JP2876778B2 - Vehicle air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioner having a function of humidifying air in a vehicle cabin.

[Background Art] In an air conditioner mounted on a vehicle, the temperature inside and outside the vehicle compartment is detected, and depending on the temperature state, a cooling air or a heating air is supplied from a vent outlet opened to the vehicle interior. It is configured to blow out. When such a vehicle interior air-conditioning control is performed, the vehicle interior temperature is controlled to a temperature state that is rich in comfort, a dehumidifying action in the vehicle interior is performed, and the vehicle interior air is dried.

When the humidity in the passenger compartment is significantly reduced in this way, the occupant may be thirsty, and the environment is not favorable for the occupant. Therefore, it has been considered to install a humidifier that humidifies the air in the vehicle, particularly in a vehicle equipped with an air conditioner.

However, when a large amount of fog such as steam is generated in the vehicle cabin, the window glass becomes cloudy especially in winter when the outside air temperature is low, which adversely affects the driving environment. Further, if it is desired to uniformly humidify the interior of the vehicle, the humidification amount increases, and the size of the humidifier and the size of a water tank for storing water for humidification must be increased. Therefore, at present, there is no humidifying means suitable for in-vehicle use for effectively humidifying the cabin.

At present, humidifiers suitable for in-vehicle use are limited in the amount of humidification, so that the humidity environment in the vehicle compartment has not been improved and thirst has not been eliminated. And even if the humidifier is actually installed in the vehicle interior, the humidification effect does not appear for the occupants, and the generated humidified air is discharged out of the vehicle as it is on the flow of air in the vehicle interior. . Therefore, in reality, there is no humidification effect.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-described points, and provides a sufficient humidifying effect for occupants together with air-conditioning control of cooling or heating, so that a living environment in a vehicle compartment can be obtained. It is an object of the present invention to provide an air conditioner for a vehicle in which the air conditioner is reliably improved.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A vehicle air conditioner according to the present invention sets a humidifier that supplies humidified air in the direction of an occupant's face in a vehicle compartment,
A control mechanism for blowing air is set at the air-conditioned air outlet, and the humidifier is provided with a means for detecting an operation state of the humidifier.Based on a signal from this detecting means, the control mechanism for the air-conditioned air outlet is controlled. In the humidification, the airflow from the air outlet toward the occupant's face is reduced more than in the non-humidification.

[Operation] In the vehicle air conditioner configured as described above, for example, in a state where the humidifier is not operated, the airflow from the outlet of the conditioned air is set to face the occupant's face. When the humidifier is operated and humidifying, for example, the direction of the wind from the outlet of the conditioned air is changed from the direction of the occupant's face, and the humidified air from the humidifier is moved in the direction of the occupant's face. It will be supplied in a concentrated manner. Therefore, even if the air in the cabin is dry, sufficient humidity is given to the occupants, and the occurrence of thirst and the like is reliably suppressed, and the humidifier has a small capacity. Even so, the living environment in the passenger compartment is effectively improved.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration, in which a humidifying means 11 is set in a vehicle interior, and humidified air is supplied from the humidifying means to an occupant. In this case, the nozzle of the humidifying unit that blows out the humidified air is set toward the face of the occupant, and the humidified air generated by the humidifying unit is configured to efficiently act on the occupant. .

The humidifying means 11 is provided with a detecting means 12 for detecting an operation state for generating humidified air.

Then, the detection signal of the operating state of the humidifying unit 11 detected by the detecting unit 12 is supplied to the air conditioner blowing air control unit 13 as a control command signal.

Such a vehicle is equipped with a normal air conditioner (air conditioner), and the air blown for cooling or heating of the air conditioner is, for example, a vent (VENT) blowout opening formed in the front of the passenger compartment. The conditioned air blown out of the mouth, for example, blown out of the vent outlet, is directed toward the occupant's face. In this case, the vent outlet is provided with a grill for determining the direction of the outlet, and is set as the vent outlet when the operating state of the humidifying unit 11 is detected by the operating state detecting unit 12. The direction of the grill is changed to reduce the flow of conditioned air directed toward the occupant's face. in this case,
It is effective that the conditioned air blown out from the vent outlet is directed, for example, toward the window glass on the side surface of the vehicle so as to prevent fogging of the window glass generated by the humidified air.

FIG. 2 shows the situation inside the passenger compartment 15 of such an air conditioner.
The humidifier 20 is provided with a nozzle 201 for discharging the humidified air at a position close to the seat of the occupant 16 toward the face of the occupant 16.

