Vehicular air conditioning unit

Details Vehicular air conditioning unit Vehicular air conditioning unit

2003-09-03

2004-10-05

Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)

Refrigeration

With vehicle feature

Occupant-type vehicle

C454S107000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06799432

ABSTRACT:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-260031 filed on Sep. 5, 2002, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a right and left temperature independent control-type air conditioning unit that separately controls temperature of right and left regions of a passenger compartment. Particularly, the present invention relates to a fixing structure of a case of the air conditioning unit and a partition wall that divides an air passage in the case into a first air passage and a second air passage.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
For example, JP-A-10-29420 discloses a right and left temperature independent control-type vehicular air conditioning unit. In the air conditioning unit, an air passage formed in an air conditioning case is divided into a driver side air passage and a passenger side air passage by a partition wall.
As a structure of fixing such partition wall to an air conditioning case, for example, examples shown in
FIGS. 4A through 6
are proposed. According to the example shown in
FIGS. 4A through 4D
, a resinous air conditioning case has a right case
11
a
and a left case
11
b
. The right case
11
a
and the left case
11
b
are fixed to each other in a condition that a periphery of a resinous partition wall
12
is interposed between an engaging end surface
26
a
of the right case
11
a
and an engaging end surface
26
b
of the left case
11
b.
The right case
11
a
is formed with a step
40
on its engaging end surface
26
a
. The step
40
is recessed from the end of the case by a distance same as a thickness of the partition wall
12
. As shown in
FIG. 4A
, first, the periphery of the partition wall
12
is placed on the step
40
as shown by an arrow K. Next, the engaging end surface
26
b
of the left case
11
b
is brought into contact with the engaging end surface
26
a
of the right case
11
a
, as shown by an arrow L. In this way, the periphery of the partition wall
12
is interposed and fixed between the engaging end surfaces
26
a
,
26
b
of the cases
11
a
,
11
b.
Further, a linear projection
29
is formed on the engaging end surface
26
a
to extend parallel to a longitudinal direction of the engaging end surface
26
a
, as shown in
FIG. 4C. A
linear groove
30
is formed on the engaging end surface
26
b
to extend parallel to a longitudinal direction of the engaging surface
26
b
, as shown in FIG.
4
D. The linear projection
29
is fitted in the linear groove
30
, so the cases
11
a
,
11
b
are sealed between the engaging end surfaces
26
a
,
26
b.
In a case that the cases
11
a
,
11
b
are used for a normal-type vehicular air conditioning unit, which does not have right and left temperature independent control function, the partition wall
12
is not required. Thus, the partition wall
12
is removed from the cases
11
a
,
11
b
. However, the periphery of the partition wall
12
generally has a complicated structure to correspond to a complicated form of the air passage in the air conditioning unit. Also, since the entire periphery of the partition wall
12
is interposed between the engaging end surfaces
26
a
,
26
b
, a total length of the periphery of the partition wall
12
increases.
In addition, since the cases
11
a
,
11
b
are resin molded articles, the precision of dimensions is generally lower than that of metallic articles. Therefore, it is difficult to closely fix the periphery of the partition wall
12
between the engaging end surfaces
26
a
,
26
b
at the same time as fitting the linear projection
29
into the linear groove
30
. This results in an increase in the number of steps for assembling the air conditioning.
To address this matter, a structure shown in
FIGS. 5A and 5B
is proposed. The partition wall
12
is formed with a substantially T-shaped fixing portion
41
on its periphery. The fixing portion
41
has linear projections
29
′ on the end surfaces. The fixing portion
41
is arranged between the engaging end surface
26
a
,
26
b
of the cases
11
a
,
11
b
so that the linear projections
29
′ are fitted in linear grooves
30
a
,
30
b
formed on the engaging end surfaces
26
a
,
26
b
. Therefore, the partition wall
12
is fixed by interposing the T-shaped fixing portion
41
between the engaging end surfaces
26
a
,
26
b.
According to the example shown in
FIG. 5A
, the partition wall
12
is fixed merely by fitting the linear projections
29
′ of the fixing portion
41
into the linear grooves
30
a
,
30
b
. Therefore, the partition wall
12
is easily fixed, and hence steps of the assembly is reduced, as compared with the structure shown in
FIGS. 4
a
and
4
B. However, in a case that the cases
11
a
,
11
b
are used for the normal-type air conditioning unit, a plate member
42
is required between the engaging end surfaces
26
a
,
26
b
, in place of the fixing portion
41
of the partition wall
12
. Since the plate member
42
is additionally required, manufacturing costs increase.
According to another example shown in
FIG. 6
, the cases
11
a
,
11
b
are integrally provided with holding wall portions
43
,
44
on the inside walls. The holding wall portions
43
,
44
bend to have substantially L-shaped cross-sections. The partition wall
12
is fixed by interposing T-shaped fixing portion
41
in the L-shaped holding wall portions
43
,
44
. However, the shape of the cases
11
a
,
11
b
are complicated because of the L-shaped holding wall portions
43
,
44
. Thus, this increases the manufacturing costs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made in view of the foregoing matter and it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple fixing structure of a case of an air conditioning unit and a partition wall, which separates an air passage in the case into a first air passage for a right region of a passenger compartment and a second air passage for a left region of the passenger compartment.
According to the present invention, an air conditioning unit for a vehicle includes a case and a partition wall disposed in the case. The case defines an air passage through which air flows toward a passenger compartment of the vehicle. The partition wall is disposed so that it divides the air passage into a first air passage through which air flows toward a right region of the passenger compartment and a second air passage through which air flows toward a left region of the passenger compartment.
The case includes a first case for forming the first air passage and a second case for forming the second air passage. The first case and the second case are joined to each other by connecting a first case end surface of the first case and a second case end surface of the second case. Each of the first case and the second case has a plurality of pin contact portions. The partition wall is interposed between the pin contact portions of the first case and the pin contact portions of the second case.
Accordingly, since the partition wall is interposed between and fixed by the pin contact portions, the partition wall is easily fixed. Since the partition wall is not interposed between the first case end surface and the second case end surface, it is not necessary to closely contact the partition wall with the first case end surface and the second case end surface. Further, the first case and the second case are also used for a case of a normal-type air conditioning unit, which does not separately control temperature of the right region and the left region, by merely removing the partition wall.
Preferably, the pin contact portions are provided as portions that are knocked by ejector pins after an injection molding so that the cases are quickly removed from molding dies. Since the pin contact portions are used not only for the portions for receiving the ejector pin but also for the portions fixing the partition wall. Thus, it is not necessary to additionally form portions for fixing the partition wall.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5350555

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