JP3301186B2 - Air passage switching device - 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 passage switching device in which a plurality of air passages are switched by a film damper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a film damper is incorporated in, for example, an air conditioner for a vehicle.
As disclosed in JP-A-09-09, it is used as a blow-out mode damper for switching a blow-out mode (the position of a blow-off port for blowing out wind) or as an air mix damper for switching a mixing ratio of hot air passing through a heater core and cold air not passing therethrough. Have been. In any case, the film damper is bridged between the drive shaft and the driven shaft, the winding amount of the film damper is changed, and the film damper slides through the ventilation opening formed in the film damper. The air flow in the air passage is switched.

[0003]

In the case of the air mix damper described above, for example, as shown in FIG.
A cooling air passage is provided on each of the upper and lower sides of the (heating air passage), and an air mix damper 2 is mounted so as to straddle these three air passages. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the blowout temperature is adjusted by sliding the ventilation opening 2a of the air mix damper 2 to a position straddling the heater core 1 (heating air passage) and one of the cooling air passages. This mixes the warm air that has passed through the heater core 1 and the cool air that has passed through the cooling air passage to achieve the target blowout temperature.

In recent air conditioners for vehicles, a bi-level mode in which the temperature of the face air outlet is lower than the temperature of the foot air outlet can be selected in addition to the air blow mode in which isothermal air is blown from each air outlet. It has become. In this bi-level mode, in order to increase the temperature difference between the face blowing air and the foot blowing air, the flow of the warm air passing through the heater core 1 and the flow of the cool air passing through the cooling air passage are kept as far away as possible from the hot air. It is necessary to reduce the mixing of cold air.

However, in the conventional structure, as shown in FIG. 7, the ventilation opening 2a of the air mix damper 2 extends over both the heater core 1 (heating air passage) and the cooling air passage. Therefore, the flow of the warm air passing through the heater core 1 and the flow of the cool air passing through the cooling air passage approach each other, so that the mixing of the warm air and the cool air increases, and the temperature difference between the blown air decreases. To solve this, see FIG.
As shown in (1), it is conceivable that the ventilation openings 2a are separately formed in the air mix damper 2 for each ventilation passage, but in this configuration, even when it is desired to blow out isothermal wind from each outlet. In addition, the flow of the warm air and the flow of the cool air are separated from each other, and the mixing of the warm air and the cool air is reduced.

[0006] In short, in the conventional air mix damper, it is not possible to make the temperature difference between the outlet temperatures of the outlets and to make the outlet temperature isothermal at the same time. Will be. Moreover,
Since the opening area of the ventilation opening of the air mix damper cannot be changed, the air flow balance variable pattern of each air passage is also limited. Such a defect is not limited to the air mix damper, but can also be applied to other film dampers such as a blow mode damper.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an air passage switching device that can realize various switching patterns that could not be realized conventionally. .

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, an air passage switching device according to the present invention comprises a plurality of superposed film dampers provided so as to straddle a plurality of air passages. Is independently slid by the drive means to vary the overlapping position and overlapping area of the ventilation openings provided in each film damper,
An opening position and an opening area of the plurality of air passages are configured to be variable.

[0009]

When switching a plurality of air passages, a plurality of superposed film dampers are independently slid by a driving means, and the ventilation openings of the respective film dampers are slid to target positions. As a result, the overlapping position and the overlapping area of the ventilation openings of each film damper change, and the opening positions and the opening areas of the plurality of air passages change. Therefore, if the slide movement amount of each film damper is individually adjusted, the opening positions and the opening areas of the plurality of air passages can be adjusted independently and arbitrarily.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a vehicle air conditioner will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, a schematic configuration of the vehicle air conditioner will be described with reference to FIG. A blower 12, a cooler 13, and a heater core 14 are provided along a flow of air in a blower duct 11 that sends air into a vehicle interior. The cooler 13 constitutes a refrigeration cycle together with a compressor (not shown), a condenser (not shown), and the like. The air passing through 13 is dehumidified and cooled.