In such a vehicle, an air conditioner for cooling and heating is mounted as described above, and a front panel 17 in front of the passenger compartment 15 has a center vent located at the center thereof. The outlet 18 is set.
The left and right side vent outlets 191
And 192 are set. Each vent outlet 1
8, 191 and 192 can change the blowing direction by the operation of the occupant, but are set in the direction of the occupant, for example, in order to enhance the air conditioning effect.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the air conditioner mounted on the vehicle as described above. The air conditioner system for cooling and heating includes a blower assembly 21. The blower assembly 21 includes a blower 212 driven by a motor 211,
An air suction port is provided which includes an outside air suction port 213 communicating with the outside of the vehicle compartment and an inside air suction port 214 communicating with the inside of the vehicle compartment, and the outside air suction port 213 or the inside air suction port 214 is provided.
An intake door 215 for selecting one of the two is set. Then, when the blower 212 is driven, air is sent into the duct 22 from the suction opening selected and opened by the intake door 215.

An evaporator 23 is set upstream of the duct 22. Refrigerant compressed by a refrigerant compressor (not shown) is supplied to the evaporator 23, and constitutes a cooler unit that cools air passing therethrough. Further, a heater core 24 that constitutes a heater unit is set downstream of the evaporator 23 so as to close a part of the air passage of the duct 22. In the heater core 24, for example, cooling water of an engine mounted on the vehicle is circulated, and the cooling water heated by the engine causes the heater core 24 to cool.
The air passing through the portion is heated.

An air mix damper 25 is provided so as to open and close an area of the duct 22 where the heater core 24 does not exist, and the amount of air flowing into the heater core 24 and the amount of air passing through the heater core 24 are varied by the damper 25. So that That is, the air mix damper 25 adjusts the mixing ratio of the air heated by the heater core 24 and the amount of air cooled by the evaporator 23 without passing through the heater core 24, and the cooler unit and The temperature of the output air is controlled in accordance with the mixing ratio of the air cooled and heated by the heater unit.

The conditioned air whose temperature has been adjusted in this manner is supplied to the center vent outlet 18 and the left and right side vent outlets 191 and 192 which are set to be opened in the vehicle cabin. It is blown out. Also, the center differential (DEF) 2 set for the front glass
61, guide differential (from 262 and 263, switching damper 27
Is selectively blown out in accordance with the state of (1), and is further selected and blown out from the foot outlet 28 at the foot by the switching damper 29.

Here, grilles 311, 321 and 322 for controlling the respective blowing directions are set in the center vent outlet 18 and the side vent outlets 191 and 192. These grills are basically configured so that the blowout direction is manually set, but in particular, the side vent blowout opening is set toward the occupant.
Grills 321 and 322 of 191 and 192
The direction is switched by an actuator operated by 331 and 332.

Motor 33 for driving grills 321 and 322, respectively
1 and 332 are control circuits for detecting the operation state of the humidifier 20.
Controlled by instructions from 34. If the control circuit 34 detects that the humidifier 20 has been set to the operating state, the air blowing directions of the grills 321 and 322 of the side vent outlets 191 and 192 are set on both sides of the vehicle, respectively. Switching drive so as to be directed in the direction of the window.

The detection signal from the control circuit 34 is
A command is also given to 1 so that when the humidifier 20 is in the operating state, the rotational speed of the blower 212 is reduced so that the amount of blown conditioned air is reduced.

FIG. 4 shows a control circuit of the device constructed in this way, especially
34 shows a flow of a control operation in 34. This control circuit
34 includes a function to detect the operating state of the humidifier 20,
For example, it is configured by a microcomputer, and detects the outside temperature, the inside temperature of the vehicle, etc., and controls the air conditioner in accordance with the set value of the setting unit of the inside temperature of the vehicle. Is configured to include a function of controlling the blowout temperature.

First, in step 100, a control operation is started in response to an operation of, for example, an ignition switch of an automobile. Then, the operation state of the humidifier 20 is determined in step 101, and when it is determined that the humidifier 20 is in the operation state (ON), the process proceeds to the next step 102. In step 102, the operation mode of the air conditioner (A / C) mounted on the vehicle is determined. Specifically, it is determined whether or not the air conditioner is in the operating state and the air conditioner mode is “high level” and “vent vent”.

