Vehicle air conditioner with rotary door

Details Vehicle air conditioner with rotary door Vehicle air conditioner with rotary door

2000-01-07

2001-07-17

Joyce, Harold (Department: 3749)

Ventilation

Vehicle

Condensation preventer

C454S124000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06261172

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is related to and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. Hei. 11-19778 filed on Jan. 28, 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 having a rotary door for switching an air outlet mode.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional vehicle air conditioner described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,979, as shown in
FIG. 4
, a heater case
100
has therein a foot air passage
101
, a face air passage
102
and a defroster air passage
103
which respectively communicate with a foot air outlet, a face air outlet and a defroster air outlet opened into a passenger compartment. Further, a rotary door
110
for switching the three air passages
101
,
102
,
103
is disposed in the heater case
100
, and openings
111
are provided in a circular arc-shaped outer peripheral surface. Therefore, by moving the openings
111
in a circumferential direction with a rotation of the rotary door
110
, the three air passages
101
,
102
,
103
are selectively opened and closed. However, in the convention air conditioner, when a foot mode, a foot/defroster mode or a defroster mode is selected, it is impossible to open a side face air outlet.
In recent years, for improving defrosting performance of a side windshield, it is desired to always open a side face air outlet so that air is always blown from the side face air outlet. For always opening the side face air outlet in the conventional air conditioner having the rotary door
110
, both side face air passages
104
communicating with the side face air outlet may be provided at both sides of the face air passage
102
so that air is supplied to the side face air passages
104
even in an air outlet mode except for a face mode, as shown in FIG.
5
. Specifically, side face openings
112
always communicating with the side face air passages
104
in any one air outlet mode may be provided on the outer circumferential surface of the rotary door
110
at both sides in an axial direction to correspond to the side face air passages
104
.
However, when the side face openings
112
are provided in the outer circumferential surface of the rotary door
110
, a part of the side face openings
112
of the rotary door
110
communicates with the defroster air passage
103
and the foot air passage
101
during a face mode. Therefore, during the face mode, air is leaked from the defroster air outlet and the foot air outlet. For preventing the air-leaking, a part of the defroster air passage
103
and a part of the foot air passage
101
may be closed. However, in this case, the defroster air passage
103
and the foot air passage
101
become narrower, and an air amount blown from each of the defroster air outlet and the foot air outlet becomes smaller.
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 rotary door for switching an air outlet mode, in which air is always blown from a side face air outlet without decreasing an air amount from each air outlet.
According to the present invention, in a vehicle air conditioner, a first port is provided in a side surface of a rotary door in an axial direction while an opening portion for opening plural air passages is provided in an outer peripheral surface of the rotary door in a circumferential direction, a second port communication with the first port is provided in a case for defining plural air passages at a position opposite to the side surface of the rotary door, and a side face air passage through which the second port communicates with a side face air outlet is provided. Therefore, regardless of a selected air outlet mode, that is, regardless of a rotation position of the rotary door, air is always supplied to the side face air outlet from the first port opened in the side surface of the rotary door through the second port and the side face air passage. In this case, because the first port is provided in the side surface of the rotary door, it is not necessary to close a part of the other air passages for preventing air-leak, and an air amount blown into a passenger compartment is not reduced in each air outlet mode.
Preferably, any one of the first port in the side surface of the rotary door and the second port of the case is formed into an elongated shape bent along a rotation direction of the rotary door. Therefore, even when the rotary door is rotated in accordance with a selected air outlet mode, the first port and the second port are readily set to communicate with each other within an opening range of the elongated shape.
More preferably, the first port and the second port communicate with each other to have a communication opening area therebetween, and the communication opening area is changed in accordance with a rotation position of the rotary door. Therefore, it is possible to change the air amount blown toward a side windshield from the side face air outlet in accordance with the rotation position of the rotary door corresponding to a selected air outlet mode.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5350335 (1994-09-01), Andersson
patent: 5366408 (1994-11-01), Andersson
patent: 5399120 (1995-03-01), Burns et al.
patent: 5564979 (1996-10-01), Sumiya et al.
patent: 3421323 (1985-12-01), None
patent: 0691228 A1 (1995-07-01), None
patent: 0709241 A1 (1995-10-01), None
patent: A-10-29419 (1998-02-01), None

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