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Stackable energy transfer core spacer

Stackable energy transfer core spacer description/claims

The present application is a division of patent application Ser. No. 10/739,412 filed on Dec. 19, 2003. The entire content of said U.S. application Ser. No. 10/739,412 is herein incorporated by reference.

This invention relates to an energy transfer element or stage which may be employed in an energy recovery core incorporated in an air conditioning system and a method of making such an energy transfer element or stage.

The present invention in particular relates to a stackable spacer element for use in an energy recovery core formed by stacking a plurality of relatively thin heat transfer media (e.g. sheets, panels, or plates (i.e. un-perforated exchanger sheets)) so as to define a plurality of stacked energy transfer stages providing air passages for two separate air flows, e.g. one for outside fresh air and one for stale interior air from an enclosure i.e. room of a building such as a house. The so formed energy recovery core may for example be used to transfer heat from discharged interior air to fresh atmospheric air. Thus for example the present invention relates to a heat recovery core of the cross-flow type, namely of the type wherein core air passages are disposed transverse (e.g. perpendicular) to each other in an interleaved fashion i.e. one passageway being transverse to the immediately adjacent passageway (or at least parts thereof). A suitably configured frame assembly may as desired or necessary be provided in contact with the bottom exchanger stage and the top exchanger stage for holding the plurality of stages in position as by a clamping type action.

Stacked type heat exchange cores are known for transferring heat between supplied atmospheric air and discharged interior air without allowing them to mix with each other; see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,832,993 and 5,181,562. It is known that energy recovery cores may be of two types, namely cross flow cores and counter flow cores.

For cross flow cores it is known for example to use a corrugated board type heat exchanger in an air conditioning system or the like. In order to make such an exchanger, generally rectangular heat exchanging paper sheets and corrugated partitions are alternately stacked one on top of the other. The heat-exchange paper sheets and the corrugated partitions are also bonded to each other to preventing air from mixing between adjacent air passages. The directions of the partitions on opposite sides of a paper sheet are disposed so as to be oriented at right angles to each other such that two perpendicular air flow passages of triangular cross section are provided. Heat exchange is performed between air flowing through these air flow passages.

It is also known to provide an exchanger core made up of a plurality of heat exchange elements each of which comprises a heat exchanging paper sheet and a plurality of parallel vertically extending partition pieces formed from a synthetic resin. The partition pieces are vertically mounted on one side of the paper sheet; the synthetic resin partition pieces are formed integrally with the paper sheet. A large number of such heat exchange elements are stacked so that the direction of the partition pieces of each heat exchange element are alternately changed by 90 degrees. In this construction, each air flow passage has a rectangular cross section, which can reduce the air flow pressure loss as compared with the above-described corrugated core structure. However, producing the above-described heat exchange elements requires special production equipment and forming dies, resulting in relatively high production costs for this type of the heat exchange element. It would be advantageous to have an energy recovery element able to facilitate the manufacture of an energy recovery core for effective transfer of heat between fluids ((e.g. such as air) flowing through an energy recovery device. It would also be advantageous to be able to assemble an energy recovery core using self positioning spacer members. It would further be advantageous to be able to provide a peripheral energy transfer core spacer or use in the construction of an energy recovery core comprising a core stack comprising alternate layers of an energy transfer media of relatively thin material (e.g. sheets, plates, or the like) and spacer members. It would further be advantageous if a such energy transfer media and spacers could be stacked in successive, if so desired adhesive-less, layers so as to define a core. It would also be advantageous if the spacers could be provided with tongue/mortise aspects for interlocking adjacent spacers together.

Thus the present invention provides a stackable energy transfer core spacer comprising a peripheral frame member, said peripheral frame member extending about and defining a framed core opening, said peripheral frame member having a pair of opposed major sides, said peripheral frame member comprising a pair of side opening components and a pair of side wall components, each side opening component comprising a framed side opening in fluid (i.e. air) communication with said framed core opening, each side wall component respectively interconnecting said side opening components, said spacer being configured such that said spacer may be oriented and stacked, major side to major side, on top of a second like spacer, with an intermediate air to air energy transfer or exchanger sheet extending across (i.e. covering) the framed core openings and being sandwiched between the frame members of both spacers so that the spacers and the energy transfer sheet define a pair of transversely oriented (i.e. non-parallel) fluid (i.e. air) paths on opposite sides of the energy transfer sheet, each fluid (i.e. air) path extending from one respective framed side opening through a respective framed core opening to the other respective framed side opening of a respective spacer.

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Cooling device
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