JP5352432B2 - Drain pan - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a drain pan.

  As is well known, a vehicle air conditioner generates cold air with a cooling device such as an evaporator. When such cold air is generated, moisture contained in the air condenses and so-called condensed water is generated. The condensed water is generated so as to adhere to the cooling device and eventually falls below the cooling device. And the air conditioning apparatus for vehicles is equipped with the drain pan for receiving the above condensed water and discharging | emitting outside (refer patent documents 1-3).

JP 2004-291701 A JP-A-8-258556 JP-A-10-109522

  By the way, the drain pan is provided with a discharge port at the bottom for discharging condensed water to the outside. However, in the vehicle air conditioner, the drain port is inclined and connected to the discharge port due to the layout. There are many cases.

  However, when the drain port is inclined and connected to the discharge port in this way, in the region where the inner wall surface of the drain port is connected at an acute angle with respect to the bottom, the condensed water that has flowed into the discharge port enters the drain port. A water film is easily formed. Such a water film is ruptured by the differential pressure in the drain port, causing abnormal noise.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to prevent the generation of noise due to the rupture of a water film in a drain pan mounted on a vehicle air conditioner.

The present invention adopts the following configuration as means for solving the above-described problems.
A first aspect of the present invention is a drain pan for a vehicle air conditioner that is disposed below a cooling means for cooling air and receives condensed water falling from the cooling means and leads to the outside. The drain pan receives the condensed water. A discharge port that is disposed at the bottom of the water region and has a drain port inclined thereto and a part of the discharge port including a region where the inner wall surface of the drain port is connected to the bottom at an acute angle. A configuration is adopted in which a rib is provided that surrounds and is erected from the bottom.
According to a second invention, in the first invention, the rib is relatively long in a region located on the downstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port, and relatively in a region located on the upstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port. A short configuration is adopted.
According to a third invention, in the first or second invention, a configuration is adopted in which the rib has a curved shape in the entire area in a plan view.

According to the present invention, the rib erected from the bottom portion is provided so as to surround a part of the discharge port including a region where the inner wall surface of the drain port is connected to the bottom portion at an acute angle. For this reason, by blocking the flow of condensed water with ribs, it is possible to prevent the condensed water from flowing into a region where the inner wall surface of the drain port is connected to the bottom at an acute angle, thereby preventing the formation of a water film. can do.
Therefore, according to this invention, it becomes possible to prevent generation | occurrence | production of the abnormal noise by a water film bursting in the drain pan mounted in the air conditioning apparatus for vehicles.

1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a vehicle air conditioner including a drain pan according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a horizontal sectional view of an air harmony device for vehicles provided with a drain pan in one embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view of a drain pan in one embodiment of the present invention. It is a top view which shows typically the drain pan in one Embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a drain pan according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings, the scale of each member is appropriately changed in order to make each member a recognizable size.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view including a drain pan 1 of a vehicle air conditioner S1 (HVAC: Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) including the drain pan 1 of the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of the vehicle air conditioner S <b> 1, and is a diagram in which only a region including the drain pan 1 is extracted.

The vehicle air conditioner S1 supplies conditioned air to the room, and includes a case C, an evaporator E, and a drain pan 1, as shown in FIGS.
The case C forms the outer shape of the vehicle air conditioner S1 and houses an air flow path, an evaporator E (cooling device), and the like.
The evaporator E cools air and is disposed so as to be exposed to the air flowing in the blowing direction shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, the blowing direction shown in FIG. 2 is substantially the same as the direction from the rear to the front of the vehicle.
Since the case C and the evaporator E are the same as those provided in a well-known vehicle air conditioner, further explanation is omitted.
The vehicle air conditioner S1 of the present embodiment is similar to the conventional vehicle air conditioner in that a heater core that heats the air, a blowout port that discharges conditioned air, a damper that opens and closes the blowout port, and conditioned air An air mix damper or the like for adjusting the temperature is provided, but since these components are the same as the well-known configurations, description thereof is omitted here.

  The drain pan 1 of this embodiment is arrange | positioned under the evaporator E, as shown in FIG.1 and FIG.2, receives the condensed water which falls from the evaporator E, and guides it outside. The drain pan 1 is formed of, for example, foam rubber that absorbs vibration, and is arranged between the case C and the evaporator E so as to function as an insulator.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the drain pan 1 of the present embodiment. FIG. 4 is a plan view schematically showing the drain pan 1 of the present embodiment.
As shown in these drawings, the drain pan 1 of the present embodiment includes a side wall 2, a bottom portion 3, discharge ports 4, and ribs 5.

  The side wall 2 is a wall part formed surrounding the water receiving region R. That is, the drain pan 1 of the present embodiment uses the region surrounded by the side wall 2 as the water receiving region R, and receives water droplets falling from the evaporator E in the water receiving region R.

  The bottom portion 3 is disposed in the center of the water receiving region R, is a region where condensed water received in the water receiving region R collects, and is formed at the lowest position in the water receiving region R.

