentioned elements, the drive unit is a conventional motor. The compression unit includes a cylinder block defining a compression chamber therein, a piston installed in the compression chamber to perform rectilinear reciprocating motion upon receiving the drive force from the drive unit, a cylinder head coupled to the cylinder block to hermetically seal the compression chamber, the cylinder head defining therein a suction chamber and a discharge chamber, which are partitioned from each other, and a valve device interposed between the cylinder block and the cylinder head to control the flow of refrigerant from the suction chamber to the compression chamber or from the compression chamber to the discharge chamber.

The suction chamber is connected with the suction pipe, to guide the refrigerant to be suctioned into the compression chamber. The discharge chamber is connected with the discharge pipe, to guide the refrigerant, discharged from the compression chamber, into the discharge pipe.

To attenuate noise caused in the course of suctioning the refrigerant, a suction muffler is inserted, at an exit side thereof, into the suction chamber. Also, a discharge muffler is installed between the discharge chamber and the discharge pipe, to attenuate noise of refrigerant discharge.

In operation of the hermetic compressor having the above-described configuration, as the piston rectilinearly reciprocates in the compression chamber, a pressure difference is caused between the interior and exterior of the compression chamber. By the pressure difference, the refrigerant is guided from the evaporator of the refrigeration cycle into the hermetic container through the suction pipe, and subsequently, is suctioned into the compression chamber by way of the suction muffler and suction chamber. After being compressed in the compression chamber, the refrigerant is discharged from the compression chamber, so as to be delivered to the condenser of the refrigeration cycle by way of the discharge chamber, discharge muffler, and discharge pipe in sequence.

However, the above-described conventional hermetic compressor has a problem in that the discharge chamber has a simple function of guiding the refrigerant discharged from the compression chamber to the discharge muffler, and has no particular noise-attenuating structure. Therefore, while the high-pressure refrigerant from the compression chamber passes through the discharge chamber, excessive noise and vibration occur from the cylinder head.

Accordingly, it is an aspect of the invention to provide a hermetic compressor having improved configuration of a cylinder head to more efficiently attenuate noise and vibration caused upon discharge of a refrigerant.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the above and/or other aspects can be achieved by the provision of a hermetic compressor comprising: a cylinder block having a compression chamber in which a piston rectilinearly reciprocates; a cylinder head coupled with the cylinder block to hermetically seal the compression chamber, the cylinder head having a suction chamber and discharge chamber partitioned from each other, the suction chamber serving to guide a refrigerant to be introduced into the compression chamber, and the discharge chamber serving to guide the refrigerant, which was delivered from the compression chamber after being compressed in the compression chamber, to the outside; and a valve device interposed between the cylinder block and the cylinder head to control movement of the refrigerant from the suction chamber into the compression chamber or from the compression chamber to the discharge chamber, wherein at least one partition member having a bore is detachably mounted in the cylinder head, to divide the discharge chamber into two parts, in order to integrally define a Helmholtz resonator in the discharge chamber.

The discharge chamber may have an open side toward the valve device and be sealed by the valve device, and the partition member, detachably mounted in the cylinder head, may be supported by the valve device and be kept at a fixed position so as not to be separated from the cylinder head.

The partition member may be mounted in the cylinder head in a sliding coupling fashion, and the cylinder head may comprise a guide rail to guide the sliding coupling of the partition member.

The suction chamber and discharge chamber may be partitioned from each other by a partition wall provided therebetween, the partition wall may be configured to define a narrow passage between a sidewall of the cylinder head and the partition wall, and the partition member may be installed in the narrow passage, to connect the sidewall and partition wall, at their locations toward the narrow passage, with each other.

The at least one partition member may comprise a plurality of partition members overlapped side by side in a thickness direction thereof, and bores of the respective partition members may coincide with one another.

The locations of the sidewall and partition wall toward the narrow passage may be provided with guide rails, respectively, and each partition member may be provided, at opposite sides thereof, with rail coupling portions to be coupled with the guide rails.

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