GB950731A - Improvements relating to thermoelectric devices - Google Patents

Abstract

950,731. Thermo-electric devices. BOUCHER & CO. Ltd. June 24, 1960 [April 27, 1959], No. 14229/59. Heading H1K. In a thermo-electric device in which the thermo-electric elements are arranged in a row, thermally conductive elements being inserted between adjacent thermo-electric elements to form hot and cold junctions alternately, the thermally conductive elements are in the form of plates having outside portions lying outside said row, the hot junction outside portions extend in one series of aligned peripheral locations, and the cold junction outside portions extend in another such series, and when viewed endwise of the row, the two series of outside portions do not overlap. As shown, Fig. 1, elements 10, 11, respectively, of N-type and P-type bismuth telluride or other semi-conductor material, have their ends rebated to accommodate heat-conducing plates 16, 18, of e.g. copper, which form hot and cold junctions respectively with the semiconductor elements. The elements are otherwise mutually insulated by strips 21, e.g. of mica, and the junctions are strengthened by fillets 24 of solder, e.g. bismuth and tin. The assembly is compressively stressed by endplates 22 (Fig. 2) of insulating material clamped by tie-bolts 23, and enclosed in a housing 22a of acrylic resin. The plates 16, 18 may be shaped as shown in Fig. 2, the former being disposed for heat dissipation at the rear of, and possibly outside, a refrigerator cabinet, while the latter are disposed within the cabinet, e.g. in an ice-making compartment, the assembly being fixed to a structural member of the refrigerator 26 by means of brackets 25. In the modification shown in Fig. 3, the plates 16, 18 are interleaved with the semi-conductor elements, the latter and the parts of the plates proximate thereto being invested in a thermally and electrically insulating material 27. The plates 16, 18 may project from the assembly otherwise than from opposite sides thereof, thermal feed-back being prevented by spacing or by interposing a barrier of thermally insulating material between the sets of plates. The location of a junction portion of a thermo-electric element within a socket or cavity in a laminated heat-conductive plate is mentioned, as is the application of the invention to thermo-electric batteries.