WO2004098969A1

WO2004098969A1 - Air dryer system of air break system for vehicles

Info

Publication number: WO2004098969A1
Application number: PCT/KR2004/000628
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gyeong-Jong Hong
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2003-03-24
Filing date: 2004-03-23
Publication date: 2004-11-18
Anticipated expiration: 2005-09-24
Also published as: KR100403011B1

Abstract

The present invention discloses an air dryer system of an air break system for vehicles. The air dryer system includes a main air dryer having a chamber located on the lower portion thereof and a valve seat part located on the upper portion thereof, an oil outlet formed in the lower portion of the chamber, a compressed air inlet formed in a side of the chamber of the air dryer, and an auxiliary air dryer mounted in parallel with the main air dryer by means of 2-way solenoid valves and operated by a simple switching action when the air dryer is out of order. Therefore, the air dryer system can prevent deterioration in performance and accidents due to defect thereof, reduce a defect rate, and extend a replacement period of filters.

Description

AIR DRYER SYSTEM OF AIR BREAK SYSTEM FOR VEHICLES

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an air dryer system for drying air induced into an air break system for a large-sized vehicle, and more particularly, to an air dryer system, which can effectively separate water and oil contained in compressed air, and which can allow a smooth driving of the vehicle by providing an auxiliary air dryer.

Background Art

In general, an air dryer system mounted on an air break system for a large-sized vehicle, such as a truck, is to remove water and oil from air compressed by a compressor. The air dryer system includes a valve seat part 100 having a number of valves and a chamber part 200 for removing water and oil from the compressed air.

As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional air dryer system includes a filter 2 mounted on the inner surface of a chamber 1, a drying agent 3 embedded in the chamber 1 to dry air induced into an air inlet 4, a check valve 10 mounted below the drying agent 3, a pressure control screw 7 mounted on a side of an air path 5, an air flow hole 8 communicating with the air path 5, a purge valve 9 connected to the air flow hole 8, a purge control piston 12 mounted on a side of the air path 5 on which the check valve 10 is mounted, and an air backflow control part 14 mounted at the rear of the purge control piston 12.

The conventional air dryer system has several disadvantages in that it cannot effectively filter polluted air when air containing foreign matters such as polluted water, oil or carbon is induced into the air inlet, and in that the entire air break system can be out of order when the air dryer system cannot be operated in a normal condition due to the induction of the foreign matters.

Particularly, the air induced through the air inlet 4 filters oil or carbon while passing the filter 2 mounted on the inner surface of the chamber 1, but if an amount of oil or carbon is accumulated, the foreign matters flow through the air path 5 without being absorbed by the filter. Moreover, in a serious case, the foreign matters flow into the control pistons β and 12, the purge valve 9, and the air backflow control part 14, and thereby, they are hindered in operation, and it may cause a fatal trouble.

Disclosure of Invention

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an air dryer system, which can effectively remove water and oil contained in compressed air induced into the air dryer system, and which can extend lifetime thereof by allowing oil filtered inside a chamber not to flow into an air dryer control valve system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an air dryer system, which can prevent trouble of an air dryer required for an air break system of a large-size vehicle.

To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides an air dryer system includes a main air dryer having a chamber located on the lower portion thereof and a valve seat part located on the upper portion thereof, an oil outlet formed in the lower portion of the chamber, a compressed air inlet formed in a side of the chamber of the air dryer, and an auxiliary air dryer mounted in parallel with the main air dryer by means of 2-way solenoid valves and operated by a simple switching action when the air dryer is out of order.

Brief Description of Drawings

Further objects and advantages of the invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view, of a conventional air dryer system;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an air dryer system according to the present invention;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are sectional views for showing an operation state of a governor and a purge valve of the air dryer system according to the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a structural view of the air dryer system according to the present invention.

1 chamber 2,2c. : filter

3 drying agent 4 : air inlet

5 air path 7 : pressure control screw

8 air flow hole 9 : purge valve

10 check valve 12 : purge control piston

14 air backflow control part 20 : governor

21 oil outlet 22 : discharge valve

23,24 : 2-way solenoid valve 30 : main air dryer 31 : auxiliary air dryer

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

The present invention will now be described in detail in connection with preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings .

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the structure of an air dryer system having an oil outlet according to the present invention, FIGS. 3 and 4 are sectional views for showing an operation state of a governor and a purge valve of the air dryer system according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a structural view of an air dryer system where air dryers are arranged in parallel according to the present invention.

