JP2007155148A - Blade driving device for swing resistor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a blade driving device of a swing resistor capable of easily and properly reducing noise attendant on driving of a blade. <P>SOLUTION: Right and left two shape-memory alloy (SMA) coils 13R, 13L formed into the coil spring shape and contracted by electric current transit heating, are respectively connected with tip portions of right and left arm portions 12R, 12L of an oscillating arm 12 integrally oscillatably fixed to an oscillating shaft 11 of a vertical blade 10 oscillatably journaled on a duct outlet of an on-vehicle air conditioner, at one end, and fixed to a car body side at the other end. Electric current is alternately distributed to the two SMA coils 13R, 13L to swing the vertical blade 10 right and left. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a blade drive device of a swing register that changes a blowing direction from a duct outlet by swinging a blade pivotally supported at an outlet portion of a duct serving as a ventilation passage for air conditioning.

  In an air conditioner such as a vehicle, a plurality of vertical blades and horizontal blades are arranged at an air outlet that is an outlet of the ventilation path (duct), and the vertical blades are swung left and right (swinging) by an actuator to change the wind direction. A swing register to be changed is used. Conventionally, as seen in Patent Documents 1 to 4, a motor is generally used as an actuator for driving a blade of such a swing register.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a conventional swing register blade drive apparatus that employs a DC motor as an actuator for blade drive. As shown in the figure, the output shaft 50a of the DC motor 50 that generates the rotational axial force is connected to a speed reduction mechanism 51 that is configured by a plurality of gears. The final gear 51a of the speed reduction mechanism 51 is connected to a crank mechanism 52 that converts rotational motion into amplitude motion. A rod wire 54 having a rack gear 53 integrally fixed to an amplitude operation is connected to the crank mechanism 52 at the tip, and is connected to the first pinion gear 55 a via the rack gear 53. The second pinion gear 55b, which is coaxially supported by the rotation shaft of the first pinion gear 55a and is rotatably supported, meshes with a gear 56 to which the swing shaft 57a of the blade 57 is fixed so as to be integrally rotatable. Has been. The first and second pinion gears 55a and 55b are arranged in a state where they are pressed against each other by a spring, can transmit a rotational force via a frictional force, and can be manually operated by a vehicle occupant. It is configured to function as a clutch mechanism that allows relative rotation of each other during the forced swinging of 57.
Japanese Patent No. 3187719 Japanese Patent No. 3326409 JP 2002-211122 A No. 7-10188

  By the way, in a swing register that employs a motor as the conventional blade driving actuator, the operation sound of the motor, the speed reduction mechanism, etc. leaks into the vehicle interior, so the motor is covered with a sound insulation material such as rubber or the motor. In addition, sound insulation measures such as housing the speed reduction mechanism in the case have been required. As a result, there is a problem that the number of parts increases, leading to an increase in manufacturing cost and an increase in size of the apparatus.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and a problem to be solved is to provide a swing register that can more easily and accurately reduce noise associated with driving of a blade.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the invention according to claim 1, the blade of the swing register that swings the blade pivotally supported at the outlet of the air-conditioning ventilation passage so as to change the blowing direction from the outlet. In the drive device, a swing arm having an arm portion that is driven and connected to the blade so as to be swingable in synchronization with the blade and that extends in a radial direction of the swing shaft, and a distal end portion of the arm portion A shape memory alloy that is connected with one end and fixed with the other end and expands and contracts by energization heating is provided.

  In the above configuration, when the shape memory alloy expands and contracts due to energization heating, the swing arm swings due to the expansion / contraction force, and the blade connected to the swing arm so as to be able to swing synchronously swings. It becomes like this. In such a swing register blade drive device, since the blade is swung using the expansion and contraction of the shape memory alloy that does not accompany the operation sound, the noise accompanying the drive of the blade can be reduced more easily and accurately. Can do.

