Refrigeration – Structural installation – Vertical partition or wall mounting feature
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-07
2003-05-06
Jiang, Chen Wen (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Structural installation
Vertical partition or wall mounting feature
C062S298000, C062S285000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06557364
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a separation type air conditioner, and more particularly to an air conditioner having a body cabinet similar to a ceiling suspension type pattern while being a wall-mounted type.
BACKGROUND ART
Currently, a dominating air conditioner (indoor unit) is the wall-mounted type, and air conditioners designed in various ways have been supplied to a market. From among those, a consumer selects, and on purchasing, be a design as it may, emphasis may be placed on an installation place in terms of relationship with a housing space (arrangement of rooms).
For example, when installing at a window, a wall surface over the window is sometimes narrow in height and width because a curtain rail or the like are fitted, and therefore, an air conditioner having a pattern which does not require as much wall surface space as possible is desired.
Japanese Patent Application published under Publication No. 5-99454 discloses an example of air conditioners capable of complying with such desire.
FIG. 24
is a perspective view showing the wall surface fitting state, and
FIG. 25
is a sectional view illustrating an internal structure.
A body cabinet
1
of this air conditioner is composed of: a top panel
2
opposite to a ceiling surface; a bottom panel
3
opposite to a floor surface; a front panel
4
; and a base panel
5
to be fitted to the wall surface, and has a heat exchanger
6
, a blow fan
7
or the like therein. The front panel
4
is provided with an air inlet port
4
a,
and behind the bottom panel
3
, there is provided an air outlet port
3
a
having a louver
8
.
Referring to
FIG. 25
, this body cabinet
1
is such that a height on the front panel
4
side is formed to be smaller than a height H2 on the base panel
5
side, and that the bottom panel
3
is constituted by a circular arc surface which inclines from the front panel
4
toward the base panel
5
side. Thereby, wall surface installation space is made narrower, and when installed near a ceiling, it has been arranged such that such an appearance as a ceiling suspension type is given at a glance.
When, however, the top panel
2
and the bottom panel
3
are caused to project forward as described above, it becomes more difficult than a thin type air conditioner to support each panel by means of the base panel
5
, and stiffness of the body cabinet
1
and assembly workability become an issue.
Since particularly for a large-sized air conditioner with a width of about 1500 mm, the panel is prone to be warped, it becomes a problem to handle its seam or the like clean. Also, since the air inlet port
4
a
is at an elevated place on the ceiling side, it becomes difficult to clean its filter, and it becomes a problem how maintenance should be facilitated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, in an air conditioner in which the front panel is caused to project forward like the ceiling suspension type in order to reduce the wall surface installation space while being the wall suspension type, it is possible to enhance stiffness of the body cabinet, to enable a reasonable assembly operation to be performed, and to further improve maintainability such as filter cleaning. Also, a body cabinet having less seams and presenting a refined appearance can be obtained.
For this reason, the present invention includes several features, and as one of them, there is provided an air conditioner having a body cabinet including: a base panel fixed to an indoor wall surface through predetermined fixing means; a front panel formed like a ship bottom in cross section such that a rear end thereof is latched to a lower end of the base panel and a front end side curves upwardly; and a top panel, the rear end of which is latched to the top end of the base panel and the front end of which is butted against the front end of the front panel, in which on the base panel, a cross flow fan and a box for electric are arranged side by side, and a heat exchanger and a drain pan are mounted; on the side of the rear end of the front panel, there is provided an air outlet port; and the top panel is provided with an air inlet grille having a filter, characterized in that the front end of the top panel is fixed to the drain pan.
Thereby, a stiffness of the body cabinet is significantly improved. As a result, it requires a small number of ribs for obtaining strength, and an amount of use of molding material can be reduced. On fixing the top panel, in terms of assembly workability, on the side of the front end of the top panel, there is formed a latching slit; on the drain pan side, there is provided a latching pawl, and a front end of the top panel is preferably fixed to a drain pan by means of a latching slit and a latching pawl.
As the latching pawl, there is preferable the latching pawl, which is shaped like a T-character in cross section, at least on one edge of which a pawl to be latched within the latching slit is formed, and the other edge of which is located in the outside of the latching slit as a latch-releasing one, and which is rock-able like seesaw.
It is also one of features of the present invention that the drain pan is attachable to or detachable from the base panel, whereby any seriously dirty drain pan portion is removed and can be easily cleaned.
As a preferable mode on making the drain pan attachable or detachable, it is advisable to cause a front air direction guide (front-guide) of the base panel to support the drain pan body to be arranged along the lower end of the heat exchanger, and to fit mounts for drain pan to be formed at both ends of the drain pan body in predetermined region on the base panel for holding.
The box for electric is detachably provided with a service cover constituting one portion each of the top panel and the base panel respectively in appearance, whereby the maintainability can be improved while the appearance quality is being enhanced.
According to the present invention, an air passage along the rear air direction guide (rear-guide) to be formed on the base panel is shortened by an amount corresponding to a height dimension of the base panel to be made smaller, but at a rear end edge of the air outlet port, there is pivotally provided a diffuser continuing to the rear air direction guide, whereby a blast intensifying effect can be promoted.
Also, according to another feature of the present invention, in order to facilitate cleaning of a filter, the air inlet grille has a fixed grille formed integrally with the top panel on the side of the rear end of the top panel, and a movable grille provided detachably from the top panel on the side of the front end thereof, and the filter is held by the movable grille and is made attachable to or detachable from the top panel.
The filter includes a corrugated filter and a plane filter provided contiguously to one edge of the corrugated filter, and the corrugated filter is preferably held by the movable grille. Also, in order to increase an amount of air draft, it is preferable that the fixed grille is substantially parallel with an indoor ceiling surface and the movable grille is inclined obliquely downward.
On both sides of the rear end of the movable grille, there are formed bearing fitting channels which are rotatable and attachable to and detachable from the fixed grill, and between the side of the front end of the movable grille and the top panel, there is provided engagement means consisting of an engagement projection and an elastically deformable engagement pawl, whereby attachment and detachment of the movable grille can be facilitated and the movable grille can be reliably fixed onto the top panel.
On the side of the rear end of the movable grille, there is provided a grille retainer to a front end frame of the fixed grille, whereby deformation of the fixed grille can be prevented. The grille retainer is preferably provided with two grille retainers for retaining the front end frame from both upper and lower sides.
Also, according to another feature of the present invention, the front panel includes a pair of l
Aketa Yasuhiro
Gunji Yoshihiro
Hatanaka Takehiro
Imai Yukihiko
Koyama Tooru
Fujitsu General Limited
Jiang Chen Wen
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
LandOfFree
Air conditioner does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Air conditioner, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Air conditioner will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3038829