The first characteristic of the air dryer system according to the present invention is that a valve seat part is directed upwardly and a chamber 1 is directed downwardly differently from the conventional air dryers, compressed air is induced into the side surface of the chamber, and an oil outlet 21 is formed in the lower end portion of the chamber to discharge oil. Of course, the oil outlet 21 has a discharge valve 22 in order to discharge oil and water gathered in the chamber when a driver opens the valve periodically.

That is, as shown in FIG. 2, air induced into the air inlet 4 formed in the side surface of the chamber 1 coagulates oil and water contained in compressed air while being bumped against a filter frame 2a. The mixed oil flows downwardly along the side wall of the filter frame 2a and is gathered on the lower portion of the chamber. At this time, the remaining oil and water contained in the compressed air without coagulation flow inside the valve seat part while passing filters 2c and a drying agent 3 through a flow path 2b formed in the lower surface of the filter part, and then, are transferred to an air tank through an air path 5. As described above, foreign matters such as oil and carbon contained in the compressed air are repeatedly filtered while passing through the filters 2c located at the upper and lower portions of the drying agent 3, and water contained in the compressed air is also filtered while passing through the drying agent 3.

The oil and foreign matters filtered by the filters 2c are gathered in the lower portion of the chamber 1, the oil gathered in the lower portion of the chamber can be discharged to the outside through the outlet 21 when the driver opens the discharge valve 22 periodically.

Of course, in the case where the discharge valve 22 is a solenoid valve, the driver who seats on a driver's seat inside a vehicle can conveniently manipulate the solenoid valve. In addition, when a sensor for sensing the gathered oil is attached in the chamber in such a manner as to be linked with the solenoid valve, the discharge valve 22 can be automatically opened when oil of a predetermined amount is gathered.

The conventional air dryer gets frequently out of order because oil flows to the outside of an oil control valve when the air dryer is used for a long time. To prevent the above problem, the driver must discharge the oil, which is gathered in the chamber, to the outside by disassembling the air dryer one by one. However, since the air dryer according to the present invention can discharge oil at any time, the present invention can reduce a defect rate of the air dryer, and extend replacement cycle of the filters.

The second characteristic of the present invention is that a governor for controlling excessive pressure applied to the air dryer is mounted integrally with the valve seat part 100, so that the period for driving the purge valve with control pressure of the governor can be minimized.

In general, excessive pressure applied to the air dryer occurs when the internal pressure of the air tank connected to the air path 5 of the air dryer exceeds a set value. In this case, when the internal pressure of the chamber of the air dryer exceeds the set value, the governor senses abnormal pressure, and opens the purge valve using control pressure in order to lower the internal pressure of the air dryer. However, in the conventional air dryer system, the governor is not integrated with the air dryer but mounted between the air tank and a pneumatic circuit of the air dryer. Therefore, since it takes too much time to drive the purge valve 9 of the air tank using the control pressure of the governor and timing for turning off the purge valve gets late, it is difficult to maintain the internal pressure of the air dryer or the air tank uniformly. However, since the governor of the present invention is mounted integrally with the valve seat part of the air dryer, the present invention can rapidly sense the abnormal pressure of the air dryer, and minimize the period for controlling the purge valve 9, so that the internal pressure of the air dryer (or the air tank) can be maintained uniformly and a pneumatic system of an air break system can secure safety.

The third characteristic of the present invention is that a main air dryer and an auxiliary air driver are mounted in parallel, and a 2-way solenoid valve 23 of the air inlet channel and a 2-way solenoid valve 24 of an air outlet channel simultaneously change their directions. Therefore, when the main air dryer is out of order during driving, air can be supplied through the auxiliary air dryer by simply manipulating a switch for operating the solenoid valves 23 and 24.

An operation process of the air dryer system according to the present invention will be described as follows. FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the air dryer in a normal condition, FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a state where the purge valve 9 is opened by the governor 20 when excessive pressure is applied to the inside of the air tank or the air dryer. As shown in FIG. 3, when excessive pressure is applied to the inside of the air driver, a piston 20b is lifted upwardly while compressing an excessive pressure control spring 20c located in the governor 20, and thereby, the chamber and a connection channel 20d are communicated with each other. A piston 9b is pushed upwardly while the excessive pressure passing through the governor 20 is gathered in a space 9a formed below the purge valve 9, and thereby, a blocking plate 9c is opened.

