US-12624905-B2 - End product for air-conditioning indoor unit and air-conditioning indoor unit

US12624905B2US 12624905 B2US12624905 B2US 12624905B2US-12624905-B2

Abstract

The invention relates to an end product for air-conditioning indoor unit, which comprises a heat exchange tube through which air and refrigerant exchange heat; a heat exchange fin on which a tube hole for passing through the heat exchange tube is formed and the surface of which is coated with a hydrophilic coating containing photocatalytic material; and an ultraviolet lamp arranged at or near the heat exchange fin, so that the ultraviolet light of the ultraviolet lamp can cover the surface of the heat exchange fin coated with the hydrophilic coating. The invention further provides an air-conditioning indoor unit configured with the end product and a method for coating heat exchange fins of the end product. The end product for air-conditioning indoor unit according to the invention can achieve highly efficient air purification.

Inventors

Qiwen JIANG
Zhiwang Guo
Hongsheng Liu
Yinbo Rui
Yihu He
Chao Ding
Michael Birnkrant
PETER J. McKINNEY

Assignees

CARRIER CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20240108
Priority Date: 20230109

Claims (18)

1 . An end product for an air-conditioning indoor unit, comprising: a heat exchange tube, through which air and refrigerant exchange heat; a heat exchange fin, on which a tube hole for passing through the heat exchange tube is formed, and a surface of which is coated with a hydrophilic coating containing photocatalytic material; an ultraviolet lamp arranged at or near the heat exchange fin, so that ultraviolet light of the ultraviolet lamp covers the surface of the heat exchange fin coated with the hydrophilic coating; wherein the ultraviolet lamp is arranged upstream and/or downstream of the heat exchange fin in a direction of air flow; and wherein a plurality of ultraviolet lamps are provided, the plurality of ultraviolet lamps having the same size and being arranged at equal intervals in a length direction of the heat exchange tube, wherein a distance covered by ultraviolet light of a single ultraviolet lamp in the length direction of the heat exchange tube is twice a distance between the single ultraviolet lamp and the heat exchange fin.
2 . The end product according to claim 1 , wherein the photocatalytic material is selected from one or more of titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, zinc oxide or tungsten trioxide.
3 . The end product according to claim 2 , wherein the hydrophilic coating has a thickness in a range of 0.5-20 mm and a material density of 0.02-1.0 g/m 3 .
4 . The end product according to claim 1 , wherein the distance between the ultraviolet lamp and the heat exchange fin is in a range of 200-900 mm.
5 . The end product according to claim 1 , wherein the ultraviolet lamp is a spotlight and is arranged at the top and/or bottom of the heat exchange fin.
6 . The end product according to claim 1 , wherein the ultraviolet lamp has a long strip-shaped tubular body that is arranged between two adjacent heat exchange tubes and installed in a tube hole of the heat exchange fin.
7 . The end product according to claim 1 , wherein the hydrophilic coating covers all or part of the surface of the heat exchange fin.
8 . The end product according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of heat exchange fins are provided, the plurality of heat exchange fin being parallel to each other and arranged at intervals.
9 . The end product according to claim 1 , wherein the air-conditioning end product is a fan-coil unit or a combined air-conditioning unit.
10 . An air-conditioning indoor unit, wherein it comprises the end product according to claim 1 connected by pipes.
11 . A method for coating heat exchange fins of the end product according to claim 1 , wherein it comprises: applying a hydrophilic coating containing photocatalytic material to the surface of the heat exchange fin by roll-coating, and curing the hydrophilic coating at a temperature of 120-300° C.
12 . A method, comprising: arranging one or more ultraviolet lamps at or near a heat exchange fin and a heat exchange tube, the heat exchange fin comprising a surface coated with a photocatalytic material, such that ultraviolet light of the one or more ultraviolet lamps covers the surface; and irradiating the photocatalytic material with the one or more ultraviolet lamps.
13 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the one or more ultraviolet lamps includes a plurality of ultraviolet lamps arranged at or near the heat exchange fin.
14 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein the plurality of ultraviolet lamps have the same size and are arranged at equal intervals in a length direction of the heat exchange tube.
15 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein a distance covered by ultraviolet light of the one or more ultraviolet lamps in a length direction of the heat exchange tube is twice a distance between the one or more ultraviolet lamps and the heat exchange fin.
16 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the one or more ultraviolet lamps are arranged upstream and/or downstream of the heat exchange fin in a direction of airflow.
