JP2002234331A - Vehicular air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicular air conditioner that can prevent a drop in cooling capacity. SOLUTION: The vehicular air conditioner comprises a casing 41 forming a passage of air, a blower 21 for feeding air into the casing 41, and an evaporator 30 disposed in the casing 41. Between the blower 21 and the evaporator 30, a plurality of partition plates 49 are disposed to divide the air passage vertically.

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 a vehicle, and more particularly to a structure of an air conditioner unit having an evaporator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A vehicle air conditioner capable of providing a comfortable cabin environment for an occupant by air-conditioning the interior of a vehicle such as an automobile is an air conditioner including a blower fan, an evaporator, a heater core, and various dampers. A conditioning system, a refrigerant system for supplying low-temperature and low-pressure liquid refrigerant to an evaporator in the air-conditioning unit, a heating source system for introducing high-temperature engine cooling water to a heater core in the air-conditioning unit, and a temperature, humidity, solar radiation and The control unit controls the operation of the air conditioner for a vehicle in accordance with various conditions such as occupant preferences.

The air conditioning unit 1 shown in FIG.
00 is the inside / outside air box 10, the blower unit 20, the evaporator 3
0, the heater core 40 is integrated. In the case of a general sedan type passenger car, the air conditioning unit 100 is arranged below the dashboard on the passenger seat side.
Hereinafter, the configuration of the air conditioning unit 100 will be briefly described in the order of air flow.

[0004] The first inside / outside air box 10 is a part having a function of selecting either the outside air a (air outside the vehicle compartment) or the inside air b (air inside the vehicle interior). By operating a damper (not shown), air to be introduced (hereinafter, referred to as introduced air) is selected as either one. A blower unit 20 is provided downstream of the inside / outside air box 10.
Are connected to each other, and the outside air a or the inside air b is sucked by the operation of the blower fan 21 to be described later.
It has a function to blow air to

[0005] Evaporator 30 and heater core 40
Are both arranged in the casing 41. The evaporator 30 has a function of cooling and dehumidifying the introduced air blown from the blower unit 20. The evaporator 30 receives a supply of a low-temperature and low-pressure liquid refrigerant from a refrigerant system during a cooling operation and exchanges heat with the passing introduced air to cool and dehumidify. The heater core 40 can heat the passing air by supplying warm water from an engine as a heating source. By adjusting the amount of air passing through the heater core 40 by the air mix damper 48, the temperature of the conditioned air can be controlled. The casing 41 is provided with a defrost air outlet 44, a face air outlet 45, and a foot air outlet 46. Each of the air outlets is provided with a defrost damper 44a, a face damper 45a, and a foot damper 4 respectively.
6a is attached.

[0006]

Here, since the face outlet 45 and the defrost outlet 44 are provided in the upper part of the casing 41, the air mixing damper is controlled as shown in FIG. Are not passed through the heater core 40, the air flow passes over the upper part of the evaporator 30 as shown by the arrow shown in FIG. That is, the evaporator 3
Since the amount of air passing through the lower part of the evaporator 30 is reduced, there is a problem that the cooling capacity of the evaporator 30 is reduced. Further, there is a problem that the flow velocity becomes high in the upper part of the evaporator 30 where the air flow is biased, and the condensed water condensed in the evaporator 30 is scattered by the air flow.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle air conditioner that can prevent a decrease in cooling capacity.

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an air conditioner for a vehicle, comprising: a casing forming an air flow path;
A blower for sending air into the casing; and an evaporator disposed in the casing. It is characterized in that a plurality of partition plates for partitioning the flow path in the width direction are provided.

In the present invention, since the partition plate is provided upstream of the evaporator, the air flow is guided by the partition plate and flows into the evaporator. For this reason, it is possible to prevent an uneven flow of the airflow into the evaporator, which is caused by the influence of the downstream of the evaporator on the upstream side.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the vehicle air conditioner according to the first aspect, the partition plate is formed integrally with the casing.

According to the present invention, an increase in the number of assembly steps due to the provision of the partition plate can be prevented.

[0012]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Hereinafter, an embodiment of a vehicle air conditioner according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 are views showing the configuration of a vehicle air conditioner according to the present invention. This vehicle air conditioner is a vehicle air conditioner (hereinafter, air conditioner unit) that performs air conditioning such as cooling and heating. 1A, a refrigerant system 2 for supplying a refrigerant to the air-conditioning unit 1A during a cooling operation, a heating source system 3 for supplying an engine cooling water as a heat source to the air-conditioning unit 1A during a heating operation, and operation control of the entire apparatus. The control unit 4 is provided.

