JP7463977B2 - Cooling system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a cooling device.

Conventionally, cooling devices are known that cool a high-temperature workpiece by contacting a heat receiving body with the workpiece.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technology in which the heat-conducting contacts that thermally connect the LSI and the cover and the cooling fins or slits on the cover that contact these are configured as a cell structure for each contact, and ribs are formed over the entire length of the cover, improving the heat transfer characteristics to the outside of the module.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-38020

The above document shows a type of module in which an LSI mounted on a substrate is covered with a cover, and heat generated by the LSI is released to the outside of the module through the cover. However, due to its structure, this module cannot be applied to cylindrical workpieces that do not have flat surfaces, such as LSIs.

The present invention was created in consideration of the above points, and its purpose is to provide a cooling device that can efficiently cool cylindrical workpieces.

The cooling device (9) cools a workpiece by contacting a pair of relatively low-temperature heat receiving blocks (11, 12) with the outer peripheral surface of a cylindrical workpiece (7) that is relatively high temperature, and includes a pair of heat receiving blocks (11, 12) and a pair of drive devices (31, 32).

The pair of heat receiving blocks face each other in the operating direction perpendicular to the axis of the workpiece, have multiple heat receiving parts (H) that can contact the outer peripheral surface of the workpiece, and the curve connecting the tips of the multiple heat receiving parts in a cross section perpendicular to the axis of the workpiece forms an arc.

The pair of drive mechanisms reciprocate the pair of heat receiving blocks between a contact position in contact with the workpiece and a spaced position spaced from the workpiece.

Each of the heat receiving blocks has a plurality of heat receiving fins separated by slits (S) extending in a direction perpendicular to the operating direction, and the tip of each of the heat receiving fins constitutes the heat receiving portion.

When the pair of heat receiving blocks sandwich the workpiece, the heat receiving fins bend due to elasticity, and the heat receiving portion is pressed against the workpiece.

This allows each heat receiving part to be in reliable contact with the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical workpiece, increasing the contact area and efficiently receiving heat from the workpiece to reduce the workpiece temperature.

1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of a cooling device of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the workpiece of FIG. 1 being clamped by a cooling device; 3A is a front view showing a position of the heat receiving block in FIG. 2 separated from the workpiece, and FIG. 3B is a front view showing a position of the heat receiving block in FIG. 2 in contact with the workpiece. FIG. 11 is a front view showing an air-cooling portion of a heat receiving block and a support block according to a second embodiment. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the support block of FIG. 4 . FIG. 11 is a front cross-sectional view showing a water-cooling portion of a heat receiving block and a support block according to a second embodiment. FIG. 13 is a front cross-sectional view showing a heat receiving block and a temperature controlled support block according to a third embodiment.

Below, cooling devices according to several embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First Embodiment
[Cooling object]
First, the object to be cooled in the present invention will be described. Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a workpiece 7, which is an object to be cooled. The workpiece 7 has a cylindrical shape. Note that a cylindrical surface including a groove or a recess is also considered to be cylindrical. It is difficult to cool such a cylindrical surface by surface contact with a flat heat receiving body.

[Cooling system]
An overview of the first embodiment is shown in Fig. 1. The cooling device 9 of this embodiment is a device for cooling a cylindrical workpiece 7, which is relatively hot, by bringing a pair of relatively low-temperature heat receiving blocks 11, 12 into contact with the outer circumferential surface of the workpiece, and includes the pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 and a pair of drive mechanisms 31, 32. In the configuration example shown in Fig. 1, the pair of drive mechanisms 31, 32 operate in the vertical direction, and the pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 sandwich the workpiece 7 from above and below.

The pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 face each other in the operating direction perpendicular to the axis of the workpiece 7, and have multiple heat receiving parts H that can contact the outer circumferential surface of the workpiece 7, and the multiple heat receiving parts H form a semi-cylindrical shape as a whole. The pair of drive mechanisms 31, 32 reciprocate the pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 between a contact position in contact with the workpiece 7 and a spaced position spaced from the workpiece 7. In this embodiment, the pair of drive mechanisms 31, 32 are driven by hydraulic cylinders.

2, each of the heat receiving blocks 11 and 12 has a plurality of heat receiving fins , the tip of which is a heat receiving portion H, and the heat receiving fins are separated from each other by slits S. When the heat receiving portion H at the tip of the heat receiving fin comes into contact with the workpiece 7, it bends like a leaf spring, generating an elastic force that urges the heat receiving portion H against the outer surface of the workpiece 7.

