JPH033052Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Purpose of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a heater unit for an automobile that uses engine cooling water to appropriately adjust the temperature of air blown into a vehicle interior. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improvement in an automotive heater unit of the type having an air mixture chamber downstream of the heater core.

(Prior art) Automotive heater units use the heat of engine coolant to heat some or all of the air blown into the passenger compartment to create warm air, and usually use outside air or inside air to be selectively introduced. It is used in connection with an intake unit and a cooler unit if necessary. For example, such an air conditioner for an automobile includes the one shown in FIG. 5, which includes an intake unit 1 containing a suction fan 4, a cooler unit 2 containing an evaporator 5, and a heater core 6. It is composed of a heater unit 3. Then, the outside air, inside air, or a mixture thereof selectively introduced into the intake unit 1 is supplied to the cooler unit 2 as necessary.
After being cooled by or without cooling, it is introduced into the heater unit 3, and by controlling the mix door 16 in the heater unit 3, a part of it is passed through the heater core 6 and heated there. The obtained warm air and heater core 6
The air that bypassed the air is mixed with or without mixing in the air mix chamber 7 and blown into the vehicle interior from an appropriately selected outlet, or all the introduced air is passed through the heater core 6 to become warm air. Alternatively, all of the air may bypass the heater core 6 and remain cold without being heated, and the air may be blown out from an appropriately selected air outlet to the outside of the vehicle interior.

The air mixture chamber 7 of this type of automotive heater unit 3 is also called an air distribution chamber.
Several openings are provided that connect with various air outlets. As is clear from FIG. 6, this type of opening generally has a vent duct opening 8 and a differential duct opening 9 at the top of the air mix chamber 7, and a floor duct opening 10.
is on the floor 14 of the air mix chamber 7,
It is opened as far away from the vent duct opening 8 as possible. Although not shown, the openings 8 and 9 for the vent duct and the differential duct are connected to the air outlet of the instrument panel via a duct. However, a short floor duct 11 is connected to the floor duct opening 10, and hot air is evenly distributed and blown directly toward the lower part of the vehicle interior from the air outlets 12 and 13 provided on the left and right sides of the floor duct 11. That's what I do.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, this automotive heater unit 3
When cold air and hot air are air mixed in the foot mode, a difference in air velocity occurs between the cold air that bypasses the heater core 6 and the hot air that passes through the heater core 6 due to the difference in ventilation resistance, resulting in an air mix imbalance. There is a risk that the air mix in the floor duct 7 will be incomplete and both air will flow into the floor duct 11 in a laminar flow state.

Furthermore, the cold air that has bypassed the heater core 6 and passed above the heater unit 3 tends to flow down along the wall surface of the heater unit 3 due to its inertia, while the warm air that has passed through the heater core 6 also tends to flow down.
Since the cold air tends to be biased in the passing direction, it flows into the floor duct 11 along with the cold air flowing down along the wall surface. In other words, in FIG. 5, the air volume is high and low temperature on the right side of the floor duct 11, and the air volume is low and high temperature on the left side of the floor duct 11, resulting in a biased and laminar flow.
1, so the left and right outlets 12, 13
Temperature differences tend to occur between the two.

This tendency becomes more noticeable when the air volume is increased, and the air blown out from the air outlet 13 on the right side in Fig. 5 becomes relatively cold towards the driver's seat side where it is directed, and the air blown out from the air outlet 12 on the left side in Fig. 5 becomes relatively cold. The air is directed to the passenger seat side, where it is relatively warm.

As a means to solve this problem, there is a conventional method in which an air guide 15 is installed downstream of the heater core 6 so that the heated air and unheated air flowing into the air mixture chamber 7 collide with each other when they flow in (in actual practice). (No. 147344/1982), but this is undesirable because it leads to an increase in ventilation resistance.

Therefore, the floor duct 11 shown in FIG.
An improved heater unit has been devised in which a part of the heater core 6 is made to protrude into the heater unit 3 so that the hot air that has passed through the heater core 6 is once directed upward. Aimed to be good.

By the way, conventionally, the opening/closing door used for each opening of the heater unit was generally a cantilever door as shown in Fig. 6. However, it has the disadvantage of requiring a large operating force.

Therefore, butterfly doors, which require less operating force, have been used instead of cantilever doors.

Then, it was planned to attach the butterfly door to the improved heater unit, but when the opening of this butterfly door is opened, the door protrudes from both sides of the plane perpendicular to the opening surface. (Opening 26 of the floor duct in Figure 1)
(top and bottom).

