Ventilation – Having inlet airway – Including specific air distributor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-26
2001-06-12
Buiz, Michael (Department: 3744)
Ventilation
Having inlet airway
Including specific air distributor
C454S314000, C454S202000, C062S407000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244954
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an air conditioner having an exterior-side heat exchange unit (outdoor machine) and an interior-side heat exchange unit (indoor machine), and more particularly to an air conditioner having a wall-mounted type interior-side heat exchange unit, in which an air suction port at the front thereof is opened and closed by a louver.
BACKGROUND ART
In a case where the interior-side heat exchange unit is of the wall-mounted type, there is mostly provided an air suction port on the front side of the housing, below which there is provided an air blow-off port for blowing off air heat exchanged.
The air blow-off port is provided with a wind direction plate for changing the direction of a wind of air blown off and the air blow-off port is closed by the window direction plate when the operation is stopped. This is partly because dust or the like is prevented from entering the air blow-off port while the operation is stopped, and partly because the design quality is enhanced by hiding the interior of the air blow-off port.
For the same purpose, the air suction port is also provided with a louver in such a manner that the louver is opened during operation and that the louver is closed while the operation is stopped. An example of the prior art will be described with reference to
FIGS. 6 and 7
. This prior art has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-210401, and
FIG. 6
is a cross-sectional view showing an interiorside heat exchange unit, and
FIG. 7
is its partial transverse sectional view.
First, the entire housing is composed of three members: a back cabinet
30
mounted onto an indoor wall with predetermined engaging means; a cover case
40
to be mounted on its front surface as a vanity cover; and a front panel
50
to be mounted on the front surface of this cover case
40
.
The back cabinet
30
is provided with a heat exchanger
31
and a blower fan
32
as the main component elements. The cover case
40
is used to cover these component elements, air suction ports are provided on the top surface and the front surface, and an air blow-off port
41
having two wind direction plates
41
a
and
41
b
is provided below.
The front panel
50
is detachably mounted to the air suction port located on the front side of the cover case
40
. A plurality of louvers
51
(three louvers in this example) is provided on this front panel
50
to enable them to be opened and closed.
Each louver
51
is coupled to an interlocking plate
52
so as to be simultaneously opened and closed. More specifically, the interlocking plate
52
is capable of vertically moving in
FIG. 6
in such a manner that each louver
51
is opened when the interlocking plate
52
moves upward, and that each lower
51
is closed when the interlocking plate
52
moves downward.
in order to vertically move the interlocking plate
52
, there is provided, on the side of the cover case
40
, driving means composed of a motor
42
, a pinion
43
and a rack
44
and the like as shown in
FIG. 7
, and the interlocking plate
52
is coupled to the rack
44
.
In other words, the rotary motion obtained by the motor
42
is transformed into rectilinear motion by a motion transformation mechanism consisting of the pinion
43
and the rack
44
, and this rectilinear motion is transmitted to the interlocking plate
52
to thereby move the interlocking plate
52
up and down. This prior art has, however, the following problem.
First, since the gear mechanism consisting of the pinion
43
and the rack
44
is used, accurate alignment is required not to cause any displacement in the meshed portion. Even if accurate alignment is performed, any influence of backlash in the meshed portion cannot be avoided, but variations are prone to occur in the opening angle of each louver
51
and the like. Not only the variations,but also foreign matters enter the meshed portion to possibly cause an obstruction to smooth meshing.
Also, the louver
51
is flexible because it consists of a band plate made of synthetic resin. Therefore, it is necessary to mount the interlocking plates
52
to both sides of each louver
51
for simultaneously driving each of them by the pinion
43
and the rack
44
. For this reason, it is undeniable that the number of parts increases, resulting in complicated structure and an increase in cost.
Further, in the case of the above-described gear mechanism, large feed by the gear is required to open and close the louver
51
Therefore, the amount of rotation of the motor
42
increases by that much, and a high degree of accuracy is also required for controlling the amount of rotation. This becomes an extra burden for the designer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object according to the present invention to provide an air conditioner capable of reliably opening and closing a plurality of louvers provided for an air suction port for the interior-side heat exchange unit without the aid of the gear mechanism of pinion-rack, but in simpler structure, and yet by causing each louver to accurately interlock.
In order to achieve this object, there is provided an air conditioner including an exterior-side heat exchange unit to be installed outdoors and an interior-side heat exchange unit to be mounted onto an indoor wall surface according to the present invention, the interior-side heat exchange unit comprises:
a base cabinet to be mounted onto the indoor wall surface, wherein a heat exchanger and a blower fan are arranged, and at the side thereof, there are provided a fan motor for driving the blower fan, and an electric accessory housing portion;
a cover case having an opening at the front thereof, and an air blow-off port below the opening, to be mounted so as to cover the front side of the base cabinet;
a front panel having an air suction port for conductively connecting to the opening in the cover case, to be detachably mounted within the opening, to which a plurality of louvers is mounted, the plurality of louvers rotating with a horizontal rotating axis as the center and being rotatable between a first operating position at which the air suction port is closed, and a second operating position at which the air suction port is opened;
louver interlocking means for causing each of the louvers to perform the same operation, and louver driving means for rotating each of the louvers through the louver interlocking means,
the louver interlocking means having arms provided on the side of the rear surface of each of the louvers, and an interlocking plate provided on the side of the front panel to enable it to reciprocatively move in the vertical direction, the interlocking plate being provided with an engaging piece for operating on the top surface side of each of the arms to rotate each of the arms with the lowering of the interlocking plate,
the louver driving means having a driving motor provided in the electric accessory housing portion, and a driving lever for transforming the rotary motion of the driving motor into vertical motion to transmit it to the interlocking plate.
In the present invention, it is preferable to form, on the side of the front panel, a spindle for rotatably supporting each of the louvers, and to form, on the side of the rear surface of each of the louvers, a C-character shaped bearing made of synthetic resin material capable of elastic deformation, and capable of being attached to and detached from the spindle. Thus, it is possible to easily remove each of the louvers from the front panel during cleaning.
In the present invention, the bearing is preferably arranged on the side of the lower edge of each of the louvers to enable each of the louvers to rotate under its own weight. In this manner, the pressing force of the engaging pieces on the arms is released, whereby it is possible to cause each louver to open under its own weight.
In the present invention, it is preferable that a tip end of each of the arms is formed into a circular shape in cross section.
In this manner, a smooth contact state between each arm and the engaging piece can be obtained.
Also
Hosokawa Yoshihide
Sugiyama Shinji
Buiz Michael
Fujitsu General Limited
Jiang Chen-Wen
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
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