  Further, in the configuration according to claim 1, as described in claim 2, the end portion on the side where the shape memory alloy is fixedly installed is moved in a direction toward and away from the swing arm. If an elastic member that urges the end to the side away from the swing arm is provided, the tensile load related to the shape memory alloy is absorbed by the elastic deformation of the elastic member. . Thereby, it is possible to suppress the deterioration of the shape recovery characteristic of the shape memory alloy due to the permanent strain remaining due to the action of an excessive tensile load, and consequently the deterioration of the operating characteristic of the blade driving device. Further, it becomes possible to allow forced swinging of the blade by manual operation without applying an excessive tensile load to the shape memory alloy.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the swing drive blade drive device includes the two shape memory alloys and the two swinging arms formed in two different directions. One end of each of the two shape memory alloys is connected to the tip of each arm portion of the arm, and the swing direction of the swing arm and the other current heating by the current heating of one of the two shape memory alloys. The swinging direction of the swinging arm can be made different from each other. In this case, bi-directional swing movements such as up and down or left and right of the blade are performed by expansion and contraction of the shape memory alloy by energization heating. Therefore, it becomes possible to adjust the blade swing speed and the blowing direction more easily and accurately.

  Further, in the swing register blade driving device provided with such two shape memory alloys, if it is provided with an energization control means for alternately energizing these two shape memory alloys as described in claim 4, it is easy and It is possible to swing the blade repeatedly and periodically.

  In the swing register blade driving device having the above-described configuration, the shape memory alloy formed in the shape of a coil spring as described in claim 5 can be used. In general, a shape memory alloy formed in the shape of a coil spring can obtain a large kinematic strain, but its generated force is not so large. If a sufficient distance to the connecting portion of the memory alloy is secured, a sufficient swinging axial force can be obtained even if the generated force of the shape memory alloy is small.

  Incidentally, as the shape memory alloy employed in the blade drive device of the swing register having the above-described configuration, for example, a titanium / nickel alloy as described in claim 6 can be used.

  According to the blade drive device of the swing register of the present invention, since the blade is driven by utilizing the expansion and contraction of the shape memory alloy that does not accompany the operation sound by energization heating, the noise accompanying the drive of the blade Can be reduced more easily and accurately.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a swing register blade driving apparatus embodying the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
The blade drive device of the swing register of the present embodiment is installed at the outlet portion of the ventilation passage (duct) of the on-vehicle air conditioner, and among the vertical and horizontal blades arranged at the outlet portion, the vertical register is swung left and right. It is configured to change the air blowing direction to the passenger compartment by moving or swinging.

  In this embodiment, the swing operation of the vertical blades of the swing register is performed by utilizing the contraction of a shape memory alloy (SMA) that accompanies heating with current. Here, a titanium-nickel alloy formed in a coil spring shape is used as the shape memory alloy. In the swing register blade driving device of this embodiment that drives a vertical blade using such a coil spring-shaped shape memory alloy (SMA coil), the shape memory alloy itself does not cause any operating noise and contracts due to energization heating. Since the vertical blade is driven by using it, the noise accompanying the driving of the vertical blade can be easily and accurately reduced without taking any special measures against sound insulation. As a result, it is not necessary to install a sound insulation member, so that the blade drive device can be reduced in weight, space-saving, and the number of parts can be reduced.

  Note that the SMA coil as described above generally has a high contraction rate due to shape recovery during energization heating, and a very large operation amount can be obtained, but the force generated by the contraction is relatively small. Therefore, in the swing register blade driving device of the present embodiment, the SMA coil is connected to the tip of the arm portion of the swing arm integrally connected to the blade, so that even if the generated force of the SMA coil is small, it is large. The swinging axial force is obtained.

  FIG. 1 shows the overall structure of the swing register blade driving device of this embodiment. In the following description, in this blade driving device, the outlet side of the air passage (duct) of the in-vehicle air conditioner is described as the front of the driving device, and the opposite side is described as the rear of the driving device.

  A vertical blade 10 pivotally supported so as to swing left and right (swing operation) about a swing shaft 11 is provided with a plurality of horizontal blades (not shown) pivotally supported so as to be swingable in the vertical direction. It is arrange | positioned at the exit of the ventilation path (duct). Although omitted in the figure, in addition to the vertical blade 10 shown in the figure, a plurality of vertical blades driven and connected to the vertical blade 10 through a link mechanism are integrated and synchronized at the duct outlet. It is arranged to be swung.

  A swing arm 12 is fixed to the swing shaft 11 of the vertical blade 10 so as to be swingable integrally. That is, in the swing register blade driving device of the present embodiment, the vertical blade 10 and the swing arm 12 have a common swing shaft 11. The swing arm 12 is provided with a left arm portion 12L extending in the left direction from the swing shaft 11 and a right arm portion 12R extending in the right direction in FIG.

