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Inverter scroll advantages

Sales / Technical Guide Compressor Mechanism (Inverter and Digital comp.)

Inverter Scroll Digital Scroll

The Mechanism of Inverter Scroll The Mechanism of Digital Scroll

Discharge gas PWM valve Radial compliant Discharge Fixed scroll mechanism Bleed hole

Orbiting scroll Fixed scroll (spring loaded) Suction Crank shaft Pivot Bearing mechanism Orbiting scroll

Mitsubishi Electric inverter adopts radial Digital scroll compressor adopts bypass mecha- compliant mechanism which contributes high efficiency nism to control its capacity. Though it can work as inverter even at the low or high speed operation. This mechanism type in terms of operation range, the efficiency goes down has no clearance between orbiting and fixed scroll, which in light load. means excellent refrigerant seal and high COP.

1 Mechanism of Inverter Scroll Mechanism of Digital Scroll

Radial compliant mechanism

Wrap contact force Fixed Scroll F=Fc-Fr Wrap Fixed Scroll Wrap PWM valve on

direction of Wrap Orbiting Scroll contact 100% unloaded Wrap Fc no compression Slider Parts Fg Scroll separates by 1mm Fgr

Crank shaft Orbiting Scroll Wrap

Fc : Centrifugal force of Scroll Wrap With digital scroll compressor, one of the scroll is lifted up Fg : Compressed gass load 1 to control the capacity with electric valve. In light load time Fgr : Compressed gass load 2 or period, the refrigerant leakage is too big to run efficient- ly. Electric valve is always being used and scroll parts vert- ically hit each other inside the shell. This means less reli- ability and shorter lifespan than inverter type. Mitsubishi Electric inverter compressor makes use of the centrifugal force with scroll rotation very well. It runs smoothly and efficiently from 20Hz low speed and up to 120Hz high speed without inner loss in whole range.

Compressor Co-efficiency ( Inverter and Digital comp.)

Inverter comp. 50% load Full load Inverter Full Frequency =full Capacity(full-load) Power Input is high

Frequency decreasing=Capacity save(Unload) Power Input drops according to the frequency

COP (Cooling) Digital comp

Digital Scroll comp.

Capacity Valve:open=full Capacity(full-load) Power Input is high

Valve:close=Capacity save(Unload) Power Input is not so decreasing against full-load

2 Mitsubishi Electric Inverter Compressor

Introduction Recently, scroll have been widely used for air conditioners for itÕs high effi- ciency. There are two types different in the refrigerant flow inside the shell; low pressure shell type and high pressure shell type. At this moment, large capacity scroll compressors apply low pressure type shell, and small or middle capacity comp. comes with the high pressure type, depending on func- tional advantages and disadvantages of each unit usage. The shell durability and reli- ability of refrigerant amounts are important point of commercialization.

Low pressure shell comp. (Mitsubishi Electric) Refrigerant is compressed by the rotation of shaft<6> and orbiting scroll<2> which makes a pressured room<3> together with fixed scroll<1>. 3 2 The low pressured gas from suction pipe<16> is divi- ded into 2 way flow. The lower flow runs through low pressured section at the bottom and the rest through the scroll section. They both discharges after circu- 16 lating the shell and scrolls. The lubricating oil for the shaft runs from oil reser- voir<15> to oil pump<23> lubricating each part and then, via oil circulating route<26>, returns to the oil reservoir<15>. Some of the oil is mixed with the re- frigerant and taken back to the comp. 23 15 6

High pressure shell comp.

17 The comp. is compressed with the rotating shaft<14> and orbiting scroll<6> and make pressured room<8> 5 together with fixed scroll<5>. 6 The low pressured gas from suction pipe<17> is di- 19 rectly sucked into scroll section, pressured, and dis- charged inside the highly pressured shell. The dis- charged gas goes through the shell and reaches the refrigerant circuit via oil circulating route<19>. The lubricating oil for the shaft lubricate each part 14b from oil reservoir<15> using the compression differ- ence between high pressure gas and low pressure bottom section and returns to the oil reservoir<15> via oil circulating route<14b>. Some of the oil is mixed with the refrigerant and then taken back to the 15 comp.

3 Comparisons The following is the functional and latest situation of low/high pressure scroll comp. used for commercial PAC such as VRF.

Durability for liquid compression When sudden liquid compression occurs in the large capacity PAC, the low pressure shell type comp. shows us high reliability. The low pressure shell type comp. have less possibility for the liquid gas to be injected to the scroll parts because it is once stored in the bottom. Therefore, the gas pressure is always kept at the appropriate level, which re- sults in high reliability of scroll quality. On the contrary, the high pressure shell type comp. has a risk of overloading with ab- normal high pressure in scroll section occurring with injection of suction gas in sudden liquid compression. This may cause louder operation noise. To avoid these disadvanta- ges, gas relief structure and refrigerant receiver are added to the shell in many cases.

Durability for contamination The low pressure shell type comp. has a high durability for contamination for the scroll part is stored at the bottom and there is a low possibility of direct contamination.

