Unit arrangement

• US 20060225449A1
• Filed: 03/09/2006
• Published: 10/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rittal GmbH & Company KG (Friedhelm Loh, PhD)
• Original Assignee: Rittal GmbH & Company KG (Friedhelm Loh, PhD)
• Inventors: Nicolai, Michael, Dorrich, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 7,775,061 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 62/259.200
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20572 within cabinets for removing heat from sub-racks, e.g. plenum

Abstract

A unit arrangement having a receiving housing, in particular a switchgear cabinet, in an interior of which electrical units are accommodated and having a cooling device which is in air-conducting communication with the interior of the receiving housing via at least one air inlet and at least one blower aperture, and a cooling operation monitoring device. A requirement-orientated control of the cooling operation is possible when the cooling operation monitoring device has an inlet temperature sensor which measures a temperature of the air to be cooled which is supplied to the cooling unit via the air inlet. An outlet temperature sensor measures a temperature of the cooled air which is supplied to the interior of the receiving housing via the blower aperture. A computing unit of the cooling operation monitoring device determines a temperature difference between the temperature measured by the inlet temperature sensor and the outlet temperature sensor.

Claims

1. A unit arrangement having a receiving housing or a switchgear cabinet (30), in an interior of which electrical units (31) are accommodated and having a cooling unit (10) in air-conducting communication with the interior via at least one air inlet (14) and at least one blower aperture (13), and a cooling operation monitoring device, the unit arrangement comprising:

the cooling operation monitoring device having an inlet temperature sensor (40) measuring a temperature of air to be cooled which is supplied to the cooling unit (10) via the at least one air inlet (14), an outlet temperature sensor measuring a second temperature of cooled air supplied to the interior via the at least one blower aperture (13), and a computing unit of the cooling operation monitoring device determining a temperature difference measured between the inlet temperature sensor and the outlet temperature sensor.

2. The unit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the computing unit transmits to a control module a switch signal which corresponds to the temperature difference, and the control module controls the cooling power of a cooling module (20) as a function of the switch signal.

3. The unit arrangement according to claim 2, wherein the control module controls a number of revolutions of at least one fan (24.1) of the cooling unit as a function of the switch signal.

4. The unit arrangement according to claim 3, wherein the fan (24.1) is an alternating current fan operable in steps of numbers of revolutions which are a function of a control command prescribed by the control module.

5. The unit arrangement according to claim 4, wherein a cooling medium is supplied via a pilot line (44) to the cooling module (20) and discharged from the cooling module (20) via a return line (46), and a flow of the cooling medium is controlled by a solenoid valve (45) as a function of an outlet temperature signal determined by the outlet temperature sensor (41).

6. The unit arrangement according to claim 5, wherein a cooling medium is supplied via a pilot line (44) to the cooling module (20) and discharged from the cooling module (20) via a return line (46), a pilot temperature sensor (42 and 47) is associated with the pilot line (44) and with the return line (46) respectively, a computing unit forms a difference signal which corresponds to the temperature difference, a volume flow meter (43) is associated with one of the cooling module (20), the pilot line (44) and the return line (46), and the computing unit determines a quantity of heat (Q) from the difference signal and the signal of the volume flow meter and transmits a heat signal corresponding to the quantity of heat (Q) to a display unit.

7. The unit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein a cooling medium is supplied via a pilot line (44) to a cooling module (20) and discharged from the cooling module (20) via a return line (46), and a flow of the cooling medium is controlled by a solenoid valve (45) as a function of an outlet temperature signal determined by the outlet temperature sensor (41).

8. The unit arrangement according to claim 1, wherein a cooling medium is supplied via a pilot line (44) to a cooling module (20) and discharged from the cooling module (20) via a return line (46), a pilot temperature sensor (42 and 47) is associated with the pilot line (44) and with the return line (46) respectively, a computing unit forms a difference signal which corresponds to the temperature difference, a volume flow meter (43) is associated with one of the cooling module (20), the pilot line (44) and the return line (46), and the computing unit determines a quantity of heat (Q) from the difference signal and the signal of the volume flow meter and transmits a heat signal corresponding to the quantity of heat (Q) to a display unit.