[Operation of cooling device]
The operation of the cooling device 9 will be described with reference to Figures 2 and 3. Figure 3(a) shows a pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 in a separated position before clamping the workpiece 7. In this embodiment, the heat receiving block is made up of two parts, left and right, which are joined together.

For the high-temperature workpiece 7 fixed to the workpiece fixing jig 8 (Fig. 2), the heat receiving block 11 is driven by the drive mechanism 31 to move in the downward direction D1, and the heat receiving block 12 is driven by the drive mechanism 32 to move in the upward direction D2 (cooling device 9, drive mechanisms 31, 32 are shown in Fig. 1), so that the high-temperature workpiece 7 is clamped between the pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12. Fig. 3(b) shows a schematic diagram of the pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 in the contact position where they clamp the workpiece 7.

When the pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 holding the high-temperature workpiece 7 receive heat from the workpiece 7 (hereinafter also referred to as "receiving heat"), the heat receiving block 11 is driven by the drive mechanism 31 to move in the upward direction D2, and the heat receiving block 12 is driven by the drive mechanism 32 to move in the downward direction D1, so that the pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 return to their initial separated positions (Figure 3(a)), and dissipate the heat received from the workpiece 7 (hereinafter also referred to as "receiving heat"). When the temperature of the pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 drops, they wait until they are ready to receive heat again.

If the workpiece 7 and the pair of heat receiving blocks 11, 12 in contact with each other are considered as one object, the heat transfer within this object is expressed by theoretical formula 1. In the formula, Q is the amount of conductive heat transfer (W, J/s), λ is the thermal conductivity (W/m·K), _T1 is the high-temperature side temperature (°C), _T2 is the low-temperature side temperature (°C), d is the conductive distance (m), and S is the cross-sectional area ( ^m2 ).
(Theoretical formula 1) Q=λ/d×(T ₁ −T ₂ )×S

Looking at the relationship between the amount of conductive heat transfer Q and the cross-sectional area S (i.e. the contact area) based on theoretical formula 1, it can be seen that Q is proportional to S when other parameters are constant. This shows that efficient heat transfer requires a large contact area, and conversely, the larger the contact area, the better the heat dissipation. In light of this principle, the object of the present invention is to make the contact area between the workpiece 7 and the heat receiving part H as large as possible.

[Effects of the First Embodiment]
With the above configuration, even if the workpiece is cylindrical, which has a curved outer shape and cannot be cooled well by a cooling device designed for workpieces with flat surfaces, the heat receiving part H can more reliably contact various parts of the surface of the workpiece 7, increasing the contact area. As a result, the heat accumulated in the high-temperature workpiece is efficiently transferred from the heat receiving part H through the heat receiving fins to the heat receiving blocks 11 and 12 by thermal conduction via the contact points between the workpiece 7 and the heat receiving part H, and the workpiece 7 is relatively cooled.

Second Embodiment
Next, the second embodiment will be described with reference to Figures 4 and 5. The second embodiment has almost the same configuration as the first embodiment, but is different in that an air-cooling section 41 or a water-cooling section 42, which is a mechanism for efficiently releasing the heat received from the workpiece 7 to the outside, is installed on the support block 21 to which the heat-receiving block 11 is attached.

[Air cooling section]
Fig. 4 shows a front view of the air-cooling section 41, and Fig. 5 shows a perspective view of the air-cooling section 41. Here, only the upper structure of the cooling device 9 in Fig. 1 is shown. In the air-cooling section 41, many slits are formed in the support block 21 to increase the contact area with the blown air in order to improve the cooling effect by blowing air in the process of dissipating heat received from the workpiece 7 at the separated position.

As shown in Figure 5, the air-cooling section 41 of this embodiment has a dead end halfway through the support block 21, and when the air is blown in the blowing direction DB so that it flows parallel to each slit in the air-cooling section 41, the air efficiently receives heat at the dead end and is then blown upward to release the heat. Calculations using a support block 21 with a certain design specification showed that when the slits in Figures 4 and 5 are blown up and down at 10 meters per second, it is possible to dissipate approximately 30 kJ of heat in 50 seconds.

[Water cooling section]
Figure 6 shows a front cross-sectional view of the water-cooled section 42. Here, the flow path of the cooling water is drilled vertically, and the cross-sectional view is taken along a plane passing through the flow path. When calculating with the support block 21 of the same design specifications, when water is flowed through the water-cooled section 42 in Figure 6, it is possible to dissipate about 30 kJ of heat, the same as blowing, in about one-sixth the time required for air cooling.

