JP2000280729A - Vehicular air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate detachment of a cooling heat exchanger, in a vehicular air conditioner provided with a semi-center position layout. SOLUTION: A cooling heat exchanger 14 is formed into a rectangular shape, blast air from a blower unit 1 flows from the vehicle front side to the vehicle rear side through the cooling heat exchanger 14. An insertion hole 31 from which the cooling heat exchanger 14 can be drawn is provided on the side surface of the blower unit 7 side in a case 12 of an air conditioner unit 4, and the width size W2 in the vehicle lateral direction of the cooling heat exchanger 14 is set to the size equal to or not more than the width size W5 in the vehicle lateral direction of the blower unit 7. Therefore, the rectangular cooling heat exchanger 14 can be easily detached through the insertion hole 31 by making use of a space on the passenger seat side formed after detachment of the blower unit.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an air conditioning unit disposed at a substantially central portion of a dashboard in front of a passenger compartment in a lateral direction of a vehicle, and an air blower unit disposed offset to a passenger seat side of the air conditioning unit. The present invention relates to a so-called semi-centered layout air conditioner for a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a layout of a vehicle air conditioner in a passenger compartment is such that a blower unit, a cooler unit, and a heater unit are sequentially arranged inside a dashboard from a passenger seat side to a center portion in a vehicle left-right direction. The so-called horizontal layout is the mainstream, but this horizontal layout has a problem that the mounting space in the vehicle interior becomes large.

Therefore, in recent years, the use of a semi-center layout which can reduce a mounting space as compared with a horizontal layout has been increasingly used.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The applicant of the present invention has a layout of a semi-centered layout, a case of an air conditioning unit, and a cooling unit accommodated in the case.
We are developing a heating heat exchanger that is formed in a horizontally long and flat shape with the longest dimension part (longitudinal part) facing the vehicle left-right direction.

[0005] According to the horizontally long flat shape, the dimension of the air conditioning unit in the front-rear and vertical directions can be reduced.
The air-conditioning unit can be more easily installed in the vehicle compartment. However, since the detachability of the cooling heat exchanger is not particularly considered, generally, the instrument panel must be disassembled, the entire air conditioning unit must be removed from the vehicle, and the cooling heat exchanger must be detached.

[0006] In this method, every time the cooling heat exchanger is attached or detached, the entire air conditioning unit needs to be attached or detached, resulting in a problem that a large number of work steps are required. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to facilitate attachment and detachment of a cooling heat exchanger in a vehicle air conditioner having a semi-center layout.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first to third aspects of the present invention, the cooling heat exchanger (14) is formed so that the longest dimension portion thereof is oriented in the lateral direction of the vehicle. The air blower unit (7) has a horizontally long shape, and the blown air from the blower unit (7) passes through the cooling heat exchanger (14) and flows from the vehicle front side to the vehicle rear side. ), An insertion hole (31) through which the cooling heat exchanger (14) can be pulled out is provided on the side surface on the side of the blower unit (7), and the width dimension of the cooling heat exchanger (14) in the vehicle left-right direction. (W2) is set to be equal to or smaller than the width dimension (W5) of the blower unit (7) in the vehicle left-right direction.

According to this, the adoption of the horizontally long cooling heat exchanger (14) makes the air conditioning unit (4) flat and horizontally long so that the air-conditioning unit (4) can be easily mounted on the inside of the instrument panel. At the same time, the width dimension (W
2, W5), the horizontally long cooling heat exchanger (14) is inserted into the insertion hole (3) by utilizing the space on the passenger seat side formed after the blower unit (7) is removed.
It can be easily detached through 1). That is,
It is not necessary to attach and detach the entire air conditioning unit every time the cooling heat exchanger is attached and detached, and the horizontally long cooling heat exchanger (14) can be easily attached and detached from the space on the passenger seat side.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a heating heat exchanger (15) for heating air is disposed at a portion on the vehicle rear side of the cooling heat exchanger (14), and the heating heat exchanger is provided. If (15) is formed in a horizontally long shape in which the longest dimension portion is oriented in the left-right direction of the vehicle, the entire air conditioning unit (4) can be further satisfactorily formed into a flat horizontally long shape.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the case (1)
2) is divided into a front case-side divided case (12a) and a vehicle rear-side divided case (12b, 1b).
2c), and dividing the divided case on the vehicle rear side into two symmetrical parts (12b, 12c), the rear part of the case (12), that is, the divided case (12b) , 12c) can be commonly used irrespective of a right-hand drive car or a left-hand drive car, and the product cost can be reduced.

