JPH11208262A - Fin swing control device for vehicle air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stabilize the movement of the fin during manual operation by applying rotational load to the fin and to allow the fan to surely go through a predetermined swing operation by using a low cost driving source having small starting force, without increasing the size of the motor. SOLUTION: This fin swing control device includes a shaft 16, interposed between a fan 12 and a driving source 13, for transmitting the driving force of the driving source to the fin 12, a loading member which is connectable to the fin 12 for applying load thereto, and a disengaging member 18 for disengaging the connection between the loading member and the fin. Accordingly, a stable manual operation is realized, and a predetermined swing operation of the fin by using a low cost motor without increasing the size of the motor is realized.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner for use in a vehicle such as an automobile, and more particularly to an air conditioner for a vehicle in which fins arranged at an air outlet for changing a wind direction are set to a predetermined operation state. The present invention relates to a fin swing control device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-87395 discloses an example of a conventional air conditioner in which an initial position of a wind direction plate is positioned at a required position by an initial position setting means so that a room can be efficiently cooled and heated. In this device, a plurality of wind direction plates (fins) are provided at an air outlet provided in a main body casing, and the wind direction plates are formed so as to be swingable to the right and left by a driving device using a stepping motor, and the wind direction plates are formed. A stopper for restricting an operation range is provided, and an initial position setting means for positioning an initial position of the wind direction plate within an operation range limited by the stopper is provided.

In this device, the initial position of the wind direction plate is automatically set, and it is not particularly necessary to intentionally move the wind direction plate from the outside. Therefore, the driving force from a driving source such as a motor to the wind direction plate driving means is not required. There is no specific clutch for disconnecting the transmission. In addition, since the stepping motor itself, which is a driving source, has a kind of clutch function by a sliding operation, there is no possibility of failure even if the wind direction plate is intentionally moved from the outside to adjust the wind direction.

[0004]

In the conventional apparatus having the above structure, the wind direction plate always swings, that is, automatically operates. However, in general, there are cases where it is desired to manually operate the fins (wind direction plates), that is, to change the wind direction to a desired direction by manually operating the fins, and to use the fins at that position depending on the use situation.

In order to enable such manual operation, a clutch is provided in a driving force transmitting mechanism for connecting a driving source such as a motor and the fins, so that the driving source and the fins can be separated. I do. When the fin is at an arbitrary position by the driving force of the driving source, it is necessary to disengage or slide the clutch to adjust the position of the fin and perform automatic alignment.

In most cases, the fins are manually operated when a vehicle such as an automobile is running. Since the vehicle body vibrates while the vehicle is running, the operating hand also vibrates. Therefore, it is difficult to fix the fin in a desired direction if the fin moves only by lightly touching the fin. Therefore, it is necessary to apply a sliding resistance to the rotation shaft of the fin so that an appropriate rotation load is generated on the fin.

However, if an appropriate rotational load is applied to the fins as described above, when the fins are set to an arbitrary position by sliding the clutch from the outside and the fins swing, that is, when the fins are to be automatically operated, The force for returning the clutch to the original position, that is, the load required to stop the fin at an arbitrary position is insufficient, and the fin stops.
This is because there is a large difference between the driving force of the normal swing and the driving force of the self-alignment. In the case of a structure in which a swing is performed using a stepping motor, the starting force is smaller than that of a normally used DC motor. This is because the power is not enough.

Therefore, in order to ensure the operation of the fins, it is necessary to increase the driving force of the motor for moving the fins, and the motor must be made large with a larger starting force. Therefore, there has been a problem that the entire apparatus is increased in size, causing problems such as an increase in cost, an increase in power consumption, and an increase in motor operation noise.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and applies a rotational load to the fins to stabilize the movement of the fins during manual operation and to start the motor without increasing the size of the motor. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle swing register device in which a fin can reliably perform a predetermined swing operation with a low-cost drive source having a small force.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A swing register device for a vehicle according to the present invention includes a fin disposed at an air outlet for changing a wind direction, and a drive source interposed between the fin and the drive source for driving the drive source. A shaft for transmitting a force to the fin, a load member connectable to the fin for applying a rotational load to the fin, and a release member for releasing the connection between the load member and the fin. .

Further, the shaft moves in the axial direction by operating the release member, and connects the shaft to the driving force transmission mechanism for automatically operating the fins and the connection between the fins and the load member during manual operation. It is formed to be switchable.

Further, the load member is formed so as to obtain a rotational load by bringing a spring into contact with a gear meshing with a gear provided on the shaft.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a first embodiment of a vehicle swing register device provided in the air conditioner of FIG. 2 used for a vehicle such as an automobile according to the present invention and for setting a fin for changing a wind direction to a predetermined operation state. It is a perspective view which shows the principal part of. In the figure, a fin 12 for changing a wind direction is disposed at an air outlet 11 of an air conditioner 10, and a driving force of the motor 13 is applied between the fin 12 and a motor 13 as a driving source. 1
2, a gear 15, a rack 15, and a shaft 16 are provided to form a driving force transmission mechanism for transmitting the driving force of the motor 13 to the fins 12.

