JP2973694B2 - Automotive air conditioners - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner for a vehicle for cooling and heating the interior of a vehicle. More specifically, the present invention relates to an automotive air conditioner in which airflow is controlled by a film-shaped damper.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is known that an air conditioner for a vehicle uses a film-shaped damper 100 to control an air flow by moving a position of an opening 101 formed in the damper 100. When such a film-shaped damper is used, a photodetector 102 such as a phototransistor is used in order to always feed back the position where the opening 101 is located. FIG. 2 shows this example, in which a plurality of openings 103 are formed in the film damper 100.
The position is detected based on whether or not faces the light detection element 102.

In the example shown in FIG. 2, two photodetectors 102 are used, and only the outermost opening 103a of the openings 103 is an elongated hole. Therefore, only when the film damper 100 is maximally displaced, the two light detecting elements 102 are simultaneously opposed to the long hole 103a, and when the two light detecting elements simultaneously detect light through the long hole 103a, the film is detected. It can be seen that the damper 100 is in the maximum displacement state.

[0004] However, in the configuration shown in FIG. 2, when the film damper 100 is at the intermediate position, only one of the light detection elements 102 detects light through the opening 103. Thus, although the state of the intermediate position can be detected, if the film damper 100 fluctuates due to the vibration of the automobile and the like once detected, the fluctuation of the film damper 100 can be detected. It was a structure that could not detect whether it moved in the direction.

Therefore, in the film damper of the example shown in FIG. 2, the film damper 100 must be moved to a predetermined position again only by moving the film damper 100 to the outermost end again to perform alignment.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been devised in view of the above points, and even when the damper is displaced in a state where the film damper is fixed at an intermediate position, the damper can be moved in either direction. It is an object of the present invention to be able to accurately judge whether or not it has shifted.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, a pair of photodetectors is provided, and a light transmitting portion of the photodetectors is formed so that the pair of photodetectors can simultaneously face each other.

[0008]

Therefore, in the present invention, the position of the film damper can be determined by the two photodetectors facing the light transmitting portion at the same time. When the stopped film damper is displaced by some external force, the light transmitting portion does not face one of the pair of photodetectors. At this time, it is determined which photodetector has stopped facing. By doing so, the direction of displacement of the film damper can be detected.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 202 denotes an air-conditioning case disposed below a front grill at a front portion of a vehicle compartment. In this case 202, an evaporator 200 for evaporating the refrigerant to remove the heat of vaporization from the air and cool the air, and a heater core 201 for heating the air using the cooling water temperature of the engine for driving the vehicle are arranged. .

[0010] Further, a fan case 203 is connected to the case 202 on the upstream side thereof so that the inside air or outside air selected by an inside / outside air switching damper (not shown) is supplied to the evaporator 200 side by a blower 204. Has become. The case 200 has an upper outlet 207 for blowing air toward the head and chest of the occupant, a differential outlet 208 for blowing warm air toward the front and side window glasses, and warm air at the feet of the front passenger. A front-side heat outlet 210 that blows out toward the rear, and a rear-side heat outlet 209 that blows warm air toward both feet of a rear passenger are open. Further, inside the case 202, film-like dampers 205 and 21 are provided.
1 is arranged. The dampers 205 and 211 are wound and unwound by motors 206 and 212, respectively, and slide in the longitudinal direction. Film damper 2
11 functions as an air mix damper, and the evaporator 200
Flow of the cool air cooled by the heater core 201 to the heater core 201 and the bypass flow path 21 for bypassing the heater core 201.
Blown into the air stream flowing to 3. By appropriately controlling the two flows, a predetermined temperature can be obtained.

On the other hand, the film damper 205 functions as a mode switching damper, and opens and closes the above-described upper outlet 207, differential outlet 208, and heat outlets 210 and 209.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of the winding section of the film damper. The motor 212 has a film damper 211 (20
5) arranged in the rotation shaft 214. Accordingly, the rotation shaft 214 rotates in accordance with the rotation 212 of the motor, and accordingly, the film damper 211 (205) whose end is fixed to the fin 215 is wound up and rewinded around the rotation shaft 214.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the film damper 205 taken out. Thus, the film damper 2
In 05, openings 216 and 217 are formed so as to open to the respective mode outlets 207, 208 and 210. The direction of air flow is controlled by which mode outlet the film damper 205 faces. Further, a plurality of long grooves 230 are formed at the end of the film damper 205 along the moving direction of the film damper 205. A pair of photodetectors 231 and 232 are arranged at positions facing the long groove 230. The light detecting elements 231 and 232 have a light emitting section 233 on one side and a light receiving section 234 on the other side. And the light emitting unit 233
When the light emitted by the sensor is detected by the light receiving unit 234 through the opening 230, a signal is output. FIG.
This figure shows the relationship between the light detecting elements 231 and 232 and the opening 230. The pair of light detecting elements 231 and 232 are arranged so as to be able to face the opening 230. Therefore, by detecting the state in which the two photodetectors 231 and 232 have both output signals, the film damper 2 is detected.
05 can be determined. That is, the film damper is displaced to the end in advance, and the value is input as an initial value.
The current position of the film damper 205 can be known.

