US20080261508A1

US20080261508A1 - Exhaust system with easy installation

Info

Publication number: US20080261508A1
Application number: US11/806,523
Authority: US
Inventors: Chaohua Deng
Original assignee: Hanway Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hanway Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2007-04-23
Filing date: 2007-05-31
Publication date: 2008-10-23

Abstract

An exhaust system with easy installation includes an exhaust fan housing unit, a panel module and a motor module installed within the housing unit. The motor module at least includes a motor, a vane wheel, a volute and a motor fixed plate. A clip-in connecting unit is provided at the inner sidewall of the housing unit for fixing the motor module to the housing unit by moving horizontally to a settled position where the clip-in connecting unit is fixed to a support plate of the motor module. The clip-in connecting unit can be bulges or check flakes. Because the positioning method of moving horizontally is adopted, the size of the exhaust fan housing unit is economically minimized in comparison to the traditional evolving style installation.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to an exhaust fan, particularly, to an easily installed ceiling pipeline exhaust fan.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The currently available ceiling pipeline exhaust fans in the market are comprised of a panel, a housing unit, a motor, a fan wheel and other components; the vulnerable components, such as motor, fan wheel, and capacitor etc., cannot be taken down separately. The ceiling pipeline exhaust fan with this type of structure not only is difficult to install, when there is a broke down (such as a bad motor or capacitor), the entire fan has to be taken apart piece by piece, burdening the maintenance work, it is costly in maintenance, and incurs unnecessary waste. In addition, there is another type of exhaust fax that integrates the vulnerable components, such as a volute, a motor, a fan wheel, and capacitors etc.; a hole is formed on a sidewall of the housing unit, and a hooking unit is installed on the volute; when installing the volute, the hooking unit is first inserted into the hole, then the volute evolves by pivoting on the hooking unit, the volute is then installed into the housing unit. Because of this evolutional installation, the housing unit is large than the volute. By the same token, for the hooking unit to be inserted into the hole, the volute needs to preserve some space for evolution; furthermore, the installation staff has to support the volute by hand when trying to have it fix in the housing unit from the other end. This type of installation requirements cause material waste when manufacturing the housing unit, transportation and package costs are also high; on the other hand, the installation is very inconvenient.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, the present invention is aimed to resolve the above described disadvantages of the current technology, an integrated structure of brand new volute and housing unit is adopted, an exhaust system with easy installation is provided.
The present invention of pipeline exhaust fan provides the technical solution: an exhaust system with easy installation includes an exhaust fan housing unit, a panel module and a motor module installed within the housing unit; the motor module at least includes a motor, a vane wheel, a volute and a motor fixed plate and inter-connected with each other; it is characterized in that there is a clip-in connecting unit provided at the inner sidewall of the housing unit; the clip-in connecting unit is used to fix the motor module after being perpendicularly inserted into the housing unit and then horizontally moved to a settled position; the clip-in connecting unit is fixed to the support plate of the motor module, the motor module is fixed to the support plate through a fastener.
The clip-in connecting unit can be bulges formed at the two corresponding sidewalls of the housing unit, and a support plate is installed at one of the sidewalls neighboring to the bulges; a location column corresponding to the bulge is provided at the motor module. A hole is provided at a sidewall that corresponds to the housing unit and support plate; a tongue piece is formed at a motor fixed plate of the motor module.
The clip-in connecting unit can also be two symmetrical check flakes formed at the same sidewall of the housing unit; a groove is formed between the two check flakes and the housing unit that is connected to the check flakes, and the groove extends along the depth of the housing unit; there is an edge board installed on the volute of the motor module, and the edge board and the volute form an integral unit.
As the improvements of the present invention, an immovable mounting strip and a movable mounting strip are symmetrically provided on the corresponding sidewalls of the housing unit, the immovable mounting strips and the housing unit are fixedly connected; a slot for adjusting the corresponding position of the housing unit is provided on the movable mounting strip along the length of the housing unit. The purpose for providing the slot is to, on top of the traditional installation of installing a bolt at the housing unit sidewall, provide an installation of mounting strips; that is, to install a balk at the ceiling first, then through the mounting aperture of the mounting strip to fix the mounting strip to the balk by a bolt, which can avoid the noise and vibration caused by installing the product directly to the ceiling, furthermore, the movable mounting strip can be adjusted to different sizes to fit between balks to ensure safe installation and to improve reliability.
For convenient installation, the present invention also improves the installation structure of the panel module; the panel module includes a panel and a garter spring underneath the panel, a mounting base is provided at a spot corresponding to the garter spring of the volute, two long grooves are symmetrically provided at the mounting base, two jaws of the garter spring are snapped into the corresponding long groove respectively. The two jaws of the garter spring are arc curvature extending outward respectively; the long groove of the mounting is higher than the end face of the housing unit after installation.
One of the advantages of the present invention is to package a motor, a motor fixed plate, a vane wheel, a capacitor, a volute into an individual motor module; the motor module is conveniently and quickly connects to the housing unit through the support plate and the clip-in connecting unit. Because the positioning method of clip-in after moving horizontally is adopted, the size of the exhaust fan housing unit is economically minimized in comparison to the evolving style installation; further, because of the substantial depth of the groove along the length of the housing unit and, after one end of the motor module is fixed in the groove, a small angle is formed between the edge board and the groove, which displaces the barycenter of the motor module, the groove carries the most weight of the motor module; or, the entire weight of the motor module can be carried by the bulges on the sidewall of the housing unit, when the motor module and the support plate are fixed together by a screw, the operator does not need to use a lot of strength to support the motor module, the motor module can be easily installed into the housing unit. Furthermore, because the top of the long groove is higher than the end face of the housing unit, the two jaws of the garter spring can be easily and accurately snapped into the long groove, it makes the installation and disassembly of the panel module real easy. During installation, because the housing unit is lighter, less effort required, the panel module and motor module can be takedown first, and install them back after fixing the housing unit onto the balk.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The followings are the drawings and preferred embodiments to further illustrate the present invention:

