DE20015722U1 - Connection and distributor fitting for the hydraulic connection of units contained in devices for the generation of heating and process water - Google Patents

Description

(18 473 )

Connection and distribution fitting for the hydraulic connection of units contained in devices for the production of heating and hot service water

The invention relates to a connection and distribution fitting for the hydraulic connection on the flow and/or return side of units contained in devices for generating heating and hot domestic water.

Such connection and distribution fittings are required in particular for so-called wall-mounted heating devices, in which the hydraulic connection of the units required for operation is installed compactly on one side of a carrier plate of the device housing in order to cover the units arranged on the other side (operating side) of the carrier plate on the supply and return sides. These units are essentially heat exchangers of various types, multi-way valves, burner-HE combinations, their piping among each other and usually also a cold water supply connection for the preparation of domestic water. The effort required for this, not only in terms of the copper pipe material, pipe bends and connection fittings usually used for this purpose, but also in particular in terms of production and assembly, is considerable and represents a not inconsiderable

Tel X of the total production costs of such equipment,

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There has been no lack of efforts to reduce this cost, which have led, for example, to connection devices according to DE 199 23 777 Al, which were based on previously practiced hydraulic piping, which also already provided for the use of plate-shaped, so-called assembly elements, i.e., these connection devices according to the aforementioned DE 199 23 777 Al are ultimately also unsatisfactory, since they still work with pipe material that has to be trimmed, pipe bends, special fittings and correspondingly adapted assembly elements.

The invention is therefore based on the object of creating a connection and distribution fitting with which the effort for the manufacture and assembly of such distribution fittings for the purpose mentioned in the introduction is significantly reduced.

This object is achieved with a connection and distribution fitting according to the invention in that the fitting, which is formed at least in one piece, is formed from at least one line strand and a carrier with a flat connection surface,
that the at least one line harness and the carrier are designed as a material-uniform, integral unit produced in a primary molding process and that at least one of the line connection openings of the line harness is arranged essentially opening into the flat connection surface of the carrier.

The requirement "fittings constructed in at least one piece" is to be understood as meaning that, on the one hand, they can be constructed in one piece, i.e., they can contain all the pipes belonging to the flow and return groups, but, on the other hand,

can also be assembled from several parts, including the supply and return groups being designed in several parts.

The design according to the invention therefore allows all possible variants both with regard to the number of line strands and their courses, depending on which flow path they are to form within a connection and distribution fitting.

The use, preparation and soldering of pipe parts with pipe bends and with specially designed fittings or connectors is no longer necessary, nor is the separate manufacture and connection with special, plate-like mounting elements with which such groups of fittings have previously been installed on a carrier plate in devices, in particular of the type of interest here.

The further requirement of production "using the primary molding process" also allows the manufacture of such fitting components, in particular from suitable plastics, whereby, as will be explained in more detail in the present context with regard to a preferred embodiment, the "primary molding process" also includes the so-called lost core process. The manufacture of such fittings from, for example, light metal could also be considered, but would require additional special measures due to susceptibility to corrosion.
The use of plastic for such fittings or connecting devices is also considered in the aforementioned DE 19923 777 Al, but this only applies to the individual parts forming such connecting devices.

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Apart from the manufacture of the fitting component according to the invention using a suitable primary forming process, which generally also makes post-processing of the fitting component largely unnecessary, the hydraulic connection of the units involved is essentially limited to the attachment of the respective units to the carrier plate of the respective device and the connection of lines external to the device, for example to the heater and/or to a storage tank and, if necessary, a cold water supply line, which will be explained in more detail below.

In a special embodiment, namely in that the carrier is designed in the form of a box that is open on one side, in which several of the cable strands, which are also integrated in this case, are extended and with their connection openings open into the side walls and/or the bottom wall of the box, depending on the connection requirements, a carrier plate in the device in question is no longer even absolutely necessary, since the box itself can be attached or installed in the device in a suitable manner.

Other beneficial training courses include:

The end areas of the at least one line section containing line connection openings are provided with a connection extension, whereby the lines to be connected can be connected using sealed plug connections. If the fitting is made of plastic, which is preferred, threaded fittings can also be simply screwed in by cutting.

With at least a single bent extension of the at least

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A line section opening closed with a blind plug is arranged at the end of one of the straight line sections of a line section. This takes into account, on the one hand, the manufacture of the fitting using a plastic injection molding process using cores inserted into a negative mold, which must be pulled out after the plastic has been introduced, and, on the other hand, the fact that the line sections in the fitting are to be arranged as compactly as possible, which will be explained in more detail below.

In order to meet the condition that, when several fittings are joined together, the flat connection surface is maintained with the cable runs running as close to one another as possible, the at least two units are designed to overlap in partial areas of their supports and to be fixable to one another.