  The SMA coils 13L and 13R described above are connected to the distal ends of the left arm portion 12L and the right arm portion 12R, respectively. The SMA coils 13L and 13R are made of a titanium / nickel shape memory alloy formed in the shape of a coil spring, and the structure structure of the material is anisotropic so that the direction of deformation at the time of shape recovery is limited to the torsional direction. Is formed. These SMA coils 13L and 13R are softly relaxed during cooling (when not heated), and can be easily elastically stretched and deformed with a relatively small external force, and are contracted and cured by shape recovery during heating. It is like that. Further, the electric resistances of these SMA coils 13L and 13R are relatively high and can be easily heated by energization.

  Both SMA coils 13L and 13R are led out from the distal ends of the left and right arm portions 12L and 12R to which one end thereof is connected, and are disposed with their other ends fixed to the buffer mechanism 20. Has been. The buffer mechanism 20 is installed so as to absorb the load of the SMA coils 13L and 13R increased due to forced swinging of the vertical blade 10 by manual operation of the vehicle occupant, overheating due to excessive energization, and the like. By using such a buffer mechanism 20, it is possible to avoid the permanent distortion of the SMA coils 13L and 13R due to overload and to easily manually operate the vertical blade 10 without overloading the SMA coils 13L and 13R. It has become.

  Such a buffer mechanism 20 has a movable member 21 having arm portions 21L and 21R extending in the left and right directions in the figure, and both SMA coils 13L and 13R are at the tips of the arm portions 21L and 21R of the movable member 21. Each part is connected. The movable member 21 is supported by a support member 22 so as to be able to reciprocate linearly on the side close to and away from the swing arm 12, and a coil spring 23 disposed in the support member 22 in a compressed state. Is arranged in a state of being biased to the side away from the swing arm 12.

  FIG. 2 shows the electrical configuration of the blade driving device of the swing register of this embodiment. As shown in the figure, a central processing unit (CPU) 30 that controls energization control of the SMA coils 13L and 13R is electrically connected to a swing register switch provided in a vehicle interior, and an in-vehicle air conditioner. A command signal is input from an air-conditioning controller that controls the overall control. The automatic swing operation of the vertical blade 10 (see FIG. 1) by the blade driving device is permitted in accordance with the closing (on) operation of the swing register switch, and is prohibited in accordance with the opening (off) operation. The air conditioner controller controls the air conditioner by determining the air temperature and the air volume according to the detection result of the outside air and the temperature in the passenger compartment and the operation of the vehicle occupant, and swing operation of the vertical blade 10 (see FIG. 1). A mode is determined and commanded to the CPU 30.

  The CPU 30 is connected to drive circuits 33L and 33R for both SMA coils 13L and 13R. These drive circuits 33L and 33R execute energization to the corresponding SMA coils 13L and 13R based on a command from the CPU 30, respectively. In the present embodiment, the drive circuits 33L and 33R are configured to adjust the voltage supplied to the SMA coils 13L and 13R by a pulse width modulation method. Each SMA coil 13L, 13R is electrically connected to the drive circuits 33L, 33R at the end on the swing arm 12 (see FIG. 1) side, and grounded at the end on the buffer mechanism 20 side. ing.

  Now, in the swing register blade driving device of the present embodiment configured as described above, by alternately energizing the SMA coils 13L and 13R, the SMA coils 13L and 13R are alternately expanded and contracted, The swing arm 12 and thus the vertical blade 10 is swung left and right. As shown in FIG. 3, the SMA coils 13L and 13R are stretched by elastic deformation up to the elastic limit when a tensile load is applied from the outside during cooling, as shown in FIG. After that, it expands due to plastic deformation. Thereafter, when the tensile load is unloaded, the SMA coils 13L and 13R contract by the amount of elastic deformation. Here, when the SMA coils 13L and 13R, which are shape memory alloys, are energized and heated, the plastic deformation further shrinks due to the shape recovery. In addition, as such SMA coils 13L and 13R, those that can stably and repeatedly generate a motion strain of about 200% of the total length at the time of contraction have been developed and put into practical use.

