JP2005112266A - Air-conditioner in cargo compartment of freight vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an air-conditioner capable of efficiently circulating cold air and hot air by one unit of the air-conditioner furnished with a cooling function and a heating function. <P>SOLUTION: A blowing port change-over device 20 is attached to one unit of the air-conditioner 11 set on an upper part of a cargo compartment 7. This blowing port change-over device 20 is constituted to blow off the cold air from the upper part of the cargo compartment 7 and to blow off the hot air from a lower part of the cargo compartment 7 by switching a cold air blowing port 22a and a hot air blowing port 22b to each other by moving a change-over plate 23 built in a duct part 22, and the cold air and the hot air are respectively and efficiently circulated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an air conditioner installed in a cargo compartment of a cargo vehicle.

Depending on the type or nature of the cargo to be loaded, for example, food or the like, the cargo compartment 51 (cargo box) of the cargo vehicle M may be equipped with an air conditioner for cooling or heating the cargo compartment. . In general, this type of air conditioner 50 is attached to the front side of the upper part (ceiling 52) of the luggage compartment 51, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, so as not to sacrifice the loading space of the luggage compartment 51. Cold air C and warm air H were blown out from the position toward the rear of the cargo compartment 51. In the figure, the flow of the cold air C and the hot air H is indicated by white arrows.
However, in this blowout structure, since the cold air C and the hot air H are blown out from the vicinity of the ceiling of the cargo compartment 51 (the upper part of the cargo compartment 51), the hot air H accumulates in the vicinity of the ceiling 51 due to its nature and near the floor 53 ( There is a problem in that the heating efficiency of the cargo compartment 51 is poor as a result of being not circulated to the lower part of the cargo compartment 51). Conventionally, as a technique for solving this problem, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-115948, a cooling air conditioner is disposed near the ceiling, and the heating air conditioner is disposed near the cargo floor. And a technique for efficiently circulating both cold air and hot air in the cargo compartment.
JP-A-5-213053 JP 2000-158930 A JP 2002-115948 A

However, separately arranging the air conditioner for cooling and the air conditioner for heating as described above has a problem that not only the loading space in the luggage compartment 51 is reduced but also the cost is increased.
Therefore, the present invention provides an air conditioner integrated with an air conditioner that can efficiently circulate cold air and hot air blown from the air and manage the temperature in a cargo room with little temperature unevenness. The purpose is to do.

For this reason, this invention was taken as the air conditioner of the structure described in the column of each claim of a claim.
According to the air conditioner of the first aspect, the air blown from the air conditioner main body can be blown out by arbitrarily selecting either the direct air outlet or the indirect air outlet by the switching member of the air outlet switching device. it can. According to this, for example, when the air conditioner is installed in the upper part of the cargo compartment, the cold air is blown out directly to the upper part of the cargo compartment through the blowout port, while the hot air is blown out to the lower part of the cargo compartment through the auxiliary blowout port of the auxiliary duct. By adopting the configuration, each can be efficiently circulated in the cargo compartment, whereby the cargo compartment can be efficiently cooled or heated with a single air conditioner. In addition, when an air conditioner is installed in the lower part of the cargo room, it is configured to blow warm air directly to the lower part of the cargo room through the blowout port, and to blow cold air to the upper part of the cargo room through the auxiliary blower port of the auxiliary duct. Thus, each can be efficiently circulated in the cargo compartment, and therefore, also in this case, the cargo compartment can be efficiently cooled or heated with a single air conditioner.
For example, as described above, one of the direct outlet and the auxiliary outlet located at a position away from the outlet can be the upper part of the cargo compartment (near the ceiling) and the other can be the lower part of the cargo compartment (near the floor). .
In this way, not only cold air but also warm air can be circulated efficiently with a single air conditioner, so when the conventional air conditioner for cooling and air conditioner for heating are each installed in the cargo room Compared to the above, it is possible to efficiently cool or heat the cargo compartment without causing a large cost increase and without greatly impairing the loading space.