However, the motor is stopped and the film damper 2 is stopped.
Even in a state in which the film damper 05 is fixed, the film damper 205 may be slightly displaced by the vibration of the automobile or the air blow from the blower 204. FIGS. 6 and 7 show the displaced state of the film damper. As shown in FIG. 6, when the film damper is displaced rightward, the photodetector 231 still outputs a signal, but the photodetector 232 stops outputting a signal. As a result, since the light detection element 232 stops outputting a signal in the left direction in the figure, it can be determined that the film damper 205 has been displaced in the right direction in the figure.

Conversely, when the film damper is displaced to the left as shown in FIG. 7, the photodetector 231 located on the right in FIG. 7 does not output any signal. Therefore, it can be determined that the film damper 205 has been displaced to the left in the figure due to the stoppage of the output of the light detection element 231 on the right side.

However, in this embodiment, since all the openings 230 are elongated holes, it is more difficult to determine the outermost end position than in the example shown in FIG. That is, the pair of photodetectors 23
Even if the apertures 1 and 232 face the opening 230 at the same time, it cannot be determined whether the aperture is located at the middle position or the outermost end of the film damper.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the position of the film damper is initialized according to the flow shown in FIG. Hereinafter, this flow will be described. The reason why the ignition switch is turned on or off in step 240 is that the position of the film damper is initialized when the engine is started or stopped. When the operation is performed at the time of starting, the air conditioner is operated after the engine is started. Therefore, the film damper position is initialized each time the air conditioner is operated. In this case, the initialization is performed more reliably.

When the ignition switch is turned off, the film damper is initialized when the operation of the air conditioner stops due to the stop of the engine. This is so that when the ignition switch is turned on again to operate the air conditioner, the operation can always be performed with the initial value set. With this configuration, the film damper can be immediately started to the predetermined value when the next air conditioner is operated, and the responsiveness is improved.

In step 241, it is determined whether the position of the stored film damper is closer to the most rewound state or the most unwound state. This is to minimize the amount of movement of the film damper for initialization.

In step 242, the time required for the displacement from the position to the outermost end closer to the position is calculated based on the stored position. Then, the motor is driven for a predetermined time further than the calculated time (step 2).
43). This is because, even if the stored position is wrong, it is necessary to set the film damper to an initial value without fail by further driving the motor with a predetermined margin (step 244).

In the above example, the light detecting elements 231 and 231 are used.
The aperture 230 was formed to transmit 32 light,
Instead of the opening 230, only a portion of the film damper corresponding to the opening 230 may be transparent. In short, the light transmitting portion in the present invention may be a portion through which light can pass as well as an opening.

[0022]

As described above, in the present invention, since a pair of light detecting elements and a light transmitting portion having a shape capable of simultaneously opening the pair of light detecting elements are used, each position of the film damper can be detected. In addition to this, when the film damper fluctuates thereafter, it is possible to accurately determine to which side the film damper has moved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a comparative example of a film damper.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a drive motor unit of the film damper shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the film damper shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a front view showing an opening of the film damper shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a front view showing an opening of the film damper shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a front view showing an opening of the film damper shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of initialization of a film damper.

[Explanation of symbols]

 202 Case 205, 211 Film damper 216 Opening 230 Opening forming light transmitting part 231, 232 Photodetector

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An automotive air conditioner comprising: a film-shaped damper having an opening through which air passes; and a damper drive motor that controls an air flow by moving the film-shaped damper. A plurality of light-transmitting portions are formed in the film-shaped damper along the moving direction thereof, and a pair of photodetectors are arranged in the moving direction of the film-shaped damper so as to be able to face the light-transmitting portions; A shape capable of simultaneously opposing a pair of photodetectors, and further comprising a judging means for judging whether or not each of the pair of photodetectors opposes the light transmitting portion. Automotive air conditioner.