As shown in FIG. 1, the air conditioning unit 1A includes an inside / outside air box 10, a blower section 20, an evaporator 30,
The heater core 40 is integrated. Hereinafter, the air conditioning unit 1A will be described in the order of air flow.

In FIG. 1, the first inside / outside air box 10 selectively switches the air introduced into the air conditioning unit 1A to either the outside air a or the inside air b by an inside / outside air switching damper (not shown). I have.

The blower unit 20 is provided downstream of the inside / outside air box 10 and is connected to the outside air a by the operation of the blower fan 21.
Alternatively, it has a function of selectively sucking the inside air b and blowing it to an evaporator 30 described later. When the outside air a is introduced while the vehicle is traveling, the outside air a, which is the traveling wind, can flow to the evaporator 30 even when the blower fan 21 is stopped.

A plurality of partition plates 49 are provided between the blower and the evaporator as described later. The evaporator 30 and the heater core 40 are horizontally arranged in a casing 41 forming a horizontal air flow path. The evaporator 30 has a function of cooling and dehumidifying the introduced air sent from the blower unit 20. The evaporator 30 is connected to a refrigerant system 2 described later during cooling operation.
, And heat is exchanged between the introduced air blown from the blower unit 20 and passing through the evaporator 30 and the liquid refrigerant. As a result, the introduced air is deprived of heat by the refrigerant and becomes cooled and dehumidified cold air,
It is guided to a heater core 40 described later.

The heater core 40 can heat the passing air by supplying hot water from an engine as a heating source. The temperature of the conditioned air can be controlled by adjusting the amount of air passing through the heater core 40 by the air mix damper 48. Between the evaporator 30 and the heater core 40, there is provided a partition member 50 that rises from the lower surface of the casing 41 to substantially the center in the height direction. The air mix damper 48 is provided rotatably about a substantially horizontal rotation shaft 48a facing the width direction of the casing 41, and the tip end portion 48b swings,
It comes into contact with and separates from the partition member 50. When the air mix damper 48 and the partition member 50 are in contact with each other, the air mix damper 48 and the partition member 50 prevent air from flowing into the heater core 40. The air mix damper 48 is rotated to separate the partition member 5.
As the distance from zero increases, the amount of inflow into the heater core 40 increases.

The casing 41 is provided with a defrost outlet 44, a face outlet 45, and a foot outlet 46, and each outlet has a defrost damper 4 respectively.
4a, a face damper 45a and a foot damper 46a are attached.

Since the face outlet 45 and the defrost outlet 44 are provided on the upper portion of the casing 41, the air that has passed through the evaporator 30 by bringing the air mix damper 48 into contact with the partition member 50 as shown in FIG. When the airflow is prevented from flowing into the heater core 40, the airflow passes upwardly, as shown by the arrow in the drawing. Therefore, the effect of this bias is the evaporator 30
A plurality of partition plates 49 are provided between the blower fan 21 and the evaporator 30 to divide the air flow path in the vertical direction so as not to reach the upstream side. This partition plate 49
In the first embodiment, the horizontal air flow path from the inlet of the casing to the evaporator is divided in the vertical direction, and the air flows are allowed to flow into the evaporator 30 in an independent state. This partition plate 49 is formed integrally with the casing 41.

Next, the structure of the refrigerant system 2 will be described with reference to FIG. The refrigerant system 2 supplies a low-temperature and low-pressure liquid refrigerant to the evaporator 30, and includes a compressor 51, a condenser 52, and an expansion valve 53. The compressor 51 compresses the vaporized low-temperature and low-pressure gas refrigerant by removing heat in the vehicle interior by the evaporator 30 and sends it to the condenser 52 as a high-temperature and high-pressure gas refrigerant. In the case of an air conditioner for a vehicle, the compressor 51 receives driving force from the normal engine 54 via a belt and a clutch. The condenser 52 is disposed in front of the engine room 6 and cools a high-temperature and high-pressure gas refrigerant supplied from the compressor 51 with outside air to condense and liquefy the gaseous refrigerant. The liquefied refrigerant is sent to a receiver (not shown) to separate gas and liquid, and then sent to the expansion valve 53 as a high-temperature and high-pressure liquid refrigerant. The expansion valve 53 decompresses and expands the high-temperature and high-pressure liquid refrigerant to produce a low-temperature and low-pressure liquid (mist-like) refrigerant and supplies the refrigerant to the evaporator 30. The expansion valve 53 is generally installed together with the evaporator 30.