According to the air conditioner of the second aspect, the cold air blown out from the air conditioner main body installed in the upper part of the cargo compartment is blown out from the cold air outlet to the upper part of the cargo room, while also being blown out from the air conditioner main body. Since the warm air is blown out to the lower part of the cargo compartment through the auxiliary duct, not only cold air but also warm air can be circulated efficiently in the cargo compartment as described above. Can be efficiently cooled or efficiently heated.
According to the air conditioner of the third aspect, the air outlet switching device operates in conjunction with the mode switching on the air conditioner body side, and the air outlet is automatically selected according to the type of the air blown out. Therefore, the usability of the air conditioner can be further enhanced.
According to the air conditioner of the fourth aspect, the above-described effects can be obtained by incorporating the control circuit of the electric motor into the control device on the air conditioner main body side.
According to the air conditioner of the fifth aspect, it is possible to circulate the warm air uniformly over a wide range of the cargo compartment without greatly sacrificing the loading space.

Next, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a freight vehicle M provided with an air conditioner 10 of the present embodiment described below. The cargo vehicle M has a rectangular parallelepiped shaped cargo box 1 mounted on the rear part of the cabin 2. The inside of the cargo box 1 is a cargo compartment 7 for loading a large number of luggage. The cargo box 1 includes a top plate 3 extending rearward from the upper portion of the cabin 2, left and right side plates 4, 5, a floor plate 6, and a rear door (not shown in the figure) for opening and closing the rear opening. I have.
The air conditioner 10 of this example is attached along the lower surface of the top plate 3 at the front upper part of the luggage compartment 7. This air conditioner 10 includes a thin air conditioner body 11 having both a cooling function (cooling mode) for blowing cool air and a heating function (heating mode) for blowing warm air, and a blowing direction forward of a blowing port 11a of the air conditioner body 11. An attached outlet switching device 20 is provided. The air conditioner main body 11 is a conventionally known one and does not require any particular change in the present embodiment, so the description thereof is omitted. Conventionally, only the air conditioner main body 11 is equipped, and cold air and warm air are blown out directly from the outlet provided on the rear surface thereof directly to the rear of the cargo compartment 7. The present embodiment is characterized in that an air outlet switching device 20 is provided in the air conditioner body 11.
The air outlet switching device 20 has a function of switching the air outlet between the case where the air blown from the air conditioner body 11 is cold (cooling mode) and the case of hot air (heating mode). And a plurality of auxiliary ducts 30 to 30.
2 and 3 show details of the switching mechanism 21. FIG. The switching mechanism portion 21 includes a duct portion 22 having a box shape connected to the air outlet 11 a of the air conditioner body 11, and a switching plate 23 incorporated inside the duct portion 22. The duct part 22 is provided with a blowout port on the rear surface and the left and right side surfaces. Hereinafter, the rear outlet is referred to as a cold air outlet 22a, and the outlets on both sides are referred to as a hot air outlet 22b. The cold air outlet 22a in this embodiment corresponds to an example of a direct outlet described in the column of claim 1 of the claims, and the hot air outlet 22b corresponds to an example of an indirect outlet.

The switching plate 23 is arranged on the upstream side (left side in FIG. 3) of the cold air outlet 22a and on the downstream side (right side in FIG. 3) of the hot air outlet 22b. The switching plate 23 has a band plate shape having an area capable of closing the duct portion 22 and is rotatable between both side plates of the duct portion 22 via a support shaft 24 attached along the longitudinal direction thereof. It is supported. For this reason, when the support shaft 24 is rotated around the shaft, the switching plate 23 is rotated around the support shaft 24 in the front-back direction (left-right direction in FIG. 3). The switching plate 23 corresponds to an embodiment of the switching member described in the claims.
As shown in FIG. 2, the left end side of the support shaft 24 protrudes to the side of the left side plate of the duct portion 22 through the warm air outlet 22 b. Two tilting arms 28, 28 are fixed to the protruding portion in a parallel state with a certain distance from each other. A nut 27 is disposed between the tip portions of both tilt arms 28 and 28. A connecting hole 28a is formed at the tip of both tilt arms 28, 28, respectively. Both connecting holes 28 a, 28 a have a long slot shape that is long along the longitudinal direction of the tilting arm 28. In both the connection holes 28a and 28a, connection pins 27a and 27a provided so as to protrude laterally from both side portions of the nut 27 are inserted in a rotatable state.