Therefore, as shown in Figure 4a, if the floor duct were simply made to protrude horizontally into the heater unit, the part that protruded downward would block the floor duct when the butterfly door was opened, and the butterfly The space between the rear wall of the heater unit and the rear wall of the heater unit behind the door (on the right side in Figure 4a) is crushed, and the mix chamber becomes that much narrower, making it almost impossible to improve the mixability of air. In fact, it turned out to have the opposite effect.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a heater unit for an automobile that can improve air mixing performance in the foot mode without increasing ventilation resistance.

[Structure of the invention] (Means for solving the problem) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is such that a heater core is installed in the upper part of the casing so that a bypass path for passing cold air is formed, and the heater core A mixer door is provided on the upstream front surface of the heater core and a mixer door that changes the proportion of air passing through the detour.
An air mix chamber is formed on the downstream side of the heater core, and the air mix chamber is provided on the floor of the air mix chamber so as to extend in the longitudinal direction of the air mix chamber, and distributes air to the left and right toward the lower part of the vehicle interior. A floor duct for distributing air is arranged in series, and an opening for the vent duct for distributing air toward the upper part of the vehicle interior is provided at a relatively upper position of the air mix chamber on the floor surface of the chamber. In the automotive heater unit having a floor duct opening communicating with the floor duct, a required portion of the floor surface of the air mix chamber is raised above the floor surface of the warm air blowing area of the heater core. On the other hand, the floor surface of the air mix chamber formed by lifting is inclined, and an opening for a floor duct is opened in the floor surface, and a butterfly door for opening and closing the opening for the floor duct is installed in the front and back direction of the chamber. This heater unit for an automobile is characterized in that the volume of a floor duct which is rotatably provided and which is connected to the air mix chamber is increased.

In addition, "the front and back direction of the air mix chamber"
is the direction that corresponds to the front-rear direction of the car when this automotive heater unit is installed in the car, and the second
Means the left and right direction of the figure. Also, "a required portion of the floor surface of the air mix chamber is raised above the floor surface of the warm air blowing area of the heater core."
This is because the amount of air distributed from the floor outlet is different depending on the type of vehicle, for example, a car for cold regions and a car for warm regions, and the shape of the floor duct is also different accordingly, so it cannot be fixed in general. It means you can't.

(Function) By doing this, even if the mix of hot air and cold air in the air mix chamber is incomplete, the hot air and cold air distributed in the front and back direction with the butterfly door as a boundary can be spread inside the case and expanded. After merging in the floor duct, the flow direction is changed so that they overlap, and the direction is changed and blown out, so that they are well mixed and blown out as a uniform air flow with no temperature difference.

Moreover, although this heater unit lifts and slopes the floor of the air mix chamber to partially narrow the flow path, it is different from conventional products that narrow the flow path by installing upper and lower air guides just before the air mix chamber. In comparison, the increase in ventilation resistance is also smaller.

(Example) The configuration of the present invention will be described in detail below based on an example shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an embodiment of a heater unit embodying the present invention.

This heater unit 20 covers part or all of the floor surface 23 of an air mix chamber 22 provided downstream of the heater core 21.
This floor surface 23 is raised above the floor surface 24 of the warm air blowing area 1 and is inclined. In this embodiment, the width of the raised floor surface 23 is the portion from the vicinity of the projection point of the corner of the heater core 21 onto the bottom surface of the casing 33 to the side wall of the casing 33. This width varies depending on the specifications of the vehicle. This slope slopes upward from the front toward the rear, that is, the side of the vent duct opening 28 (described later) is lower and gradually rises, and the floor duct 25
The space it occupies is becoming larger. In particular, this floor surface 23 has an inclination and a lifting amount such that when the butterfly door 27 is in an open state, the lower end of the door is located above at least the extension line of the floor surface 24 of the warm air blowing area of the heater core 21. It is preferable to do so.

An opening 26 for the floor duct 25 is provided in this inclined floor surface 23, and this floor duct opening 2
6, a butterfly door 27 is installed so as to rotate in the front-rear direction of the chamber 22. It is preferable that the floor duct opening 26 be opened at a position above the inclined floor surface 23 and away from the vent duct opening 28 formed in the front wall of the air mix chamber 22.

Note that the butterfly door 27 is rotatable by a known drive means (not shown) that is interlocked with a mode switching controller (not shown).

A floor duct 25 is formed below the floor surface 23 of the air mix chamber 22. That is, the floor duct 25 projects below the heater unit 20 in such a shape that a part of its upper part bites into the air mix chamber 22. This floor duct 25 is connected to the air mix chamber 22.
The side wall 35 (third
a lower extension of the heater unit 20 (see figure);
Blowout ports 30 and 31 are provided in the casing 33 facing the side wall 35, respectively. As a result, the hot air and/or cold air flowing from the air mixing chamber 22 flows in the front and back direction, and by creating the inclined surface, the duct is expanded and made as long as possible, thereby improving the air mixing performance.