Since the lowest possible hydraulic resistance is required for heating devices equipped with such fittings and the connection and distribution fitting of interest here contributes to the resistance to a considerable extent, a preferred embodiment consists in the at least one non-rectilinear line section being designed to run continuously from connection opening to connection opening in a way that is favorable for flow. In order to achieve this, it is necessary for this embodiment to use the so-called core melting process as a primary forming process to manufacture the fitting, which does not require any further explanation as it is sufficiently well known.
When using this special method, it is also advantageously possible to design the carrier in the form of a box that is open on one side, in which several of the cable strands are extended and with their connection openings, depending on the connection requirements for the units to be connected and external

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Lines open out in the side walls and/or the bottom wall of the box. In this case, as will be explained in more detail later, part of a valve housing can be molded into the box, into which two line strands open radially and on which a further connection opening is arranged in the connection surface of the support. As already mentioned, such a box represents a completely ready-to-install connection and distribution fitting which contains the supply and return side fitting groups as an integral unit. The effort required to create the conditions for the application of the core melting process (the fitting must be available as a positive model made of appropriately meltable material, e.g. bismuth, for each individual piece to be cast) is justifiable insofar as, on the one hand, it can be shaped in a flow-optimized manner and, on the other hand, despite complex line routing, the costly installation and connection effort in and on the device is reduced to a minimum in a complete fitting.

The connection and distribution fitting according to the invention is explained in more detail below using the drawings of exemplary embodiments.

It shows

Fig.l a circuit diagram of a connection and distribution fitting

for example a wall heater;
Fig.2 perspective and opened a wall heater with its essential and hydraulically connected

aggregates;
Fig.3 in plan view a flow fitting group;

Fig. 4 shows a return valve group in plan view; Fig. 5 in section: a unit according to the invention in the simplest embodiment;

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Fig.6 the embodiment according to Fig.5 in plan view;
Fig.6A a section through the embodiment according to

Fig. 5,6 along line IV-IV in Fig.6;
Fig.7 schematically shows the arrangement of the connection

and distributor fitting on a carrier plate of a

wall heater;

Fig.8 perspective and schematic of a special embodiment
the connection and distribution fitting;
Fig.9 perspective and in principle the connection and

Distributor fitting according to Fig.8 from the connection side

seen here and
Fig.10 schematically shows another structural detail of the

Embodiments according to Fig. 8,9.

Fig. 1 and 2 illustrate the connection problem in the present case, with Fig. 1 showing, for example, the hydraulic connection of a device designed in the form of a so-called wall heater as shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 1 also shows the fittings of interest here schematically, and Fig. 2 also shows the piping between the units on the access side of the device. 100 designates a flow fitting group and 101 a return fitting group in Fig. 1. A detailed functional description is not necessary, as this is easily understood from the flow arrows and the following reference symbols:

102 Heating circuit with flow connection 103 and return connection 104, 105 cold water connection, 106 hot water connection, 107 plate heat exchanger, 108 exhaust gas heat exchanger with flow and return connections 1OB ¹ ,108", 109 3/2-valve for domestic water priority circuit, 110 circulation pump and 111 burner. In addition,

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112 designates a part of the device housing and 113 designates a correspondingly perforated carrier plate in the housing 112, behind which the fittings of interest here are arranged. These reference symbols are partly and where necessary used analogously in Fig. 3, 4 on the fittings shown there as exemplary embodiments for reasons of clarity.

For the connection and distribution fitting according to the invention, it is now essential, in particular with reference to Fig. 5, 6, that the at least one-piece fitting is formed from at least one line strand 1 and a carrier 3 with a flat connection surface 2, wherein the at least one line strand 1 and the carrier 3 are designed as a material-uniform, integral unit I manufactured in a primary molding process and wherein, furthermore, at least one of the line connection openings 5 of the line strand 1 is arranged essentially opening out in the flat connection surface 2 of the carrier 3.

The unit I shown in Fig. 5,6 is the roughly hatched fitting part of the flow fitting group shown in Fig.3, for example, which is further formed from the other fitting part or the other unit I ¹ (also made of plastic suitable for drinking water).
Oriented on Fig. 1 and with correspondingly modified routing of the flow paths, the return fitting group according to Fig. 4, with basically the same inventive design, also consists of two units 1, 1', which, since only the heating water passes through them, do not have to be made of plastic suitable for drinking water, but the additional, separately attached unit I", which forms the cold water inlet connection 105, from which the cold water reaches the plate heat exchanger 107.

In order to be able to provide plug connections that can be sealed with O-ring seals, for example, or to be able to simply screw in connection fittings (not shown), the end regions of the at least one line strand 1 containing the line connection openings 5 are provided with a connection extension 6.

In order to be able to pull the cores during the plastic injection molding process, a strand part opening 8, which is closed with a subsequently inserted blind closure 4, is arranged at the end of one of the straight strand parts 7 (see Fig. 5) with at least one bend in the extension of the at least one line strand 1.

In order to avoid having to arrange the cable strands 1 at different heights in relation to the connection level 2 in this context and with regard to the core pulling in the case of several cable strands 1 in a group, which would take up additional space in the device but would be possible in principle, the groups are preferably designed in several parts, with the at least two units 1, 1' being designed to overlap in partial areas of their supports 3 and to be fixable to one another. Such an overlap is indicated in Fig. 5 with reference to Fig. 3. In order to save material, the connection level 2 is represented by web formations 9 with reference to Fig. 6A, which, depending on the extension level, also applies in part to the cable strands 1 in the fitting group according to Fig. 4, which, as mentioned above, in this exemplary embodiment is formed from a total of three units 1, 1' and 1" of the type according to the invention.