On the other hand, the heater core 14 is radiated from the engine core 14 by radiating the engine cooling water circulating therein.
Heat the air passing through. The first cooling air passage 1 is provided on both upper and lower sides of the heater core 14 (heating air passage).
5 and a second cooling air passage 16, and two air mixing film dampers 17, 18 (hereinafter referred to as “first air mixing damper”) straddling these three air passages 14, 15, 16. 17 "," Second air mix damper 1 "
8 ").
Both ends of each of the air mix dampers 17 and 18 are connected to driving shafts 19 and 20 and driven shafts 21 and 22, respectively, and stepping motors 23 and 24 as driving means are connected to the driving shafts 19 and 20 respectively.

Further, the drive shafts 19, 20 and the driven shafts 21, 22 are connected by drive wires 25, 26. When the stepping motors 23, 24 are rotated forward, the respective air mix dampers 17, 20 are rotated. 18 is wound on drive shafts 19 and 20 and driven shafts 21 and
The drive wires 25, 26 are wound around the second pulleys 21a, 22a (see FIG. 2). On the other hand, when the stepping motors 23 and 24 are rotated in the reverse direction, the driving wires 25 and 26 are wound around the pulleys 19a and 20a (see FIG. , 22 are wound around the respective air mix dampers 17, 18.

In this embodiment, the first air mix damper 17 and the second air mix damper 18 are overlapped only at the opening of the heater core 14, and the first cooling air passage 15 is provided only by the first air mix damper 17. Are opposed to each other, and the second cooling air passage 16 is provided with a second air mix damper 18.
Only the facing configuration is adopted. As shown in FIG. 5, ventilation openings 17a, 18a are formed at predetermined positions of the air mix dampers 17, 18, respectively. The opening area of each of the ventilation openings 17a, 18a is substantially the same as the opening area of the heater core 14.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
A foot outlet 27 (FOOT) for blowing air toward the feet of the front passenger in the passenger compartment, and a defroster outlet 28 (DEF) for blowing air toward the windshield (not shown). ) And a face outlet 29 for blowing air toward the upper body of the front passenger in the passenger compartment.
(FACE). A blow-out mode damper 30, which is a film damper for blowing-out mode switching, is provided at a position facing the three blow-out ports 27 to 29.

The driving mode of the blow-out mode damper 30 is as follows.
Similar to the driving method of the air mix dampers 17 and 18 described above, the air mixing dampers 17 and 18 are driven using a driving shaft 31, a driven shaft 32, a stepping motor 33, and a driving wire 34. The blow-out mode damper 30 is bridged around the intermediate shaft 35 so as to be bent in accordance with the inner surface shape of the air duct 11.

Next, the configuration of the control system will be described with reference to FIG. An electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as “ECU”) 36 for controlling the entire air conditioning operation includes operation signals output from various operation switches on an air conditioner operation panel 37, an outside air temperature sensor 38, an inside air temperature sensor 39, and a face air temperature sensor 40. The operation of the blower 12, the stepping motors 23 and 24 for air mixing, the stepping motor 33 for switching the blowing mode, and the like is controlled based on sensor signals output from various sensors such as the foot outlet temperature sensor 41 and the like. The ECU 36 controls the number of drive pulses of each of the stepping motors 23 and 24 by executing the air mix damper control routine shown in FIG. 4 to slide the air mix dampers 17 and 18 independently. The opening positions and opening areas of the three air passages 14, 15, 16 are varied.

In this embodiment, the area where the first and second air mix dampers 17 and 18 overlap is only the area facing the heater core 14 (heating air passage). The position and the opening area are changed only by the first air mix damper 17, and the opening position and the opening area of the second cooling air passage 16 are changed only by the second air mix damper 18.

