JP2003312233A - Air passage opening/closing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent an amount of cold air flowing in a bypass passage 2a from largely changing when the bypass passage 2a is almost closed. <P>SOLUTION: A part of a sealing piece 10b is cut-out at the tip end side of an elastomer sealing piece 10b to provide a hole 10d for enabling air to flow through. In this way, when an air mix door 10 moves in the direction to close the opening part 2b, the tip end part of the sealing piece 10b contacts the inner wall part of a casing 2 first as shown by a solid line, then, the hole 10d is closed by the inner wall part of the casing 2 as shown by a two point cross-line. That is, when the bypass passage 2a is fully closed, the sealing piece 10b is closely adhered to the inner wall part of the air conditioner casing 2 to close the hole 10d. When the bypass passage 2a slightly opens, the amount of cold air is able to flow corresponding to the substantial opening area of the hole 10d to be decided by the position of the air mix door l0, which enables the temperature of the air blown into a room corresponding to the opening degree of the air mix door 10 to be precisely controlled. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air passage opening / closing device that opens and closes an air passage, and is applied to an air mix door that adjusts an air flow rate ratio (mixing ratio) between warm air and cold air in a vehicle air conditioner. And is effective.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an air passage opening / closing device, for example, in the invention described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-216676, a soft synthetic material is provided in a mold in which a door body made of hard resin is arranged. Inject a resin elastomer,
The opening / closing door is integrally molded with the seal part.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 5, the air mix door adjusts the air flow rate ratio between the warm air passing through the heater and the cold air flowing around the heater. A state in which the bypass passage 2a to flow is closed (see FIG. 5A) and slightly opened (FIG. 5B).
(See), the amount of airflow flowing through the bypass passage 2a greatly changes compared to the rotation angle of the air mix door 10, so it is difficult to control the air temperature near the maximum heating state (opening degree 100%). .

The opening of the air mix door is defined as 100% when the amount of air passing through the heater is maximum and 0% when the amount of air passing through the heater is 0. When the passage is completely closed,
The opening is 100%.

Therefore, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, a guide wall 20 for obstructing the flow of air flowing through the bypass passage 2a in the vicinity of the maximum heating state is provided so that the air flow rate in the bypass passage greatly changes in the vicinity of the maximum heating state. To prevent it.

However, according to this means, when the opening of the air mix door is reduced to increase the air volume flowing through the bypass passage, particularly during the maximum cooling operation, the guide wall 2
0 becomes ventilation resistance, which causes a problem that the air volume, that is, the cooling capacity is reduced.

In view of the above points, the present invention has a novel structure different from the above structure and prevents a large change in the air flow rate in the air passage in the vicinity of the closed air passage such as the bypass passage. With the goal.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an air passage (2) having an opening (2b) through which air circulates in the invention described in claim 1.
The casing (2) constituting a), the rigid door substrate (10a), and the hole (10d) which is provided at least at the front end side of the door substrate (10a) and through which air can flow. Elastically deformable seal piece (10
b) and a plate-like door means (10) for opening and closing the opening (2b), and when the door means (10) moves toward closing the opening (2b), first, a sealing piece (10b)
Contact the inner wall of the casing (2) and then
The hole (10d) is characterized by being closed by the inner wall of the casing (2).

As a result, when the air passage (2a) is fully closed, the seal piece (10b) is in close contact with the inner wall of the casing (2) to close the hole (10d), and the air passage (2a) is closed. When opened slightly, air flows in an amount corresponding to a substantial opening area of the hole (10d) determined by the position of the door means (10).

Therefore, it is possible to prevent the air volume flowing through the air passage from largely changing in the vicinity of the closed state of the air passage (2a) while using a new structure different from the above structure.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the seal piece (10b) is preferably made of thermoplastic elastomer.

Further, as in the invention described in claim 3, the hole (10d) may be a cutout portion in which a part of the seal piece (10b) is cut out.

Incidentally, the reference numerals in the parentheses of the above-mentioned means are examples showing the correspondence with the concrete means described in the embodiments described later.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In this embodiment, an air passage opening / closing device according to the present invention is applied to an air mix door 10 of a vehicle air conditioner, and is a schematic view of a vehicle air conditioner 1.

The air-conditioning casing 2 constitutes an air passage. On the upstream side of the air-flow of the air-conditioning casing 2, an inside air intake port 3 for sucking in the vehicle interior air and an outside air intake port for sucking the outside air. 4 and a suction port switching door 5 that selectively opens and closes the suction ports 3 and 4 is provided.

A blower 6 is arranged on the downstream side of the inlet switching door 5, and the air sucked from both the inlets 3 and 4 is blown toward the room by the blower 6. A generator 7 that serves as an air cooling unit is provided on the air downstream side of the blower 6, and all the air blown by the blower 6 passes through the evaporator 7.

