Patent ID: 7461687

Claim:
A heat exchanger comprising: a plurality of tubes placed between upper and lower headers, each tube having both ends fixed to the headers; medium-distributing means installed at the upper header for supplying specific tubes with heat exchange medium; an upper tank placed over the medium-distributing means, the upper tank having a medium-inlet pipe, a medium-outlet pipe and distribution passages for supplying specific regions of the medium-distributing means with heat exchange medium; medium-regulating means installed at the upper tank; and a lower tank coupled with the lower header to communicate with lower ends of the tubes, and connected with the upper tank via a return pipe; wherein the medium-distributing means comprises: a number of supply holes each communicating with tubes which are divided into groups; guides provided at a top portion of the medium-distributing means for closing opened lower ends of the distribution passages while guiding heat exchange medium, which flows through the distribution passages, to the respective supply holes; and a recovery hole for communicating with the return pipe, the upper tank comprises: a guide section communicating with the medium-inlet pipe, the guide section having a number of distribution holes to supply the medium-distributing means with heat exchange medium; a recovery section provided for communicating with the return pipe; a recovery guide hole formed at one side from the medium-outlet pipe, the recovery guide hole communicating with the recovery section and the medium-outlet pipe; and a bypass hole formed at the other side from the medium-outlet pipe, the bypass hole communicating with the guide section and the medium-outlet pipe.