Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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FIELD OF TE-~E INVENTION
The present invention rela-tes to a unit for
heatiny air inside a transport container, a trailer
vehicle, or the like for maintaining a desired
-temperature -therein under cold atmospheric conditions.
B~CKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Present heating units where an internal
combustion engine is used for heating the air inside
the enclosed body of such transport vehicles are unsafe.
Indeed, these systems use the cold air of the enclosed
body for cooling the engine, which air, once hea-ted, is
returned to the enclosed body to prevent its contents
to freeze. It has been observed, however; that~ in
some cases, this heated air carries fume, especially
when the engine may have fuel leaks. This creates a
dangerous situation should the fume contained in the
transport vehicle body reach a given level. As there
usually is no separate air-tight separation between the
engine compartment and the enclosed body, explosions
have been found to occur as a result of engine ignition.
OBJ CT AND STATEMF.NT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to
provide a heating apparatus for industrial transport
containers such as trailers, individual containers,
truck boxes or the like which is reliable and meets the
required safety regulations~ This object is achieved
by providing a unit where the maximum heat dissipated
by the internal combustion engine used for heating the
body is recuperated to heat the air inside the
containers. MorP than 65~ of the combustible energy of
-the engine is effectively transformed into heat from
which more than half is usually lost in the exhaust
system and the other half in the cooling sys-tem.
The present inven-tion is concerned with
providing a water-cooled internal combustion engine
which operates to rotate a fan which, in turn, circulates
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air through a heat exchange unit collecting hea-t from
-the water used Eor cooliny the engine and from -the
exhaus-t gases emit-ted by the engine.
The present inven-tion is therefore concerned
wi-th a heating unit for heating -the air inside a
-transpor-t container, a -trailer vehicle or the li,ke for
maintaining a desired tempera-ture inside the enclosed
body of such transport container, trailer vehicle or
the like under cold atmospheric conditions. The unit
comprises: a frame structure which is mounted to the
enclosed body; an air inlet which receives from the
enclosed body, air to be heated; an internal combus-
tion water-cooled engine mounted to the structure; a
heat exchange unit mounted to the structure and
including first conduit means for circulating water
heated by the water-cooled engine and second conduit
means for circulating hea-ted gases from the exhaust
system of the engine; fan means operatively connected
to the engine for drawing air to be heated from the
air inlet and for passing the air through the heat
exchange unit whereby the air is heated by contacting
the first and second conduit means; and an air outlet
for discharging the heated air in the enclosed body.
In one preferred form of the invention, the,
hea-ting unit is so constructed that the air to be
heated first contacts the first conduit means in which
the water has a temperature lower than that of the
heated exhaust gases which circulate in the second
conduit means.
In another preferred embodiment of the
invention, the first conduit means includes two
separate se-ts of water circulating passageways
extending adjacen-t one another in a horizontal plane.
Yet, in another embodiment of the invention,
the passageways of each set are disposed in two
parallel planes, the passageways containing warmer
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water bei.ng loca-ted in the upper plane.
The scope of applicability of the present
invention will become apparent from the detailed
description given hereinafter. It should be understood,
however, that this descrip-tion, while indicatiny
preferred embodiments of -the invention, is given by way
of illus-tra-tion only, since various changes and
modifications within the spiri-t and scope of -the
invention will become apparent to those skilled in the
art.
IN THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the
front panel of a heating unit made in accordance with
the present invention, and i-ts location on the body
of a transport container;
Figure 2 is an elevation cross-sectional view
showing the heating unit inside the container body;
Figure 3 is a front elevation view of the
heating unit mounted to the front wall of the container;
Figure ~ is a rear elevation view of the unit
with i-ts rear panel removed;
Figure 5 is a bottom view of the heat
exchanger unit of the present i.nvention;
Figure 6 is a top view thereof; and
Figure 7 is a side elevation view as seen from
the left of Figure 6.
Referring to Figures 1 and 2, there is shown,
represented in dotted lines, an enclosed body 10 which
may be that of a transport container, a truck box, a
trailer vehicle or any other container which is used
to transport contents. The front wall 12 of the
enclosed body displays the front panel 14 of a heating
unit 16 made in accordance with the present invention
the remaining portion of the unit is moun-ted inside
the body of the container. The front panel 1~ includes
hinged doors 18, 20, 22, allowing access to the
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components of the heating unit. The panel a]so
displays/ in its lower sec-tion 24, a series of rneasuri.ng
and controlling instrumen-ts for the operation of the
heating unit.
