Abstract:
A refrigeration plant comprising a compressor having an inlet and an outlet, a condenser connected to the outlet of the compressor, an evaporator connected to the condenser and to the inlet of the compressor, and a regulation valve provided between the condenser and the evaporator. According to a peculiar feature of the present invention, the solenoid valve has no metering orifice through which the refrigerant fluid could be expanded. The condenser furnishes a high pressure refrigerant fluid to the regulation valve, which is constituted by a solenoid valve having solenoid actuator that, when is activated (energized), moves a valve member in its open position while when said actuator is deactivated (de-energized) it allows the valve member to return in its closed position by means of a suitable return spring.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application claims priority from European Patent Application No. 04425426.6 filed Jun. 10, 2004.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention relates the field of the refrigeration plants or systems, with particular—but not exclusive—reference to those of middle-great dimensions.  
         [0004]     More specifically, it concerns substantially a refrigeration plant having a flow regulation valve without metering orifice of limitation of flow.  
         [0005]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0006]     Currently, several typologies of refrigeration plants are known, wherein expansion valves provided with metering orifice are employed.  
         [0007]     The invention refers to a solenoid valve without orifice which is periodically energized (opened) and de-energized (closed) by a control system that, in response to some parameters of the refrigeration plant (e.g. overheating), varies the ratio between the energizing time (opening) and the de-energizing time (closing) of the solenoid valve during each period of operation of the valve so that to regulate the flow of refrigerant that goes through the valve itself.  
         [0008]     Typically, a refrigeration plant includes a compressor, a condensing coil and a evaporating coil. Refrigerant vapor is compressed to high pressure by the compressor and supplied to the condenser where the high pressure refrigerant vapor is condensed to a high pressure liquid. An expansion valve is provided between the condenser and the evaporator so that the liquid refrigerant from the condenser can be adiabatically expanded before entering in the evaporator. In the latter, the low pressure refrigerant absorbs heat from the surrounding environment and it is transformed, at least partially, in a vapor which returns to the inlet of the compressor through a suction line. In many conventional refrigeration systems, the expansion valve is a so-called thermostatic expansion valve. The common thermostatic expansion valve, as for instance the known “Danfoss TE2” model, has an expansion port therein with a metering orifice and a valve member to regulate the flow of refrigerant through the expansion port. A spring biases the valve member toward its closing position, and it is provided a diaphragm actuator having a side of the diaphragm exposed to the pressure of the suction gas while the other side is connected, through a capillary pipe, to a thermostatic bulb which exchanges heat with the refrigerant vapor (also called “suction gas”) exhausted by the evaporator. The bulb, which is loaded with a suitable volatile fluid (e.g. a refrigerant), exerts a pressure force on the valve member on the diaphragm actuator opposing the force of the spring and the pressure of the suction gas. When the thermostatic bulb detects an increase in the suction gas temperature with respect to its pressure, the clean pressure force exerted on the diaphragm actuator is correspondingly increased, thereby obtaining to increase the opening of the valve so as to allow to a greater quantity of refrigerant to flow through the evaporator, resulting in a drop in temperature of the suction gas. Following the detection of a diminution in the suction gas temperature by the thermostatic bulb, the latter decreases the pressure force exerted on the diaphragm actuator and thereby allows the spring to close at least partially the valve, reducing the flow of refrigerant in the evaporator and, in turn, increasing the temperature of the suction gas. In this way, the expansion valve regulates the overheating at the evaporator outlet, the overheating being defined as the difference between the temperature of the refrigerant vapor and the temperature of a saturated vapor of the same refrigerant to the same pressure.  