Reliability of motor

High pressure shell type The low pressured type motor is located at the bot- Motor ambient temperature Motor operating temperature tom and can be operated in relatively low tempera- Low pressure shell type Motor ambient temperature ture. Thanks to this, chemical materials such as insu- Motor operating temperature lating paper and varnish has a long lifespan. Also, it Graph 1 -50 0 50 100 150 Temperature(ûC) contributes to the efficient operation with low temper- ature.

Motor efficiency On the other hand, with the high pressure shell type, the motor temperature is balanced with the dis- charged gas temperature, which means shorter life- span and inefficient work. Graph 1 and 2 show the Motor operating temperature High pressure shell type relationship between the operation range and effi- Low pressure shell type ciency of motors. Indicating the efficient motor opera- -50 0 50 100 150 Graph 2 Temperature(ûC) tion realized in low pressured type compressor.

4 Reliability of lubricating oil

Temperature range in which lubricating oil deteriorates The low pressure shell type compressor has a oil re-

High pressure shell type servoir at the bottom, which helps the low tempera- Discharge refrigerant temperature Oil temperature (oil reservoir) ture operation estimated below 85c degrees and

Low pressure shell type Discharge refrigerant temperature contributes to longer lifespan and adequate oil barri- Oil temperature (oil reservoir) er even when we select non-sticky oil to reduce the Graph 3 -50 0 50 100 150 Temperature(ûC) operation loss. On the contrary, the oil temperature of highly pres- sured shell type compressor must be used under high temperature for it is balanced with the dis- charged gas temperature. In order to obtain the same amount of oil barrier, an adequate sticky oil is required to use which is generally classified as 56 degree. Graph 3 shows you the oil temperature range used for each structure.

Reliability of lubricating oil

Temperature range in which lubricating oil deteriorates The graph on the left shows the oil temperature

High pressure shell type range used for each structure. Discharge refrigerant temperature Oil temperature (oil reservoir) The area in yellow indicates the lubricating oil rage

Low pressure shell type Discharge refrigerant temperature where it becomes chemically deteriorated. Oil temperature (oil reservoir) The low pressured compressor can work steadily -50 0 50 100 150 Temperature(ûC) without any influence on motor and oil by high tem- perature of discharged gas. However, the high pressured compressor usually have to run at level 8 of compression ratio when the discharged gas temperature is influenced by the compression ratio that restricts heating operation to attain a target temperature , usually set at 100c de- gree.

Safety of shell The low pressured compressor is designed up to 20HP. It is produced safely and used because the pressure toward the shell itself is relatively low. It is, however, difficult to develop large capacity- high pressure control compressors be- cause the pressure toward the shell itself is high. To develop a large capacity comp., a special thick materials must be used to acquire enough strength to bear the high pres- sure. It is not easy to produce it with a cheap price. At the moment, the maximum ca- pacity is 6HP and several compressors must be set for large capacity units.

5 Lubrication comparison Low pressure shell type lubricates compulsorily with oil pump and it is also quick in start- ing. Pressure difference system is mostly applied with high pressure shell type. It is simple in structure by lubricating the shaft using the pressure differences of low pressure at the bottom and high pressure at the scrolls. It is, however, poorly lubricated until the pres- sure inside the shell reaches the adequate amount. Moreover, if large capacity units are not in work for a long time, the compressor may dry due to the refrigerant movement in refrigerant circuit.

Capacity comparison

98 High pressure shell type Nowadays, as DCblushless motor has been 96 Low pressure shell type (old) used for low pressure type compressor, the 94 Low pressure shell type (new) suction overheat loss is improved, which had been a big disadvantages to high pres- 92 sure type. 90 As shown in graph 4, the efficiency today is 88 no less than the high pressure type's. 86 olumetric efficiency(%) V 84 82 30 60 120 Operation frequency(Hz) Measurement condition: condensation temperature 55ûC and evaporation temperature 5ûC Graph 4

Discharge noise

High pressured gas space Discharge gas (discharged silencer) The gas in low pressure shell compressor is

Suction pipe discharged to refrigerant circuit without at- Dis. pipe Suction gas tenuation. A silencer had to be attached be- Fixed scroll forehand with the compressor to reduce the Bearing noise. Orbit.scroll Low pressured gas space We Mitsubishi Electric developed this newly

Crank shaft Refrigerant Flow designed compressor with the silencers in- side the shell. This contributes to the reduc- Motor (Rotor) Refrigerant tion in production cost and enhancement of Flow Shell reliability. Motor (Stator) Oil pump Bearing

Oil receiver

6 The & Systems Works acquired ISO 9001 certification under Series 9000 of the International Standard Organization (ISO) based on a review of Quality management for the production of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment.

ISO Authorization System The ISO 9000 series is a plant authorization system relating to quality management as stipulated by the ISO. ISO 9001 certifies quality management based on the "design, development, production, installation and auxiliary services" for products built at an authorized plant. FM33568 / ISO 9001;2000

The Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Systems Works acquired environmental management system standard ISO 14001 certification.

The ISO 14000 series is a set of standards applying to environmental protection set by the International Standard Organization (ISO).

Certificate Number EC97J1227

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New publication effective Jan. 2007 MEE06K492 Specifications subject to change without notice