FIG. 1 is an axonometric drawing of an exhaust system with easy installation of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional drawing of the housing unit of preferred embodiment 1;

FIG. 3 is a three-dimensional drawing of the motor fixed plate of preferred embodiment 1;

FIG. 4 is a three-dimensional drawing of the motor module installed inside the housing unit of preferred embodiment 1;

FIG. 5 is a three-dimensional drawing of the volute of preferred embodiment 1;

FIG. 6 is a three-dimensional drawing of the immovable mounting strip of preferred embodiment 1;

FIG. 7 is a three-dimensional drawing of the movable mounting strip of preferred embodiment 1;

FIG. 8 is a three-dimensional drawing of the output line cover of preferred embodiment 1;

FIG. 9 is a three-dimensional drawing of the housing unit of preferred embodiment 2;

FIG. 10 is a three-dimensional drawing of the check flake of preferred embodiment 2; and

FIG. 11 is a three-dimensional drawing of the motor module installed inside the housing unit of preferred embodiment 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Preferred Embodiment 1

The present invention of a pipeline exhaust fan includes, as shown in FIG. 1, three components: an exhaust fan housing unit 1, a motor module 61, a panel module 62. Vent module is not the design focus of the present invention, therefore, not described herein.
As shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 8, immovable mounting strips 3 and movable mounting strips 4 are installed on the two sidewalls of the housing unit respectively, the immovable mounting strips 3 is fixed to the housing unit 1 through a mounting aperture 31 by a bolt, the mounting aperture at the movable mounting strip 4 is a slot 41 formed along the length of the mounting strip, the slot 41 can be used to adjust the corresponding positions of movable strip 4 and the housing unit 1, and to satisfy various installation environments; the end of the immovable mounting strip 3 and movable mounting strip 4 are bending parts 32, 42; the housing unit is fixed to the balk through location apertures 33, 43, which are formed on the bending parts. The output line cover 2 is in L shape, the neighboring two surfaces having output line apertures 21, 22; one end of the output line cover 2 is installed with a clip-in connector 23, another end with a through hole 24. A connecting slot 103 is formed at the connection 102 of two neighboring surfaces of the housing unit 1; the clip-in connector 23 at one end of the output line cover 2 is connected to the connecting slot 103 of the housing unit 1, and the other end is connected to the housing unit with a M4 screw. When installing the exhaust fan, the user can get the wire out of the housing unit 1 through the output line aperture 21 or 22 of the output line cover and further connect to the external power source.
The motor module 61 is an integral unit, its vane wheel 7 and motor 5 are connected, the motor 5 is fixed on the fixed plate 9 of the motor 5, a capacitor is installed inside the capacitance box 10, which is integrally formed with the volute 8, the volute 8 is fixed to the motor fixed plate 9, wires from the motor 5 and capacitor are first connected together then further connect to the external power source through a male socket connector 6 and female socket connector 15.