A heater 8 serving as an air heating means is disposed on the air downstream side of the evaporator 7.
Heats the air using the cooling water of the engine 9 as a heat source. Then, in the air-conditioning casing 2, a bypass passage 2a that allows the air passing through the evaporator 7 to bypass the heater 8 and flow to the downstream side.
Is provided on the air upstream side of the heater 8, and an air mix door 10 for adjusting the air volume ratio of the air volume flowing through the heater 8 and the air volume flowing through the bypass passage 2a is provided.

In other words, as shown in FIG. 2A, the air mix door 10 opens and closes the bypass passage 2a, that is, the opening 2b on the inlet side of the bypass passage 2a, so that the amount of cold air flowing through the bypass passage 2a. To adjust the temperature of the air blown into the room. The details of the air mix door 10 will be described later.

On the most downstream side of the air conditioning casing 2,
As shown in FIG. 1, a face outlet 11 for blowing out conditioned air to the upper half of the passenger in the passenger compartment, a foot outlet 12 for blowing air to the feet of the passenger in the passenger compartment, and air toward the inner surface of the windshield. And a defroster outlet 13 for blowing out air.
-13 are opened / closed by blowout mode switching doors 14-16.

Next, the structure of the air mix door 10 and its function and effect will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2 (b), the air mix door 10 is a rigid rectangular plate-like door substrate 10a, an elastically deformable seal piece 10b provided on the outer peripheral side of the door substrate 10a, and The air-mix door 10 is composed of a shaft 10c that rotationally drives the air-mix door 10.

Here, the term "rigid door substrate 10a" means that the amount of bending deformation generated in the door substrate 10a is the seal piece 1.
It is sufficiently small as compared with 0b and has a sufficiently large rigidity as compared with the seal piece 10b.

Further, the seal piece 10b is the door substrate 10a.
Is integrated with the door substrate 10a by injecting a molten thermoplastic elastomer into the mold in which is disposed, and at the tip side thereof, that is, on the opposite side of the shaft 10c with the door substrate 10a sandwiched, By cutting out a part of the seal piece 10b, a hole 10d through which air can flow is provided.

Therefore, when the air mix door 10 moves toward the direction of closing the opening 2b, first, as shown by the solid line in FIG.
2a, and then the hole 10d is closed by the inner wall portion of the casing 2, as indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG.

That is, when the bypass passage 2a is fully closed and the opening is 100%, the seal piece 10b is in close contact with the inner wall portion of the air conditioning casing 2 to close the hole 10d, and when the bypass passage 2a is slightly opened, the air flow is reduced. A quantity of cold air flows according to a substantial opening area of the hole 10d determined by the position of the mix door 10.

Therefore, as shown by the solid line in FIG. 3, the temperature of the air blown into the room can be accurately controlled according to the opening degree of the air mix door 10. By the way, Fig. 3
5 is a graph showing the relationship between the opening of the air mix door and the temperature of the air blown into the room when the air mix door having the conventional structure shown in FIG. 5 is used.

In this example, the operation and effect of the present embodiment was described by taking the opening close to 100% as an example, but it goes without saying that the same effect can be obtained even in the opening close to 0%.

(Other Embodiments) The notch shape of the hole 10d, that is, the seal piece 10b is not limited to the shape shown in FIG. 2 (b), but FIG. 4 (a)-(c).
The shape may be a cutout shape as shown in FIG. 4 or a through hole shape as shown in FIG. 4D, and the shape is appropriately selected according to the required characteristics.

Further, the air passage opening / closing device according to the present invention is
The application is not limited to the air mix door 10, and it can be applied to other opening / closing means such as a window of a house.

Although the air mix door 10 is located upstream of the opening 2b in the air flow in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is also applicable to the air mix door 10 located downstream of the opening 2b in the air flow. Can be applied.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2A is an enlarged schematic view of a bypass passage portion of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2B is a front view of an air mix door.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between the opening of the air mix door and the temperature of the air blown into the room.

FIG. 4 is a front view of an air mix door according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged schematic view of a bypass passage portion of an air conditioner according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged schematic view of a bypass passage portion of an air conditioner according to a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Air mix door, 10a ... Door substrate, 10b ...
Seal piece, 10c ... Shaft, 10d ... Hole (notch portion).

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A casing (2) having an opening (2b) through which air flows and constituting an air passage (2a), a rigid door substrate (10a), and this door substrate (1).
0a) has an elastically deformable seal piece (10b) provided at least on the tip side and provided with a hole (10d) through which air can flow, and has a plate shape for opening and closing the opening (2b). A door means (10) for closing the opening (2b).
0), first, the tip of the sealing piece (10b) contacts the inner wall portion of the casing (2), and then,
An air passage opening / closing device, wherein the hole (10d) is closed by an inner wall portion of the casing (2). 2. The air passage opening / closing device according to claim 1, wherein the sealing piece (10b) is made of a thermoplastic elastomer. 3. The hole (10d) is provided with the seal piece (1).
The air passage opening / closing device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the air passage opening / closing device is a cutout portion in which a part of 0b) is cut out.