Its the same as a expansion valve and does exactly the same thing ,but it invisibel to the eye, it is located near the accumulator on passenger side of vehicle near firewall under hood,and is where the high side liquid line hooks to the low side, the orifice tube, is inside the low side hose, when you remove the two at the connection, and it turns the high pressure liquid line to a cold gas this is th location where this happens ,with a normal system working with A/C on the high side line is temperature and pressure so what ever the temp is that the pressure in that line at that time so between 70 to 200 degrees depending when you checking it and the other will be 32 degrees Fahrenheit so part of the hose hot the other cold this is the location of the orifice tube , take care