JP2830626B2 - Drain pan for indoor air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drain pan for storing water droplets generated when an indoor air conditioner is operated, and more particularly, to a drain pan provided with a plurality of discharge portions, one of which is selectively drain hose. And a drain pan in which the remaining discharge portion is sealed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an indoor air conditioner is provided with a resin case, a heat exchanger housed inside the case, a fan for blowing air, and the like. After the air in front of the case is sucked by the rotation of the fan, the air is sent forward from the outlet grill at the lower part of the front grill. In the course of this circulation, the air is cooled by the heat exchanger. At this time, the water in the intake air falls as water droplets due to the air cooling, and the water droplets are stored in a drain pan disposed immediately below the heat exchanger.

As shown in FIG. 7 , a drain pan 31 has a drain pan main body 32 formed in a gutter shape, and holes 33A, 3 formed at substantially lower portions at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the drain pan main body 32.
3B and cylindrical discharge portions 34A and 34B protruding from the holes 33A and 33B.

When the indoor air conditioner is installed on a wall, a drain hose 35 is connected to a discharge portion 34A of the two discharge portions 34A and 34B which is closer to a wall corner. The drain hose 35 extends through the wall to the outside of the room, and guides the water stored in the drain pan main body 32 to the outside of the room.

The remaining discharge portion 34B becomes unnecessary because the drain hose 35 is connected to the discharge portion 34A. For this reason, it is necessary to prevent the water stored in the drain pan main body 32 from leaking from the discharge part 34B. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 , the discharge part 34B has a substantially cylindrical rubber bottom. The cap 36 is fitted outside. By the outer fitting of the rubber cap 36, the outside and the inside of the discharge portion 34B are shut off, and the stored water is blocked at the inner bottom surface 36a.

Until the installation of the above-described indoor air conditioner, it is not known whether the drain hose 35 is connected to the left or right discharge part. Is provided. At the time of installation on a wall, a drain hose 35 is connected to the discharge portion 34A closer to the corner of the wall, and the unnecessary discharge portion 34B is covered with a rubber cap 36 to prevent leakage of stored water. -ing

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, as shown in FIG. 9 , a parting line (PL) 37 generated at the time of forming the drain pan 31 remains on the outer peripheral surface of the discharge portion 34B. . The PL 37 is connected to the discharge unit 34
Since the projection is raised from the outer peripheral surface of B, a slight gap is formed between the cap 36 and the discharge portion 34B, and the sealing performance between the two is impaired. Therefore, conventionally, the discharging unit 34
The outer peripheral surface of B was subjected to cutting and polishing to remove PL37. As a result, the number of manufacturing steps is increased, and the cost is increased.

Conventionally, the cap 36 is connected to the discharge section 3.
8B is fitted to the outer peripheral surface of the 4B.
As shown in (2), the inside of the discharge part 34B is filled with the stored water, and the stored water exists up to the tip of the discharge part 34B, that is, the inner bottom surface 36a of the cap 36.
For this reason, the inner peripheral surface of the discharge portion 34B and the inner bottom surface 36a of the cap 36 come into contact with the stored water having a lower temperature than the outside air.
And a temperature difference between the air and the outside air.
There was a risk of dew condensation on the outer surface 36b. In order to prevent this dew condensation, it is necessary to attach a heat insulating material 38 indicated by a two-dot chain line to the outer surface 36b of the cap 36. As a result, there has been a problem that the number of manufacturing steps further increases and the cost increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a reliable seal between a sealing member and a discharge portion without performing cutting and polishing on the outer peripheral surface of the discharge portion. It is another object of the present invention to provide a drain pan for an indoor air conditioner that can prevent the occurrence of dew condensation without attaching a heat insulating material to a sealing member, thereby reducing the number of manufacturing steps and cost.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is provided below a heat exchanger for cooling air from the outside of an indoor air conditioner, and is generated with the cooling of the air. A drain pan body capable of storing water droplets, and formed substantially downward at a lower portion of the drain pan body,
A plurality of cylindrical discharge portions, which already have a smooth inner peripheral surface in the molding stage, and connected to one of the discharge portions, and lead water discharged from the discharge portion to the outside of the indoor air conditioner; A drain hose connected to the drain hose, and a main body that is inserted into substantially the entire inside of the discharge unit other than the discharge unit to which the drain hose is connected. A hole is formed at the distal end of the main body toward the proximal end , and further, the proximal end of the main body is provided outside the discharge section.
A covering part that can cover the circumference is integrally formed, and the covering part is
Rolling up in the opposite direction to cover the outer circumference of the discharge section
And a sealing member that can be bent and deformed between the closed state and the closed state.

