Heat exchange – With timer – programmer – time delay – or condition responsive... – Having heating and cooling capability
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-17
2001-06-12
Ford, John K. (Department: 3743)
Heat exchange
With timer, programmer, time delay, or condition responsive...
Having heating and cooling capability
C165S042000, C165S043000, C454S156000, C454S121000, C237S01230A, C237S01230B
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244335
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular air-conditioner, more particularly to the configuration of the ducts of a vehicular air-conditioner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known in the art, as illustrated in FIG.
1
and
FIG. 2
, is a vehicular air-conditioner provided with an air-conditioning unit for mainly the front seats having both a rear face duct for blowing air-conditioned air toward the upper torsos of the rear seat passengers and a rear foot duct for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torsos of the rear seat passengers so as to enhance the feeling of the rear seat passengers of being air-conditioned.
FIG. 1
is a schematic side view of one such vehicular air-conditioner of the related art, while
FIG. 2
is a schematic rear view of
FIG. 1
seen from the vehicle rear side to the vehicle front side.
Reference numeral
100
represents a front face opening portion which opens at an upper position of the air-conditioning unit and blows air-conditioned air toward the upper torsos of the front seat passengers. At the upstream side (based on the flow of air, same below) from the front face opening portion
100
is opened a rear face opening portion
102
for blowing air-conditioned air toward the upper torsos of the rear seat passengers. At the side of the rear face opening portion
102
is opened a foot opening portion
101
, explained later. These two opening portions
101
and
102
have dampers
106
which enable air-conditioned air to be introduced selectively in either direction or in two directions simultaneously.
The front face opening portion
100
is provided with for example a rear face duct
103
made of plastic. Air-conditioned air is designed to be blown from the rear face duct
103
toward a rear face outlet (not shown) arranged at the rear seat side.
The fore-mentioned foot opening portion
101
is for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torsos of the passengers. The foot opening portion
101
is provided with a foot duct
104
extending downward. At the right side of the vehicle at a lower position of the foot duct
104
is formed a right side front foot opening portion
105
a
(serving also as one front foot outlet in the compartment) for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torso of the right side front seat passenger as shown in FIG.
2
. On the other hand, at the left side of the vehicle at a lower position of the foot duct
104
is formed a left side front foot opening portion
105
b
(serving also as another front foot outlet in the compartment) for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torso of the left side front seat passenger as shown in FIG.
2
and FIG.
1
.
Further, at the downstream side from the right side front foot opening portion
105
a
in the foot duct
104
is formed a right side rear foot opening portion
106
a
for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torso of the right side rear seat passenger. Further, at the downstream side from the left side front foot opening portion
105
b
in the foot duct
104
is formed a left side rear foot opening portion
106
b
for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torso of the left side rear seat passenger.
The right side rear foot opening portion
106
a
and the left side rear foot opening portion
106
b
have not been shown with rear foot ducts connected to them. Air-conditioned air is blown from these toward a right side rear foot outlet and a left side rear foot outlet arranged at the rear seat side.
Accordingly, the air-conditioned air flowing into the foot duct
104
is split among the right side front foot opening portion
105
a
, the left side front foot opening portion
105
b
, the right side rear foot opening portion
106
a
, and the left side rear foot opening portion
106
b.
In the above air-conditioner of the related art, however, since as shown in
FIG. 1
the foot duct
104
and the rear face duct
103
are arranged aligned completely independently in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle, there is the problem that the length of the air-conditioning unit in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle becomes large.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention was designed to solve the above problem. An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular air-conditioner provided with a mainly front seat side air-conditioning unit having a rear face duct for blowing air-conditioned air toward the upper torsos of the rear seat passengers and a rear foot duct for blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torsos of the rear seat passengers, wherein the size of the vehicular air-conditioner is made smaller without reducing the area of the air passage.
The present invention adopts the following technical means to achieve the above object.
The vehicular air-conditioner set forth in claims
1
to
7
is characterized in that the foot duct (
31
) and the rear face duct (
26
) are arranged to overlap each other at least at parts when viewed from the side.
In this way, since the rear face duct (
26
) and the foot duct (
31
) are arranged so that parts of these extending downward overlap when viewed from the side, the size of the air-conditioning unit in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle becomes smaller than in the related art.
In particular, the vehicular air-conditioner as set forth in claim
2
is characterized in that the right side duct portion (
31
a
) and the left side duct portion (
31
b
) are arranged so that the portion of the foot duct (
31
) at the downstream side is aligned in the widthwise direction of the vehicle.
In the vehicular air-conditioner as set forth in claim
3
, a front face inlet for blowing air-conditioned air toward the upper torsos of the front seat passengers is formed in the air-conditioning unit (
10
) at the upstream side from the rear inlet of the rear face duct (
26
). The front face inlet and the foot inlet (
28
) are switched to introduce and to block the inflow by a single damper member (
29
).
If the rear face duct (
26
) positioned at the upper side is arranged directly after the vehicle rear side of the foot inlet (
28
), the intermediate portion in the widthwise direction of the vehicle in the foot inlet (
28
) is blocked by the rear face duct (
26
), so two independent foot ducts (
31
) are formed. If part of the foot inlet (
28
) is blocked in this way, there is the problem that the amount of air introduced into the foot ducts (
31
) is reduced.
Therefore, in the vehicular air-conditioner as set forth in claim
4
, since the right side duct portion (
31
a
) and the left side duct portion (
31
b
) are formed by splitting the foot duct (
31
) at the downstream side portion into two, it is possible to blow a sufficient amount of air to the foot duct without a reduction of the area of the opening of the foot inlet (
28
).
Further, in the vehicular air-conditioner as set forth in claim
4
, note was taken of the fact that the right side duct portion and the left side duct portion were formed by splitting the foot duct into two from an intermediate position of the downstream side and of the space formed by the split, that is, the dead space. The rear face duct (
26
) is bent to the vehicle front to fit into the dead space. By doing this, the same type of effect is obtained as with the vehicular air-conditioner as set forth in claim
1
.
Further, the vehicular air-conditioner as set forth in claim
5
is characterized in that the right side duct portion (
31
a
) has a first duct portion (
51
a
) heading toward the rear side of the vehicle at the downstream side of the flow path extending downward, the left side duct portion (
31
b
) has a second duct portion (
51
b
) heading toward the rear side of the vehicle at the downstream side of the flow path extending downward, the first duct portion (
51
a
) and second duct portion (
51
b
) are arranged aligned with a predetermined interval (a) between them in the widthwise direction of the vehicle, and the width (b), in the widthwise direction of the vehicle, of the flow path positioned in
Kanda Hiroshi
Naito Nobuyasu
Nakamura Takeshi
Tsunooka Tatsuo
Denso Corporation
Ford John K.
Harness Dickey & Pierce PLC
LandOfFree
Vehicular air-conditioner does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Vehicular air-conditioner, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vehicular air-conditioner will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2476263