  Next, an operation mode of the blade driving device of the swing register of this embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 4 (a), when only the left SMA coil 13L is energized, the SMA coil 13L heated by the energization contracts, and the contracting force causes the swing arm 12 and thus the vertical blade. 10 is swung counterclockwise in the figure. The right SMA coil 13 </ b> R in the non-heated (cooled) state at this time is extended in accordance with the swing of the swing arm 12. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4B, when only the right SMA coil 13R is energized, the SMA coil 13R heated by the energization contracts. This time, the contraction force causes the swing arm 12 and the vertical blade 10 to swing in the clockwise direction in the drawing, and the left SMA coil 13L in the cooled state is extended. Accordingly, if the left and right SMA coils 13L and 13R are alternately energized, the vertical blade 10 can be swung alternately left and right periodically. Further, if energization to either one of the left and right SMA coils 13L and 13R is appropriately continued so that the shrinkage strain rate is appropriately maintained, the swing angle of the vertical blade 10 is kept constant, and the air blowing direction from the duct outlet is changed. It can be fixed in a desired direction.

According to the swing register blade driving device of the present embodiment described above, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) In the present embodiment, the vertical blade 10 is swung by utilizing the contraction of the shape memory alloy (SMA coils 13R, 13L) that is not accompanied by an operation sound by energization heating. It is possible to more easily and accurately reduce the noise associated with the driving. As a result, it is not necessary to install a sound insulation member, and the blade drive device can be reduced in weight and space.

  (2) Since the SMA coils 13L and 13R are connected to the tip ends of the arm portions 12L and 12R of the swing arm 12 to swing the vertical blade 10, even if the generated force of the SMA coils 13L and 13R is small, A large swinging axial force is obtained, and the vertical blade 10 can be swung accurately.

  (3) Since the load related to the SMA coils 13L and 13R can be absorbed by the elastic compression of the coil spring 23 of the buffer mechanism 20, the residual permanent deformation of the SMA coils 13L and 13R due to overload is suitably suppressed. It is possible to preferably avoid the deterioration of the shape recovery characteristic, and hence the deterioration of the operation characteristic of the swing register blade driving device. This also makes it easy to force the vertical blade 10 to swing by manual operation.

  (4) Since the forced swinging of the vertical blade 10 caused by the manual operation of the vehicle occupant can be absorbed by the elongation due to the elastic deformation of the SMA coils 13L and 13R, it is adopted in the conventional blade driving device driven by a DC motor. This also makes it possible to omit a complicated clutch mechanism.

(5) The swing operation of the vertical blade 10 can be adjusted easily and accurately through the energization control of the left and right SMA coils 13L and 13R.
In the above-described embodiment, the left and right swaying of the vertical blade 10 is performed by contraction of the left and right SMA coils 13L and 13R, respectively. It is also possible to configure the blade driving device so that only the swing of 10 is performed by the contraction force of the SMA wire and the swing of the other is performed by the elastic repulsion force of the spring.

  For example, in the swing register blade driving device shown in FIG. 5, a coil spring 40 is connected to the tip of the left arm 12L of the swing arm 12 instead of the SMA coil 13L. The spring force of the coil spring 40 is set sufficiently smaller than the contraction force generated by the SMA coil 13R by energization heating. It should be noted that the movable member 21A of the shock absorber 20A employed in the swing register blade driving device is configured such that only one SMA coil 13R is connected, so that the arm portion is omitted.

  In such a swing register blade drive device, when the SMA coil 13R is contracted by energization heating, the swing arm 12 swings clockwise with the vertical blade 10 against the spring force of the coil spring 40 in the drawing. Here, when the energization is interrupted and the SMA coil 13R is cooled, the SMA coil 13R is relaxed and the swing arm 12 swings together with the vertical blade 10 in the clockwise direction by the spring force of the coil spring 40. Therefore, even in such a configuration, the vertical blade 10 can be swung as in the above embodiment. Since the vertical blade 10 swings left and right through contraction due to energization heating of the SMA coil 13R without any operating sound and expansion of the SMA coil 13R during cooling by the spring force of the coil spring 40, Similarly, it is possible to more easily and accurately reduce the noise accompanying the driving of the blade 10.

Furthermore, the said embodiment can also be changed and implemented as follows.
-The structure of the buffer mechanism 20 and 20A of the said embodiment can be changed suitably, and can also be made to function equally. For example, simply fixing the ends of the SMA coils 13L and 13R to the vehicle body side via an elastic member such as a coil spring can be used as long as the elastic member has an appropriate elastic coefficient. It is possible to suitably absorb the tensile load related to the SMA coils 13L and 13R through elastic deformation.

