ACCUMULATOR FOR REFRIGERATION CYCLE

PURPOSE: To reduce the height of an accumulator case and make thinner the same by providing an oil return pipe among a cylindrical ring having a refrigerant passage in a gas/liquid separation chamber and filled with a metal brush shaped wire, a discharge pipe, and a bottom. CONSTITUTION: A gas/liquid separation chamber is provided in a laterally formed accumulator case 1. A gas/liquid mixed refrigerant flowing into the gas/liquid separation chamber 2 from a suction pipe 3 flows into a cylindrical ring 6 where a liquid fraction collides a wire 7 and only liquid is dropped on a bottom of the gas/liquid separation chamber 2 while gas flows from a refrigerant passage 5 to the gas/liquid separation chamber 2 on the side of a discharge port 8 for gas/liquid separation. The separated gas refrigerant is discharged from a discharge pipe 4. In contrast, although the dropped liquid refrigerant and oil contained in the former are accumulated on the bottom of the gas/liquid separation chamber 2, when a certain amount thereof is accumulated, the liquid refrigerant and the oil are sucked from an oil suction hole 10 in the oil return pipe 9 and are guided to a discharge pipe 4, and are mixed with the gas refrigerant and discharged. Flow rates of the liquid refrigerant and the oil flowing through the oil return pipe 9 are determined by a pressure difference between the gas/liquid separation chamber 2 and the discharge pipe 4, a level of the accumulated liquid refrigerant level, and an inner diameter and a length of the oil return pipe 9.