JPH0130248Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Technical field) The present invention relates to an air passage switching switch, and is a sliding type air passage switching switch that is particularly suitable for use in vehicle air conditioning control devices and is compact and light in operating load. It's about the switch.

(Prior Art) In an air conditioner for a vehicle such as an automobile, the air conditioning mode is generally switched by changing the position of a damper provided on a flow path of conditioned air. In recent years, such air conditioners have a simple structure, easy to obtain a negative pressure source, and due to customer preference, etc. While the damper position is switched by the mechanism, an air passage switching switch is interposed between the pneumatic operating mechanism and a predetermined negative pressure source to switch the air passage, and the push button is pressed according to the air conditioning mode. BACKGROUND ART Air conditioning control devices have come to be used which, through operation, control an air passage selector switch to change the operating state of a pneumatic operating mechanism to switch and set an air conditioning mode.

By the way, as an air passage changeover switch used in such an air conditioning control device, a switch as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 50-33442 has been used.
There are those equipped with only two ports and one air hole, and those equipped with three ports as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application No. 58-84402.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) However, all of these previously proposed air passage selector switches require a pushing operation to perform the switching operation, and a self-returning spring is used to return the operating member. Since it was necessary to provide this, it was unavoidable that the operating load at the time of switching operation would become heavy. In addition, in the so-called piston type, which connects and disconnects each port by moving the piston within the cylinder, as disclosed in those publications, the piston has a long operating stroke, and the piston is connected to the ports. Since the volume of the connecting passage is large, the sliding resistance of the piston becomes large due to the effect of negative pressure, which causes the problem that the operating load becomes even heavier.

Furthermore, in the case of the former, which has only two ports, the connection form is limited to one in which one port is connected to a negative pressure source and the other port is connected to a pneumatic actuation mechanism. Since only the ON/OFF function can be obtained for the pneumatic actuation mechanism, it is necessary to provide an air passage switching switch for each pneumatic actuation mechanism, and in order to switch and operate multiple pneumatic actuation mechanisms in conjunction. , it became necessary to switch all of the corresponding air passage selector switches in conjunction with each other.
There were some problems that severely restricted the degree of freedom in design. In particular, with the piston type as mentioned above, since the piston has a large operating stroke, it is difficult to switch multiple air passage selectors in conjunction with each other by pressing a single push button. This cannot be said to be very desirable for an air conditioning control device that switches to a desired air conditioning mode by pressing a push button.

In addition, in the case of the latter having three ports, since there are various connection forms,
Although this greatly improves the degree of freedom in design, the large operating stroke of the piston means that the size of the switch itself will inevitably increase due to the large number of ports, making it particularly difficult to use in automobile instrument panels. In devices such as air conditioning control devices that require as small an installation space as possible, it has been desired to make them more compact.

Also, Utility Model Application Publication No. 55-31750, Utility Model Application Publication No. 55-31750
Publication No. 31751, Publication of Utility Model Publication No. 55-140866, etc.,
Insert the seal member into the side of the push lever,
The structure is such that by moving the seal member by pushing the push lever, the openings of two ports arranged in the pushing direction are connected and disconnected, and the ports are switched. This has been proposed, but since it is necessary to connect a hose etc. to the port,
Sufficient port spacing is required, which requires an increase in the operating stroke described above, in other words, a large stroke of pushing the push lever, and also increases the spacing between the openings toward the sealing member. Therefore, the size of the sealing member inevitably becomes large, and the suction force acting on the sealing member also becomes large.In addition to the inherent problem of requiring a large switching operation force, the device also becomes larger and the installation space increases. Problems such as these still existed.

