Refrigeration – Automatic control – Of external fluid or means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-09
2002-06-04
Wayner, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Automatic control
Of external fluid or means
C062S259200, C361S701000, C454S069000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06397609
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is related to and claims priority from Japanese Patent Applications No. Hei. 11-234200 filed on Aug. 20, 1999, No. 2000-141197 filed on May 15, 2000, and No. 2000-164032 filed on Jun. 1, 2000, 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-conditioning system provided with an air-conditioning unit for controlling temperature of a passenger compartment. More particularly, the present invention relates to a vehicle air-conditioning system collectively arranging, at least equal to or more than one piece of electrical members such as a blower controller and sensors used for an air-conditioning on an electrical circuit board on which a microcomputer including functions at least CPU, a memory and the like is mounted. Further, the electrical circuit board is integrally mounted with the air-conditioning unit.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional vehicle air-conditioning system described in JP-U-62-117480, even when a temperature sensitive portion of a thermal-switch is failed, maintenance of the failed portion can be easily performed without removing an evaporator by providing a cover body on a side surface of an evaporator case for containing the evaporator of a refrigerating cycle, and by installing the thermal-switch having the temperature sensitive portion for sensing temperature of the evaporator in the cover body.
Further, in a general air-conditioning system for a vehicle, as illustrated in
FIG. 18
, the system is provided with an air-conditioning unit
100
for air-conditioning inside a passenger compartment and an air-conditioning ECU
110
for controlling respective component of the air-conditioning unit
100
. In the meantime, the air-conditioning unit
100
has an evaporator case
101
for forming an air passage through which air flows. A blower, an evaporator, a heater core, an air mix door, and a mode switching door are disposed inside the evaporator case
101
. Further, a cover body
103
having a connecting port
102
coupled to the blower is attached to a side surface of the evaporator.
Further, the air-conditioning ECU
110
is a device in which the well known microcomputer constructed by including functions, for example, CPU, memories (ROM and RAM), an input/output circuit and the like, is mounted on one board (an electrical circuit board) called a PC board (a printed circuit board). Based on sensor signals from control sensors such as a post-evaporator temperature sensor
104
and switch signals from various switches installed in an air-conditioning operation panel
105
, a blower controller
106
for driving the blower, a servomotor
107
for driving the air mix door, and a servomotor
108
for driving the mode switching door are controlled.
Electrical members such as the post-evaporator temperature sensor
104
, the air-conditioning operating panel
105
, the blower controller
106
and the servomotors
107
and
108
, are installed respectively independently in an interior portion or in the vicinity of an instrument panel. With this arrangement, respective electrical members for controlling the air-conditioning unit are electrically connected with one another by means of a plurality of pieces of wire harness
109
.
However, in the vehicle air-conditioning system disclosed in JP-U-62-117480, since only one piece of the thermo-switch is provided on the cover body, no effect can be is found such as a decrease in the number of electrical wires of the wire harness
109
and space saving.
Further, in the conventional vehicle air-conditioning system as illustrated in
FIG. 17
, since the electrical members for controlling air-conditioning operation are conducted by means of a plurality of pieces of the wire harness
109
so that the air-conditioning ECU
110
is electrically connected to various sensors or to various switches, the number of electrical wires of the wire harness is increased. Therefore, a mounting space of the system on a vehicle becomes larger, assembling steps becomes larger, and the system is manufactured in a high cost.
In addition, heat-generating members such as the blower controller
106
are mounted to protrude in an interior portion of the evaporator case
101
by opening holes therein so that the heat-generating members is made in contact with cold air cooled by the evaporator. However, according to their mounting positions, there cause an increase in noise due to a draft resistance or the like. On the other hand, when the heat-generating members are mounted on the evaporator case
101
so as not too much to be protruded inside the air passage, the heat-generating members are not effectively cooled, and operation performance of the heat-generating members may be decreased.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention is to provide an air-conditioning system for a vehicle, in which the number of electrical wires of a wire harness connecting control circuit members to an electrical member, for performing signal input/output operation between the control circuit members, can be reduced and an attachment space can be reduced.
It is an another object of the invention is to provide an air-conditioning system for a vehicle possible to be decreased in manufacturing cost by reducing assembling steps of air-conditioning control circuit members and electrical members.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an air-conditioning system for a vehicle capable of securing contact pressure of a temperature sensitive portion of a temperature sensor to a side surface of an evaporator.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide an air-conditioning system for a vehicle, in which components are readily attached with improved maintenance performance.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, in a vehicle air-conditioning system, a plurality of control circuit members having at least functions of CPU and memory are mounted on the electrical circuit board disposed integrally with an air duct of an air-conditioning unit, and an electrical member which electrically operates when electrical power is applied thereto is mounted to the electrical circuit board to perform signal input/output operation between the control circuit members. Therefore, wire number of wire harness connecting the control circuit members and an at least one of electrical parts of the electrical member can be reduced, and attachment space of the vehicle air-conditioning system can be reduced. Accordingly, assembling steps of at least one of the electrical parts of the electrical member and the control circuit members can be reduced, and production cost of the vehicle air-conditioning system can be reduced.
Preferably, the electrical circuit board is attached to a side surface of a cooling heat exchanger. For example, the electrical circuit board is attached at a detachable side of an interior fluid pipe of the cooling heat exchanger. Therefore, a detaching operation of the cooling heat exchanger and a change of the electrical member can be readily performed in one side direction.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a vehicle air-conditioning system includes a cooling heat exchanger for cooling heat exchanger for cooling air blown into a passenger compartment, a cooler case for accommodating the cooling heat exchanger therein, a case cover disposed in the cooler case at a side of the evaporator to cover an operation window opening of the cooler case, a temperature sensor having a temperature-sensitive portion disposed to contact a side surface of the cooling heat exchanger, and an electrical circuit board. On an electrical circuit board, a plurality of control circuit members having at least functions of CPU and memory, and an electrical member which electrically operates when electrical power is applied thereto and performs signal input/output operation between the control circuit members collectively are mounted. The electrical circuit board is dispose
Harada Shigeki
Hayakawa Akihiro
Ito Koichi
Kameoka Teruhiko
Shikata Kazushi
Denso Corporation
Harness Dickey & Pierce PLC
Wayner William
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