         [0009]     The expansion valves of known type have generally the following limitations: 
    A. To get the maximum efficiency from the evaporator, an overheating near to zero at the evaporator outlet would be desirable, but such known valves, with values of the overheating smaller than about 4÷6° C., are normally not able to carry out suitable regulations, causing a decrease of efficiency of the evaporator between 5 to 10%.     B. When the flow of refrigerant through the valve of expansion is smaller than about 50% of the valve full opening flow capacity, the valve starts to swing between excessive opening and excessive closing, leading to a reduced efficiency of the refrigeration system and to dangerous refrigerant liquid feeding to the compressor inlet. Usually, in order to avoid these swings, the maximum valve capacity is reduced but in this way the refrigeration system cannot operate at its maximum capacity and efficiency in every operating condition.     C. In the currently known refrigeration systems, with air cooled condenser, during the winter operation the pressure at the condenser drops, so reducing the valve flow capacity below acceptable limits. The common solution is to limit the air flow to the condenser by switching off some of the condenser fans so as to ensure that the refrigerant pressure is not less than 8÷12 bars. It should be noted that at a lower condenser pressure, the refrigeration system would have a higher capacity and a lower power consumption, but this condition is not allowed by the thermostatic valve intrinsic limitation.     D. The gaseous phase of the refrigerant entering into the expansion valve limits the flow through the metering orifice which is normally calculated for refrigerant completely in liquid phase. To avoid such limitation, the connection to the valve is generously oversized and the quantity of refrigerant in the system is greater than the amount that would be otherwise necessary. Often a liquid receiver is also installed between the condenser and the expansion valve: the additional refrigerant in the receiver compensates possible variations in the operating conditions of the refrigeration system. The providing of the compensating receiver leads to a further increase of the total quantity of refrigerant. Furthermore, the presence of a receiver having a capacity greater than a certain value imposes the observance of onerous and restrictive regulations, particularly of the European Union (such as the 97/23/CE, also known as PED).     E. During the winter operation, the value of the pressure at the condenser usually results lower than the values of the pressure of the other periods of the year and in order to avoid that refrigerant in gaseous phase being supplied to the expansion valve, a quantity of refrigerant greater than that really necessary has to be provided in the plant. Thus, the pressure at the condenser should be maintained over to a certain value otherwise it must be furnished a greater quantity of refrigerant.    
 
         [0015]     Some of said drawbacks have been overcame by adopting thermostatic expansion valves electronically controlled.  
         [0016]     The U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,703, discloses an electromechanical valve working also as expansion device in the refrigeration circuit, wherein the refrigerant expands while it flows through the valve, going out of the valve in the form of a two-phase mixture of liquid and gas in which the preponderant phase is the liquid phase.  
         [0017]     The valve is used for furnishing a varying orifice correspondingly to the applied control.  
         [0018]     In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,819 it is disclosed a simple solenoid valve provided with a metering orifice intended to limit the flow of the refrigerant. In this case, the solenoid is periodically activated and de-activated to control the flow of refrigerant in response to the overheating of the refrigerant at the evaporator outlet.  
         [0019]     The expansion valve known with the commercial name of “Danfoss AKV” is conceptually similar to the U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,819: in substance, it concerns a solenoid valve incorporating a metering orifice which is activated every six seconds and subsequently deactivated after a suitable time calculated by a proportional, differential and integral electronic controller.  
         [0020]     The patent DE3419666 discloses the same simple solenoid incorporating a metering orifice, used as expansion valve for air conditioning for generic use and for heat pumps.  
         [0021]     In all these valves the refrigerant liquid reaches the valve inlet and therefore it expands while it is flowing through of it. Thus, these electronically controlled valves replicate the function of the traditional expansion valve, improving the precision of the regulation of the overheating and widening the range of flow capacity with respect to that of the traditional expansion valves. These electronically controlled valves overcome the limitations previously listed as A, B and C, but don&#39;t overcome the limitations listed as D and E.  
         [0022]     To such intention, it should be noted that since common refrigerants of the HFCs type cause greenhouse effect, it would be extremely advantageous to reduce the quantity of refrigerant required for the good operation of a refrigeration plant. Furthermore, the use of a reduced quantity of refrigerant would also allow the elimination of the liquid receiver, whose presence often involves, as already said, heavy burdens under the regulations point of view for the certification and the management of the plant itself.  
         [0023]     Notwithstanding this, the known refrigeration systems do not satisfactorily overcome these problems up to now, in fact, the needing to feed the expansion valve with completely liquid refrigerant, combined with the flow resistance through said valve, involves the needing to provide some pipelines between the condenser and the expansion valve having big dimensions and to use considerable quantities of refrigerant, which often imposes the necessity to install a liquid receiver.  