(Means for Solving the Problems) Here, in order to solve the above problems, the sliding type air passage selector switch according to the present invention has (a) a box-shaped air passage selector switch having an opening in the front wall; a housing; (b) a wall member fixed to the rear wall of the housing in an overlapping state to form a double wall structure with the rear wall of the housing; and (c) a wall member between the wall member and the housing. three air passages formed independently from each other between the rear wall and the inner wall of the double wall structure, each of which opens in a straight line into the inner space of the housing; and,
(d) said wall member or said rear wall portion of said housing forming an outer wall of said double wall structure, said integrally formed with a space therebetween that allows connection of a predetermined air passage member to each other; three ports each connected to an air passage, and (e) an opening of the air passage, comprising two mutually independent recesses on the back surface, the two recesses opening in the inner space of the housing. is housed in the housing in a state that corresponds to the arrangement direction of the housing, is brought into sliding contact with the inner wall of the double wall structure at the back surface, and is moved to one side of the recesses, respectively. , the recess on one side hermetically blocks the opening of one of the air passages located on the one side from the openings of the remaining air passages, and the recess on the other side and (f) a holding part formed on the back side to hold the sealing member, and an operating part formed to protrude forward to connect the front side of the housing. It is housed in the housing so as to be movable along the rear wall of the housing in the direction of the opening of the air passage while being protruded from the opening of the wall, and is arranged so as to be movable with respect to the operating section. the sealing member is moved in the direction of arrangement of the opening of the air passage while pressing the sealing member against the inner wall of the double wall structure with a predetermined preload. (g) a slide member that is brought into sliding contact with the inner surface of the front wall of the housing and is disposed to be movable relative to the operating member in the front-rear direction and immovable in the slide operating direction; and,
(h) a spring means interposed between the slide member and the operating member to urge them apart from each other and apply the preload; According to the sliding operation performed, one of the air passages that opens in the center is selectively linked to the air passages that open on both sides thereof.

(Functions and Effects) According to such an air passage selector switch, the distance between the openings of the air passages connected to each port that open into the space inside the housing is determined by the distance between the openings of the air passages connected to each port that open into the space inside the housing. This allows the arrangement of the ports to be extended in the direction in which the distance increases due to the air passage formed between the rear wall portion and the wall member overlaid thereon.
Regardless of the distance between these ports, it can be made as small as possible. Therefore, the volume of the recess formed on the back surface of the seal member for connecting adjacent ports can be significantly reduced, and the sliding resistance of the seal member due to the action of negative pressure is extremely small. can. In addition, in such a switch, since the switching operation of the air passage is performed by sliding the operating part of the operating member along the front wall of the housing, the operating member is self-returning to return to a predetermined position. No spring is required, and therefore, unlike conventional switches, the operating load is not increased by the biasing force of a self-returning spring. In other words,
According to the air passage switching switch according to the present invention, it is possible to significantly reduce the operating load compared to conventional switches, and when it is adopted in an air conditioning control device, it provides a comfortable operating feeling when switching the air conditioning mode. This makes it possible to improve the

In addition, the air passage selector switch according to the present invention has three ports, and when multiple air passage selector switches are used in combination, it is possible to diversify the connection form, so it is adopted in air conditioning control equipment. There is an advantage that these design restrictions can be significantly relaxed in such cases.

Furthermore, as mentioned above, regardless of the distance between the ports, the distance between the openings in the housing of the air passages connected to each port can be reduced, so the operating stroke of the operating member can also be shortened, so the switch itself can be It also has the advantage of being significantly more compact than the conventional 3-port type. As mentioned above, conventional three-port switches are of the piston type or push lever type, with each port opening directly into the cylinder or onto the sliding surface of the seal member. The operating stroke of the piston, which is the operating member, inevitably became larger, and the switch was correspondingly larger.

(Example) Hereinafter, in order to clarify the present invention more specifically, one example thereof will be described in detail based on the drawings.

1 and 2 are a longitudinal sectional view and a transverse sectional view, respectively, of a sliding air passage selector switch which is an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an exploded view thereof. In these figures, reference numeral 10 denotes a synthetic resin housing having a box-like shape that is long in the left-right direction (left-right direction in FIG. 2), and as is clear from FIG. A box-shaped container-shaped rear member 14 serving as a bottom portion, and the rear member 14
A front member 18 forming a front wall portion 16 by closing an opening of the
It consists of. Then, the front member 18 engages the rear member 1 in the engagement hole 22 of the engagement portion 20 that protrudes from the side thereof toward the rear member 14.
It is integrally assembled by being removably engaged with a locking pawl 24 formed on the side wall portion of 4.

The rear wall portion 12 of the housing 10 has three through holes 26a, 26 penetrating the inside and outside of the housing 10.
b, 26c are formed. These through holes 26
a, 26b, and 26c are formed in a line at predetermined short intervals in the longitudinal direction of the housing 10, and the central through hole 26b is located at the center of the rear wall portion 12.