Further, in this embodiment, a position detecting sensor for directly detecting the positions of the air mix dampers 17 and 18 (rotation angles of the stepping motors 23 and 24) is not provided, and the air mix is previously performed by the initialization operation. The dampers 17 and 18 are wound in one direction to a final position (origin position), and from this position, the stepping motors 23 and 2 are wound.
By controlling the number of drive pulses of 4, the air mix dampers 17, 18 are slid to the target position.

Such air mix dampers 17, 18
Is an air mix damper control routine shown in FIG. In this routine, first
In step S1, an operation signal output from various operation switches of the air conditioner operation panel 37 and the outside air temperature sensor 3
8, inside air temperature sensor 39, face outlet temperature sensor 4
0, and based on sensor signals output from various sensors such as the foot outlet temperature sensor 41,
The outlet temperatures of 7 to 29 are determined, and the target positions of the air mix dampers 17 and 18 are determined based on the determination results. Next, in step S2, each air mix damper 1
The number of driving pulses (motor rotation angle) of each of the stepping motors 23 and 24 required to slide the 7, 8 to the target position is calculated. After this, each stepping motor 2
The drive pulses are output to the numbers 3, 24 by the number calculated in step S2 (step S3), and each of the stepping motors 23, 24 is rotated to the target rotation angle, so that each of the air mix dampers 17, 18 is set to the target. Slide to position.

With such control, during maximum heating,
As shown in FIG. 5, the ventilation openings 17a, 18a of the first and second air mix dampers 17, 18 both face the opening of the heater core 14 (heating air passage) and are fully opened. The closing portion 17b of the air mix damper 17 faces the opening of the first cooling air passage 15 to completely close it, and the closing portion 18b of the second air mix damper 18
b faces the opening of the second cooling air passage 16 and completely closes it.

On the other hand, at the time of maximum cooling, as shown in FIG. 5, both the closing portions 17b, 18b of the first and second air mix dampers 17, 18 face the opening of the heater core 14 (heating air passage). This is fully closed, and the ventilation opening 17a of the first air mix damper 17 is opposed to the opening of the first cooling air passage 15 and is fully opened.
The ventilation opening 18a of the air mix damper 18 of the second
The cooling air passage 16 is fully opened facing the opening of the cooling air passage 16.

In the bi-level mode in which the temperature difference between the face outlet 29 and the foot outlet 27 is increased,
The opening positions and opening areas of the three air passages 14, 15, 16 are set as shown in FIG. In FIG.
The hatched portion indicates one of the air mix dampers 17 and 18.
In the portion closed by the closing portions 17b and 18b (damper closing portion), the portion without hatching is an opened portion (damper opening), and the damper opening of the heater core 14 is formed by the two air mix dampers 17 and 18. Ventilation openings 17a, 18
a is an overlapped portion.

In the bi-level mode shown in FIG.
By sliding the first air mix damper 17 downward, the opening of the first cooling air passage 15 is opened by about half from above, and the opening of the heater core 14 is opened by about the lower half. Further, the second air mix damper 1
8 is moved so as to extend over the lower half of the opening of the heater core 14 and the upper half of the opening of the second cooling air passage 16 so as to extend from the lower half of the opening of the heater core 14 to the second half. The cooling air passage 16 is opened over the upper half of the opening.

In the bi-level mode, the opening position (damper opening) of the first cooling air passage 15 and the heater core 1
4, the cold air passing through the first cooling air passage 15 and the hot air passing through the heater core 14 flow apart, and mix the cold air and the hot air. And the relatively low-temperature air containing a lot of cold air is blown out from the face outlet 29. On the other hand, since the opening position (damper opening) of the second cooling air passage 16 is close to the opening position (damper opening) of the heater core 14, the cool air passing through the second cooling air passage 16 and the heater core 14 are separated. The passing warm air flows close to each other, and the two are sufficiently mixed.
It is blown out from 7.