The discharge port 4 is for discharging condensed water collected at the bottom 3 to the outside, and is disposed at the center of the bottom 3, and as a result, is disposed at the center of the water receiving region R. In addition, the center part in this embodiment (this invention) does not point out only the center of the area | region, but points out the area | region except the edge part of the area | region.
And in the drain pan 1 of this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the discharge port 4 is set in the shape of an ellipse long in the direction orthogonal to a ventilation direction.
As shown in FIG. 1, a drain port 10 is connected to the discharge port 4 with an inclination from below. More specifically, the drain port 10 extends from the passenger seat side and is connected to the discharge port 4, and the inner wall surface 10 a is connected to the bottom portion 3 at an acute angle at the end portion 4 a of the discharge port 4 on the passenger seat side. The inner wall surface 10 a is connected to the bottom portion 3 at an obtuse angle at the driver seat side end 4 b of the discharge port 4.

The rib 5 erected from the bottom 3 so as to surround only a part of the discharge port 4 including a region where the inner wall surface 10a of the drain port 10 is connected to the bottom 3 at an acute angle (that is, the end 4a shown in FIG. 3). Has been.
Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the rib 5 has a shape in which the entire region is curved in a plan view, and the region 5 a located on the downstream side in the air blowing direction of the discharge port 4 is relatively long. The region 5b located on the upstream side in the air blowing direction is set to be relatively short.

  When the vehicle air conditioner S1 as described above is activated, the supplied air is cooled by the evaporator E. As a result, condensed water adheres to the evaporator E, and then the condensed water falls from the evaporator E. Then, the condensed water that has fallen is received by the water receiving region R of the drain pan 1 of the present embodiment and gathered at the bottom 3, and then from the end 4 b side of the outlet 4 that is not surrounded by the rib 5 to the outlet 4. It flows in and is discharged to the outside.

Here, in the drain pan 1 of the present embodiment, the rib 5 includes the discharge port 4 including a region where the inner wall surface 10a of the drain port 10 is connected to the bottom 3 at an acute angle (that is, the end 4a shown in FIG. 3). It is erected from the bottom 3 so as to surround only a part. For this reason, it is possible to prevent the condensed water X from flowing into an area where the inner wall surface 10a of the drain port 10 is connected to the bottom 3 at an acute angle by blocking the flow of the condensed water X with the rib 5. Generation of a water film can be prevented.
Therefore, according to the drain pan 1 of this embodiment, in the drain pan mounted in the vehicle air conditioner, it is possible to prevent the generation of noise due to the rupture of the water film.

Further, in the drain pan 1 of the present embodiment, the rib 5 has a relatively long region 5a located on the downstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port 4, and a region 5b located on the upstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port 4 is relatively long. Is set to be short.
Condensed water X falling from the evaporator E is easily collected on the downstream side of the discharge port 4 by being caused to flow in the flow of air passing through the evaporator E. For this reason, like the drain pan 1 of this embodiment, the liquid prevention effect on the side where more condensed water X accumulates can be improved by lengthening the area | region 5a of the rib 5 in the downstream of the ventilation direction, and it is more reliable. In addition, the generation of a water film can be prevented.

  Moreover, in the drain pan 1 of this embodiment, the rib 5 has the shape curved in the whole region in planar view. For this reason, it is possible to smoothly flow the condensed water X collected on the passenger seat side to the driver seat side, and prevent the condensed water X from collecting on the passenger seat side and getting over the rib 5 and flowing into the discharge port 4. it can.

  As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to the said embodiment. Various shapes, combinations, and the like of the constituent members shown in the above-described embodiments are examples, and various modifications can be made based on design requirements and the like without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, in the said embodiment, the structure which the drain pan 1 of this embodiment functions as an insulator was demonstrated.
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the drain pan of the present invention can be formed by molding the lower part of the case C.

Moreover, in the said embodiment, the structure in which the rib 5 was curving in the whole region was demonstrated in planar view.
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a configuration in which the rib 5 is bent in a plan view can also be adopted. For example, by adopting a configuration in which the rib 5 is bent so as to be pointed toward the passenger seat side in a plan view, the condensed water X collected on the passenger seat side can be obtained in the same manner as when the rib 5 is curved in the entire region. It can flow smoothly to the driver's seat.

Moreover, in the said embodiment, the area | region 5a located in the ventilation direction downstream of the discharge port 4 of the rib 5 is set relatively long, and the area | region 5b located in the ventilation direction upstream of the discharge port 4 is set relatively short. The configuration that has been described.
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the region 5a located on the downstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port 4 and the region 5b located on the upstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port 4 have the same length. May be. For example, even when the region 5b located on the upstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port 4 has the same length as that of the region 5a located on the downstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port 4, the same effect as in the above embodiment is obtained. Can play.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Drain pan, 3 ... Bottom part, 4 ... Discharge port, 4a ... End part (area | region where the inner wall surface of a drain port is connected to an acute angle with respect to a bottom part), 4b ... End part (inside of a drain port) Area where wall surface is connected at an obtuse angle with respect to the bottom) 5... Rib 5a... Downstream area in the blowing direction 5b... Upstream area in the blowing direction 10. Area, X ... condensed water

Claims (3)

A drain pan of a vehicle air conditioner that is disposed below a cooling unit that cools air, receives condensed water falling from the cooling unit, and leads out to the outside.
A discharge port disposed at the bottom of the water receiving region for receiving the condensed water and connected with an inclined drain port;
A drain pan comprising: a rib erected from the bottom so as to surround only a part of the discharge port including a region where an inner wall surface of the drain port is connected to the bottom at an acute angle.   2. The drain pan according to claim 1, wherein a region of the rib located on the downstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port is relatively long and a region of the rib located on the upstream side in the blowing direction of the discharge port is relatively short. .   The drain pan according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the rib has a curved shape in a whole area in a plan view.

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