Further, on the outer surface of the rear wall portion 12 of the housing 10, a port member 30 in the form of a longitudinal rectangular plate having three ports 28a, 28b, and 28c is superimposed on its flat side surface. They are fixed together by ultrasonic welding to form a double wall structure. The above three ports 28a, 2
8b and 28c are hoses 32 which are air passage members.
The central ports 28 are aligned longitudinally of the port member 30 at regular intervals to permit connection of the
b is arranged to be located at the center of the port member 30, and when the port member 30 is fixed to the housing 10, the central port 28
b is directly connected to the central through hole 26b of the rear wall portion 12. Further, on the flat side surface of the port member 30, in a state where the port member 30 is fixed to the rear wall portion of the housing 10, a through hole 26 and a port 2 corresponding to the reference numerals are provided.
Grooves 34a and 34c are formed to connect the ports 28a, 28b,
28c respectively pass through air passages to the rear wall portion 1.
2 through holes 26a, 26b, and 26c. Note that the air passages connecting each port 28 and each through hole 26 are kept airtight from each other by the ultrasonic welding. Further, as is clear from the above description, in this embodiment, the port member 30 is a wall member.

On the other hand, inside the housing 10, there is a part that slides into contact with the inner surface of the rear wall part 12 at the rear part, and a part of the housing 10.
A sealing member 36 made of a rubber elastic body is housed in a state where it can move in the longitudinal direction. As is clear from the rear view of FIG. 4, this sealing member 36 has a longitudinal rectangular plate shape and is provided with a protrusion 38 at the center of its front surface. Further, a protrusion 40 in the shape of an "8" is formed on the back surface of the seal member 36, so that independent recesses of the same shape are formed adjacent to each other in the longitudinal direction of the seal member 36. 42a and 42c are formed. These recesses 42a, 42c are such that when the seal member 36 is moved to one side in the longitudinal direction, the recess 42 on one side opens on the same side. while blocking one of the through holes 26 from the remaining two through holes 26;
The remaining two through holes 2 in the recess 42 on the other side
6, and is large enough to provide this function and has a volume as small as possible.

Further, in the housing 10, a holding member 44 made of synthetic resin is housed so as to be movable in the longitudinal direction of the housing 10, and a sliding member 46 made of metal is housed. Holding member 44
is in the center of the front, protruding forward,
An operating portion 48 having a rectangular cross section is provided, and the tip of the operating portion 48 is inserted into the housing 10 with a predetermined length protruding from a longitudinal rectangular cutout hole 50 formed in the front wall portion 16 of the housing 10. is housed in. Further, a recess 52 corresponding to the shape of the front surface of the sealing member 36 is formed in the rear surface of the holding member 44, and the front surface of the sealing member 36 is held in the recess 52. . When the housing 10 is moved in the longitudinal direction, the seal member 36 is moved integrally. Note that the holding member 44 has a longitudinal protrusion 54 on its side wall that protrudes outward in the width direction.
A plurality of ridges 54 are provided, and these ridges 54 are adapted to slide against the inner surface of the side wall portion of the housing 10.

On the other hand, the slide member 46 has a substantially U-shape in which both longitudinal ends are bent toward the same side, and has a cutout hole 56 in the center thereof. Then, the notch hole 56 is pierced by the operating portion 48 of the holding member 44, and the bent portions 58 at both ends are engaged with the locking portions 60 formed protrudingly at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the front surface of the holding member 44. stopped,
Further, it is disposed in a state where it is pressed against the back surface of the housing front wall portion 16 by a compression coil spring 62 interposed between the holding member 44 and the holding member 44 .

In other words, the holding member 44 and the slide member 46 are configured to move integrally in the longitudinal direction of the housing 10 while being biased in a direction away from each other. Furthermore, as is clear from this, in this embodiment, the holding member 4
4, the sealing member 36 is pressed against the rear wall 12 of the housing 10 with a preload corresponding to the biasing force of the compression coil spring 62. This ensures airtightness between the protrusion 40 of the seal member 36 and the wall surface of the rear wall portion 12 of the housing.

