JPH0340645Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an improvement of a foot duct for an air conditioner for an automobile.

(Prior art) Generally, as shown in FIG. 6, an air conditioner U for an automobile switches the intake door 1 appropriately and
By rotating the , air is taken in from the inside air circulation port 3 or the outside air intake port 4, and after being cooled by the evaporator 5, it is led to the heater unit 6.

The heater unit 6 includes a heater core 7 through which engine cooling water circulates and heats the cold air that has passed through the evaporator 5, and an air mix door that distributes the cold air between the heater core 7 side and the bypass passage 8 side. 9 is provided. A defrost duct 10, a vent duct 11 and a foot duct 12 are connected to the heater unit 6.

Therefore, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-71614, the foot duct is divided into upper and lower parts with respect to the feet, and a sensor provided in the feet or inside the foot duct is used to switch between the upper and lower foot ducts. However, the sixth
The one shown in the figure is one in which the direction of hot air blowing can be changed, and because it warms the occupant's feet locally, it is not possible to provide heating that wraps around the entire area below the knees of the occupant. As a result, it lacks the ability to comfortably warm the occupant's entire feet.

Therefore, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 55-168407 discloses a vehicle having a shower duct that blows out warm air so as to surround the entire feet of the occupant. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 7, this shower duct 1
A duct 5 is connected to the foot duct 12 and extends in the vehicle width direction. The shower duct 15 is formed with a plurality of shower outlets 16 that open toward the occupant's feet, and the entire occupant's feet are surrounded by warm air from the shower outlet 16. be.

Further, a spot duct 17 for locally heating the feet is provided in communication with the shower duct 15. And the shower duct 1
A switching door 19 is provided at the branching portion 18 between the spot duct 5 and the spot duct 17.
The shower duct 15 and spot duct 16 are selectively opened. The switching door 1
9 is designed to detect and switch between a low temperature state during warm-up operation of the engine and a high temperature state during steady operation of the engine. This switching means detects the temperature of the engine cooling water connected to the heater core 7, and when this temperature is low, hot air is blown from the spot duct 16, and when this temperature is high, the hot air is blown from the shower duct 15. The wind is starting to blow.

However, since the switching door 19 detects the low temperature state during warm-up operation of the engine and the high temperature state during steady operation, the switching door 19 is switched. In some cases, the temperature is extremely low, and even in this case, warm shower air is blown out from the shower duct 15, so there is a possibility that the feet cannot be warmed quickly.

Conversely, even if the engine cooling water level is low, there is a risk that spot warm air will be blown out if the temperature inside the vehicle reaches a certain high temperature. Therefore, if the spot duct 17 and the shower duct 15 are switched depending on the engine cooling water, there is a risk that various problems as described above may occur.

Therefore, the purpose of this invention is to protect the occupant's feet by appropriately switching between the shower warm air that is discharged to cover the entire area around the occupant's feet and the spot warm air that is discharged to the local area around the occupant's feet. The goal is to remain comfortable at all times.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, this invention has a spot duct that leads directly to the feet of the passenger, and a shower duct that blows hot air in a shower shape to the knees of the passenger, A switching door is provided at a branching point between the spot duct and the shower duct, and the switching door is controlled by a control unit via a door switching means to appropriately distribute warm air to the spot duct and shower duct. In the foot duct, a foot outlet temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature inside the foot duct, a vehicle interior temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature in the vehicle interior, and a signal between the foot outlet temperature detecting means and the vehicle interior temperature detecting means. The present invention is characterized by comprising a calculation means for calculating and outputting a signal for opening either the spot duct or the shower duct.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of this invention will be described based on the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a front view of a foot duct showing an embodiment of this invention, Fig. 2 is a view corresponding to claims of a control section according to this invention, Fig. 3 is a partially cutaway sectional view of a duct used in this invention, and Fig. 4 is a front view of a foot duct showing an embodiment of this invention. The diagram is in Figure 3-
FIG. 5, which is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along a line, is a graph showing the range of switching of the door according to this invention.

As shown in Fig. 1, an automobile air conditioner U
There is a footwell duct 3 extending in the left and right direction of the vehicle width.
0 is set. Inside this foot duct 30 is a shower duct 15 and a spot duct 1, which will be described later.
7, and both the ducts 15, 17
A switching door 19 for selectively opening and closing both the ducts 15 and 17 is provided at the branching portion 18 .
This switching door 19 is controlled by a signal from a control section 31.

The structure of the foot duct 30 will be explained in detail.

As shown in FIG. 3, the foot duct 30
is connected to the foot duct 12 provided in the above-mentioned automobile air conditioner U, and extends in the vehicle width direction. The inside of the foot duct 30 is divided into upper and lower parts by a partition plate 32, so that a shower duct 15 is provided at the upper part.
However, spot ducts 17 are formed in the lower portions. A plurality of shower outlets 16 are formed in the passenger side side wall 33 of the shower duct 15, and the bottom wall 3 of the spot duct 17 is formed with a plurality of shower outlets 16.
4 is provided with a spot outlet 17a. The control section 31 is located at the branch section 18 between the shower duct 15 and the spot duct 17.
a switching door 19 that selectively opens and closes the shower duct 15 and the spot duct 17 under control;
is rotatably mounted.

Here, the control section 31 will be explained below based on FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4.

As shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 4, on the inlet side of the foot duct 30, that is, inside the foot duct 12, there is a foot outlet temperature detecting means 35 for detecting the temperature of the air flowing inside the foot duct 12. A foot temperature sensor 36 is provided. A vehicle interior temperature sensor 38 is provided in the vehicle interior as a vehicle interior temperature detection means 37 for detecting a predetermined temperature inside the vehicle interior.