[0011]

According to the above construction, air from outside the indoor air conditioner is cooled by the heat exchanger. At this time, the water in the intake air falls as water droplets as the air cools, and the water droplets are stored in a drain pan main body disposed below the heat exchanger.

The water stored in the drain pan main body is discharged to the outside via a drain hose from one of a plurality of cylindrical discharge portions projecting substantially downward at a lower portion of the drain pan main body. You.

[0013] Further, since a sealing member is attached to the other discharge section, water stored in the drain pan main body is prevented from leaking from this discharge section. The main body of the sealing member is inserted into the discharge unit. At that time, the main unit
Do not elastically deform so that its diameter decreases as it is inserted.
It is inserted. Further, the inner peripheral surface of the discharge portion is already smooth at the molding stage, unlike the outer peripheral surface where PL occurs at the time of molding. For this reason, the sealing property between the discharge portion and the sealing member is not impaired by the protrusion such as PL.

Further, the main body is inserted almost entirely inside the discharge portion, and a seal lip is provided on the outer periphery of a substantially leading end of the main body. For this reason, the stored water is sealed by the seal lip, and the water does not spread to the tip in the discharge part. Therefore, the water stored in the drain pan main body hardly comes into contact with the inner surface of the discharge portion, and a temperature difference hardly occurs between the inside and the outside of the discharge portion.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS.
6 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the indoor air conditioner 1 has a case 2 including a front grill 3 and a rear panel 4.
And the whole is made of ABS resin. At the front part of the front grille 3, a large number of left and right intake ports 5 are formed, and at the lower part thereof, an outlet grille 6 is integrally formed.

On the rear panel 4 side inside the case 2,
A fan 7 is rotatably arranged. When the fan 7 is rotated, air is sucked in from the air inlet 5 of the front grill 3.

A heat exchanger 8 is arranged on the front grill 3 side in the case 2. The heat exchanger 8 is provided with a number of pipes (not shown), and these pipes are filled with a refrigerant such as Freon gas. Then, the refrigerant compressed by the outdoor unit (not shown) is vaporized, expanded and cooled by the pipes in the heat exchanger 8. As a result, the air sucked from the intake port 5 and passing through the heat exchanger 8 is cooled by the cooled pipe.
Then, the cooled air is sent from the outlet grille 6 to the front of the case 2 by the rotation of the fan 7.

A drain pan 9 is provided immediately below the heat exchanger 8. As shown in FIG. 3, the drain pan 9 is a drain pan body 1 having a gutter-like shape elongated in the left-right direction.
0, holes 11A and 11B formed at the lower left and right ends of the drain pan body 10, and cylindrical discharge portions 12A and 12B protruding from the holes 11A and 11B.

As shown in FIGS.
A drain hose 13 is connected to a discharge part 12A closer to a wall corner (not shown) at the time of attachment (right side in FIG. 3) during mounting. The drain hose 13 extends through the wall to the outside of the room, so that the water stored in the drain pan main body 10 can be discharged outside the room at any time.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the remaining (left side in FIG. 3) discharge portion 12B is provided with a rubber sealing member 14B.
Is installed. The sealing member 14 is connected to the discharge unit 12.
B has a cylindrical main body 15 having a diameter slightly smaller than that of B and having substantially the same length as the discharge portion 12B . Then, the substantially tip on the outer (left end in FIG. 1) I <br/> standing all around two seal lips 16 of the main body portion 15 is provided,
A hole 15a is formed in the distal end of the main body 15 in the proximal direction.
And a base end (right end in the figure) of the main body 15.
Is a covering portion 17 that can cover the outer periphery of the discharge portion 12B.
The body is formed.