A support plate 16 is installed at one of the sidewalls 11 of the housing unit 1 (as shown in FIG. 2), symmetrical bulges 121, 141 are respectively formed on the sidewalls 12, 14 that flanks the support plate 16, location columns 81, 82 corresponding to the two bulges 121, 141 are formed on the volute 8 of the motor module 61; two parallel bulges 131, 132 are formed on the sidewall 13 corresponding to the support plate 16, the lower end face of these bulges and the upper end face of the support plate 16 are at the same level. Furthermore, a hole 133 is formed on the sidewall 13 corresponding to the support plate 16, a tongue piece 91 that can be snapped in the hole 133 is formed at the motor fixed plate 9 of the motor module 61. A bolt mounting aperture 161 is installed on the support plate 16, and a through hole 92 corresponding to the bolt mounting aperture 161 is installed on the motor fixed plate 9. After being perpendicularly put inside the housing unit 1, motor module 61 is then horizontally moved so as to position the location columns 81, 82 of the volute 8 in alignment with the bulges 121, 141 on the corresponding sidewalls 12, 14 of the housing unit; the other side of the motor fixed plate 9 is also positioned on the two bulges 131, 132, the tongue piece 91 is inserted into the hole 133 by way of a screw, the motor fixed plate 9 is fixed to the support plate 16. Because of the positioning method of horizontal moving is adopted, the size of the exhaust fan housing unit 1 is economically minimized in comparison to the evolving style installation; and, because of the entire weight of the motor module 61 can be carried by the bulge on the three sidewalls of the housing unit 1, when the motor module 61 and the support plate 16 are fixed together by a screw, the operator does not need to use a lot of strength to support the motor module 61, the motor module 61 can be easily installed into the housing unit 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, the panel module 62 includes a panel 19, a garter spring suppress piece 17, and a garter spring 18. The two jaws of the garter spring 18 are arc curvatures extending outward. First insert one end of the garter spring suppress piece 17 of the garter spring 18 into the middle round aperture, then fix the garter spring suppress piece 17 to the panel 19 with a screw. A mounting base 83 is installed on a spot corresponding to the garter spring 18 of the volute 8, two symmetrical long grooves 84 are installed at the mounting base 83, the long groove 84 extends to the direction that is perpendicular to the end face of the volute 8, after installing the volute 8, the top of the long groove 84 is higher than the end face of the housing unit 1, two jaws of the garter spring 18 are snapped into the long groove 84. Because the long groove 84 of the garter spring 18 is installed higher than the end face of the housing unit 1, therefore, during the installation process of the panel, operator can see the position of the long groove 84, and can easily get in alignment with the long groove 84; besides, because the jaws of the garter spring 18 are arc curvature extending outward, after snapping the jaws into the long groove 84, the panel can be installed easily.
During the product installation, the panel module 62 and motor module 61 can be taken down first, then fix the housing unit 1 to the balk at the ceiling by immovable mounting strips 3 or movable mounting strips 4, and install the motor module 61 and panel module 62; because the housing unit component A is light weight, installation should not require much strength. During the product installation, the external power source gets through the output line cover 2 and connects to the male socket connector 15 of the housing unit, then further connects to the female socket connector 6; the motor module 61 connects to the support plate 16 by the clip-in connecting unit and is fixed inside the housing unit 1.