[Effects of the second embodiment]
This configuration allows the heat received from the workpiece to be more efficiently released and dissipated from the heat receiving block to the support block and then to the outside, thereby shortening the time required for the heat dissipation process and improving work efficiency.

Third Embodiment
Next, a third embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 7. This embodiment has almost the same configuration as the second embodiment, but is different in that heaters 51, 52 are provided in the support block 21 to which the heat receiving block 11 is attached, instead of the air cooling section 41 and water cooling section 42. In this embodiment, a temperature sensor 6 for monitoring the temperature of the bottom of the support block 21 is also provided.

[Effects of the third embodiment]
With the above configuration, the temperatures of the support block 21 and the heat receiving block 11 can be adjusted so that the temperature variation of the workpiece does not exceed ±50° C. This embodiment is particularly effective when, for example, the material characteristics of the high-temperature workpiece 7 must be taken into consideration, and multiple cooling steps must be used to sequentially rapidly cool the workpiece while keeping the workpiece temperature within the range of ±50° C. for each step.

Other Embodiments
In the above embodiment, a pair of drive devices are used to sandwich the workpiece between a pair of heat receiving blocks from above and below, but the sandwiching method of the present invention is not limited to this. Depending on the circumstances, such as the connectivity of the work in the previous and next processes and spatial constraints, the mechanism may sandwich the workpiece from the left and right, for example. In this case, the slits in the heat receiving blocks are formed in the vertical direction, and when the heat receiving blocks sandwich the workpiece from the left and right, the heat receiving fins bend left and right to contact the outer circumferential surface of the workpiece.

Alternatively, a pair of heat receiving blocks may be attached to a robot arm, and the robot arms may clamp the workpiece.

In other embodiments, the pair of drive devices is not limited to hydraulic cylinders or pneumatic cylinders, and other drive devices may be used.

The air cooling section in the second embodiment is a slit-like shape with a dead-end structure, but the air cooling section may have any shape suitable for efficient blow cooling. For example, it does not have to be a dead-end structure, and a structure with multiple air vents instead of slits may be used.

The coolant passed through the water-cooled portion of the second embodiment may be any fluid. For example, it does not have to be water, and a special gas with high thermal conductivity may be passed instead of the liquid. The direction DW of the flow of the cooling water is also not limited to the direction shown in the figure, and it may flow in the opposite direction to that shown in FIG. 6.

Furthermore, the shape of the flow path can be designed as needed. For example, it may be a complex flow path with two spiral slope-shaped spaces connected.

The third embodiment can be equipped with an air-cooling section or water-cooling section like the second embodiment. This allows for more flexible temperature control of the support block.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and can be implemented in various forms without departing from the spirit of the invention.

11, 12 heat receiving block, 31, 32 drive unit, 7 workpiece D1 downward direction, D2 upward direction , H heat receiving part, S slit

Claims (2)

A cooling device (9) for cooling a cylindrical workpiece (7) having a relatively high temperature by bringing a pair of heat receiving blocks (11, 12) having a relatively low temperature into contact with an outer peripheral surface of the workpiece, the cooling device comprising:
The pair of heat receiving blocks face each other in a moving direction perpendicular to the axis of the workpiece, have a plurality of heat receiving parts (H) that can contact the outer peripheral surface of the workpiece, and have a curve connecting the tips of the plurality of heat receiving parts in a cross section perpendicular to the axis of the workpiece that forms an arc shape;
a pair of drive mechanisms (31, 32) for reciprocating the pair of heat receiving blocks between a contact position in contact with the workpiece and a spaced position spaced from the workpiece;
a support block (21) on which an air-cooling section (41) is installed and on which the heat-receiving block is attached;
Equipped with
Each of the heat receiving blocks has a plurality of heat receiving fins separated by slits (S) extending in a direction perpendicular to the operating direction, and a tip of each of the heat receiving fins constitutes the heat receiving portion;
When the pair of heat receiving blocks sandwich the workpiece, the heat receiving fins bend due to elasticity, and the heat receiving portion is pressed against the workpiece,
The support block has a plurality of air-cooling slits formed along the operating direction in the axial direction of the workpiece, each of which ends in a dead end halfway up the support block, forming the air-cooling section, and the heat receiving block is air-cooled by blowing air against the dead-end points. 2. The cooling device according to claim 1 , wherein a heater (51, 52) is provided in the heat receiving block, and the temperature is adjusted to a predetermined temperature range.

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