Note that the vehicle interior temperature sensor 38 does not need to be provided separately, and can be replaced by a conventionally used inker sensor.

The signals obtained by the temperature sensors 36 and 38 are sent to the control unit 31, and the calculation means 39 provided in the control unit 31 calculates the signals from the temperature sensors 36 and 38. There is. A control signal obtained by the calculation means 39 is sent to a motor actuator 41 as a door switching means 40 that drives the switching door 19. The motor actuator 41 is configured to rotate from normal rotation 2 to reverse rotation according to a control signal sent by the calculation means 31. The door switching means 40 is attached to the end of the switching door 19 via a link (not shown) provided on the motor actuator (see Utility Model Application No. 183505/1983).

As shown in FIG. 4, by rotating the switching door 19, the shower duct 15 side and the spot duct 17 side in the foot duct 30 are opened.
Limit switches 42 and 43 are installed to turn ON and OFF, respectively. Therefore, the control section 3
1 causes the motor actuator 41 to rotate forward and rotate the switching door 19 toward the shower duct 15 (indicated by the two-dot chain line). This limit switch 42
is in the ON state. Then, a signal indicating this ON state is sent to the control section 31, so that the signal sent from the control section 31 to the motor actuator 41 stops, and the switching door stops. Therefore, warm air flows into the spot duct 17, and the spot warm air is blown out to the feet of the occupant. Conversely, when a signal for reversing the motor actuator 41 is sent from the control unit 31 and the switching door 19 rotates to the position shown by the solid line, the switching door 19
comes into contact with the limit switch 43, which turns on, and this signal is sent to the control section 31 to stop the motor actuator 41. Therefore, warm air flows into the shower duct 15 and is blown out so as to envelop the occupant's knees.

Here, since the switching of the switching door 19 is controlled by a signal sent by the calculation means via the motor actuator 41, in the calculation, as shown in FIG. The foot outlet temperature obtained by the vehicle temperature sensor 36 is plotted on the vertical axis, and the vehicle interior temperature sensor 3
Taking the vehicle interior temperature obtained in step 8 as the horizontal axis, we derived a boundary line A separating the shower duct use area and the spot duct use area of the footwell outlet 30 through experiments, and based on this relationship. ing. Therefore, for example, when the vehicle interior temperature is 15°C and the foot outlet temperature is 50°C, the calculation result performed by the calculation means 39 is located at point B, which is within the spot duct use area. Become. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
1 issues a signal to rotate the motor actuator 41 in the normal direction, and in response, the switching door 19 closes the shower duct 15 and opens the spot air outlet 17 provided in the spot duct 17.
Warm air is blown out from a, quickly warming the occupant's feet locally.

On the other hand, as shown in Figure 5, for example, if the foot outlet temperature is constant at 50°C, the cabin temperature is 15°C.
When the temperature rises from .degree. C. to 30.degree. C., the calculation result performed by the calculation means 39 is located at point C, which falls within the shower duct use area.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
A signal is issued to reverse the motor actuator 41, and in conjunction with this, the switching door 1
9 closes the spot duct 17, and hot air is blown out from the shower outlet 16 provided in the shower duct 15 so as to wrap around the feet of the occupant.

Here, the boundary line A shown in FIG. 5 changes depending on the vehicle type, and the boundary line A that suits the vehicle type is
By finding it using a solid line, it is adapted to various vehicles.

(Effects of the invention) As explained above, this invention has a spot duct that leads directly to the occupant's feet, and a shower duct that blows hot air in the form of a shower to the knees of the occupant. In the foot duct, a switching door is provided at a branching point between the foot duct and the foot duct, and the switching door is controlled by a control unit via a door switching means to appropriately distribute hot air to the spot duct and the shower duct. a foot outlet temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature inside the vehicle; a vehicle interior temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature inside the vehicle; and signals from the foot outlet temperature detecting means and the vehicle interior temperature detecting means are computed to duct or the shower duct, the switching between the shower warm air and the spot warm air that the occupants feel comfortable with can be done in accordance with the temperature inside the foot duct. It has a very excellent effect of being able to supply comfortable warm air to the passengers' feet at all times by appropriately determining the amount of air in relation to the temperature of the vehicle.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of the foot duct of the automobile air conditioner according to this invention, Fig. 2 is a complaint-corresponding diagram of the control section according to this invention, and Fig. 3
The figure is a partially broken sectional view of the duct used in this invention, FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along the - line in FIG. 7 and 7 are schematic sectional views showing a foot duct of a conventional air conditioner for an automobile. 12...Foot duct, 15...Shower duct, 17...Spot duct, 18...Branch portion,
19... Switching door, 31... Control unit, 35... Foot duct outlet temperature detection means, 37... Vehicle interior temperature detection means, 39... Calculation means, 40... Door switching means.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A spot duct 17 that leads directly to the passenger's feet,
The spot duct 17 has a shower duct 15 that blows hot air in a shower shape to the knees of the passenger.
A switching door 19 is provided at the branching portion 18 between the shower duct 15 and the shower duct 15, and the switching door 19 is connected to the door switching means 4.
In the foot duct, which is controlled by the control unit 31 via the air conditioner 0 to appropriately distribute warm air to the spot duct 17 and the shower duct 15,
The foot outlet temperature detecting means 35 detects the temperature inside the foot duct 12; the vehicle interior temperature detecting means 37 detects the temperature inside the vehicle; and the foot outlet temperature detecting means 35 and the vehicle interior temperature detecting means 37. A foot duct for an air conditioner for an automobile, comprising a calculation means 39 for calculating a signal and outputting a signal for opening either the spot duct 17 or the shower duct 15.