Next, the configuration of the heating source system 3 will be briefly described with reference to FIG. The heating source system 3 includes a heater core 40
To supply high-temperature engine cooling water as a heat source to
A part of the engine cooling water system circulating between the engine 54 and the radiator 55 is introduced into the air conditioner.

Finally, the configuration of the control unit 4 will be briefly described with reference to FIG. The control unit 4 controls the operation of the air conditioning unit 1A, the refrigerant system 2, and the heating source system 3 which constitute the air conditioning apparatus. It is installed and installed in the center of the instrument panel. The control unit 4 can perform switching operation of the inside / outside air switching damper, selection switching of various operation modes by opening / closing operation of dampers, switching of the air volume of the blower fan 21, and desired temperature setting operation.

In the vehicle air conditioner thus configured, by driving the blower fan 21, the outside air a
Alternatively, the inside air b is introduced into the casing 41 from the inside / outside air box 10 and sent to the evaporator 30. Evaporator 3
The introduced air flowing through the inside of the heat exchanger 0 exchanges heat with the low-temperature low-pressure refrigerant supplied from the refrigerant system 2 to be cooled and dehumidified, and further flows to the heater core 40 on the downstream side.

The introduced air sent to the heater core 40 is heated when passing through the heater core 40. Further, downstream of the heater core 40, air is distributed to each of the air outlets 44, 45, and 46 in accordance with the operation mode and is blown into the vehicle interior.

The air-conditioning temperature is determined by the rotation angle of the air mix damper 48. FIG. 1 shows a state in which the air mix damper 48 is brought into contact with the partition member 50 so that the air that has passed through the evaporator 30 does not flow into the heater core 40 (that is, the air conditioning temperature is minimized). Thus, the air that has passed through the evaporator 30 is
When the airflow is blocked, the airflow is deflected upward as shown by the arrow in the figure. In this example, since the partition plate 49 is provided between the blower fan 21 and the evaporator 30, the bias of the air flow downstream of the evaporator 30 is prevented from reaching the upstream of the evaporator 30. That is, since the air flow flows into the evaporator 30 without bias, a decrease in the cooling capacity can be prevented. Further, since the air flow is prevented from being biased and the flow speed is prevented from rising, it is also possible to prevent the condensed water of the evaporator 30 from being scattered. Furthermore, since the partition plate 49 is formed integrally with the casing 41, an increase in the number of assembling steps due to the provision of the partition plate can be prevented, and the vehicle air conditioner can be easily manufactured.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the air in the casing 41 is deflected vertically in the downstream of the evaporator 30 is not limited. That is, the direction in which the partition plates 49 are arranged may be arranged in a direction in which the deviation occurs. That is, in the case of the above example in which the drift occurs in the vertical direction, the partition plate 49 may be provided in the vertical direction, and when the drift occurs in the horizontal direction, the partition plate 49 may be provided in the horizontal direction. .

[0027]

As described above, the following effects can be obtained in the vehicle air conditioner of the present invention. According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the partition plate is provided between the blower fan and the evaporator, the bias of the air flow downstream of the evaporator is prevented from reaching upstream of the evaporator. That is, since the air flow flows into the evaporator without bias, a decrease in the cooling capacity can be prevented. In addition, since the air flow is prevented from being biased and the flow velocity is prevented from rising, it is possible to prevent the condensed water of the evaporator from being scattered. According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the partition plate is formed integrally with the casing, an increase in the number of assembly steps due to the provision of the partition plate can be prevented, and the vehicle air conditioner can be easily manufactured. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing a vehicle air conditioner shown as one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an engine room of an automobile showing an outline of a configuration and an arrangement of an air conditioner for a vehicle.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an installation example of the vehicle air conditioner as viewed from the passenger compartment side.

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view showing a conventional vehicle air conditioner.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 21 blower fan 30 evaporator 41 casing 40 heater core 44 defrost outlet 45 face outlet 46 foot outlet 49 partition plate

Claims (2)

[Claims] A casing that forms an air flow path, a blower that sends air into the casing, and an evaporator disposed in the casing, wherein the air is provided between the blower and the evaporator. An air conditioner for a vehicle, comprising: a plurality of partition plates that partition the air flow channel in a width direction at a predetermined interval perpendicular to a flow channel direction. 2. The vehicle air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the partition plate is formed integrally with the casing.