As shown in FIG. 4, a heat insulating material 18 made of urethane resin or the like is adhered to the surface (particularly, the outer surface) of the drain pan main body 10.
The dew condensation on the zero surface is prevented.

Next, a method of mounting the sealing member 14 will be described. Prior to mounting the sealing member 14 on the discharge portion 12B, first, as shown by a two-dot chain line (left side) in FIG.
B is turned up in the opposite direction (left direction in the figure) to the direction covering B. While grasping the covering portion 17 by hand, the tip of the main body portion 15 is inserted into the discharge portion 12B.
At this time, since the covering portion 17 is turned up in the direction opposite to the direction in which the covering portion 17 covers the discharge portion 12B, the covering portion 17 serves as a grip portion. Therefore, the main body 15 can be easily inserted into the discharge portion 12B while holding the covering portion 17 until the tip of the main body 15 reaches the inside of the discharge portion 12B, that is, the vicinity of the hole 11B. And the main body 1
When the tip 5 is inserted until its tip reaches the vicinity of the hole 11B, the wound up covering portion 17 is bent back in the direction of the arrow in the figure. Then, as shown in FIG. 1, the discharge portion 12B is covered with the covering portion 17, and the mounting of the sealing member 14 is completed.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When the air sucked by the rotation of the fan 7 from the air inlet 5 of the front grill 3 passes through the heat exchanger 8, the heat exchanger 8 makes the air “-10 ° C. to −15” lower than the room temperature.
℃ ”. Then, the cooled air is sent from the outlet grille 6 to the front of the case 2 by the rotation of the fan 7. At this time, water in the intake air is condensed to generate water droplets as the air is cooled by the heat exchanger 8, and the water droplets are stored in the drain pan main body 10. The stored water is drained from one of the outlets 12A to the outside through the drain hose 13 at any time.

On the other hand, the other discharge portion 12B of the drain pan 9
Is provided with a sealing member 14. In this state, a slight gap is formed between the inner peripheral surface of the discharge portion 12B and the main body 15 inserted into the discharge portion 12B, but the seal lip 16 on the outer periphery of the distal end portion of the main body 15 is elastically deformed. The main body 15 and the discharge unit 1 are in close contact with the inner peripheral surface of the discharge unit 12B.
2B is sealed. For this reason, the water stored in the drain pan main body 10 is prevented from entering between the main body part 15 and the discharge part 12B.

Here, PL is generated on the outer peripheral surface of the discharge portion 12B by molding, but is not present on the inner peripheral surface. This is because the inside of the discharge portion 12B is die-cut and formed by the slide core in the embodiment of forming the discharge portion 12B and the like. For this reason, the inner peripheral surface of the discharge portion 12B is already smooth at the molding stage. In this embodiment, FIG.
As shown in the figure, the main body 15 is inserted into the discharge portion 12B, and the seal lip 16 comes into contact with the smooth inner peripheral surface. For this reason, there is no possibility that the sealing performance of the seal lip 16 is impaired even without performing cutting and polishing, and leakage of the stored water can be reliably prevented. In addition, since the cutting and polishing process is not required, the drain pan body 10 and the discharge
It is possible to reduce the number of manufacturing steps and cost when manufacturing the A and 12B.

In this embodiment, the seal lip 16 is provided on the outer periphery of the substantially end portion of the main body portion 15, and the end portion is inserted until it reaches the depth of the discharge portion 12B, that is, the vicinity of the hole 11B. For this reason, the stored water is sealed by the seal lip 16, and the water does not reach the distal end (the right side in the drawing) in the discharge portion 12B. Therefore, the cooling water hardly exists inside the discharge part 12B, and a temperature difference hardly occurs between the inside and the outside of the discharge part 12B. As a result, there is no danger of dew condensation occurring even without attaching a heat insulating material to the sealing member 14. Therefore, since the heat insulating material and the labor for attaching the heat insulating material are not required, the number of manufacturing steps and the cost can be further reduced.