The nut 27 is meshed with the screw shaft 25. The screw shaft 25 is supported on the side of the duct portion 22 so as to be rotatable around the shaft. The screw shaft 25 is rotated by an electric motor 26. By rotating the electric motor 26 forward or reverse, the screw shaft 25 also rotates forward or reverse around the axis.
For this reason, when the electric motor 26 starts in the forward direction and the screw shaft 25 rotates in the forward direction, the nut 27 moves to the right side (heating side) in FIG. When the nut 27 moves to the heating side, the support shaft 24 rotates in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. 3 by the tilting operation of the both tilting arms 28, 28, whereby the switching plate 23 rotates in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. To do. A stopper 22 c is provided at the bottom of the duct portion 22. The switching plate 23 is rotated to a position where the rotation tip side comes into contact with the stopper 22c and becomes almost upright. The upright position of the switching plate 23 is detected by a sensor (not shown), and based on this, the electric motor 26 is stopped.
When the switching plate 23 reaches the upright position, the cold air outlet 22a of the duct portion 22 is closed.
On the other hand, when the electric motor 26 is activated to the reverse side and the screw shaft is reversely rotated, the nut 27 is moved to the left side in FIG. 3 and both the tilting arms 28 and 28 are tilted in the clockwise direction. Rotates in the clockwise direction, and the switching plate 23 moves to a position indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. When the switching plate 23 moves to a position along the top plate 3 as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 3, the cold air outlet 22a of the duct portion 22 is opened.

The rotation direction of the electric motor 26 is controlled according to the operation mode of the air conditioner body 11. That is, when the air conditioner body 11 is switched to the cooling mode, the electric motor 26 is started in the reverse direction in conjunction with this, and the switching plate 23 moves to the position (open position) indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. As a result, the cold air outlet 22a is opened. For this reason, in a state where the air conditioner main body 11 is switched to the cooling mode, the cold air blown out from the air outlet 11a is blown out directly from the cold air outlet 22a toward the rear of the cargo compartment 7 through the duct portion 22. . The cool air blown out from the cool air outlet 22a located near the ceiling of the cargo compartment 7 toward the rear in the cargo compartment 7 is gradually circulated downward due to its nature, and thereby the interior of the cargo compartment 7 is efficiently cooled. .
On the other hand, when the operation mode of the air conditioner main body 11 is switched to the heating mode, the electric motor 26 rotates in the forward rotation direction in conjunction with this, whereby the switching plate 23 is moved to the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. ) To close the cold air outlet 22a. For this reason, in the state where the air conditioner main body 11 is switched to the heating mode, the warm air is not blown out from the air outlet 22a. In this case, the warm air blown from the air outlet 11a of the air conditioner main body 11 blows to the switching plate 23, and then the left and right warm temperatures provided on the front side (left side in FIG. 3) of the switching plate 23 in the blowing direction. The air is blown into the air outlets 22b and 22b.

Auxiliary ducts 30 to 30 are connected to the hot air outlets 22b and 22b. The auxiliary duct 30 is piped along the width-direction auxiliary ducts 31, 31 connected to both hot air outlets 22 b, 22 b of the duct portion 22 and the left and right corners on the upper side of the cargo compartment 7, and the width-direction auxiliary duct 31. Are connected to the front and rear auxiliary ducts 32 and 32, and height auxiliary ducts 33 to 33 piped from the front and rear auxiliary duct 32 along the left and right side walls 4 and 5 of the luggage compartment 7. In each of the left side and the right side of the luggage compartment 7, the width direction auxiliary duct 31, the longitudinal direction auxiliary duct 32, and the height direction auxiliary ducts 33 to 33 are communicated with each other. The height direction auxiliary duct 33 is piped toward the floor surface 6 from three locations including a front portion, a substantially central portion, and a rear portion of the front and rear direction auxiliary duct 32. A large number of blowing holes 33 a to 33 a are formed in the lower part of each height direction auxiliary duct 33.
The hot air blown from the air conditioner main body 11 in the heating mode blows against the switching plate 23 as described above, and then blows into the width direction auxiliary ducts 31 and 31 through both hot air blowing ports 22b and 22b. The warm air blown into the width direction auxiliary duct 31 is blown into the height direction auxiliary ducts 33 to 33 through the front and rear direction auxiliary duct 32. The warm air blown into each height direction auxiliary duct 33 is blown out from the blow holes 33a to 33a to a low position near the floor board 6. The warm air blown out from each blowing hole 33a gradually rises due to its nature, and as a result, the entire interior of the cargo compartment 7 is uniformly warmed.

