Patent ID: 7614442

Claim:
A heat exchanger for cooling or heating a first medium comprising: the heat exchanger having an upstream entrance side and a downstream exit side for a second heating or cooling medium to flow through the heat exchanger, into the upstream entrance side and out the downstream exit side, the heat exchanger having opposite lateral sides; a respective tank for the first heating or cooling medium, each tank located at a respective one of the opposite lateral sides of the heat exchanger; each tank having a connection surface on a side of the tank opposing the other tank; tubes for the first medium which is to be cooled/heated, the tubes extending in a longitudinal direction between the tanks; the tubes being arranged in a stack with levels and each level including a row of the tubes, each row extending from the entrance side to the exit side of the heat exchanger and arranged across a space between the connection surfaces of the tanks; a plurality of flow ducts between the rows of the tubes in the stack for the second cooling/heating medium, the ducts are arranged to run across the longitudinal direction of the tubes and at an angle to the connection surfaces and are oriented to converge in the direction of flow of the second cooling/heating medium; the respective flow ducts located in a region closer to each of the tanks are angled relative to others of the flow ducts such that the flow ducts in regions of increasing proximity to the respective connection surfaces of the tanks run increasingly parallel to the respective connection surfaces.