Casing for a heat exchanger in an air-conditioner, in particular for a vehicle cabin

Claim 1

In a heat exchanger unit for an air conditioner, in particular for the cabin of a motor vehicle, comprising: (a) a casing having an inlet duct and an outlet duct, each communicating with the interior of said casing and defining an air path therethrough; (b) a heat exchanger housing mounted in said casing for receiving a heat exchanger core; and (c) a heat exchanger core mounted in said housing across the air path, said heat exchanger core presenting two oppositely disposed large faces, (1) an upstream face to which the said inlet duct leads, said upstream face being disposed at an angle generally oblique to said inlet duct, and (2) a downstream face to which said outlet duct leads, whereby air passing from said inlet duct, through said heat exchanger core to said outlet duct, passes through different portions of said heat exchanger core at different speeds, said speeds ranging from a maximum speed through a first portion of said core to a minimum speed through another portion of said core; the improvement comprising a baffle wall means positioned closely adjacent said downstream face at said first portion of said core, said baffle wall means having a width which is about 10% to 20% of the corresponding dimension of said downstream face, a portion of the upstream face disposed oppositely to the baffled portion of said downstream face being substantially unbaffled closely adjacent said upstream face; whereby a loss of head is created in the region of said core adjacent said baffle, with air flow through said core becoming more uniform, overall head loss through said core being decreased, and the heat exchanging ability of said core and total quantity of air passing through said core being increased.