According to the air conditioner 10 of the present embodiment configured as described above, when the air conditioner body 11 is switched to the cooling mode, the switching plate 23 of the outlet switching device 20 is rotated to the open position side in conjunction with this. Thus, the cold air outlet 22a is opened. For this reason, the cold air C blown from the air outlet 11 a of the air conditioner body 11 is directly blown into the cargo compartment 7 through the cold air outlet 22 a located at the upper part of the cargo compartment 7. The cold air C blown out to the upper part of the cargo compartment 7 is gradually circulated downward due to its nature, and the entire cargo compartment 7 is thereby efficiently cooled.
When the air conditioner main body 11 is switched from the cooling mode to the heating mode, the electric motor 26 is started in conjunction with this, whereby the switching plate 23 is rotated around the support shaft 24 from the open position and is substantially turned. It moves to the closing position where it stands upright, and thereby the cold air outlet 22a is closed. For this reason, the warm air H blown from the air outlet 11a of the air conditioner main body 11 blows to the switching plate 23, and then passes through the left and right hot air outlets 22b and 22b, and the auxiliary ducts 31 and 31 in the width direction of the auxiliary duct 30. Flow into. The hot air H flowing into the width direction auxiliary ducts 31, 31 flows into the front / rear direction auxiliary duct 32, and then blows out into the luggage compartment 7 from the blowing holes 33 a to 33 a via the height direction auxiliary ducts 33. . Since each blowing hole 33a is provided in the lower part of the height direction auxiliary duct 33, as a result, the warm air H is blown out to a low position of the cargo compartment 7. The hot air H that has been blown out is circulated upward due to its nature, whereby the entire cargo compartment 7 is efficiently heated.
Thus, according to the air conditioner 10 of this embodiment, one air conditioner main body 11 and its outlet 11a are installed in the upper part (near the top plate 3) of the luggage compartment 7 and blown out from the air conditioner main body 11 The cool air C thus circulated downward from the high position of the cargo compartment 7, while the hot air H is circulated upward from the low position of the cargo compartment 7 via the auxiliary duct 30. From this, not only the cool air C but also the warm air H can be efficiently circulated in the cargo compartment 7 by the single air conditioner main body 11, so that the air conditioner for cooling and the heater for heating can be conventionally used. The interior of the cargo compartment 7 can be efficiently cooled and heated without causing a significant increase in cost as in the case of separately installing an air conditioner, and without greatly reducing the loading space of the cargo compartment 7. Can do.

Various modifications can be made to the embodiment described above. For example, the switching plate 23 is illustrated as an example of the switching member, and the structure in which the blowout port is switched by rotating the switching plate 23 is illustrated. However, instead of this, a flexible cloth material is used as a curtain. It is good also as a structure which integrates in the duct part 22 so that opening and closing is possible, and switches an outlet by opening and closing this using an electric motor as a drive source.
In addition, the configuration in which the switching plate 23 is rotated using a screw shaft that is rotated by the electric motor 26 is exemplified. However, for example, the stepping motor is directly connected to the support shaft 24 to control the rotation angle of the stepping motor. The plate may be rotated between the closed position and the open position.
Furthermore, a shutter that opens and closes the cool air outlet 22a and a shutter that opens and closes the hot air outlets 22b and 22b are provided separately, and the opening and closing operations of both the shutters are controlled in accordance with the operation mode of the air conditioner body 11. Thus, it is possible to more efficiently blow out the cold air and the hot air. In this case, both shutters correspond to the switching member described in the claims.

In addition, the air conditioner 10 is installed in the upper part of the cargo compartment 7, and cool air is blown out directly from the cold air outlet 22 a to the upper part of the cargo compartment 7, and the warm air is blown out to a lower position of the cargo compartment 7 through the auxiliary duct 30. Although illustrated, it is good also as a structure which installs the air conditioner 10 in the lower part of the luggage compartment 7, blows out warm air directly to the low position of the luggage compartment 7, and blows off cool air from the high position of the luggage compartment 7 via an auxiliary duct. In this case, contrary to the above-described operation, the switching plate 23 is moved to the open position when the air conditioner body 11 is in the heating mode, and the switching plate 23 is moved to the closed position in the cooling mode. Auxiliary ducts 32, 32 are piped along the vicinity of the corners of the floor plate 6 and the side plates 4, 5, and the height direction auxiliary duct is raised upward along the side plates 4, 5 from the longitudinal auxiliary duct. You just have to pipe. In this case, warm air is blown out from the cold air outlet 22a, and cold air is blown into the width direction auxiliary duct from the hot air outlet 22b.
From the above, the air conditioner 10 according to the present invention is installed in the upper part and the lower part of the luggage compartment 7 by switching the operation (control circuit) of the electric motor 26 with respect to the operation mode of the air conditioner body 11. It can be applied to any of the cases.

