Title of the invention
Heat exchanger with a mounting means
Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a heat exchanger, in particular, a heat exchanger with a mounting means to mount the heat exchanger on a vehicle body.
Background of the invention
Conventionally, a heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat between one or more fluid, and commonly used in a cooling or heating system. The heat exchanger is also used in a HVAC system for a vehicle, and a condenser or a radiator normally disposed in a front portion of an engine room of the vehicle is an example of such a heat exchanger used in a vehicle.
One of the condenser is shown in Fig. 1. Referring to Fig. 1, the condenser 10 includes two header tanks at its both lateral ends, and the two header tanks are supported by a pair of supports 12 spaced from each other in a vertical direction. Further, a plurality of tubes 14 are connected between the two header tanks, thereby a plurality of flow path extending between the two header tanks are defined.

Here, a plurality of mounting brackets 12a are provided to the supports 12. Each of the mounting bracket includes a mounting hole which allows a fastening bolt (not shown) to pass through the bracket. The mounting brackets are securely connected to the support 12, thereby the entire condenser 10 could be mounted in an engine room of a vehicle by the mounting bracket which is to be attached to the vehicle body.
Therefore, it is important how to fix the mounting bracket to the support 12. Referring to Fig. 2, the mounting bracket 12a includes a lower portion 12b which is formed by bending an end portion of the mounting bracket. The lower portion 12b extends between two flanges of the support 12, and both ends of the lower portion 12b abut on the inner side of the two flanges of the support 12.
The main body of the mounting bracket 12a is partially supported by the flange of the support 12, and a rivet 12c inserted into both of the mounting bracket 12a and the flange of the support 12 securely fastens both of them together.
After the fastening is completed, the support 12 and the mounting bracket 12a are brazed together in a furnace making the final bonding of the parts.
One problem of the conventional assembly as described is the riveting process is a manual process and the process time is high, which may decrease a productivity of the condenser assembly. Further, since the flange of the support 12 is a base for the rivet, the flange should have a strength enough to support

the rivet. Therefore, the flange should have a height over 12mm, which may increase overall size of the condenser assembly.
Summary of the invention
It is an object of the present invention to provide a heat exchanger with a mounting means which may enable to reduce manufacturing time and the height of the flange.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a heat exchanger is provided including a pair of header tanks which receives and discharges a working fluid; a plurality of tubes forming a plurality of flow paths between each of the pair of header tanks for the working fluid; a pair of supports both ends of which are fixed to the header tanks including a bottom plate and a pair of flanges forming a gap therebetween; and at least one mounting bracket including a mounting portion having a mounting hole for a fastening means and a supporting portion disposed between the pair of flanges, wherein the pair of flanges includes a deformed portion which rests on the supporting portion, thereby fastening the mounting brackets to the support.
Here, at least one slot may be formed in the flanges for each of the deformed portion disposed in the boundary of the deformed portion. The slot may be in a cut out portion of the flanges.

Here, the deformed portion may be in a polygonal shape. For example, the deformed portion is a triangular shape.
Further, at least two deformed portion are disposed to face each other, and the mounting portion of the mounting bracket is disposed between the two facing deformed portions. The mounting portion may be caught between the two facing deformed portions. Otherwise, the mounting portion may be sandwiched between the two facing deformed portions wherein there is a gap between the mounting portion and the deformed portion.
Here, the mounting portion of the mounting bracket may be connected to the substantially center portion of the supporting portion of the mounting bracket.
Further, at least one aligning slot may be formed on the bottom plate of the support, and at least one aligning protrusion to be inserted into the aligning slot is formed in the supporting portion of the mounting bracket. The aligning protrusion and slot may prevent the mounting bracket from moving in a longitudinal direction of the support before the brazing process is completed.
Further, the supporting portion may be engaged between the lower surface of the deformed portion and upper surface of the bottom plate.
Here, the distance d between the lower surface of the deformed portion and upper surface of the bottom plate may be smaller than the thickness D of the

