Heat exchanger with resilient corner seals

摘要

A cross flow heat exchanger for heat exchange between two fluids. The heat exchanger is of the type having a stack of spaced, parallel rectangular plates; a frame enclosing the plates and having generally rectangular end walls parallel to the plates and corner posts extending between corners of the end walls; and corner supports extending between the end walls and sealingly engaging respective aligned plate corners. The heat exchanger is characterized by including a plurality of leaf springs, each having a plurality of nested but individually resilient leaves elongated parallel to the corner posts and having a generally arcuate transverse cross-section providing spaced surfaces bearing respectively against a corner post and a corner support to resiliently seal the corner post to the corner support. The leaf springs therefore substantially prevent fluid flow between the corner post and the corner support, and further resiliently accommodate growth of the plates due to thermal expansion parallel to their planes.