It is a figure which shows embodiment of this invention, and is the perspective view which looked at the freight vehicle from the left rear. In this figure, the state seen through the inside of the cargo compartment is shown. It is a perspective view of a blower outlet switching device. It is a side view of a blower outlet switching device. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the blower outlet switching device in a state where the cold air blower opening is opened. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the blower outlet switching device in a state where the cold air blower is closed. It is a perspective view of the freight vehicle provided with the conventional air conditioner.

Explanation of symbols

M ... Cargo vehicle 1 ... Cargo box 2 ... Cabin 3 ... Top plate 4 ... Left side plate 5 ... Right side plate 6 ... Floor plate 7 ... Cargo compartment 10 ... Air conditioner 11 ... Air conditioner body, 11a ... Air outlet 20 ... Air outlet switching device DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 21 ... Switching mechanism part 22 ... Duct part 22a ... Cold air blowing port, 22b ... Hot air blowing port, 22c ... Stopper 23 ... Switching plate 24 ... Support shaft 25 ... Screw shaft 26 ... Electric motor 27 ... Nut, 27a ... Connecting pin 28 ... tilting arm, 28a ... connecting hole 30 ... auxiliary duct 31 ... width direction auxiliary duct 32 ... longitudinal direction auxiliary duct 33 ... height direction auxiliary duct, 33a ... blowout hole 50 ... conventional air conditioner

Claims (5)

An air conditioner equipped in a cargo compartment of a cargo vehicle and capable of blowing cold air and hot air into the cargo compartment,
A blower switching device is provided in front of the blowout direction of the blowout of the air conditioner body,
The air outlet switching device is connected to the direct air outlet located in front of the air outlet of the air conditioner body, the indirect air outlet located behind the direct air outlet, and the indirect air outlet. An auxiliary duct having an auxiliary outlet at a position away from the direct outlet, a state in which the direct outlet is closed and the wind is blown into the auxiliary duct through the indirect outlet, and the direct outlet An air conditioner in a cargo compartment of a cargo vehicle, comprising a switching member for opening and switching the wind to a state where the wind is blown directly from the outlet. An air conditioner that is installed in the upper part of the cargo compartment of a cargo vehicle and can blow out into the cargo compartment by switching between cold air and hot air,
A blower switching device is provided in front of the blowout direction of the blowout of the air conditioner body,
The air outlet switching device includes a cold air outlet that opens into the cargo compartment and blows out the cool air blown from the air outlet of the air conditioner main body directly to the upper portion of the cargo compartment, and is located behind the cold air outlet in the air outlet direction. A hot air outlet that is located, an auxiliary duct that is connected to the hot air outlet and has an auxiliary outlet at the bottom of the cargo compartment, and hot air blown from the main body outlet that closes the cold air outlet. A switching member for switching between a state of blowing into the auxiliary duct through the hot air outlet and a state of opening the cold air outlet and blowing out the cold air blown from the main body outlet from the cold air outlet. An air conditioner in the cargo compartment of a cargo vehicle.   3. The air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein the switching member is configured to operate in conjunction with switching between a cooling mode and a heating mode of the air conditioner body.   4. The air conditioner according to claim 3, wherein the switching member operates using an electric motor as a drive source, and the operation of the electric motor is interlocked with switching between the cooling mode and the heating mode of the air conditioner body. apparatus.   The air conditioner according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the auxiliary duct is connected to the width direction auxiliary duct from both sides of the outlet switching device to both side walls of the cargo room, and the width direction auxiliary duct. A front-rear direction auxiliary duct extending in the front-rear direction, and a vertical direction auxiliary duct extending vertically from the front-rear direction auxiliary duct along the side wall of the cargo compartment, and the wind blown from the outlet switching device The air conditioner in the cargo compartment of the cargo vehicle that is configured to blow out from the tip of the car.

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