Description

The invention relates to a fan arrangement according to the preamble of claim 1.

In a known fan arrangement the fan impeller is mounted directly on the housing of the clutch of the fan drive. The problem with this is that no cooling fins can be provided in this area of the clutch housing, which has a negative effect on the heat dissipation capacity. In addition handling problems arise in the case of a fan arrangement mounted on the engine of a motor vehicle (automobile or truck), since the entire fan arrangement often has to be dismantled for servicing work.

The object of the present invention is therefore to create a fan arrangement of the type specified in the preamble of claim I ₅ which has an improved heat dissipation capacity.

This object is achieved by the features of claim 1.

The heat dissipation capacity is increased in that the heat dissipating part incorporates an additional heat dissipating element into the fan arrangement. It also makes it possible to mount a smaller fan impeller on the clutch, which increases the sphere of application.

In order to further increase the heat dissipation capacity, it is possible to provide the adapter or adapter ring with fins, which maximizes the heat dissipation area and at the same time increases the structural strength of the adapter ring.

By using a special fin geometry it is possible to further increase the air through-flow path through the heat radiating area and hence the heat radiation capacity.

This can be further achieved through a suitable curvature of the fins, which further increases the air through-flow capacity. In order to further improve the thermal conductivity it is possible to manufacture the adapter or adapter ring from especially thermally conductive material.

The dependent claims contain advantageous developments of the inventioa

In contrast to the state of the art, according to the invention the fan impeller is furthermore not attached directly to the clutch housing of the clutch but by way of an adapter, which can on the one hand be fixed to the fan impeller and on the other can be attached to the clutch housing. This affords scope for pre-assembling the fan impeller and the adapter and, after fixing the clutch and the fan drive to the engine, for attaching the pre-assembled unit comprising the fan impeller and the adapter to the clutch housing.

This affords the advantage of being able to minimize the dimensions of the clutch housing, which facilitates handling during the manufacturing process and increases the flexibility when mounting the fan arrangement on the engine. At the same time this does not entail any forcible reduction in the heat dissipation capacity, particularly of the friction heat generated in the actuation of the clutch.

The adapter is embodied, in particular, as an adapter ring, which in an especially preferred embodiment has fixing attachments on its inner circumference and on its outer circumference. Thus the fan impeller can be fixed to the fixing attachments of the outer circumference and the clutch housing to the fixing attachments of the inner circumference of the adapter ring.

This arrangement allows the adapter ring to be mounted on the front side or the rear side of the clutch or the clutch housing and the fan impeller on the front side or the rear side of the adapter ring.

For attaching the fan impeller to the ring and the ring to the clutch housing a screw fastening is in each case advantageously provided. The invention further relates to a method for mounting a fan arrangement on the engine of a vehicle in accordance with claim 9.

Advantageous developments of the method according to the invention are described in claims 10 to 12.

As already explained in the introductory part, the method according to the invention also affords the advantage of simplifying the mounting of the fan arrangement, since it is possible first to attach the clutch or the fan drive without the fan impeller to the engine and after pre-assembling the fan impeller and the adapter to attache this unit to the clutch. It is also possible to mount the adapter on the clutch beforehand.

For servicing work such as, in particular, the replacement of drive belts of the drive device, it is possible according to the advantageous development as claimed in claim 10, first to release the fan impeller from the adapter or the adapter ring working from the rear side of the fan impeller and to move the released fan impeller towards the engine. In this state it is possible to carry out servicing work such as, in particular, the replacement of the drive belts, without having to dismantle other components of the fan arrangement according to the invention. On completion of the servicing work the fan impeller can be refastened to the adapter or the adapter ring from the rear side.

Further details, features and advantages of the invention are set forth in the following description of exemplary embodiments, making reference to the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a fan drive with a clutch of the fan arrangement according to the invention,

Fig. 2 shows a top view of a preassembled unit comprising a fan impeller and an adapter,

Fig. 3 shows a view of the rear side of the preassembled unit in Fig. 2, Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of the complete assembled fan arrangement,

Fig. 5 shows a side view of the fan drive with adapters fitted,

Fig. 6 shows a perspective view of the clutch with adapters fitted,

Fig. 7 shows a top view of the fan arrangement according to the invention, and

Fig. 8 shows a rear view of the fan arrangement according to the invention.

An overall view of the structure of the fan arrangement 1 according to the invention is obtained from Figs. 1 to 4. This comprises a fan impeller 2, which has a hub 3 visible in Fig. 3.

The fan arrangement 1 further comprises a fan drive 4, which has a clutch 5 together with a clutch housing 6.

The fan impeller 2, as can be seen in particular from an overall view of Figs. 2 to 4, is attached to the clutch housing 6 by way of an adapter 7 embodied as a heat dissipating part, which is attached to the hub 3.

As can further be inferred from Figs. 1 to 8, the adapter 7 in the especially preferred embodiment shown is embodied as an adapter ring, which has fixing attachments 8 on its inner circumference, one of which representing all the attachments is identified by the reference numeral 8 in Fig. 7. In the case of the example six such fixing attachments 8 are provided.

The adapter ring 7 furthermore has fixing attachments 9 on its outer circumference, one of which representing all the attachments is identified by the reference numeral 9 in Fig. 3. As can be seen from Fig. 3, in the case of the example six such fixing attachments 9 are likewise provided on the outer circumference of the adapter ring 7. The hub 3 of the fan impeller 2 is fastened to these fixing attachments 9, whilst the fixing attachments 8 serve for fastening the pre-assembly unit comprising the fan impeller 2 and the adapter ring 7 to the clutch housing 6. For fixing purposes, screw fastenings are in each case provided, one of which screw fastenings representative of all screw fastenings is represented by the reference numeral 11 or 12 in Figs. 7 and 8 respectively.

In order to increase the thermal conductivity the adapter 7 or the adapter ring has cooling fins, of which one cooling fin is in each case identified by the reference numeral 10 in Figs. 5 and 6.

The clutch housing also has cooling fins, of which one cooling fin is identified by the reference numeral 13 in Fig. 1.

Besides the preceding written disclosure, in amplification of this reference is hereby explicitly made to the graphic representation of the fan arrangement 1 according to the invention in Figs. 1 to 8.

List of reference numerals

1 fan arrangement

2 fan impeller

3 hub

4 fan drive

5 clutch

6 clutch housing

7 adapter/adapter ring

8, 9 fixing attachments

10 fins/cooling fins

11, 12 screw fastenings

13 fins/cooling fins