When it is desired to reduce the temperature difference between the face outlet 29 and the foot outlet 27, as shown in FIG. 6B, the heater core 14 extends from the lower half of the opening of the first cooling air passage 15. And the lower half of the opening of the second cooling air passage 16 is opened. Further, when it is desired to make the outlet temperature of each of the outlets 27 to 29 uniform, as shown in FIG.
Is opened from the lower half of the opening to the upper half of the opening of the second cooling air passage 16, and all other parts are closed.

By the way, when the opening area of the air passage is changed by one air mix damper as in the prior art, the opening position of the air passage is biased to either the upper side or the lower side. Since the portion where the ventilation openings 17a and 18a of the two air mix dampers 17 and 18 overlap each other is used as the damper opening, the slide movement amount of each of the air mix dampers 17 and 18 is individually adjusted, so that the damper can be adjusted. The opening can be adjusted to an arbitrary position and an arbitrary opening area, and various switching patterns that cannot be realized conventionally can be realized. Thereby, it is possible to make the temperature difference between the blow-out temperatures of the blow-out ports 27 to 29 and to make the blow-out temperature isothermal, and also to make the air flow balance variable patterns of the air passages 14, 15, 16 variable. It can be arbitrarily changed, and the air conditioning control characteristics can be diversified.

In the above embodiment, the area where the first and second air mix dampers 17 and 18 overlap is only the area facing the heater core 14 (heating air passage). A region where the portions 17 and 18 overlap may extend over two or more air passages.
In the above embodiment, the three air passages 14, 15, 1
6, the two air passages may be switched, or four or more air passages may be switched. Further, three or more air mix dampers (film dampers) may be stacked.

In the above embodiment, since the position detection sensor for detecting the positions of the air mix dampers 17 and 18 (rotation angles of the stepping motors 23 and 24) is not provided, initialization is required. A detection sensor (for example, an optical sensor, a potentiometer, or the like) may be provided to eliminate the need for initialization. In the above embodiment, the air mix dampers 17 and 18 are driven by separate stepping motors 23 and 24 (driving means). However, one driving means is provided, and the driving force is controlled by a clutch mechanism or the like. Alternatively, the power may be selectively transmitted to the drive shafts 19, 20 of the air mix dampers 17, 18.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the air mix damper, but can be applied to other film dampers such as a blow-out mode damper. .

[0030]

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a plurality of film dampers are overlapped to constitute one damper means, and the portion where the ventilation openings of each film damper overlap is used as the damper. Since the opening portion is used, the amount of sliding movement of each film damper is individually adjusted, so that the damper opening portion can be adjusted to an arbitrary position and an arbitrary opening area. A switching pattern can be realized, and control characteristics can be diversified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a vehicle air conditioner showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a portion around an air mix damper.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a control system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an air mix damper control routine.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the position of each air mix damper during maximum heating and maximum cooling.

FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory diagram illustrating the operation of the air mix damper.

FIG. 7 is a development view of a conventional air mix damper (part 1).

FIG. 8 is a development view of a conventional air mix damper (part 2).

[Explanation of symbols]

11 blow air duct, 12 blower, 13 cooler, 14
.. Heater core (heating air passage), 15 first cooling air passage (air passage), 16 second cooling air passage (air passage), 17 first air mix damper (film damper), 17a ventilation Opening 18; second air mix damper (film damper); 18a ventilation opening
19, 20: drive shaft, 21, 22, driven shaft, 23, 24: stepping motor (drive means), 2
5, 26: driving wire, 27: foot outlet, 28:
Defroster outlet, 29: face outlet, 30: outlet mode damper, 36: ECU.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method of switching the flow of air in a plurality of air passages, wherein a plurality of superposed film dampers are provided so as to straddle the plurality of air passages, and each of the film dampers is independently driven by driving means. By sliding, by changing the overlapping position and the overlapping area of the ventilation openings provided in each film damper, it is configured to vary the opening position and the opening area of the plurality of air passages. Air passage switching device.