Plural fan installation for a cooling system for a motor vehicle, with a control unit, for controlling plural fan motors, mounted within one motor housing

• US 6,840,743 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2002
• Issued: 01/11/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Flextronics International Limited
• Original Assignee: AFL Germany Electronics GmbH
• Inventors: Kanamueller, Thomas, Herke, Dirk
• Primary Examiner(s): Yu, Justine R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sayoc, Emmanuel
• Application Number:
  US10/174,504
• Publication Number:
  US 20020195069A1
• Time in Patent Office: 939 Days
• Field of Search: 417/366, 417/427.1, 417/423.5, 417/14, 417/18, 417/32, 417/2, 417/3, 417/426, 417/165, 417/5, 123/41.56, 123/41.65
• US Class Current: 417/2
• CPC Class Codes: F04D 25/166 using fans
• CPC Class Codes: F04D 29/582 specially adapted for elastic fluid pumps

Abstract

The present invention provides a fan installation for a cooling system of a motor vehicle, comprising at least two fans which respectively have an electric fan motor arranged in a separate housing and a fan wheel which can be driven by the fan motor. The fan installation also comprises a control unit for operating the fan motors. The invention provides for an improved fan installation with a simple and cost-effective design, which is achieved by arranging the control unit in the housing of one of the fans for operating both fan motors.

Claims

1. A fan installation for a cooling system of a motor vehicle, comprising:

at least two fans positioned in parallel, each fan having an associated electric fan motor disposed in a separate fan motor housing and a fan wheel which can be driven by said motor,

a control unit for providing respective signals for operating the fan motors, said control unit being disposed in the fan motor housing of one of the fans and operating the fan motor of each fan; and

a fan assembly housing for the at least two fans.

2. The fan installation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fan installation comprises a harness which can be connected to the two fans and has a plug-in connection comprising a supply connection and an external connection.

3. The fan installation as claimed in claim 2, wherein the harness can be connected to each of the fans via a plug-in connection.

4. The fan installation as claimed in claim 2, wherein the harness comprises a connecting line branch which runs between the fans and which has a feed line path.

5. The fan installation as claimed in claim 4, wherein the connecting line branch has a ground line path.

6. The fan installation as claimed in claim 2, wherein the harness comprises a supply line branch which runs from the fan provided with the control unit to the plug-in connection and which has a feed line path and an input line path.

7. The fan installation as claimed in claim 6, wherein the supply line branch has a ground line path.

8. The fan installation as claimed in claim 6, wherein the supply line branch and a connecting line branch which runs between the fans form a coherent harness.

9. The fan installation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit comprises a common output stage for the operation of all the fan motors.

10. The fan installation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit comprises a dedicated output stage for the operation of each of the fan motors.

11. The fan installation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit is thermally coupled with a heat sink.

12. The fan installation as claimed in claim 11, wherein an output stage of the control unit is thermally coupled with the heat sink.

13. The fan installation as claimed in claim 11, wherein the heat sink is air-cooled.

14. The fan installation as claimed in claim 13, wherein the heat sink has at least one ribbed heat sink.

15. The fan installation as claimed in claim 10, wherein each of the output stages is coupled with its own ribbed heat sink.

16. The fan installation as claimed in claim 11, wherein an air flow that can be produced by the fan wheel flows through the housing of the fan which is provided with the control unit, and the air flow flows against the heat sink.

17. The fan installation as claimed in claim 16, wherein the heat sink is arranged in the region of an air opening of the housing, through which opening the air flow passes.

18. The fan installation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit has a circuit board which extends in a plane which runs transversely with respect to the axis of rotation of the fan motor.

19. The fan installation as claimed in claim 18, wherein the circuit board bears current feeds for a commutator of the fan motor.

20. The fan installation as claimed in claim 19, wherein the current feeds have carbon brush holders arranged on the circuit board and carbon brushes which can be moved with respect to said holders.

21. The fan installation as claimed in claim 19, wherein the current feeds are thermally coupled with a heat sink.