Apart from the concrete, multi-part examples of the above-mentioned examples according to Fig . 3 « 4 and taking into account the injection molding design requirements, it would be

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Of course, it is also possible to combine and form all the units in one piece if you are willing to accept a correspondingly complicated mold.

For the reasons mentioned above, namely to keep the hydraulic resistance of such fittings as low as possible, an embodiment is preferred in which the at least one line string 1 from connection opening to connection
Opening 5,5' is designed to run continuously in a way that is favorable for the flow. In contrast to the previously described embodiments according to Fig.3,4 with their sharply bent line strands 1, "running continuously in a way that is favorable for the flow" is to be understood as meaning those that cannot be cast or molded with drawable cores, because channels that run continuously in a way that is favorable for the flow require cores that are more or less twisted in space and therefore cannot be drawn. In this preferred embodiment, the primary forming process is therefore to be understood as the so-called core melting process, in which cores are used in a negative mold for the formation of the channels in order to first produce the shape of the desired fitting from a low-melting metal, which is then transferred together with the cores into the actual casting mold, and is melted out again by the material that the fitting is actually supposed to consist of, which is introduced at a correspondingly higher temperature.

When using this method, it can even be considered, as shown in Fig.8, to design the carrier 3 in the form of a box 3 ¹ open on one side, in which several of the now flow-optimized channels containing line strands extend Bind, which with their connection openings 5,5' depending on the connection requirement in side walls 12 and/or the

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Bottom wall 13 of the box 3'. Such a box 3', which forms an integral
Unit can then be installed in the device in question as a complete fitting, possibly with the units connected to the area F of the base wall 13 not visible in Fig.8 but visible in Fig.9. Such a box can of course also contain only a flow or return fitting group. Just as a precaution, it should be pointed out that the opening pattern shown in Fig. 9 is not directly based on Fig.8, but on the fitting groups shown in Figs.3 and 4 in particular.

Since, as shown in Fig. 1, such a hydraulic connection also contains a 3/2 valve, in this case a part 10 of the housing for the valve 109 is expediently formed in the box 3' according to Fig. 8, into which two line strands 1', 1" open radially and on which a further connection opening 11 is arranged in the connection surface 2 of the carrier 3 or the box 3'.

In this context, reference is made to Fig. 10, which is special in that the 3/2 valve integrated in the box 3' requires an actuator 200 for a valve flap 201. In order to keep the actuator 200 easily accessible, ie replaceable, when the box is installed in the device, a through-opening 202 is provided in the mounting connection surface F of the box 3 ¹ , in which the actuator 200 is seated, which is connected in a plug-in manner to the actuating mechanism 203 for the valve flap 201.

Claims (9)

1. Connection and distribution fitting for the hydraulic connection on the flow and/or return side of units contained in devices for the production of heating and hot domestic water, characterized in that
that the at least one-piece fitting is formed from at least one line strand ( 1 ) and a carrier ( 3 ) with a flat connection surface ( 2 ),
that the at least one line strand ( 1 ) and the carrier ( 3 ) are designed as a material-uniform, integral unit (I) produced in a primary forming process and
that at least one of the line connection openings ( 5 ) of the line harness ( 1 ) is arranged essentially opening into the flat connection surface ( 2 ) of the carrier ( 3 ). 2. Fitting according to claim 1, characterized in that the unit (I) is made of plastic. 3. Fitting according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the end regions of the at least one line strand ( 1 ) containing the line connection openings ( 5 ) are provided with a connection extension ( 6 ). 4. Fitting according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, when the at least one line strand ( 1 ) is bent at least once, a strand part opening ( 8 ) closed with a blind closure ( 4 ) is arranged at the end of one of the straight strand parts ( 7 ). 5. Fitting composed of at least two units (I) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the at least two units (I) are designed to overlap in partial areas of their supports ( 3 ) and to be fixable to one another. 6. Fitting according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the at least one line strand ( 1 ) is designed to run continuously from connection opening to connection opening ( 5 , 5 ') in a manner that is favorable for flow. 7. Fitting according to claim 6, characterized in that the carrier ( 3 ) is designed in the form of a box ( 3 ') open on one side, in which several of the line strands ( 1 ) are extended and open with their connection openings ( 5 , 5 ') in side walls ( 12 ) and/or the bottom wall ( 13 ) of the box ( 3 '), depending on the connection requirement. 8. Fitting according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that a part of a valve housing ( 10 ) is molded into the box ( 3 '), into which two line strands ( 1 ', 1 ") open radially and at which a further connection opening ( 11 ) is arranged in the connection surface ( 2 ) of the carrier ( 3 ). 9. Fitting according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that in the box for an actuator ( 200 ) of a valve flap ( 201 ) of the valve housing ( 10 ) there is a through opening ( 202 ) in which the actuator ( 200 ) is seated in an accessible manner and which is detachably connected to an actuating mechanism ( 203 ) for the valve flap ( 201 ).