  ・ When the range of motion strain during operation is sufficiently small compared to the maximum range of motion strain allowed for the SMA coils 13L and 13R, and there is no possibility that the SMA coils are subjected to excessive load on the 13L and 13R. Alternatively, the buffer mechanisms 20 and 20A may be omitted, and the SMA coils 13L and 13R may be directly fixed to the vehicle body side.

  In the above-described embodiment, the vertical blade 10 and the swing arm 12 have the common swing shaft 11 and are fixed so as to be swingable integrally. The swing of the swing arm 12 may be transmitted to the vertical blade 10 by driving and connecting via a power transmission mechanism such as the above. In this case, the swinging axial force or swing angle of the swing arm 12 can be amplified and transmitted to the vertical blade 10 by setting the gear ratio or the like.

  In the above embodiment, the vertical blade 10 is swung using the SMA coils 13L and 13R, which are shape memory alloys formed in the shape of a coil spring, but instead, it is formed in another shape such as a wire shape. The vertical blade 10 can also be made to oscillate using the shaped memory alloy. In short, one end of the shape memory alloy that shrinks by energization heating is connected to the tip of the arm portions 12L and 12R of the swing arm 12 that can swing in synchronization with the vertical blade 10, and the other end is fixed. If arranged in a state, a blade drive device of a swing register capable of driving the blade with low noise can be realized.

  As long as it is a shape memory alloy that can generate a sufficiently large shrinkage amount and shrinkage force by shape recovery by energization heating, a shape memory alloy other than a titanium / nickel-based alloy may be employed as a blade drive source.

  The blade driving device for a swing register according to the present invention can also be realized as a device for swinging a horizontal blade in the vertical direction.

The top view which shows the whole structure about the blade drive device of the swing register which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. 1 is a schematic diagram schematically showing an electrical configuration of a blade driving device of a swing register according to the embodiment. The graph which shows the change aspect of the stress and distortion in the expansion-contraction cycle of the shape memory alloy (SMA) coil employ | adopted for the embodiment. (A) (b) The top view which shows typically the operation | movement aspect about the blade drive device of the swing register | resistor of the embodiment. The top view which shows typically the whole structure about the modification of the blade drive device of the swing register | resistor of the embodiment. The top view which shows typically the whole structure about the blade drive device of the conventional swing register | resistor.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Vertical blade, 11 ... Swing shaft, 12 ... Swing arm (12L, 12R ... Arm part), 13L, 13R ... Shape memory alloy (SMA) coil, 20, 20A ... Buffer mechanism (21, 21A ... Movable member , 21L, 21R ... arm portion, 22 ... support member, 23 ... coil spring (elastic member)), 30 ... central processing unit (CPU), 33L, 33R ... drive circuit, 40 ... coil spring, 50 ... DC motor, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 51 ... Reduction mechanism, 51a ... Final gear, 52 ... Crank mechanism, 53 ... Rack gear, 54 ... Rod wire, 55a ... 1st pinion gear, 55b ... 2nd pinion gear

Claims (6)

In a swing register blade drive device that changes the air blowing direction from the outlet by swinging the blade pivotally supported at the outlet of the air-conditioning ventilation passage,
A swing arm having an arm portion that is driven and connected to the blade so as to swing in synchronization with the blade and extends in a radial direction of the swing shaft;
A shape memory alloy that is installed with one end connected to the tip of the arm and fixed at the other end, and expands and contracts by energization heating,
A blade drive device for a swing register, comprising: The end on the side where the shape memory alloy is fixedly installed can be moved in a direction close to and away from the swing arm, and the end is attached to the side away from the swing arm. The swing register blade driving device according to claim 1, wherein an elastic member is provided. Two shape memory alloys are provided, and one end of each of the two shape memory alloys is provided at the tip of each arm portion of the swing arm formed to have two arm portions extending in different directions. In addition to being connected, the swinging direction of the swinging arm due to energization heating of one of the two shape memory alloys is different from the swinging direction of the swinging arm due to current heating. The blade drive device of a swing register according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The swing register blade drive device according to claim 3, further comprising energization control means for energizing the two shape memory alloys alternately. 5. The blade drive device of a swing register according to claim 1, wherein the shape memory alloy is formed in a coil spring shape. 6. The swing register blade driving device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the shape memory alloy is a titanium-nickel alloy.

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