Patent ID: 7721791

Claim:
A heat exchanger provided with: a plurality of tubes through which a heat exchange medium passes, a plurality of fins alternately stacked with the tubes and increasing the heat transfer of said heat exchange medium, core plates to which two ends of said tubes are connected, tank bodies connected to the core plates forming tank inside spaces with the core plates, and side plates arranged at outsides in the stacking direction from the end fins arranged at outermost sides in the stacking direction of the fins and connected to the core plates, wherein header tanks are comprised of the core plates and tank bodies, and the header tanks have pipe connections one of which is a heat exchange medium inlet and the other is a heat exchange medium outlet, and one of the pipe connections has a pipe, at least one of said side plates has a plurality of bridge portions at intermediate locations in the longitudinal direction, at least one of said bridge portions has a slit provided by cutting after the brazing of said tubes and said fins; and said at least one of said side plates has a substantially U-shaped cross-section, the pipe is arranged extending inside said substantially U-shaped cross-section, and the pipe sticks out from the insides of the substantially U-shaped cross-section near said bridge portion.