The reference numerals in parentheses of the above means indicate the correspondence with the specific steps described in the embodiment described later.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 to 6 show an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a cab-over type vehicle (truck). As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the air conditioner of this embodiment has a so-called semi-center layout. An air-conditioning unit 4 is arranged at a substantially central portion in the lateral direction of the vehicle within the instrument panel 3 in the front of the cabin 2 of the truck 1.

In the cabin 2, a driver's seat 5 and a passenger's seat 6 are arranged side by side behind the instrument panel 3 on the vehicle side. A blower unit 7 for blowing conditioned air to the air conditioning unit 4 is offsetly arranged on the passenger seat 6 side of the air conditioning unit 4. As shown in FIG. 2, the blower unit 7 has upper and lower suction ports 8 and 8a, and air (inside air or outside air) sucked from the suction ports 8 and 8a is supplied to the scroll case 10 by a centrifugal blower fan 9. The air is blown toward the air conditioning unit 4 through the flow path. The blower fan 9 is driven by a motor 11.

In the air conditioner of the present embodiment, the blower fan 9 is connected to the air blower 9 shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, the lower-stage inside air fan and the upper-stage outside air fan are configured. As shown in FIG. 3, the air-conditioning unit 4 has a flat horizontally long shape having a dimension L in the vehicle front-rear direction smaller than a dimension W1 in the vehicle left-right direction. Next, a specific configuration of the flat horizontally long air conditioning unit 4 will be described. The air conditioning unit 4 has an air conditioning case 12 made of resin. Inside the air conditioning case 12, the blown air passes through a heat exchanger. An air passage that flows from the vehicle front side to the vehicle rear side is formed, and various devices described later are accommodated in the air conditioning case 12.

The air-conditioning case 12 has a flat horizontally long shape by integrally fastening a plurality of divided cases. That is, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the air-conditioning case 12 is divided into front divided cases 1 in the vehicle front-rear direction.
2a and rear divided cases 12b and 12c, and further divided into rear divided cases 12b and 12c.
c has a symmetrical shape so that it can be used commonly by right-hand drive vehicles and left-hand drive vehicles.

In FIGS. 3 and 4, line A represents the air conditioning case 12.
, The line B is the air conditioning case 1
2 is a dividing line in the left-right direction of the vehicle. The dividing line A in the front-rear direction of the vehicle is preferably arranged as close to the front side of the vehicle as possible in order to increase the physical size of the divided cases 12b and 12c on the rear side of the vehicle. For this reason, in this example, the division line A is set at a portion on the evaporator 14 described later. The three divided cases 12a, 12b, 12c are detachably fastened together by fastening means such as screws, metal spring clips or the like (not shown).

The split case 12a on the front side of the vehicle constitutes an inlet duct portion having an air inlet portion 13 into which the air blown from the blower unit 7 flows. As shown in FIG. Since the blower unit 7 is arranged on the left side (passenger seat side) of the air conditioning unit 4, the air inlet 13 is the most front side of the air conditioning unit 4 in the vehicle,
And it is arrange | positioned at the left end part.

The outlet of the scroll case 10 of the blower unit 7 is detachably fastened to the air inlet 13 by a fastening means such as a screw or a metal spring clip. The blast air from the blower unit 7 is supplied to the air inlet 1
3 and flows into the front part of the evaporator 14 in the air conditioning unit 4 from the left side to the right side of the vehicle as shown by the arrow C in FIGS.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the air-conditioning unit 4. The air-conditioning unit 4 is arranged in the direction of the arrow in FIG. In the air passage in the air conditioning case 12 of the air conditioning unit 4,
An evaporator 14 is arranged on the front side of the vehicle, and a heater core 15 is arranged on the rear side of the vehicle. As is well known, the evaporator 14 is a cooling heat exchanger that cools the conditioned air by absorbing the latent heat of evaporation of the refrigerant in the refrigeration cycle from the conditioned air. The heater core 15 is a heating heat exchanger that heats conditioned air using hot water (cooling water) of a vehicle engine as a heat source.

Here, both the evaporator 14 and the heater core 15 are formed in a flat and horizontally long shape in which the longest dimension part is directed to the vehicle left-right direction. The width W2 of the evaporator 14 in the vehicle left-right direction is substantially the same as the width W3 of the body of the air-conditioning case 12 in the vehicle left-right direction.
Is disposed so as to extend in the left-right direction of the vehicle.
2 traverse the entire air passage.

