Heat exchange – With timer – programmer – time delay – or condition responsive... – Having heating and cooling capability
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-28
2004-03-09
Ford, John K. (Department: 3753)
Heat exchange
With timer, programmer, time delay, or condition responsive...
Having heating and cooling capability
C165S204000, C165S042000, C165S043000, C237S01230A, C237S01230B, C454S121000, C454S126000, C454S156000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06702008
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is based on and incorporates herein by reference Japanese Patent Application Nos. Hei. 11-338392 filed on Nov. 29, 1999, Hei. 11-353394 filed on Dec. 13, 1999, Hei. 11-366466 filed on Dec. 24, 1999, 2000-173920 filed on Jun. 9, 2000, 2000-224084 filed on Jul. 25, 2000, and 2000-269078 filed on Sep. 5, 2000.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner for a vehicle for performing switching of outlet modes in conjunction with an operation position of temperature control means for controlling outlet temperature into a vehicle compartment, and an air conditioning unit driving apparatus for driving an air conditioning unit such as an air passage opening/closing door.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an air conditioner for a vehicle is provided with an inside/outside air switching door, a temperature control means (air mixing door, hot water valve, etc.), and an air outlet mode door, and these instruments are independently operated by a manual operation mechanism or a motor actuator, respectively.
Recently, in the air conditioner for the vehicle, for the purpose of improving the operationality by a passenger, the number of apparatuses in which a motor actuator is operated by a switch operation so that the above respective instruments can be quickly operated, is increasing. Such an apparatus requires dedicated motor actuators for inside/outside air switching, temperature control, and outlet mode switching, which increase the cost of the air conditioner.
In order to decrease the number of motor actuators, the present inventors considered performing temperature control and outlet mode switching through one motor actuator. That is, the present inventors paid attention to the fact that the outlet mode switching correlates to the operation position of the temperature control means, and considered performing both the temperature control and the outlet mode switching through one motor actuator, by sequentially switching the outlet mode to a face mode, a bi-level mode, and a foot mode as the operation position of the temperature control means is shifted from a low temperature side position (maximum cooling side) to a high temperature side position (maximum heating side).
However, if the temperature control and the outlet mode switching are simply performed by one motor actuator, since the number of doors simultaneously driven by the one motor actuator is increased, the necessary operation torque (workload) of the motor is increased, and a high power motor is required, so that the cost of the motor actuator is increased. Since motor current is increased by the high power motor, the cost of an airconditioning control unit (ECU) is also increased.
Although JP-A-11-115463 discloses an apparatus in which an air mixing door as temperature control means and an inside air foot door are operated in conjunction with each other by one motor actuator, also in the apparatus disclosed in this publication, since the air mixing door and the inside air foot door are simply operated in conjunction with each other by one motor actuator, there occurs the foregoing disadvantage due to the increase of the number of doors driven by one motor actuator.
Besides, if the temperature control and the outlet mode switching are simply performed by one motor actuator, the relation between the operation position of the temperature control means and the outlet mode switching is always fixed to a one-to-one relation. Thus, there occurs a disadvantage that a defroster mode can not be arbitrarily set at the time when a window glass is fogged, irrespective of the operation position of the temperature control means.
JP-A-11-115463 discloses the apparatus in which the air mixing door as the temperature control means and the inside air foot door are operated in conjunction with each other by one motor actuator, the inside air foot door is operated to a fully open position of a foot passage at the maximum heating and partitions an inside air passage and an outside air passage, and can originally interlock with the operation position of the air mixing door. Thus, even if the air mixing door and the inside air foot door are operated by the one motor actuator, any trouble does not occur.
According to JP-A-11-115463, since the air mixing door and the inside air foot door are simply operated by the one motor actuator, it can not be applied to a switching mechanism of outlet modes including the defroster mode.
When the temperature control and the outlet mode switching are simply performed by one motor actuator, since the relation between the operation position of the temperature control means and the outlet mode switching is always fixed to a one-to-one relation, the following problem occurs. That is, it has been found that when the operation position of the temperature control means is corrected in accordance with the temperature change of a cooling heat exchanger in order to keep a outlet temperature into a vehicle compartment constant when the temperature of the cooling heat exchanger constituted by an evaporator of a cooling cycle is changed, the outlet mode is changed by the operation position change of the temperature control means, and there occurs a case where an air conditioning feeling is damaged.
This problem will be described more specifically with reference to FIG.
48
. The horizontal axis of
FIG. 48
indicates an opening degree (hereinafter referred to as an A/M opening degree) of an air mixing door as temperature control means. The A/M opening degree of 0% indicates the maximum cooling position of the air mixing door, and the A/M opening degree of 100% indicates the maximum heating position of the air mixing door. The vertical axis of
FIG. 48
indicates an outlet temperature into a vehicle compartment.
In
FIG. 48
, solid lines indicate control characteristics between the A/M opening degree and the outlet temperature at the temperature of the cooling heat exchanger (specifically, air temperature immediately after outlet from the cooling heat exchanger) TE=0° C. Among them, line {circle around (1)} indicates a foot outlet temperature in a foot mode, line {circle around (2)}indicates a face outlet temperature in a bi-level mode, line {circle around (3)} indicates a foot outlet temperature in the bi-level mode, and line {circle around (4)} indicates a face outlet temperature in a face mode.
Broken lines indicate control characteristics between the A/M opening degree and the outlet temperature at the temperature of the cooling heat exchanger TE=15° C., and lines {circle around (5)} to {circle around (8)} indicate outlet temperatures respectively corresponding to the above lines {circle around (1)} to {circle around (4)}.
When the outlet temperature into the vehicle compartment under the condition of TE=0° C. is controlled at a predetermined A/M opening degree “a”, and when a compressor of a cooling cycle is stopped for power save (economy) control or the like, the temperature TE is raised to a suction air temperature of the cooling heat exchanger. The line of TE=15° C. in
FIG. 48
indicates the state which occurs at the time of stop of the compressor like this. In this case, in order to keep the outlet temperature into the vehicle compartment constant, it is necessary that the A/M opening degree is decreased as indicated by an arrow X from the opening degree “a” to the opening degree “b”, and the A/M opening degree is corrected to the maximum cooling side by a predetermined amount.
Since the A/M opening degree “b” after the correction is in the region of the face mode, a warm air of higher than 30° C. is blown from a face opening portion to the head side of a passenger according to the temperature control characteristics of the broken line {circle around (8)}, and an air conditioning feeling is damaged.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner for a vehicle for operating temperature control means and an outlet
Harada Shigeki
Hibino So
Ito Koichi
Kameoka Teruhiko
Kumada Tatsumi
Denso Corporation
Ford John K.
Harness Dickey & Pierce PLC
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