JP3918438B2 - Air conditioner for vehicles - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an air conditioner in a vehicle, and more particularly, to an air conditioner suitable for an idle stop vehicle that stops the operation of an engine when the vehicle is stopped for improving the fuel consumption of the vehicle and reducing exhaust gas.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventional vehicle air conditioners are configured such that air cooled by passing through an evaporator by the action of a blower circulates in a cool box, as exemplified in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 6-20650. In the idling stop vehicle, even when the air conditioner is being cooled, the operation of the engine is stopped as the vehicle stops, and the cooling operation of the evaporator is interrupted by the refrigerant compressor being inactivated. As a result, the temperature of the air blown into the passenger compartment rapidly rises, and there is a problem that the comfort in the vehicle deteriorates.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The present invention intends to suppress a rapid rise in the temperature of air blown from the air conditioner into the passenger compartment when the engine is stopped when the vehicle is stopped.
[0004]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Therefore, a vehicle air conditioner according to the present invention includes a blower unit provided with a fan, an air conditioning unit provided with an evaporator, an air guide path connecting the blower unit and the air conditioning unit, and the blower unit or the air conditioner. A heat-insulating glove box connected to the unit; and a cold storage core installed in the heat-insulating glove box and fed with a refrigerant common to the evaporator. The cool air generated in this way is supplied to the blower unit or the air conditioning unit.
[0005]
That is, since the refrigerant is supplied to the cold storage core installed in the heat insulating glove box and stored in cold storage, the refrigerant compressor becomes inoperable due to engine stoppage or the like when the vehicle is stopped in an idle stop vehicle or the like, and the evaporator of the air conditioning unit Even if the cooling action is interrupted, the fan of the blower unit is driven, so that the cool air generated by flowing through the cool storage core is supplied to the blower unit or the air conditioning unit. It is possible to effectively suppress the temperature rise of the air.
[0006]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the following, each embodiment of the present invention shown in the drawings will be described with the same reference numerals given to the equivalent parts.
In FIG. 1, a blower unit 1 equipped in an idle stop vehicle includes an inside air intake 2 from the vehicle interior, an outside air intake 3 from the outside of the vehicle, an inside / outside air switching valve 4, a fan 5, and a normally closed valve. 6, and an air conditioning unit 8 connected to the blower unit 1 by a wind guide path 7 is provided with a well-known evaporator 9, a heater core 10, and an air mix damper 11, respectively. The refrigerant is supplied from a refrigerant source such as a refrigerant compressor (not shown) driven by the gas to the evaporator 9 through the first conduit 13 through the three-way valve 12, and the refrigerant whose temperature has been raised from the evaporator 9 to the refrigerant compressor is returned through the second conduit 14. It is.
[0007]
In addition, a cold storage core 21 is installed in the glove box 20 in which a heat insulating material is attached to the inner surface, and the refrigerant can be supplied from the refrigerant compressor to the cold storage core 21 through the three-way valve 12 through the third conduit 22. The fourth conduit 23 can return the heated refrigerant from the regenerator core 21 to the refrigerant compressor, while the glove box 20 is connected to the downstream side of the evaporator 9 of the air conditioning unit 8 by the first passage 24 and the blower unit 1 Connected to the upstream side of the fan 5 by the second passage 25, the normally closed valve 6 is arranged at the connecting portion of the second passage 25 to the blower unit 1.
[0008]
In the above apparatus, during normal cooling, the three-way valve 12 guides the refrigerant from the refrigerant compressor to the first conduit 13 and thus to the evaporator 9, whereby the fan 5 of the blower unit 1 passes through the air guide path 7 and the evaporator 9. The inside air or the outside air led to is cooled and becomes cold air and is appropriately blown out from the air conditioning unit 8 into the vehicle interior. At this time, the normally closed valve 6 closes the second passage 25, so that the cold air is There is little possibility of being guided into the glove box 20 through the one passage 24.
[0009]
On the other hand, when the cooling demand in the passenger compartment is relatively small, the three-way valve 12 leads the refrigerant from the refrigerant source to the third conduit 22, and thus to the cold storage core 21, for example, built in the cold storage core 21. Sufficient cold storage can be achieved by freezing water.
[0010]
For this reason, even when the cooling operation of the evaporator 9 is interrupted when the operation of the engine is stopped and the refrigerant compressor is inactivated as the vehicle being cooled stops, two points are caused by the operation of a motor (not shown). When the normally closed valve 6 automatically opens the second passage 25 as indicated by a chain line, a part of the inside air or the outside air guided to the air conditioning unit 8 through the air guide path 7 by the action of the fan 5 is blower unit 1. Is sucked into the negative pressure inside and sequentially supplied to the blower unit 1 through the first passage 24, the glove box 20, and the second passage 25, but flows through the regenerator core 21 in the glove box 20. Therefore, the temperature rise of the air blown out from the air conditioning unit 8 into the vehicle compartment can be easily suppressed.
[0011]
In other words, as an idle stop vehicle, there is a great feature that can easily and simultaneously realize fuel efficiency improvement and exhaust gas reduction by extending the engine stop time, and ensuring good comfort in the passenger compartment when the vehicle is stopped. .
[0012]