         [0024]     On the other hand, the combined functions of expansion and of flow control in the same valve has prevented to overcome the limitations previously listed as D and E.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0025]     According to the invention, it is provided a refrigeration plant comprising a compressor having an inlet and an outlet, a condenser connected to the outlet of the compressor, an evaporator connected to the condenser and the compressor inlet, and a regulation valve situated between the condenser and the evaporator. The condenser provides the high pressure refrigerant to the regulation valve, which is constituted by a solenoid valve having a solenoid actuator that, when is activated (energized), moves the valve member to its open position while when is deactivated (de-energized) it allows the valve member to move itself in its closed position by means of a suitable return spring.  
         [0026]     In this case, according to a peculiar characteristic of the present invention, the solenoid valve doesn&#39;t have any metering orifice through which the refrigerant fluid could be expanded.  
         [0027]     In the embodiment disclosed, the solenoid actuator is periodically activated/deactivated by a suitable electronic controller with the purpose to regulate the flow of refrigerant that goes through the regulation valve to obtain the desired overheating for the refrigerant at the evaporator outlet.  
         [0028]     Said overheating control is carried out by the electronic controller which analyzes the signals coming from a pressure probe and from a temperature probe positioned between the evaporator outlet and the compressor inlet.  
         [0029]     According to a further peculiar characteristic of the invention, a pipeline for the refrigerant which is in warm gaseous-state is provided between the compressor outlet and the evaporator inlet. To sum up, this pipeline that by-passes the condenser and the regulation valve, is controlled by an additional solenoid valve with the purpose to carry out the defrosting and the heating of the evaporator.  
         [0030]     It is useful to observe that, according to the present invention, said regulation solenoid valve without metering orifice can be constituted by a common refrigerant solenoid valve (as the EVR of the Danfoss), that is advantageously more cheap than an solenoid expansion valve having a metering orifice (as the AKV of the Danfoss).  
         [0031]     Advantageously, said lacking of metering orifice allows to avoid the installation of a liquid receiver in many situations for which it would be necessary to use a solenoid expansion valve with metering orifice.  
         [0032]     Furthermore, according to the present invention, the size of the pipeline between the condenser and the evaporator can be reduced, because a relevant part of the expansion happens in the same pipeline, thereby further reducing the total quantity of refrigerant needed by the plant. Advantageously, compared to a similar plant provided with traditional expansion valve with metering orifice and with a liquid receiver, a reduction up to 80% of the total quantity of needed refrigerant is obtained.  
         [0033]     A better understanding of further purposes and advantages of this invention will result from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings that show a preferred embodiment thereof only by way of a not limiting example. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF ONE EMBODIMENT  
       [0034]     In the drawings:  
         [0035]      FIG. 1  schematically shows the main components of a refrigeration plant, for instance of the semi-hermetic type with hot-gas defrost, to refrigerate a cold-room. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0036]     In this embodiment, the outlet  3  of the semi-hermetic compressor  1  is connected to the inlet  10  of the condenser  9  through a pipeline  6 . The outlet  11  of the condenser  9  is connected to the inlet  13  of the solenoid regulation valve  12  through a pipeline  15 .  
         [0037]     The solenoid valve  12  is preferably placed near to the outlet of the condenser  11  or near to the inlet of the compressor  1 , with the advantage to simplify the installation and to facilitate the maintenance.  
         [0038]     The outlet  14  of the valve  12  is connected to the inlet  18  of the evaporator  17  through a pipeline  16 , while the outlet  19  of the evaporator  17  is connected to the inlet  2  of the compressor  1  through the pipeline  20 .  
         [0039]     Relating to the above mentioned pressure and temperature probes, the pressure probe  4  is preferably connected to the low pressure cap of the compressor  1 , while the temperature probe  5  is preferably positioned in contact with the low part of the pipeline  20  immediately before the inlet  2  of the compressor  1 . Finally, the hot gas bypass pipeline  7  connects the high-pressure pipeline  6  outgoing from the compressor  1  with the pipeline  16  downstream the regulation valve  12 , by means of the hot gas solenoid valve  8 .  
         [0040]     The electronic controller  21  calculates with a microprocessor the overheating of the refrigerant entering in the compressor  1 , by using the information coming from the pressure and temperature probes  4  and  5 .  
         [0041]     During refrigeration working, the hot gas valve  8  is kept close (off) and the desired overheating is kept and controlled by switching off and on the solenoid regulation valve  12 .  