Preferred Embodiment 2

The difference between the preferred embodiment 1 and preferred embodiment 2 is that the clip-in connecting unit is different during the installation of the motor module 61. As shown in FIG. 9 to FIG. 11, one of the sidewalls 13 of the housing unit 1 is connected to two trapezium shape check flakes 20, the two check flakes 20 are parallel and symmetrically located; between the two check flakes 20 and sidewall 13 of the housing unit connected to the check flakes, a groove extending along the length of the housing unit is formed; two edge boards 81 are installed on a spot matching the check flakes 20 at the volute 8 of the motor module 61, the edge boards 81 and the volute form an integral unit, the edge board 81 can be inserted into the groove from a direction perpendicular to the housing unit 1. Support plates are formed on the sidewalls 12, 14 of the housing unit neighboring the check flakes 20, a mounting aperture 161 for bolt is provided at the support plate 16; a lug 82 is formed at a spot corresponding to the support plate 16 of the volute 8, and a rectangular through hole 83 formed at the lug 82. When the edge board 81 of the volute 8 is inserted into the groove, moving the volute 8 horizontally to make the rectangular through hole 83 of the volute 8 in alignment with the mounting aperture 161 of the bolt at the support plate 16, the volute 8 is fixed to the housing unit 1 by a bolt. Because the positioning method of moving horizontally is adopted, the size of the housing unit 1 is economically minimized in comparison to the evolving style installation; further, because of the substantial depth of the groove along the length of the motor module 61 and, after one end of the motor module 61 is fixed in the groove, a small angle is formed between the edge board 81 and the groove, which displaces the barycenter of the motor module 61, the groove carries the most weight of the motor module 61; when the motor module 61 is fixed to the support plate 16 by a screw, the operator does not need to use a lot of strength to support the motor module 61, the motor module 61 can be easily and steadily installed inside the housing unit 1.

Claims

1. An exhaust system with easy installation comprises:

an exhaust fan;

a housing unit;

a panel module;

a motor module; and

a clip-in connecting unit provided at an inner sidewall of the housing unit allowing the motor module to be inputted into the housing unit and then moves horizontally to a settled position.

2. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motor module further comprise a motor, a vane wheel, a volute, and a motor fixed plate; and the motor module is fixed to a support plate by a fastener.

3. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the clip-in connecting unit is a plurality of bulges provided at two corresponding inner sidewalls of the housing unit; and a plurality of location columns corresponding to the plurality of bulges are provided at the motor module.

4. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 3 further comprises a support plate installed at one of the sidewalls neighboring the plurality of bulges.

5. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 4 further comprises a hole at the housing unit sidewall corresponding to the support plate; and a tongue piece at the motor module that can be snapped into the hole.

6. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the plurality of location columns are provided at the volute of the motor module; and the tongue piece is provided at the motor fixed plate of the motor module.

7. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the clip-in connecting unit is a plurality of symmetrical check flakes provided at one of the sidewalls of the housing unit; between the plurality of check flakes and the housing unit sidewall that contains the check flakes, a groove is formed along the length of the housing unit; and an edge board matching the groove is provided at the motor module.

8. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the edge board is provided at the volute of the motor module, the edge board and the volute form an integral unit.

9. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 8 further comprises a plurality of immovable mounting strips and a plurality of movable mounting strips provided at the corresponding outer sidewall of the housing unit; the plurality of immovable mounting strips connects to the housing unit; and a slot provided at the plurality of movable mounting strips for adjusting the corresponding housing unit position along its length direction.

10. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the panel module further comprises a panel and a garter spring provided at the bottom of the panel; a mounting base is provided at the end face of the motor module, and two long grooves are symmetrically provided at the mounting base; two jaws of the garter spring are snapped in the corresponding long groove respectively.

11. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the two jaws of the garter spring are arc curvature extending outward.

12. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the mounting base is provided at the volute of the motor module; the mounting base and the volute form an integral unit.

13. The exhaust system as claimed in claim 12, wherein the long groove of the mounting base extends to a direction perpendicular to the end face of the volute; and the top of the long groove is higher than the end face of the housing unit after installation.

14. A method for easily installing an exhaust system comprises:

providing an exhaust fan, a housing unit, a panel module, and a motor module;

forming a clip-on connecting unit;

inserting the motor module into the housing unit perpendicularly; and

moving the motor module horizontally to a settled position.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the clip-in connecting unit is provided at an inner sidewall of the housing unit.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15 further comprises:

fixing the clip-in connecting unit to a support plate of the motor module; and

fastening the motor module and the support plate together with a fastener;

17. The method as claimed in claim 16 further comprises:

forming a plurality of bulges as the clip-in connecting unit at two corresponding inner sidewalls of the housing unit; and

providing a plurality of location columns corresponding to the plurality of bulges at the motor module.

18. The method as claimed in claim 17 further comprises:

providing a plurality of check flakes at one of the sidewalls of the housing unit;

forming a groove between the plurality of check flakes and the housing unit sidewall containing the check flakes; and

matching the groove with an edge board of the motor module.