Note that, as is clear from the above description, in this embodiment, the compression coil spring 62 is used as a spring means for applying a preload to the seal member 36, and
The holding member 44 constitutes an operating member. Further, as is clear from FIG. 2, in this embodiment, the operating portion 48 of the holding member 44 comes into contact with the end surface of the notch hole 50 of the housing front wall portion 16, so that the operating member and, by extension, the sealing member 36 slide. The moving ends in the direction (longitudinal direction of the housing 10) are set, and at each moving end position, the through hole 26a formed by the recesses 42a, 42c of the sealing member 36 is opened as described above.
26c to 26c are connected and disconnected.

According to such an air passage selector switch, by sliding the operating portion 48 of the holding member 44, the central port 28b is switched to the remaining ports 28.
Since it can be selectively connected to a or 28c, there are many connection options when used in combination with other air passage selector switches, and this allows for greater freedom in design when configuring an air conditioning control device, etc. The frequency increases. Moreover, each port 28a to 2
The through holes 26a to 26c, which are openings 8c opening into the space inside the housing 10, are connected to the ports 2.
Regardless of the spacing between the switches 8a to 28c, the arrangement pitch is sufficiently small, and the operating stroke of the operating member including the sealing member 36 and the holding member 44 is also sufficiently small, so the size of the switch itself is comparable to that of the conventional piston type. It is noticeably smaller than the original.

Further, in this embodiment, as described above, the through holes 26a to 26 communicating with the respective ports 28a to 28c are
c is made smaller, and accordingly, the volumes of the recesses 42a, 42c of the sealing member 36 for connecting the through holes 26a and 26c to the center through hole 26b are also reduced, and the recesses 42a, 4
Since the sliding resistance of the seal member 36 caused by the negative pressure applied to the seal member 2c is significantly reduced, there is an advantage that the operating load of the holding member 44 is significantly lighter than that of a conventional piston type. . Further, in this embodiment, the holding member 44 is held by the sealing member 3 by the compression coil spring 62.
6 to the rear wall 12 of the housing 10, and does not have a self-returning spring like conventional push-operated switches, which reduces the operating load accordingly. There are also advantages. In this embodiment, the operating member is brought into sliding contact with the inner surface of the housing 10 by the protrusion 54 formed on the side of the holding member 44 and the smooth flat surface of the metal slide member 46. This also helps reduce the operating load.

In addition, in this embodiment, as is clear from FIGS. 1 to 3, each member has a shape that is rotationally symmetrical with respect to its center line, and the left and right sides of each member are reversed during assembly. Since it is possible to assemble the product, it has the advantage of good assemblability, and for the same reason, the finished product also has the advantage of being easy to assemble.

In addition, in the air passage selector switch of this embodiment, the operating stroke of the operating member (holding member 44) is extremely short, so when it is adopted in an air conditioning control device for an automobile, it is difficult to link multiple switches. Another advantage is that it is easy to perform switching operations.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, this is a literal illustration, and the present invention should not be interpreted as being limited to this specific example.

For example, in the embodiment, the port 28a and the through hole 26a, and the port 28c and the through hole 26c,
They were designed to communicate through grooves 34a and 34c formed in the overlapping surface on the port member 30 side, respectively, but these grooves 34a and 34c are formed in the overlapping surface on the rear wall 12 side of the housing 10. You can do it like this.

Further, in the embodiment described above, the port member 30 is superimposed on the outer surface of the rear wall portion 12 of the housing 10 to form a double wall structure, but each port 28
a to 28c are integrally formed on the rear wall 12 of the housing 10, while wall members having through holes 26a to 26c are stacked on the inner surface of the rear wall 12 to form a double wall structure. is also possible.

Further, in the embodiment, the rear wall portion 12 of the housing 10 and the port member 30 are fixed together by ultrasonic welding, so that the air passage formed therebetween is kept airtight from each other. However, those rear wall portion 12 and port member 3
As shown in FIG. 5, a sheet-shaped sealing material 66 having through holes 64a, 64b, and 64c is disposed at a portion corresponding to each of the through holes 26a to 26c or each port 28a to 28c, respectively, as shown in FIG. It is also possible to provide such a sealing material 66 to maintain airtightness of each air passage. Furthermore, the grooves 34a, 3 are formed in such a sealing material 66.
It is also possible to form a cutout hole corresponding to 4c and use this cutout hole as an air passage. Further, when the sealing material 66 is interposed between the rear wall portion 12 of the housing 10 and a wall member such as the port member 30, in order to fix them, the front side member 18 of the housing 10
It is possible to employ an engagement mechanism such as that used for engagement between the rear member 14 and the rear member 14.

