Refrigeration – Structural installation – Vertical partition or wall mounting feature
Reexamination Certificate
2003-07-10
2004-09-07
Jones, Melvin (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Structural installation
Vertical partition or wall mounting feature
C165S122000, C454S233000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06786061
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an air conditioner which is hung on a wall in a room. More particularly, it relates to a wind direction adjusting mechanism which appropriately changes over the wind direction of air blown from an air outlet at the cooling time and the heating time.
BACKGROUND ART
Cold air accumulates on the floor side, and warm air accumulates on the ceiling side. Therefore, an air conditioner should change over the wind direction of blown air at the cooling time and the heating time to provide a comfortable temperature environment in a room. For this purpose, the air conditioner is provided with wind direction adjusting means at an air outlet. One example of the prior art will be described with reference to
FIGS. 8A and 8B
.
An air conditioner shown in
FIGS. 8A and 8B
is a wall-mounted one that is intended to be mounted at a high position on a wall in a room, for example, at a position near a ceiling. This air conditioner has a base plate
1
which is fixed on the wall surface with screws or the like and a housing including an exterior panel
2
supported on the base plate
1
. Although not shown definitely in
FIG. 8
because it is a sectional view, the base plate
1
is provided with a pair of right and left side plates bent at a right angle from both ends of the base plate
1
.
In this example of prior art, the exterior panel
2
includes an upper panel
21
which is increasingly curved downward to the front (in the direction away from the wall) and a lower panel
22
increasingly curved upward to the front, and the front ends of these panels are connected to each other.
The upper panel
21
is formed with an air inlet
210
in a grille form, and the lower panel
22
is formed with an air outlet
220
. A heat exchanger
3
and an air blower
4
consisting of a cross-flow fan are arranged in an air passage connecting the air inlet
210
to the air outlet
220
in the housing.
In this example of prior art, the heat exchanger
3
includes a front-side heat exchanger
31
and a rear-side heat exchanger
32
, which are connected to each other in a &Lgr; shape, and dip plates
33
and
34
are disposed under these heat exchangers
31
and
32
, respectively. The heat exchanger
3
and the air blower
4
are supported between the side plates of the base plate
1
.
In the air outlet
220
, there are provided a plurality of transverse wind deflectors
230
for changing the wind direction in the transverse direction and a first vertical wind deflector
231
and a second vertical wind deflector
232
for changing the wind direction in the vertical direction. The vertical wind deflectors
231
and
232
are turned around support shafts
231
a
and
232
a
, respectively, which are provided almost horizontally in the air outlet
220
. The wind deflectors
230
,
231
and
232
are rotatably reciprocated by a motor, not shown.
An air passage extending from the air blower
4
to the air outlet
220
is formed by the bottom surface of the drip plate
33
arranged on the front side and a back-side wind introducing surface
101
provided on the base plate side.
At the rear edge of the air outlet
220
connecting with the back-side wind introducing surface
101
, a diffuser
233
for changing the opening area of air outlet is provided so as to be capable of being opened and closed. The diffuser
233
is rotatably reciprocated around a support shaft
233
a
arranged in parallel with the support shaft
231
a
, and is provided with a motor
233
b
serving as a driving source.
At the time of cooling operation, as shown in
FIG. 8A
, the first and second vertical wind deflectors
231
and
232
and the diffuser
233
are at a substantially horizontal position, so that a cold air flow A which has been cooled in the heat exchanger
3
and blown from the air blower
4
is blown out in the substantially horizontal direction through the air outlet
220
toward the ceiling surface side in the room.
At the time of heating operation, as shown in
FIG. 8B
, the first and second vertical wind deflectors
231
and
232
and the diffuser
233
are turned in the counterclockwise direction, so that a warm air flow B which has been warmed in the heat exchanger
3
and blown from the air blower
4
is blown out in the slantwise downward direction or in the substantially vertical downward direction through the air outlet
220
toward the floor surface side in the room.
Thus, the wind direction is changed at the cooling operation time and the heating operation time. Nevertheless, the prior art suffers from a problem as described below at the time of heating operation.
At the time of heating operation, the first and second vertical wind deflectors
231
and
232
are opened as shown in
FIG. 8B
, but a gap is formed between the bottom surface of the drip plate
33
forming the air passage and the second vertical wind deflector
232
. Therefore, some of the warm air flow B passes through this gap and leaks to the ceiling surface side as indicated by arrow mark B′, so that the heating efficiency decreases accordingly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Thereupon, an object of the present invention is to blow almost all of a warm air flow toward a floor surface without leakage on the ceiling surface side at the heating operation time in an air conditioner having a vertical wind deflector in an air outlet.
To solve the above problem, the present invention provides an air conditioner having a housing including a base plate fixed to a wall in a room and an exterior panel supported on the base plate, the exterior panel being provided with an air inlet on the upper surface side thereof and an air outlet on the lower surface side thereof, and the housing containing a heat exchanger and an air blower in an air passage connecting the air inlet to the air outlet, in which on the front side of the air outlet, a recess with a predetermined depth, which is depressed toward the inside of the housing, is formed so as to connect with the air passage, and in the recess, a vertical wind deflector which turns in the up-and-down direction around a horizontal rotating shaft and a support frame which supports the vertical wind deflector are arranged; the support frame has a rotating shaft on the rear edge side close to the air passage, and is pivotally supported by a side plate of the recess via the rotating shaft, and a front edge of the support frame is urged toward the recess by a first spring; in a state in which the vertical wind deflector is arranged on the lower surface side of the support frame, the front edge thereof is rotatably supported on the front edge side of the support frame via predetermined pivotally supporting means, and a rear edge of the vertical wind deflector is urged toward the lower surface side of the support frame by a second spring; the support frame is provided with driving force transmitting means including an input shaft, which is connected to a motor mounted on the side plate side of the recess and is rotatably inserted in the rotating shaft, and an output shaft, which is connected to the input shaft via predetermined mechanical connecting means and gives a rotation driving force of the motor to the vertical wind deflector; at the cooling operation time, the motor is rotated in the direction against the urging force of the first spring to open the front edge sides of the support frame and the vertical wind deflector integrally; and at the heating operation time, the motor is rotated in the direction against the urging force of the second spring to open only the front edge side of the vertical wind deflector.
Also, the present invention embraces a mode, as another feature, such that a diffuser is provided at a rear edge of the air outlet so as to be capable of being opened and closed, and the diffuser is provided with a transverse wind deflector.
Further, the present invention embraces a mode such that the vertical wind deflector is a second vertical wind deflector, and a first vertical wind deflector is disposed on the rear edge side in the air outlet so as to be adjacent to
Asami Yasutoshi
Nojima Akihiko
Sugiyama Shinji
Fujitsu General Limited
Jones Melvin
Kanesaka Manabu
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