17 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein a distance between the one or more ultraviolet lamps and the heat exchange fin is in a range of 200-900 mm.
18 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein photocatalytic material is selected from one or more of titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, zinc oxide or tungsten trioxide.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202310030263.6 filed on Jan. 9, 2023, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to the technical field of air conditioning, in particular to an end product for air-conditioning indoor unit, and also relates to an air-conditioning indoor unit configured with the end product and a method for coating heat exchange fins of the end product. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION With the advancement of science and technology and development of economy, people's quality of life has been continuously improved, and people begin to pay more attention to their own quality of life. Air conditioner, as a product that can improve people's indoor comfort, has been installed in more and more buildings in recent decades. Air conditioners help people solve the problem of indoor thermal comfort, in recent years, however, more and more attention has been paid to the issue of indoor air quality. In recent years, with the deterioration of air quality, the content of air pollutants keeps soaring, which leads to the deterioration of air quality both indoors and outdoors, thus bringing great troubles to people's life. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide has caused serious harm to human health and social economy. The virus is transmitted mainly by close person-to-person contact via droplets or skin touch. Therefore, how to efficiently eliminate viruses and bacteria has attracted great attention from all over the world. At present, many air conditioners on the market have certain air purification capabilities, for example, larger particles can be filtered and adsorbed by means of filter screens. However, these filter materials are only limited to the elimination of particulate pollutants, that is, adsorption and filtration of particles or molecules of their corresponding diameters. The selectivity to adsorbates is too high to be used alone in complex gas environments. For example, it is difficult for filter screens to eliminate biological pollutants such as bacteria and viruses. Unsterilized gases may carry bacteria, viruses, carcinogen carriers, etc., which, once invade human lungs, will seriously endanger human health. In addition, other gas purification devices, commonly known as “ion generators”, are designed to emit negative ions into the surrounding air. These ions adhere to positively charged pollutants such as particles or dust, causing the pollutants to become heavy and fall or become precipitated or trapped in the collection plate. However, ion generators cannot effectively eliminate chemical pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air environment. For example, the existing air-conditioning indoor unit can use ultraviolet photocatalytic oxidation technology for sterilization, but it is difficult to achieve rapid sterilization due to the limited photocatalytic contact area. How to improve the sterilization efficiency of ultraviolet photocatalysis has always been the focus of attention. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide an end product for air-conditioning indoor unit that can achieve efficient air purification. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above, according to a first aspect of the invention, an end product for air-conditioning indoor unit is provided, which effectively solves the aforementioned problems and problems in other aspects existing in the prior art. The end product for air-conditioning indoor unit according to the invention comprises: a heat exchange tube, through which air and refrigerant exchange heat;a heat exchange fin, on which a tube hole for passing through the heat exchange tube is formed, and a surface of which is coated with a hydrophilic coating containing photocatalytic material; andan ultraviolet lamp arranged at or near the heat exchange fin so that ultraviolet light of the ultraviolet lamp covers the surface of the heat exchange fin coated with the hydrophilic coating. In another embodiment of the end product according to the invention, the photocatalytic material is selected from one or more of titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, zinc oxide or tungsten trioxide. In yet another embodiment of the end product according to the invention, the hydrophilic coating has a thickness in the range of 0.5-20 mm and a material density of 0.02-1.0 g/m3. In still another embodiment of the end product according to the invention, the ultraviolet lamp is arranged upstream and/or downstream of the heat exchange fin in the direction of air flow. In a further embodiment of the end product according to the invention, the distance between the ultraviolet lamp and the heat exchange fin is in the range of 200-900 mm. In another embodiment of the end product according to the invention, a plurality of ultraviolet lamps are provided, the plurality of ultraviolet lamps having the same size and being arranged at equal interva