Patent ID: 8579335

Claim:
An absorption refrigeration circuit of an automotive vehicle, comprising: an expansion valve that causes a pressurized refrigerant to expand and depressurize; an evaporator that causes the depressurized refrigerant to absorb exterior heat and evaporate; an absorber that causes a refrigerant vapor generated by the evaporator to be absorbed by an absorbing solution; a heat exchanger to which the absorbent solution is fed from the absorber; a regenerator that heats the absorbent solution supplied from the heat exchanger using heat from a heater, causes the refrigerant to evaporate, and generates a heated refrigerant; and a condenser that discharges heat of the heated refrigerant to the outside of the automotive vehicle; a pipe conduit; and a coupling structure that connects the expansion valve to the pipe conduit, the coupling structure comprising: two coupling members; a gasket held between the two coupling members; and a plurality of bolts for joining the two coupling members together, wherein the coupling members have respective flat adjoining faces, and the gasket has first and second surfaces, the gasket comprising: a through-hole for allowing the refrigerant or absorbent solution to pass there-through; a protruding part for elastically deforming to a flat cross-section and pressing against the adjoining faces when clamped between the two coupling members so that entire surfaces of the first and second surfaces of the gasket are in contact with the flat adjoining faces of the coupling members, respectively, the protruding part encircling the through-hole; and a plurality of bolt holes disposed outside the protruding part for allowing the bolts to pass therethrough.