         [0042]     The driving of said regulation valve  12  provides that it is completely opened (ON) regularly every N seconds, and kept in such configuration for a variable time (“ON time”) from 0 to N seconds, to get the desired overheating. For instance, if N=10, the valve is opened every 10 seconds and is closed after an interval of time that can vary from 0 to 10 seconds. It has to be noted that the value of said intervals of time is not obligatorily an integer, but it can also be fractional.  
         [0043]     When the refrigeration plant is started for the first time, the “ON time” is firstly fixed to an interval of about 2 seconds, then it is gradually increased or decreased by the controller to control the overheating, preferably by means of a proportional, integral and/or differential control method.  
         [0044]     It is useful to note that, since it is not installed any metering orifice in the regulation valve  12 , in case of some abrupt variations of the operational conditions of the refrigerator plant will occur during operation and/or during the filling operations of refrigerant, it will be very difficult for the overheating control method to managing the flow of refrigerant. In fact, when the overheating is too low, there is the risk that some liquid refrigerant enters into the inlet  2  of the compressor  1  and damages the compressor itself; while when the overheating is too high, the pressure at the compressor inlet  2  can go below the external atmospheric pressure and, in case of leaking of the circuit, a bit of air and/or water vapor could enter into the refrigeration plant.  
         [0045]     To obviate to such drawbacks, additionally to said control method, it can be provided that when the overheating falls below a preset value of “minimum overheating”, for instance of about 4° C., the electronic controller  21  closes immediately the regulation valve and delays the subsequent opening of the valve until the overheating increases over said minimum overheating value. Correspondingly, when the overheating increases over a preset value of “maximum overheating”, for instance of about 12° C., the controller  21  anticipates immediately the opening of the regulation valve if such valve is in its closed configuration, maintaining open the valve until the overheating is decreased below the preset maximum value.  
         [0046]     To carry out the defrosting and the heating of the evaporator, the regulation valve  12  is maintained closed and the hot gas valve  8  is opened, while the compressor  1  is on, thereby supplying hot gas to the evaporator  17  without by-passing the inlet  18  to the evaporator. In order to prevent the liquid from returning to the inlet  2  of the compressor  1 , during the defrosting and the heating the controller  21  monitors the value of the overheating at the compressor and, when such overheating is below a preset value, for instance of about 4° C., it closes the hot gas valve  8  until the preset minimum value of the overheating is reached again.  
         [0047]     Furthermore, please note that since there is no liquid receiver installed, during the defrosting and the heating the refrigerant in liquid phase accumulates in the condenser  9  which is partially flooded. Advantageously, such flood of the condenser facilitates the increase of its inner pressure helping the flow of refrigerant to overcome the natural flow resistance of the circuit.  
         [0048]     All the components of the refrigeration system can be designed according to traditional methods, with exception of the regulation valve  12  and of the pipeline  15  and  16 , respectively upstream and downstream of such valve.  
         [0049]     A simple and approximate method for designing the pipeline  15  and  16  now mentioned is the following. The project operating conditions of the refrigeration system are fixed and the refrigerant overheating (OverHeating) at the compressor inlet  2 , that in the following will be indicated as OH, is fixed to a desired value OH 0 . Then the refrigeration plant is ideally gradually filled with refrigerant and the regulation valve  12  is ideally maintained open until the overheating OH drops to OH 0 . There are three possible cases:  
         [0050]     C. The pipeline  15  and  16  are so small that refrigerant completely liquid starts to outflow from the outlet  11  of the condenser  9  but the flow resistance of the pipeline it is so high that OH is still greater than OH 0 . The further filling of refrigerant simply floods the condenser  9  resulting in a small improvement of the overheating.  
         [0051]     C 0 . The pipelines  15  and  16  are correctly designed. In this case, when some completely liquid refrigerant starts to outflow from the outlet  11  of the condenser  9 , the overheating OH is exactly equal to OH 0 , therefore the capacity and the efficiency of the refrigeration plant are exactly as desired.  
