Heat exchanger for an air conditioning system evaporator

Claim 1

A heat exchanger comprising: a plurality of hollow panels arranged in a stack with fins interspersed therebetween and each having right and left vertical fluid passageways therein and upper and lower headers communicating with upper and lower ends of said fluid passageways respectively; said panels being arranged in front and rear groups such that a front right lower header communicates with lower ends of said front right fluid passageways, a front right upper header communicates with upper ends of said front right fluid passageways, a rear right upper header communicates with upper ends of said rear right fluid passageways and with said front right upper header, a rear right lower header communicates with lower ends of said rear right fluid passageways, a rear left lower header communicates with lower ends of said rear left fluid passageways and with said rear right lower header, a rear left upper header communicates with upper ends said rear left fluid passageways, a front left upper header communicates with upper ends of said front left fluid passageways and with said rear left upper header, and a front left lower header communicates with lower ends of said front left fluid passageways; an end plate applied to an end of said stack and formed with an inlet opening and an outlet opening adjacent to said inlet opening each of which communicates to a fluid circulation path defined in said stack by said fluid passageways and said upper and lower headers of said hollow panels, said inlet opening communicating with one of said front right lower header and said front left lower header and said outlet opening communicating with the other of said front right lower header and said front left lower header respectively; inlet and outlet manifold means mounted on said end plate for fluidly communicating said inlet opening of said end plate to an inlet conduit and said outlet opening to an outlet conduit; expansion valve means built in said inlet and outlet manifold means for controlling a quantity of an incoming flow of fluid directed from said inlet conduit toward the fluid circulation path in the stack via the manifold means and the inlet opening of the end plate in response to a temperature and a pressure of an outgoing flow of the fluid directed from the fluid circulation path toward the outlet conduit via the outlet opening of the end plate and the manifold means.