Moreover, since the heat insulating material is affixed to the inner surface of the glove box 20 and the heat insulation effect in the glove box 20 is excellent, the cold storage performance of the cold storage core 21 can always be maintained high. It is also possible to use the glove box 20 as it is as a cool box (cold storage).
[0013]
Furthermore, by installing the cold storage core 21 in the existing glove box 20, there is a practical advantage that a vehicle cold storage system can be easily constructed without requiring a special space in the vehicle.
[0014]
In the above embodiment, the cooling action of the evaporator 9 is interrupted when the cooling demand in the passenger compartment is relatively small, and the cold storage core 21 stores the cold. However, depending on the case, the evaporator 9 and the cold storage core Even if the cooling action of the evaporator 9 and the cold storage action of the cold storage core 21 are simultaneously established by switching the supply of the refrigerant to the refrigerant 21 at any time or mutually switching at an appropriate time ratio, Needless to say, the same effects can be achieved.
[0015]
The same applies to the case where the refrigerant compressor is controlled to be inactive in order to reduce the load of the mounted engine and suppress its overheating when the vehicle being cooled travels on a long uphill. As described above, the air passing through the glove box 20 is actively cooled by the regenerator core 21 and supplied to the blower unit 1 as in the case of the above embodiments. This makes it possible to easily suppress the temperature rise of the air blown from the unit 8 into the vehicle compartment.
[0016]
Furthermore, since the heat retaining effect in the glove box 20 is excellent as described above, a relatively large amount of cold air is discharged from the downstream side of the evaporator 9 into the first passage 24 even if the cold storage action of the cold storage core 21 is stopped. If it guide | induces, the glove box 20 can be utilized as a cool box (cold storage) similar to the past.
[0017]
In the embodiment example of FIG. 2, the middle portion of the air guide path 7 that connects the blower unit 1 and the air conditioning unit 8 that are installed in the idle stop vehicle and the glove box 20 are connected by the third passage 30. A normally closed valve 31 is arranged at the connecting portion of the third passage 30 with respect to the air guide path 7, and the other structures are not particularly different from those of the above embodiments.
[0018]
Accordingly, as in the case of each of the above-described embodiments, if the refrigerant is appropriately guided to the cold storage core 21 in the glove box 20 and the cold storage core 21 is sufficiently cold-accumulated, the cooling vehicle is stopped. The cooling operation of the evaporator 9 is interrupted when the operation of the engine is stopped and the refrigerant compressor is deactivated, or when the refrigerant compressor is controlled to be deactivated in order to suppress overheating of the engine when traveling on a long uphill. Even if the normally closed valve 31 automatically opens the third passage 30 as indicated by a two-dot chain line by the operation of a motor (not shown), the fan 5 acts to pass the third passage 30 into the glove box 20. A part of the introduced inside air or outside air is actively cooled by flowing through the cool storage core 21 in the glove box 20, and passes through the first passage 24 to be air-conditioned unit. Since supplied to preparative within 8, the temperature increase of the air blown out from air conditioning unit 8 into the vehicle interior can be easily suppressed.
[0019]
That is, the same effects as those of the above embodiments can be obtained, and the cold air generated by flowing through the cold storage core 21 is directly supplied into the air conditioning unit 8 through the first passage 24 to guide the air. Since most of the path 7 and the evaporator 9 are not passed, an increase in the temperature of the air blown out from the air conditioning unit 8 into the vehicle compartment can be further suppressed.
[0020]
In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the normally closed valve 31 is opened when air is allowed to flow through the cold storage core 21 in the glove box 20. Instead, the third passage for the air guide path 7 is used. A normally-open valve for the air guide path 7 is provided downstream of the air guide path 7 from the connection portion of 30 and the valve is closed to some extent only when air is passed through the cold storage core 21 in the glove box 20. Needless to say, the glove box 20 in the above embodiment may be replaced with a center console, a floor console, or the like.
[0021]
【The invention's effect】
In the vehicle air conditioner according to the present invention, since the refrigerant is supplied and stored in the cold storage core installed in the heat insulating glove box , the refrigerant compressor becomes inoperative due to engine stoppage or the like when the vehicle is stopped. Even if the evaporator of the air conditioning unit interrupts the cooling action, the cool air generated by flowing through the cold storage core is supplied into the air conditioning unit, effectively increasing the temperature of the air blown from the air conditioning unit into the vehicle interior Since it becomes possible to suppress this, it is possible to easily ensure good comfort in the passenger compartment when the engine is stopped.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic layout diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic layout diagram according to another embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Blower unit 5 Fan 6 Normally closed valve 7 Air guide path 8 Air conditioning unit 9 Evaporator 12 Three-way valve 13 First conduit 14 Second conduit 20 Glove box 21 Cold storage core 22 Third conduit 23 Fourth conduit 24 First passage 25 Second Passage 30 third passage 31 normally closed valve

Claims (1)

A blower unit equipped with a fan, and the air conditioning unit provided with a evaporator, and air guide path for connecting the blower unit and the air conditioning unit, a heat-insulating glove box connected to said blower units or said air conditioning unit, the adiabatic A cool storage core that is installed in a protective glove box and that is supplied with the same refrigerant as the evaporator, and the cool air generated by flowing through the cool storage core by the action of the fan is the blower unit or the air conditioning unit A vehicle air conditioner configured to be supplied to the vehicle.

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