Further, in the embodiment, each port 28a to 2
8c are arranged in a line in the longitudinal direction of the housing 10, but it is also possible to arrange them in a line in the diagonal direction of the housing 10, or it is also possible to arrange them in a staggered manner.

In addition, various modifications and variations may be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit thereof, although not listed one by one.
Of course, the present invention can be implemented in a modified form.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are a longitudinal sectional view and a transverse sectional view, respectively, showing a sliding air passage selector switch which is an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the switch. FIG. 4 is a rear view of the sealing member of the switch shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an example of a sealing material disposed between an inner wall and an outer wall of a double wall structure to keep the air passage formed therebetween airtight. 10: Housing, 12: Rear wall, 14: Rear member, 16: Front wall, 18: Front member, 22: Engagement hole, 24: Locking claw, 26a, 26b, 26c:
Through hole, 28a, 28b, 28c: port, 30:
Port member (wall member), 32: hose (air passage member), 34a, 34c: groove, 36: seal member,
42a, 42c: recess, 44: holding member, 46:
Slide member, 48: Operation section, 50: Notch hole, 5
2: recess (holding part), 62: compression coil spring (spring means), 64a, 64b, 64c: through hole,
66: Seal material.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) A box-shaped housing having an opening in the front wall; and a box-shaped housing having an opening in the front wall; A wall member forming a wall structure, and a wall member formed independently of each other between the wall member and the rear wall portion of the housing, each of which is formed as an inner wall of the double wall structure to penetrate the inner wall of the housing. three air passages opening in a straight line into the inner space; and one of the wall member or the rear wall of the housing forming the outer wall of the double wall structure;
three ports connected to the air passages, which are integrally formed at intervals that allow connection of predetermined air passage members; and two mutually independent recesses on the back surface;
The housing is housed in a state in which the two recesses are disposed in the same direction as the opening of the air passage opening into the inner space of the housing. one of the air passages located on one side of the air passages in the one side recess in a state in which the inner wall is slidably contacted and each of the recesses is moved to one side of the recesses; a sealing member that airtightly blocks the opening from the openings of the remaining air passages and communicates the openings of the remaining air passages with the recess on the other side; The opening of the air passage is arranged along the rear wall of the housing while holding the member and protruding from the opening of the front wall of the housing in the operating portion formed to protrude forward. The sealing member is housed in the housing so as to be movable in the direction of construction, and is moved in accordance with a sliding operation performed on the operating portion, so that the sealing member is applied to the inner wall of the double wall structure with a predetermined preload. an operating member that is moved in the direction in which the opening of the air passage is disposed while pressing against the operating member; and an operating member that is in sliding contact with the inner surface of the front wall of the housing and is movable in the front-rear direction relative to the operating member. and a slide member disposed relatively immovably in the slide operation direction; and a slide member interposed between the slide member and the operation member to urge them apart from each other to apply the preload. and a spring means for providing air passages, and according to a sliding operation performed on the operating portion of the operating member, one of the air passages that opens in the center portion is selected as an air passage that opens on both sides thereof. A slide-type air passage selector switch characterized in that the air passages are connected to each other. (2) The box-shaped housing is composed of a front member including the front wall portion and a rear member including the rear wall portion, and a locking pawl formed on one of the members is connected to the other member. The switch according to claim 1, which is integrally assembled by being removably engaged with an engagement hole formed in a member. (3) The air passage is formed by a groove formed in the overlapping surface of one of the rear wall portion of the housing and the wall member, the opening of which is hermetically closed by the other wall. A switch according to claim 1 or 2 of the utility model registration claim. (4) The utility model according to claim 3, wherein the rear wall portion of the housing and the wall member are ultrasonically welded at their overlapping surfaces, thereby ensuring airtightness of the air passage. Switch. (5) Utility model registration claim 3, in which airtightness of the air passage is ensured by interposing a sheet-like sealing material between the rear wall portion of the housing and the wall member. The switch listed.