Power conversion apparatus with grommet inserted into casing

• US 9,167,708 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2013
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Tachibana, Hideaki
• Primary Examiner(s): THOMPSON, GREGORY D
• Application Number:
  US13/920,734
• Publication Number:
  US 20130335918A1
• Time in Patent Office: 854 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0002 Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 5/0213 Venting apertures; Constructional details thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20927 Liquid coolant without phase change

Abstract

A power conversion apparatus is equipped with grommets each of which hermetically seals between one of a coolant inlet tube and a coolant outlet tube of a cooler. Each of the grommets has a sealing protrusion and is fit in a cut-out formed in an end of a side wall of a casing with the sealing protrusion pressed against an inner wall of the cut-out. The installation of each of the grommets is achieved by inserting the grommet through the cut-out in a direction from outside to inside the casing so that a portion of the grommet protrudes from the wall into the casing. The visual perception of such protrusion made by an assembly worker, therefore, enables the assembly worker to determine whether the grommet has been installed in place in the cut-out to establish a desired hermetical seal or not.

Claims

1. A power conversion apparatus comprising:

electronic components constituting a power conversion circuit;

a cooler which is equipped with a coolant inlet tube and a coolant outlet tube and works to cool the electronic components;

a casing in which the electronic components and the cooler are disposed, the casing having an opening and a wall with an end;

cut-outs which are formed in the end of the wall of the casing and extend through a thickness of the wall so that the cut-outs are exposed to the opening of the casing and through which the coolant inlet tube and the coolant outlet tube pass; and

grommets which are disposed one in each of the cut-outs formed in the wall of the casing, respectively, each of the grommets having a body, each of the bodies including a hole through which a corresponding one of the coolant inlet tube and the coolant outlet tube hermetically passes and a protrusion pressed against an inner wall surface of a corresponding one of the cut-outs to create a hermetical seal between the body and the corresponding one of the cut-outs, each of the bodies also including an outer portion and an inner portion which are aligned to each other in a thickness-wise direction of the wall, the outer portion being located on an outward side of the wall of the casing, while the inner portion is located on an inward side of the wall of the casing, the outer portion being equipped with a positioner which serves to fix a location of a corresponding one of the grommets when the corresponding one of the grommets is inserted into the corresponding one of the cut-outs in a direction from outside to inside the casing, the inner portion protruding inwardly from the wall when the corresponding one of the grommets is fixed in location in the corresponding one of the cut-outs by the positioner, wherein

the protrusion is pressed against the inner wall surface of the corresponding one of the cut-outs to create the hermetical seal between the corresponding one of the grommets and the inner wall surface, and

when the corresponding one of the grommets is fixed in location by the positioner, the inner portion of the body of the corresponding one of the grommets has, between an end of the inner portion and the protrusion, at least a portion which protrudes from the wall of the casing.

2. A power conversion apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the positioner of each of the grommets protrudes from a circumferential surface of the body and has a stopper wall which is brought into contact with an outer surface of the wall of the casing when the corresponding one of the grommets is inserted into the cut-out of the casing.

3. A power conversion apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the wall of the casing has a chamfered surface formed between an outer surface of the wall from which each of the grommets is inserted into a corresponding one of the cut-outs and the inner wall surface of each of the cut-outs.