Patent ID: 7040385

Claim:
An evaporator comprising: a front heat exchange assembly and a rear heat exchange assembly arranged at an air inlet side and an air outlet side, respectively, and adjacent to each other, each of the heat exchange assemblies comprising a pair of upper and lower headers extending laterally; a multiplicity of refrigerant channels arranged laterally at a spacing and each having an upper end connected to the upper header and a lower end connected to the lower header, a refrigerant inlet being provided at one end of the upper or lower header of the rear heat exchange assembly, a refrigerant outlet being provided at one end of the upper or lower header of the front heat exchange assembly, the upper or lower header of the rear heat exchange assembly communicating at a portion thereof toward the other end with the upper or lower header of the front heat exchange assembly at a portion thereof toward the other end by communication means; and at least one of the upper and lower headers of the rear heat exchange assembly being internally provided with vertical partitions for internally dividing the headers into portions arranged laterally so as to reverse the direction of upward or rearward flow of a refrigerant through the refrigerant channels of the rear heat exchange assembly for every specified number of refrigerant channels; wherein the refrigerant to be caused to flow into the group of upward refrigerant channels of the rear heat exchange assembly which are positioned remotest from the refrigerant inlet is made to dividedly flow into and flow upward through a plurality of refrigerant channels of the front heat exchange assembly which are adjacent to the plurality of refrigerant channels of the rear heat exchange assembly constituting the group, by causing the lower headers of the front and rear heat exchange assemblies to communicate with each other by flow-dividing communication means at the header portions corresponding to the plurality of refrigerant channels.