Liner A/C Accumulator

An accumulator is an essential component of a clutch cycling orifice tube type automotive air conditioning system. The accumulator separates the volume fractions of the fluid coming from the evaporator and allows a mostly gaseous refrigerant, with a controlled amount of compressor oil, to return to the compressor.

The patented design of Visteon's Liner A/C Accumulator simplifies manufacturing and assembly, improves customer satisfaction relative to noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), improves time to passenger comfort, increases overall air conditioning performance and reduces manufacturing operation costs. Suitable for use in both current R134a and future R744 (CO 2 ) systems, this technology has been designed so that it may easily replace the current accumulator in the existing A/C package space, and can adapt to any inlet or outlet configuration.

Benefits

• Improves manufacturing tolerances because of the plastic injection molded and refrigerant compatible components, which decreases the tolerance for bottom of canister to 2.2 mm versus the industry standard of 13 mm.
• Prevents excessive heating (super-heat) of the refrigerant – a known cause of A/C phenomena known as “thump" through Visteon's proprietary plastic desiccating element.
• Improves overall A/C performance by at least one degree Celsius, based on vehicle test results, due to a polypropylene (refrigerant-compatible) plastic liner and Visteon's patented deflector design.
• Eliminates a portion of the fabrication steps associated with the conventional assembly process – internal components snap together for repeatability and ease of assembly.