At this time, the excessive pressure contained in the chamber is discharged to the air through a path 9d, and when the internal pressure of the chamber is lowered to the normal pressure, the piston 20b is lowered downwardly by restoring force of the excessive pressure control spring 20c to prevent introduction of the internal pressure of the chamber into the governor 20, and then, the connection channel 20d is closed. Furthermore, the blocking plate 9c is lowered downwardly by restoring force of the spring 9e of the purge valve 9, and then, the purge valve 9 is also closed. Since the governor 20 is in integration with the valve seat part 100 of the air dryer, the present invention can complete its operation in a short period. As a result, since the purge valve 9 is closed after the excessive pressure contained in the chamber is instantaneously discharged to the outside, the present invention can maintain the internal pressure of the air dryer uniformly.

An operation process of the air dryer system having the air dryers arranged in parallel, which is the third characteristic of the present invention, will be described as follows. As shown in FIG. 3, in the normal condition, the air flows into the break system while passing through the main air dryer 30, but does not flow into the auxiliary air dryer 31.

At this time, if the main air dryer 30 is out of order, when the driver simply manipulates the switch, the 2-way solenoid valve 23 of the air inlet channel and the 2-way solenoid valve 24 of the air outlet channel block a flow channel connected to the main air dryer 30, and at the same time, opens a flow channel connected to the auxiliary air dryer 31, so that the air dryer system can be driven normally without interruption. The reference numeral 100a designates a fixing nut mounted on the valve seat part 100 for fixing the filter frame 2a, in which the drying agent 3 and the filters 2c are embedded.

Industrial Applicability As described above, the conventional air dryer gets frequently out of order because oil flows to the outside of an oil control valve when the air dryer is used for a long time. To prevent the above problem, the driver must discharge the oil gathered in the chamber by disassembling the air dryer one by one. However, since the air dryer according to the present invention can discharge oil at any time, the present invention can reduce a defect rate of the air dryer, and extend replacement cycle of the filters. Particularly, in the conventional air dryer system, oil filtered by the filter is not gathered in the air dryer system but discharged to the outside through the purge valve and the control valve, and then, continuously drops on the road during driving of the vehicle, and thereby, the conventional air dryer system causes environmental pollution more serious than smoke gas. However, the air dryer system according to the present invention can solve the above problem of the conventional air dryer system, because it can store a predetermined amount of the oil filtered by the air dryer within the chamber and allow the driver to discharge the filtered oil in a gas station.

Furthermore, the air dryer system according to the present invention has the governor mounted integrally with the valve seat part 100, so that the excessive pressure inside the air dryer can be rapidly controlled, thereby providing reliability of the pneumatic circuit. In addition, the air dryer system of the present invention can drive the auxiliary air dryer by the simple manipulation of the switch when the main air dryer is out of order, so that it can prevent deterioration or defect of the air dryer system. While the present invention has been described with reference to the -particular illustrative embodiments, it is not to be restricted by the embodiments but only by the appended claims. It is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

Claims

What is claimed is :

1. An air dryer system of an air break system for vehicles for removing water, carbon and oil contained in air, which is induced into a compressor and compressed by the compressor, and for supplying the compressed air to the air break system, comprising: a main air dryer (30) having a valve seat part (100) directed upwardly and a chamber part (200) directed downwardly, the chamber part (200) having a chamber (1) , an oil outlet (21) formed in the lower end portion of the chamber (1) for discharging oil remaining inside the chamber (1) , and a discharge valve (22) for opening and closing the oil outlet (21); an auxiliary air dryer (31) having a valve seat part (100) directed upwardly and a chamber part (200) directed downwardly, the chamber part (200) having a chamber (1), an oil outlet (21) formed in the lower end portion of the chamber (1) for discharging oil remaining inside the chamber (1), and a discharge valve (22) for opening and closing the oil outlet (21); a 2-way solenoid valve (23) mounted in a flow channel introduced from the compressor for connecting the two air dryers (30) and (31) in parallel; a 2-way solenoid valve (24) mounted at a position where air outlet channels introduced from the air dryers are joined with each other, wherein the two solenoid valves selectively drive one of the two air dryer connected with each other in parallel by a driver's switch manipulation.

2. The air dryer system according to claim 1, wherein a governor (20) is mounted integrally with the valve seat part

(100) for opening a purge valve (9) using control pressure generated when excessive pressure is sensed from the inside of the air dryer and for closing the purge valve (9) when the air dryer is in a normal pressure condition.

3. The air dryer system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the discharge valve (22) is a solenoid valve, and has a sensor for sensing whether or not an amount of oil gathered inside the chamber (1) reaches a set value, so that the discharge valve (22) is opened and closed by control signal of the sensor.