Motor mounting structure

Details Motor mounting structure Motor mounting structure

2003-06-06

2004-10-12

Verdier, Christopher (Department: 3745)

Pumps

Motor driven

Including means utilizing pump fluid for augmenting cooling,...

C417S366000, C417S423140, C417S423150, C415S204000, C415S206000, C415S213100, C415S214100, C310S062000, C310S063000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06802699

ABSTRACT:

The present disclosure relates to the subject matter contained in Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-165869 filed on Jun. 6, 2002, and in Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-191218 filed on Jun. 25, 2001, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a blower built into a vehicular air conditioner, and more particularly, to an improvement of a structure for mounting a motor used in the blower.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a vehicular air conditioner includes an intake portion having a blower for taking in air drawn from the inside and the outside of a passenger compartment, a cooler portion for cooling the taken air, and a heater portion for heating the cooled air.
As shown in
FIG. 16
, the intake portion has a blower accommodating a centrifugal blowing fan, which is driven by a motor M, in a scroll casing
1
. Passenger compartment inside air or outside air is selectively taken into the scroll casing
1
from an inside-air/outside-air switching portion through an air intake port (referred to also as a bell-mouth) by driving the centrifugal blowing fan. Then, the taken air is let to flow into the succeeding cooler portion or heater portion from an outlet
3
of the scroll casing
1
.
Incidentally, in the figure, reference numeral
4
designates a cooling duct that introduces part of an airflow, which flows in the scroll casing
1
, into a motor housing
5
and that cools the motor M.
Further, the mounting of the motor M is performed as follows. That is, a bracket
6
is attached to the periphery of the motor housing
5
by welding or pressure-welding. On the other hand, the centrifugal blowing fan f is attached to a rotating shaft of the motor M and then inserted into the scroll casing
1
through an insertion hole opened in the scroll casing
1
. Subsequently, the gap between the hole and the motor housing
5
is sealed by bracket
6
, while the bracket
6
is fastened with screws
7
, to the bracket
6
at three points.
However, in the case of inserting the motor M from the insertion hole with the inside-air/outside-air switching portion
2
down and then tightening up the screws, usually, the bottom surface of the inside-air/outside-air switching portion
2
is not parallel with the mounting surface of the bracket
6
. Thus, it is difficult to tighten the screws in a stable state. Later, when the maintenance of the vehicular air conditioner is performed, it is necessary to spend time and effort to loosen and tighten the screws
7
. It takes man-hours to perform the fabrication, assembly, and disassembly of the blowing fan. Such an air conditioner has a disadvantage in cost, and a drawback in weight.
An air conditioner improved in these respects has been proposed, in which helical rough pieces are provided on the peripheral surface of a flange formed on the peripheral surface of the motor housing
5
and the inner circumferential surface of the scroll casing and in which both the motor housing
5
and the scroll casing are connected to each other by turning the flange with respect to the scroll casing (see, for example, JP-A-8-127221).
However, the configuration results in direct coupling between the flange and the scroll casing. Thus, there are fears that not only degradation in the sealability of the gap between the insertion hole of the scroll casing and the motor but backlash easily occurs, and that air leakage and vibrational sounds occur. Further, in the case that the scroll casing is made to be sharable and to have only certain insertion holes, there is another fear that a motor having a different outer diameter cannot be mounted therein.
Furthermore, related art air conditioners have another drawback in formation of a cooling duct. For instance, as shown in
FIG. 17
, a vehicular blower disclosed in JP-UM-A-7-028707 is configured so that a bracket
6
and a motor accommodating portion
16
are integrally formed, that an end face of a scroll casing is constituted by the bracket
6
, and that a part in the vicinity of a peripheral end of the bracket
6
and the motor accommodating portion
16
are linearly linked by a cooling duct
4
.
In the blower, a cooling cold-air intake port
8
is formed outside an area covered by the outer diameter of a fan f. Further, the outer diameter of the bracket
6
is larger than an outer diameter usually required at exchange of the fan f. Therefore, when the motor M is exchanged, an exchange operation should be performed by simultaneously preventing the motor M from conflicting with other components of a vehicle. Consequently, the related art has a drawback in that the exchange operation cannot be smoothly performed.
Similarly, the cooling duct
4
is attached to the bracket
6
by another member. Therefore, the number of components increases. Additionally, an attaching operation should be performed by taking the prevention of an occurrence of air leakage from the bracket
6
into consideration. These become a factor that deteriorates workability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is accomplished to solve the drawbacks of the related art. Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a motor mounting structure that can eliminate the fears of occurrences of air leakage and vibrational sounds, that can facilitate the mounting and removal of a motor, that has advantages in cost and weight, that can be easily recycled and suitable for environmental protection, that can miniaturize a bracket having a cooling duct, and that enhances the mountability of the bracket.
In order to achieve the object, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a motor mounting structure including: a scroll casing adopted to surround a fan; a bracket adopted to mount a motor, which drives the fan; an insertion hole formed on the scroll casing for inserting the fan therethrough; a ring-like rib erected on an inner circumferential edge of the insertion hole; a side wall disposed to the bracket in a manner to face the ring-like rib; a helical groove portion formed in one of an outer surface of the side wall and an inner surface of the ring-like rib; and a protruding portion engaging with the helical groove portion formed in the other of the outer surface of the side wall and the inner surface of the ring-like rib, wherein the bracket is attached onto the scroll casing by screwing the bracket into the scroll casing in a direction opposite to a direction of rotation of the fan, and in a state that the helical groove portion and the protruding portion are engaged with each other.
In order to achieve the object, according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a motor mounting structure including: a scroll casing adopted to surround a fan, having an insertion hole for inserting the fan thereinto formed in a wall portion at a side thereof; and a bracket adopted to mount a motor, which drives the fan, having a motor accommodating portion adopted to accommodate the motor, a cover portion adopted to close the insertion hole, and a cooling duct adopted to introduce a part of air flowing within the scroll casing into the motor for cooling the motor, wherein the bracket further including: a side wall perpendicular to a wall portion of the scroll casing, formed in a peripheral part of the cover portion, adopted to hermetically engage with an inner circumferential edge of the insertion hole when the cover portion is inserted into the scroll casing; and a opening portion formed in a peripheral part of the cover portion, adopted to be connected with the cooling duct so as to introduce a part of air flowing within the scroll casing into the motor through the cooling duct.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4767285 (1988-08-01), Jyoraku et al.
patent: 5156524 (1992-10-01), Forni
patent: 5839879 (1998-11-01), Kameoka et al.
patent: 6604906 (2003-08-01), Ozeki et al.
patent: 7-28707 (1995-05-01), None
patent: 8-127221 (1996-05-01), None

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