Patent 7607319 was granted and assigned to Daikin Industries, Ltd. on October, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
When an expansion mechanism (60) having an expansion chamber (62) is equipped with a backflow prevention mechanism (80) to suppress the outflow of fluid from the expansion chamber (62) to a communication path (72), it is possible to reduce dead volume in the expansion chamber (62) during operation with the circulation control mechanism (73,75,76) closed.