supporting portion for secure connection therebetween.
Here, at least one brazed portion may be formed between the lower surface of the deformed portion and the supporting portion.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a heat exchanger is provided including the steps of:
preparing a pair of support including bottom plate and a pair of flanges forming a gap therebetween, wherein the pair of the flanges includes at least one slot; inserting at least one mounting bracket into the gap, wherein the mounting bracket includes a mounting portion having a mounting hole for a fastening means and a supporting portion disposed between the pair of flanges; forming at least one deformed portion by displacing a portion adjacent to the slot onto the supporting portion of the mounting bracket; and bonding the mounting bracket to the support by brazing.
Here, the method may further includes the step of inserting a aligning protrusion into a aligning slot thereby restricting movement of the mounting bracket with respect to the longitudinal direction of the support, wherein the aligning protrusion is formed on a lower surface of the supporting portion and the aligning slot is formed on the bottom surface of the support.
Brief description of the drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional condenser assembly.
Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the condenser assembly of Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a support according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the support of Fig. 3.
Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the support of Fig. 3.
Fig. 6 is a front view of the support prior to being deformed.
Fig, 7 is an enlarged perspective view of the support prior to being deformed.
Detailed description of the preferred embodiments
Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings
A first preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Figs. 3 to 7. The first embodiment could be a condenser assembly as shown in Fig. 1 except for the support 12 and the mounting bracket 12a. Therefore, for the explanation purpose, descriptions regarding the header tanks and tubes wili be skipped hereinafter.
The first embodiment 100 includes a pair of support as shown in Fig. 3. Please note that only one support 102 is shown in Fig. 3 for the sake of explanation. The

support 102 is in a form extending in a longitudinal direction, and has a "U" shape section.
Further, the support 102 includes a holder 104 for attaching the header tank to the support 102 at each end. The holder 104 includes two arms parailely extending to each other with a gap therebeween.
On a bottom plate of the support 102, there formed two aligning slots 106 extending in a longitudinal direction of the support 102. Two mounting bracket for securing the condenser assembly to a vehicle body, especially inside an engine room are provided in each of the aligning slots. The two mounting brackets are spaced from each other along the longitudinal direction of the support 12.
In the first embodiment, the number of the aligning slot corresponds to the number of the mounting bracket 110. Namely, one aligning slot is disposed for one mounting bracket. However, the number of the aligning slot is not restricted as shown, instead, two or more aligning slots may be assigned for a single mounting bracket. Further, the support may include three or more mounting brackets.
Referring to Fig. 4, the mounting bracket 110 includes a mounting portion 111 with a mounting hole 112. The mounting portion 111 is a flat body and the mounting hole 112 is formed to penetrate the mounting portion, thereby

allowing a fastening means, for example a mounting bolt, could pass through the mounting hole 112. A supporting portion 114 is integrally formed with the mounting portion 111. The supporting portion extends in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the support 102, thereby the mounting bracket 110 is in a "T" shape. Here, the mounting portion 111 is disposed in a center portion of the support portion 114, however, the mounting portion 111 could be in any position on the supporting portion 114.
The support 102 includes a pair of flanges 102a and a bottom plate 102b therebetween. The pair of flanges 102a are parallelly extending to each other, and form a gap therebetween. The width of the gap is substantially same as the width of the supporting portion 114 of the mounting bracket 110 or slightly bigger than the width of the supporting portion 114. So the supporting portion could be easily seated between the pair of the flanges 102a with the lower surface of the mounting portion 114 in contact with the bottom plate 102b of the support.
Two slots 120 are formed in each of the pair of the flanges 102a. The two slots are disposed laterally to the mounting bracket 110. The slots is formed by cutting off a portion of the flange 102a, and divides upper portion of the flange from the lower portion. The divided upper portion is deformed in a triangular shape using any relevant tool as shown in Fig. 4. That is, a deformed portion 122 is formed by bending the upper divided portion onto the supporting portion 114. Here, tow deformed portions 122 are formed for one side of the mounting bracket 110.

Referring to Fig. 5, the lower surface of the deformed portion 122 is in contact with upper surface of the supporting portion 114, which restricts vertical movement of the mounting bracket. For secure fastening, the gap d between the lower surface of the deformed portion 122 and the upper surface of the bottom plate 102b is set to be smaller than the thickness D of the supporting portion 114. Therefore, when the bending process is completed, the supporting portion 114 is press-fitted between the lower surface of the deformed portion 122 and the upper surface of the bottom plate 102b.
The supporting portion further includes an aligning protrusion 115 to be inserted into the aligning slot 106 of the support 102. As shown in fig. 5, the aligning protrusion is configured to be inserted into the aligning slots, thereby prevents longitudinal movement of the supporting portion as explained above.
In Fig, 5, the mounting portion includes a slant portion Ilia which shifts the mounting portion, especially the mounting hole, laterally with respect to the center of the supporting portion. With the slant portion Ilia, the mounting portion may be disposed closer to a mounting surface (not shown) of a vehicle.
Here, the deformed portion is not restricted to the triangular shape, instead, the deformed portion could be any polygonal shape or curved shape. Further, the deformed portion is not in contact with the side surface of the mounting portion 111, however, it may be also possible for the deformed portion to abut on the side surface of the mounting portion 111.

