Heat exchange – With timer – programmer – time delay – or condition responsive... – Having heating and cooling capability
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-06
2003-07-29
Ciric, Ljiljana (Department: 3743)
Heat exchange
With timer, programmer, time delay, or condition responsive...
Having heating and cooling capability
C165S042000, C165S202000, C454S160000, C454S121000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06598670
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is related to and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 11-321631 filed on Nov. 11, 1999, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioner in which air having a suitable temperature can be blown into each air opening through which air is blown into a passenger compartment, even when a foot opening is provided at a cool air passage side and both a face opening and a defroster opening are provided at a warm air passage side from a mounting condition on a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional vehicle air conditioner described in JP-A-8-268039, temperature of air blown into a passenger compartment is adjusted by adjusting a ratio between a cool air amount and a warm air amount, while a foot opening is provided at a side of a cool air passage, and both a face opening and a defroster opening are provided at a side of a warm air passage. Further, a guide plate or a guide shaped portion is provided, so that warm air from a heating heat exchanger is introduced toward a lower-side foot opening, and cool air from a cool air passage is introduced toward an upper-side face or defroster opening. However, during a foot/defroster mode or a foot mode, because the guide operation of cool/warm air due to the guide shaped portion of a foot door is the same as that during a bi-level mode that is generally set in a middle season to have a predetermined temperature difference between air blown toward a vehicle upper side and a vehicle lower side. Accordingly, when the foot/defroster mode is set in the winter, the temperature of air blown from the defroster opening is greatly lowered as compared with the temperature of air blown from the foot opening, and therefore, the heating performance for the passenger compartment and the defrosting performance of a windshield are deteriorated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner having a foot opening at a cool air passage side and face and defroster openings at a warm air passage side, in which an air temperature distribution for “cool head and warm foot” can be obtained during a bi-level mode, and temperature of air blown from the foot opening can be made approximately equal to temperature of air blown from the defroster opening during a foot/defroster mode or a foot mode.
According to the present invention, in a vehicle air conditioner, a face opening and a defroster opening are provided at a side of a warm air passage through which air having passed through a heating heat exchanger flows, and a foot opening is provided at a side of a cool air passage through which air having passed through a cooling heat exchanger bypasses the heating heat exchanger. Further, the defroster opening and the foot opening are provided to be offset from the face opening in a vehicle right-left direction. In the vehicle air conditioner, when a bi-level mode where air is blown from both the face opening and the foot opening is set, air from the cool air passage is mainly introduced toward the face opening, and air from the warm air passage is mainly introduced toward the foot opening. On the other hand, when an air outlet mode where air is blown from both the defroster opening and the foot opening is set, after air from the cool air passage and air from the warm air passage are mixed in an inlet part of both the defroster opening and the foot opening, the mixed air is introduced into both the defroster opening and the foot opening. Accordingly, a pleasant temperature distribution for “cool head and warm foot” can be obtained during the bi-level mode, and temperature of air blown from the defroster opening can be made approximately equal to temperature of air blown from the foot opening during a foot/defroster mode or a foot mode.
Preferably, the cool air passage has an outlet portion on a most downstream side at a position approximately corresponding to the face opening, the warm air passage has an outlet portion at a most downstream air side, and the outlet portion of the warm air passage has an enlarged part offset from the outlet portion of the cool air passage in the vehicle right-left direction. Therefore, during the bi-level mode, cool air from the outlet portion of the cool air passage readily flows into the face opening, and warm air from the enlarged portion of the outlet portion of the warm air passage readily flows into the foot opening.
Preferably, a first guide member is disposed to guide air from the warm air passage toward the defroster opening and the foot opening, and a second guide member is disposed to restrict air from the cool air passage from flowing toward the defroster opening and the foot opening. Therefore, the pleasant air temperature distribution for upper and lower sides of a passenger compartment can be readily set.
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Hashimoto Shiho
Okumura Yoshihiko
Ciric Ljiljana
Denso Corporation
Harness Dickey & Pierce PLC
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