Referring additionnally to Figures 3 and ~
the heating u"it 16 comprises a rectangular box--like
structure whi.ch includes, in addition to the front panel
14, two side panels 25, 26 and a rear panel 27. Two
supporting plates 28, 30 are mounted to this box like
structure at vertically spaced intervals. This
structure is air-tight preventing air inside to mix with
the air inside the container. Plate 30 supports a water-
cooled internal comhustion engine 32 which dri.ves, by
means of a pulley arrangement 33, a fan 34 located rear-
wardly thereof. The fan is in air communication through
a circular opening 34a provided in the rear panel 27 with
air between the panel and a further rear wall 35 spaced
rearwardly of panel 270 Fan 34 draws air in this space
through an opening 36 disposea at the bottom between
rear panel 27 and wall 35. The air drawn is forced
through the fan and into a conduit 40 with a funnel-
shaped extension 42 to a heat exchange unit, generally
designated 44, resting on the upper plate 28. An
opening (not shown) is provi.ded in plate 28 to allow air
to be passed to the heat exchange unit 44.
A fuel tank 46 is suppo.rted on the base of the
heating unit and provides fuel to the internal combustion
engine 32 by appropriate fuel line 48.
In the upper part of the heating unit, the
air, a~ter having gone through the heat exchange unit
44, is deflected by an inclined plate 50 and.directed
to an air outlet 54 to which may be connected a discharge
. duct 56 extending towards the rear of the container, which
duct is provided with a series of openings 58 to return
the warmed air at ~arious location of the container, thus
protecting the contents of the container from being frozen~
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A series of condui-ts extend between -the
engine 32 and the heat exchange uni-t ~. A first
conduit 60 carries -the water which has co]lected heat
from the engine, to the hea-t exchange unit while a
second condui-t 62 returns to the engine the water which
ha~ been cooled as a result of circulation through the
heat exchanger. A third conduit 64 brinys the hot
combustion gases -to the heat exchange unit while a
fourth conduit 66 serves to expel outside the
container the exhaust gases after haviny circulated
through the heat exchange unit.
Figures 5, 6 and 7 show in greater detail the
construction of the hea-t exchange unit 44 forming part
of -the heating uni-t of the present invention. The unit
comprises a rectangular box-like structure 70 having
-two condui-t compartments: in the lower compartment, two
separate sets of passageways are used for passing warm
water from conduit 60 to conduit 62 while, in the upper
compartment, a passageway is defined to circulate the
exhaust gases from an inlet manifold 32, connected to
the inlet conduit 64, to an outlet manifold 74,
connected to the outlet condui-t 66. In the upper
compartment, the passageway consists of a continuous
pipe 76 while in the lower compartment (see Figure 5),
the water heated by the engine is divided into two
paths 78 and 80, each circulating water to a half-
portion of the compartment. In each of these half-
portions, the warmer water is first circulated through
an upper horizontal plane and then passed to the lower
horizontal plane through the two inclined end sections
~8a and 80a. Thus, the air to be heated first contacts
the -two water circulating passageways of the lower
plane and, then, the -two passageways of the upper plane
in which the water is at a slightly higher temperature
than tha-t in the lower plane. Subsequently, the air
passes through the area defined by pipe 76 which carries
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-the exhaust ~ases which clissipa-te heat a-t a higher
ternpera-ture -than that of the wa-ter. ~-lence, the air
discharged a-t the upper por-tion of the heat exchange
uni-t, is heated at hiyh temperature before it is
returned to -the enclosed chamber oE the container.
In a preferred form of the inven-tion, a series of
parallel vertical plates 82 extend in the box~like
structure 70 to increase heat exchange between the
heat dissipating elements and the passing air.
The measuring and control panel 24 on the
front panel 14 includes various meters and gauges for
the proper operation of the present invention. It
includes various conventional elements such as a fuel
meter, a water temperature meter, an oil pressure meter,
various thermometers and an hour meter for indicating
the length of time the engine has operated. It also
includes various electrical elements, such as switches
and timers, for actuating the internal combustion
engine in response to temperature condition inside
the container. All these elements are available on
the market and a detailed description of their
construction and opera-tion is not deemed essential for
an understanding of the present invention.