On the other hand, the width W4 of the heater core 15 in the vehicle left-right direction is set to be smaller than the width W2 of the evaporator 14 by a predetermined amount (for example, about 70%). Heater core 15
Are also arranged so as to extend in the vehicle left-right direction in parallel with the evaporator 14. Therefore, in the air conditioning unit 4, the conditioned air flows from the vehicle front side to the vehicle rear side through the evaporator 14 and the heater core 15.

Further, the width W2 of the evaporator 14 is set to be equal to or less than the width W5 of the blower unit 7 in the vehicle left-right direction. In this example, the evaporator 1
4, the width W2 = 314 mm, and the width W5 of the blower unit 7 is 315 mm. Next, the configuration of the passage in the air conditioning unit 4 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
A first air passage 16 located on the upper side of the vehicle and a second air passage 17 located on the lower side of the vehicle are formed at a front portion of the air passage 4 (downstream portion of the air inlet portion 3). It can be partitioned by a partition plate 18 and doors 19 and 20 described later. FIG. 5 shows a state where the inside / outside air two-layer flow mode is set at the time of maximum heating in the foot mode.

In the inside / outside air two-layer flow mode, the blowing fan 9
Outside air blown by the upper fan (Fig. 2)
The inside air blown by the lower fan (FIG. 2) of the blower fan 9 flows through the second air passage 17 as shown by an arrow E in FIG. And evaporator 14
Immediately downstream (on the rear side of the vehicle), two air mix doors (temperature adjusting means) 19 and 21 are arranged adjacent to each other in the vertical direction of the vehicle. Each of the air mix doors 19 and 21 is formed of a plate-shaped butterfly door that is rotatable around rotation shafts 19a and 21a. The upper cool air side air mix door 21 adjusts the opening of the cool air passage 22 above the heater core 15 to adjust the amount of cool air passing through the cool air passage 22. The lower hot-air-side air mix door 19 adjusts the opening of the ventilation passage of the core portion of the heater core 15 to adjust the amount of hot air passing through the heater core 15. By adjusting the cool / hot air, the temperature of the air blown into the vehicle compartment is adjusted.

A plurality of blow-off openings are formed on the downstream side of the air passage of the air-conditioning case 12, and among these blow-out openings, a defroster opening 23 is formed on the upper surface of the air-conditioning case 12 as shown in FIGS. At the substantially central portion in the front-rear direction of the vehicle, an opening is provided inside the air conditioning case 12. The defroster opening 23 blows out conditioned air toward the inner surface of the vehicle window glass through a defroster duct (not shown). The defroster opening 23 is opened and closed by a rotatable plate-like defroster door 24.

Next, the face opening 25 is connected to the air conditioning case 1.
The upper surface of the second opening 2 is open to a portion on the vehicle rear side with respect to the defroster opening 23. This face opening 25
Is designed to blow air toward the occupant's head in the passenger compartment through a face duct (not shown). The face opening 25 is opened and closed by a rotatable plate-like face door 26.

Next, the foot opening 27 is connected to the air conditioning case 12.
On the bottom side of the vehicle, it opens to the most rear part of the vehicle, and the foot opening 27 is
It is opened and closed by the foot door 20. The hot air that has passed through the foot opening 27 and the cool air that has passed through the cold air passage 22 are mixed in the air mixing chamber 28 downstream of the foot opening 27 and reach a predetermined temperature, and then the bottom surface portions on the left and right sides of the air conditioning case 12. The air is blown out from the foot outlets 29 and 30 opening toward the occupant's feet in the passenger compartment.

Next, the structure for attaching and detaching the evaporator 14 in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
2, an insertion hole 31 of the evaporator 14 is formed in a portion facing the side surface of the evaporator 14 on the side surface on the passenger seat side (the blower unit 7 side). The opening area of the insertion hole 31 is larger than the area of the side surface of the evaporator 14 so that the evaporator 14 can be pulled out.

In order to prevent water leakage and wind leakage from the insertion hole 31, the insertion hole 31 is closed by a resin lid member 32 molded separately from the air conditioning case 12. The lid member 32 is integrally fastened to the periphery of the insertion hole 31 detachably by fastening means such as a screw or a metal spring clip. Note that the lid member 32 of this example has an L-shape in plan view, and the bent portion 32a is
3 form a part of the duct shape. In FIG. 3, the lid member 32 is hatched to clearly show the L-shape of the lid member 32.