Here, considering the case where humidified air is output from the humidifier 20 set in the vehicle interior, the humidified air generated by the humidifier is not disturbed by the conditioned air blown out from the air conditioner. By reaching the occupant's face, a good humidifying effect can be obtained. For example, if the conditioned air is blown out from the vent outlet opening in the passenger compartment with a strong force, the flow of the humidified air generated from the humidifier 20 is disturbed, and the humidified air does not reach the occupant's face. Therefore, a sufficient humidifying effect cannot be obtained. In addition, the season in which humidification is required in the vehicle interior is mainly during the winter season in which heating operation is performed by an air conditioner. The operation mode in such a heating operation is a mode in which heating air is mainly blown out from the foot outlet 28, and an operation in a high level mode in a steady state can be considered.

The problem during humidification when the humidifier is activated is
In such a high-level mode, the vent outlet 19
A blast directed from 1,192 to the occupant. In order to make the humidification effect sufficient, it is necessary to reduce the amount of air blown from the vent outlets 191 and 192, and to prevent the blowout direction from being directed to the occupant.

For this reason, in step 102, the air conditioner mode is determined. If this mode is determined to be the “high level mode” or the “vent mode”, the next step
Proceeding to 103, the voltage supplied to the motor 211 driving the blower fan 212 is reduced. And blower fan 212
To reduce the amount of air generated.

Further, in step 104, a command is given to actuator driving motors 331 and 332 that change the air blowing directions of the grills 321 and 322, and the directions of the air blown from the left and right side vent blowout ports 191 and 192 are changed to those other than the occupants. Orientation, for example in the direction of the windows on both sides. Although the drive mechanism is not particularly shown, the direction of the grill 311 of the center vent outlet 18 is directed toward the center of the passenger compartment.

When it is determined in step 101 that the humidifier is not in the operating state, the process proceeds to step 105, and the air conditioner is set to the normal operating state. Also, even if the air conditioner is operating in step 102, the "high level mode"
Or, if it is determined that the mode is not “vent mode”,
Since the air flow from the vent outlet does not significantly affect the flow of the humidified air from the humidifier 20, step 10
Proceed to step 5 to continue the normal operation of the air conditioner.

With such a control operation, when the humidifier 20 is in the operating state, the airflow for air conditioning does not disturb the flow of the humidified air from the humidifier 20. Can be given. In particular, the humidifying operation required for the occupant can be realized with a humidifying amount that does not cause fogging of the window glass, which is a problem when the outside air temperature is low.

Here, if the turbulence of the flow of the humidified air can be sufficiently reduced by only controlling the direction of the grill set at the vent outlet, there is no need for the blower fan 212 to reduce the air-conditioning air flow. In addition, a damper mechanism that changes the air volume ratio between the center vent outlet 18 and the side vent outlets 191 and 192 is set to avoid air volume control that affects indoor air conditioning. May be reduced.

In addition, when the room temperature is low (for example, at the beginning of warm-up) in view of air conditioner control, fogging is particularly likely to occur on the window glass. In such a situation, by adding a condition for preventing the humidifier from being operated until the room temperature reaches the specified set temperature, more effective and effective humidification control can be performed.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the vehicle air conditioner of the present invention, when an air conditioner is installed in a vehicle cabin and activated,
Particularly, effective humidification control can be performed for the occupant, and humidified air can be supplied to the occupant without increasing the humidification capacity and without being obstructed by the air blown from the air conditioner. Therefore, the humidity environment in the vehicle compartment is effectively improved, and for example, when the outside air is at a low temperature in winter or the like, the fogging of the window glass can be effectively prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an air conditioner for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a situation in a vehicle cabin, and FIG. 3 is an overall configuration of the air conditioner. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of operation of the control circuit of the air conditioner. 11 ... Humidifying means, 12 ... Operation detecting means of humidifying means, 13 ...
... Air conditioner air control means, 16 ... Crew, 18 ... Center vent outlet, 191, 192 ... Side vent outlet,
20 Humidifier, 22 Duct, 23 Evaporator, 24
... heater core, 311, 321, 322 ... grill, 34 ... control circuit.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B60H 3/02

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A humidifier which is set in a vehicle interior and has a humidification air outlet so as to supply humidification air toward a direction of an occupant's face; An air-conditioned air outlet in which a wind control mechanism is set, comprising means for detecting an operation state of the humidifier and controlling a control mechanism of the air outlet, when humidifying by the humidifier, than when not humidifying. An air conditioner for a vehicle, wherein an airflow from the air-conditioned air outlet toward the occupant's face is reduced.