Further, in this embodiment, before the sealing member 14 is attached to the discharge portion 12B, the covering portion 1 is provided.
7 is turned up in the direction opposite to the insertion direction, so that when the main body 15 is mounted, the cover 17 can be easily inserted deep into the discharge unit 12B while holding the cover 17.

In addition, in this embodiment, the seal lip 16
As a result, the space between the main body 15 and the discharge portion 12B is sealed, and the discharge portion 12B is covered with the covering portion 17, so that leakage of the stored water can be more reliably prevented. In addition, a hole 15a drilled at the tip of the main body 15
When improving the elasticity of the tip and inserting it into the discharge part 12B
The body 15 can be deformed smoothly
The sealing member 1 with the reduced diameter of the main body 15 at the time of insertion
4 can be performed more easily.

[0029] The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, specific forms appropriately without departing from the scope of the invention Ru can also be carried out as follows.

[0030]

(1) In the above embodiment, the rubber sealing member 14 is employed, but the material may be a soft material other than rubber, for example, polyvinyl chloride, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) elastomer, PU ( (Polyurethane) An elastomer may be used.

(2) In the above embodiment, the discharge units 12A, 1
Although the 2B is provided at two locations below the left and right ends of the drain pan body 10, the locations of these two discharge sections are not limited to the lower left and right ends of the drain pan body 10. Further, three or more discharge portions may be provided.

(3) In the above embodiment, the seal lip 16
Are provided at two locations at the tip of the main body 15, but may be provided at one location or at three or more locations.

[0034]

As described above in detail, according to the drain pan of the indoor air conditioner of the present invention, the gap between the sealing member and the discharge section can be reliably maintained without cutting and polishing the outer peripheral surface of the discharge section. In addition to sealing, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of dew condensation without attaching a heat insulating material to the sealing member. As a result, the number of manufacturing steps and cost can be reduced. In addition, the sealing member,
Smoothly not only elastically deformed so that the tip of the main body portion is reduced in diameter when it is inserted to a discharge portion, the insertion side of the cover portion
If it is rolled up in the opposite direction, its covering
The main body can be easily inserted deep into the discharge section while holding the
Therefore, there is an excellent effect that the mounting work on the discharge portion can be performed more easily.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a drain pan discharge portion and a sealing member of an indoor air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing an indoor air conditioner in one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a part of a drain pan in an embodiment in a cutaway manner.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a drain pan main body according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a drain pan discharge portion and a drain hose in one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a method of attaching a sealing member to a discharge portion of a drain pan according to one embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a part of a drain pan according to a conventional technique in a cutaway manner.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing a drain pan discharge section and a cap according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a drain pan discharge section according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: indoor air conditioner, 10: drain pan body , 12A, 1
2B: discharge unit, 13: drain hose, 14: sealing member,
15: body part, 15a: hole , 16: seal lip.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A drain pan body (10) disposed below a heat exchanger (8) for cooling air from outside of an indoor air conditioner (1) and capable of storing water droplets generated by cooling the air. ), And a plurality of cylindrical discharge portions (12A, 12B) formed so as to protrude substantially downward at a lower portion of the drain pan body (10) and already having a smooth inner peripheral surface in a molding step.
And water connected to one of the discharge units (12A, 12B) and discharged from the discharge unit (12A).
A drain hose (13) leading out of the container, and a discharge portion (12) to which the drain hose (13) is connected.
It has a main body (15) inserted almost entirely inside the discharge portion (12B) other than A), and a seal lip (16) is provided on the outer periphery of a substantially leading end of the main body (15).
The distal end of the main body (15) has a hole (15
a) is drilled , and the base end of the main body (15) is
A covering portion (17) capable of covering the outer periphery of the discharge portion (12B)
Are integrally formed, and the covering portion (17) is provided at the discharge portion (1).
2B) Rolled up in the opposite direction to cover the outer circumference
A drain pan for an indoor air conditioner , comprising: a sealing member (14) that can be bent and deformed between the state and the state .