As explained, the mounting bracket 102 is secured by the deformed portion 122 until a brazing process is completed, the height of the flange could be shorter than 12mm, and it does not need a riveting process. Therefore, usage of raw material can be reduced, and the manufacturing time can be also reduced by eliminating the riveting process.
Hereinafter, the manufacturing method of the first embodiment will be explained with reference to Figs. 6 and 7.
Firstly, a support 102 is prepared to have the pair of flanges and the bottom plate. Since the support has a uniform section over its substantially entire length and includes shorter flanges, the support may be prepared using an extrusion process rather. Further, the mounting bracket also has a uniform cross section, and thus it could be also manufactured with the extrusion process than the stamping process as in the conventional condenser which causes increase in cost and manufacturing time.
Then, the slot 120 and aligning slot 106 are formed in the support 102 as shown in Fig. 6.
After completing the formation of both slots, the mounting brackets are disposed adjacent to the slots 120 as shown in Fig. 7. In the state shown in Fig. 7, the mounting bracket cannot move in- a longitudinal and lateral direction of the

support however, it can still move in a vertical direction.
Then, the deformed portion is formed using a relevant too! to have the shape as shown in Fig. 4. Since the deformed portion 122 presses the supporting portion of the mounting bracket downwardly, the mounting bracket cannot move in any direction after the deformed portion has been formed.
In this state, a brazing process is carried out. So, every contacting surfaces are boned together by the brazing process, therefore, the deformed portion and the supporting portion also includes bonded surface.
According to the embodiment, the support is formed with a lower flange height and less thickness than the previous support, which enables less blank size required for manufacturing the support and low weight due to reduced flange height and less thickness.
Further, extruded bracket instead of stamping bracket could be used. Currently stamping brackets are been used, so with the extruded brackets will be used whose landed cost is less than stamped brackets.
Further, rivet will be eliminated due to the deformed portion and the manufacturing process could improves from manual to automated by eliminating the riveting process which needs manual operations.

Claims
1. A heat exchanger including
a pair of header tanks which receives and discharges a working fluid;
a plurality of tubes forming a plurality of flow paths between each of the pair of header tanks for the working fluid;
a pair of supports both ends of which are fixed to the header tanks including a bottom plate and a pair of flanges forming a gap therebetween; and
at least one mounting bracket including a mounting portion having a mounting hole for a fastening means and a supporting portion disposed between the pair of flanges,
wherein the pair of flanges includes a deformed portion which rests on the supporting portion, thereby fastening the mounting brackets to the support.
2. The heat exchanger of claim 1, wherein at least one slot is formed in the flanges for each of the deformed portion disposed in the boundary of the deformed portion,
3. The heat exchanger of claim 1, wherein the deformed portion is in a polygonal shape.

4. The heat exchanger of claim 1, wherein at least two deformed portion are disposed to face each other, and the mounting portion of the mounting bracket is disposed between the two facing deformed portions.
5. The heat exchanger of claim 4, wherein the mounting portion of the mounting bracket is connected to the substantially center portion of the supporting portion of the mounting bracket.
6. The heat exchanger of claim 1, wherein at least one aligning slot is formed on the bottom plate of the support, and at least one aligning protrusion to be inserted into the aligning slot is formed in the supporting portion of the mounting bracket.
7. The heat exchanger of claim 1, wherein the supporting portion is engaged between the lower surface of the deformed portion and upper surface of the bottom plate.

8. The heat exchanger of claim 7, wherein the distance d between the lower surface of the deformed portion and upper surface of the bottom plate is smaller than the thickness D of the supporting portion.
9. The heat exchanger of claim 7, wherein at least one brazed portion is formed between the lower surface of the deformed portion and the supporting portion.
10. A method of manufacturing a heat exchanger including the steps of:
preparing a pair of support including bottom plate and a pair of flanges forming a gap therebetween, wherein the pair of the flanges includes at least one slot;
inserting at least one mounting bracket into the gap, wherein the mounting bracket includes a mounting portion having a mounting hole for a fastening means and a supporting portion disposed between the pair of flanges;
forming at least one deformed portion by displacing a portion adjacent to the slot onto the supporting portion of the mounting bracket; and
bonding the mounting bracket to the support by brazing.
11. The method of claim 10, further including the step of inserting a aligning
protrusion into a aligning slot thereby restricting movement of the mounting

bracket with respect to the longitudinal direction of the support, wherein the aligning protrusion is formed on a lower surface of the supporting portion and the aligning slot is formed on the bottom surface of the support.