As shown in FIG. 5, the shaft 16 is provided with a knob 17 at the center and a taper portion 18a at one end.
8 is mounted on the tapered portion 18a. 3 and 6
As shown in FIG. 1, a bevel gear portion 19 is provided on the upper portion of the shaft 16 so as to integrate two bevel gears back to back.
There is provided an arm portion 20 which has 0a and serves to change the direction of the fin 12. In the lower part of the shaft 16,
A taper member 16a that engages with the taper portion 18a of the rod 18 is provided.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, between the rack 15 and the bevel gear portion 19, a pinion portion 21a which engages with a tooth profile provided on the rack 15, and one tooth profile of the bevel gear portion 19 are formed. A gear 21 having a bevel gear 21b engaging with the shaft 15 is rotatably supported via a support plate 23 attached to the main body 22, and a driving force is transmitted between the rack 15 and the bevel gear 19. Forming a mechanism.

A bevel gear portion 24 is provided below the support plate 23 to be engaged with the other tooth profile of the bevel gear portion 19 of the shaft 16, and between the bevel gear portion 24 and the outer surface of the main body 22. Is provided with a spring 25 acting as a load member connectable to the fin 12 for applying a rotational load to the fin 12 together with the bevel gear portion 24.

FIG. 3 shows an automatic swing state in which the fins 12 are connected to the motor 13 via the rack 15. In order to obtain this state, the rod 18 having the tapered portion 18a is required.
The release member made of is moved in the direction of the arrow 100 in FIG. As a result, the rod 18 raises the shaft 16, the bevel gear portion 19 and the bevel gear portion 24 provided at the upper end of the shaft 16 are disengaged from each other, and the two are released from each other. Meshes with the gear 21 interlocked with the rack 15 to rotate the shaft 16 and swing the fin 12. In other words, the shaft 16 is moved in the axial direction by the rod 18 serving as the release member, whereby the fin 12 swings, that is, the fin 12 is connected to the driving force transmission mechanism for automatic driving, and the fin 12 is moved manually during the manual operation. Load member 24,
25 can be switched. That is, in order to stop the automatic swing operation and fix the fin 12 at a predetermined position, the knob 17 is pulled back when the fin 12 reaches a desired position. As a result, the rod 18 is moved and positioned in the direction of the arrow 200 in FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the driving force of the motor 13 is separated from the fins 12 even if the shaft 16 moves down and the bevel gear portion 19 and the gear portion 21 are disengaged from each other. At the same time, the bevel gear portion 19 meshes with the lower spring-biased gear portion 24 to fix the wind direction of the fin 12 at this position. Further, in this manual operation state, the user can freely change the direction of the fin 12 against the pressing load of the spring 25.

According to the configuration of the present embodiment, the transmission line for transmitting the rotational load for the manual operation and the transmission line for the driving force for the swing operation are separately provided, so that the rotational load is applied to the fins to stabilize the fins. In addition to enabling a simplified manual operation, a small-sized, low-cost motor having a small starting force can surely cause the fin to perform a predetermined swing operation without increasing the size of the motor.

Embodiment 2 In the first embodiment, the bevel gear is used as the gear of the driving force transmission mechanism. However, even if a spur gear is used instead of the bevel gear, the switching between the driving force transmission mechanism and the load member can be similarly performed. The same operation and effect as those of the first embodiment can be obtained. However, using bevel gears can switch between manual operation and automatic operation by slightly moving the shaft, which is slightly more advantageous than spur gears that require a larger amount of movement of the shaft.

Embodiment 3 In addition, as a load member,
In addition to the structure in which the spring is pressed against the bevel gear to obtain a rotational load, for example, a structure in which a spring member is brought into contact with the tooth portion of the gear to provide a moderation, or a fine radial groove on a concentric circle on the lower surface of the gear. Various modifications are possible, such as a structure in which a spring member is brought into contact with this portion to provide moderation, and the same operation and effect as those of the first embodiment can be obtained.

[0021]

The present invention is constructed as described above, so that a rotational load is applied to the fins, the movement of the fins during stable manual operation is ensured, and the motor is not enlarged without increasing the size. A low-cost drive source having a small starting force can reliably cause the fin to operate at a predetermined swing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main part of a vehicle swing register device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a main part of the vehicle swing register device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the rod shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of the shaft shown in FIG.

7 is a cross-sectional view showing a state where the rod of FIG. 3 is pulled in the right-hand direction in the figure.

Claims (3)

[Claims] A fin disposed at an air outlet for changing a wind direction; a shaft interposed between the fin and a drive source for transmitting a driving force of the drive source to the fin; A swing register device for a vehicle, comprising: a load member connectable to a fin for applying a load; and a release member for releasing connection between the load member and the fin. The shaft moves in the axial direction by operating a release member, and switches between connection to a driving force transmission mechanism for automatically driving the fin and connection between the fin and the load member during manual operation. The swing register device for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the swing register device is formed so as to be capable of being formed. 3. The load member according to claim 1, wherein the load member is formed so as to obtain a rotational load by bringing a spring into contact with a gear meshing with a gear provided on the shaft. A swing register device for a vehicle according to any one of the above.