         [0052]     C + . The pipelines  15  and  16  are so big that, before that completely liquid refrigerant starts to outflow from the outlet  11  of the condenser  9 , the overheating OH is already equal to OH 0 . This involve that part of the refrigerant from the outlet  11  of the condenser  9  is gaseous and consequently the capacity and the efficiency of the refrigeration system are reduced, since the gaseous part does not undergo evaporation during the refrigeration cycle. If the efficiency is the main concern, the quantity of refrigerant can be increased until completely liquid refrigerant outflows from the outlet  11  of the condenser  9 , allowing the regulation valve  12  to be activated/deactivated for controlling the flow of the fluid in order to maintain the desired overheating.  
         [0053]     However, it is should be observed that in the known refrigeration systems the density of the refrigerant gaseous phase is so small with respect to the liquid phase that a remarkable volume of gas can be allowed at the outlet  11  of the condenser  9 .  
         [0054]     For designing the above mentioned pipelines  15  and  16  in the CO case the well known calculation methods of the pipelines flow resistance can be used. Nevertheless, it is useful to note that this type of sizing is not applicable where the pipeline length is not already known “a priori”, as it happens for the cold rooms installations where the locations of the compressor  1 , of the condenser  9  and of the evaporator  17  are decided during the on site installation. To overcome this difficulty the pipelines can be oversized with a safety margin as in the C +  case.  
         [0055]     During the real operation of a refrigeration plant, the natural flow resistance between the outlet  11  of the condenser  9  and the inlet  18  of the evaporator  17  can be smaller than required and consequently, if the regulation valve  12  would be completely open, an excessive quantity of refrigerant would be furnished to the evaporator, thereby resulting in an insufficient overheating (too low). For this reason the regulation valve  12  is activated and deactivated for limiting the flow of refrigerant and to obtain the desired overheating. A bigger regulation valve  12  has a smaller flow resistance when it is completely open and it allows a greater flow resistance in the pipelines  15  and  16 , thereby reducing the quantity of refrigerant which is really necessary to the plant itself.  
         [0056]     Therefore, the sizing of the regulation valve appears rather simple. However, it should be noted that said sizing it is limited by the costs and by practical reasons. A common on-off solenoid valve without metering orifice (as the EVR Danfoss), used as regulation valve, is advantageously simple, reliable and cheap with respect to more sophisticated valves. However, according to the present invention, it is possible to use—as regulation valve  12 —whatever valve which can be electrically opened and closed or which can be modulated in whatever manner within a reasonable time (order of magnitude of 10 seconds), to obtain refrigerant flow regulation, provided that said valve—at the maximum opening—doesn&#39;t have metering orifice.  
         [0057]     From the above it is clear that the main function of said valve  12  is to regulate the refrigerant flow in order to get the desired working conditions and not that to expand the refrigerant fluid.  
         [0058]     According to the invention, said valve without metering orifice is characterized by its own natural flow resistance and it does not provide any other flow limitation device when said valve is completely open. Part of the refrigerant that is furnished to said valve is already in a gaseous form when said valve it is completely open, while the expansion of said refrigerant occurs primarily in the part of pipeline between the condenser and the evaporator.  
         [0059]     Although the regulation valve  12  can be sized to perform a remarkable part of the expansion, this sizing would be deleterious since it would determine a flow resistance through the valve itself, thereby reducing acceptable flow resistance through the pipelines  15  and  16 , increasing the quantity of refrigerant needed by the plant.  
         [0060]     A refrigerant which can be used in the plant herein disclosed is, for instance, a HFC as the R134a or the R404A or the R407A or the R410A or the R507A.  
         [0061]     To summarize, the regulation valve  12  without metering orifice is preferably an on/off direct controlled solenoid valve. The valve is preferably energized (open) and de-energized (close) as a function of a parameter of the refrigeration system (e.g. the overheating), in such a way that the ratio between the energizing time and the de-energizing time during every period of operation of the valve is varied in response to the system parameter(s) and in such a way that the on/off solenoid valve works as a modulated refrigerant flow control expansion valve.  
         [0062]     The system has a quantity of refrigerant strongly reduced. In most conditions, the circuit does not need any liquid receiver and the hot-gas defrost can be performed without by-passing the distributor of the evaporator.  
         [0063]     The present invention has been described and illustrated according to a preferred embodiment thereof, however, it should be understood that those skilled in the art can make equivalent modifications and/or replacements without departing from the scope of the present industrial invention.