Next, a method of attaching and detaching the evaporator 14 according to the present embodiment will be described. Before the attachment and detachment of the evaporator 14, the blower unit 7 is removed from the vehicle. The removal of the blower unit 7 can be performed by releasing the connection between the blower unit 7 and the air conditioning unit 4 and the connection between the blower unit 7 and the vehicle body. Thereby, a space for attaching and detaching the evaporator 14 can be formed on the inner side of the instrument panel 3 on the passenger seat side of the air conditioning unit 4. That is, the width W2 of the evaporator 14 is set to be equal to the width W5 of the blower unit 7 in the vehicle left-right direction, and between the end of the blower unit 7 and the vehicle body side structure 33 such as the vehicle body side wall. Is provided with a gap W6 of a predetermined size (for example, about 30 mm) for detaching and attaching the blower unit 7. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the tip surface of the foot outlet 29 is shifted toward the driver's seat by a predetermined dimension (for example, about 30 mm) W7 with respect to the tip surface of the air inlet portion 13.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
The evaporator 14 can be attached / detached using the space of W6 + W7. FIG. 6A shows a state in which the evaporator 14 is mounted,
(1) Removal of the blower unit 7, (2) Lid member 32
, And (3) insertion of the evaporator 14. This insertion work is performed in the space (W5 +
(W6 + W7), the evaporator 14 is inserted into the air conditioning case 12 from the insertion hole 31. Thereafter, the insertion hole 31 is closed by the lid member 32.

The air conditioning case 12 has a heater core 1 on the side of the passenger seat facing the side of the heater core 15.
5, an insertion hole (not shown, similar to the insertion hole 31 of the evaporator 14) is formed, and the width W4 of the heater core 15 in the vehicle left-right direction is smaller than the width W2 of the evaporator 14 by a predetermined amount. Therefore, the heater core 15 can be attached and detached through the heater core insertion hole in the same manner as the evaporator 14. Here, in the case of the heater core 15, there is no risk of water leakage, so the heater core insertion hole only needs to be closed using the tank portion of the heater core 15. Therefore, it is not necessary to close the heater core insertion hole with a lid member such as the lid member 32.

(Other Embodiments) In the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a cab-over type vehicle (truck) has been described. However, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to other types of vehicles such as passenger cars. It is. Further, in the above embodiment, the first air passage 16 through which the outside air flows and the second air passage 17 through which the inside air flows are formed to define the inside and outside air 2.
Although the air conditioner that sets the laminar flow mode has been described, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to an air conditioner that does not set the inside / outside air two-layer flow mode.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional plan view of a main part showing a vehicle mounted state according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the air conditioning unit of FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a front view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the air conditioning unit of FIGS. 1 and 2, showing a two-layer flow of internal / external air (maximum heating) in a foot mode.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a method of attaching and detaching an evaporator in the air conditioning unit of FIGS.

[Explanation of symbols]

3: Instrument panel, 4: Air conditioning unit, 7: Blower unit,
12: case, 12a to 12c: split case, 14: evaporator, 15: heater core.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An air conditioning unit (4) is arranged at a substantially central portion of a dashboard (3) in the vehicle left-right direction in front of a vehicle interior, and a blower unit (7) is provided on a passenger seat (6) side of the air conditioning unit. ), A case (12) forming an air passage of the air conditioning unit (4), and a cooling heat exchanger (14) arranged in the case (12) to cool air. The cooling heat exchanger (14) has a horizontally long shape formed so that the longest dimension thereof is directed to the left and right direction of the vehicle, and the air blown from the blower unit (7) is supplied to the cooling heat exchanger. (14) to flow from the vehicle front side to the vehicle rear side, and the blower unit (7) of the case (12).
An insertion hole (31) through which the cooling heat exchanger (14) can be pulled out is provided on the side surface of the air blower unit. An air conditioner for a vehicle, wherein the width is set to be equal to or less than the width dimension (W5) in the vehicle left-right direction of (7). 2. A heating heat exchanger (15) for heating air is disposed at a portion on the vehicle rear side of the cooling heat exchanger (14), and the heating heat exchanger (15) has a longest dimension. 2. The vehicle air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the portion has a horizontally long shape formed so as to face the vehicle left-right direction. 3. The case (12) includes a vehicle front side divided case (12a) and a vehicle rear side divided case (12b, 12c) divided in the vehicle front-rear direction. The air conditioner for a vehicle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the divided case of the rear side portion is divided into two symmetrical portions (12b, 12c).