In addition, the air outlets 30, 3 of this floor duct 25
1 is a heater unit 2 placed horizontally at the front of the vehicle compartment.
Openings are made on the left and right sides of the floor duct 25 described above so as to blow hot air directly from the floor duct 25 to the driver's seat side and the passenger seat side. Further, air is distributed to the rear seat side by connecting a rear duct (not shown) to the rear air outlet 32.

Note that the reference numeral "34" is an air mix door that changes the amount of air passing through the heater core 21.

The automotive heater unit configured in this way is
It works as follows.

Since the floor surface 23 of the air mix chamber 22 is raised above the floor surface 24 downstream of the heater core 21 and is inclined to one side, most of the warm air obtained by passing through the heater core 21 is transmitted to the floor surface 23 with a small degree of inclination or the floor surface. 23 flows into the lower side, that is, near the front wall where the vent duct opening 28 in the figure is opened, and the flow is changed upward. In this case, the warm air flows more toward the side with a lower slope, so the ventilation resistance is not increased and the air flows smoothly.

On the other hand, the cold air that has bypassed the heater core 21 is pushed by the force of the warm air blowing up from below, and flows in an area with low wind pressure, that is, near the side wall on the opposite side from the flow of the hot air. Therefore, hot air and cold air are distributed between the front side and the rear side with the butterfly door 27 as a boundary, with the hot air being mainly distributed to the rear side and the cold air being mainly distributed to the front side, and flowing from the floor duct opening 26 into the floor duct 25. flows into. Of course, some of the hot air rising along the inclined floor surface 23 and the cold air falling down collide and mix before flowing into the floor duct 25, but most of them are distributed and flow into the floor duct 25. After passing through the lower end of the butterfly door 27 in the floor duct 25, the hot air and the cold air are merged, and then the flow is diverted by 90 degrees to the air outlets 30, 31 on the opposite side of the floor duct opening 26. flows towards.
That is, hot air and cold air distributed in the front and rear directions with the butterfly door 27 as a boundary join together in the floor duct, and then are diverted in the front and back direction, which is perpendicular to the previous flow direction, resulting in an overlapping mixture. be done. Then, the flow direction is again changed by 90 degrees, and the air is branched into left and right air outlets 30, 31, and blown into the vehicle interior. At this time, hot air and cold air are further mixed. Therefore, there is no large temperature difference between the air blown out from the air outlets 30 and 31, and there is no temperature difference between the driver's seat side and the passenger's seat side, resulting in uniform heating operation. In other words, as mentioned above, the wind distributed in the front and back direction is always mixed when the direction is changed by 90 degrees, so it becomes a laminar flow like the wind distributed in the left and right direction, and the temperature difference remains between the cars. It will not be blown into the room.

Although the above embodiment is one of the preferred embodiments of the present invention, the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. . For example, in this embodiment, the heater unit casing 33 constituting the air mix chamber 22 has a double bottom, and the air mix chamber 22 and the floor duct 25 are integrally molded, but the invention is not limited to this. Instead, a floor duct formed separately from the casing 33 constituting the air mix chamber 22 may be joined. In this case, the floor duct opening 26 and the butterfly door 27 are installed on the casing 33 side.

[Effects of the invention] As is clear from the above explanation, the automotive heater unit of the invention is formed by raising a required portion of the floor of the air mix chamber above the floor of the warm air blowing area of the heater core. Moreover, since the floor duct is formed by tilting the floor duct, and the butterfly door is provided in a predetermined direction on this floor surface, the hot air and cold air distributed in the front and back direction with the butterfly door as the boundary are expanded into the floor duct. The flow direction is changed several degrees and blown out, improving air mixing properties and creating uniform air with no temperature difference.

Furthermore, since this heater unit raises and slopes the floor surface of the air mix chamber to facilitate flow, there is less increase in ventilation resistance compared to conventional products.

[Experimental Results] Therefore, when comparing the conventional product and the product of this example,
The results shown in FIG. 4 were obtained. This experiment compared the air mix performance in the foot mode of an air mix chamber with a butterfly door installed on the flat floor (conventional product) and the invented product shown in Figure 1. Although other characteristics such as ventilation resistance are the same as conventional products, the temperature variation between the hot air blown out from the left and right outlets of the floor duct during foot mode has been significantly improved. For example, as is clear from Fig. 4, the temperature variation at the 5/6 opening position of the air mix door 34, where the greatest difference in blowout temperature occurs, is as much as 20 dcg with the conventional product, but with the present invention, it is suppressed to 9 dcg. The difference is less than half. Furthermore, the temperature difference in the entire area is smaller than that of conventional products, and it can be said that it does not cause discomfort to the occupants in practical terms.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing an embodiment of an automotive heater unit according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view along the line shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. Figure 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the temperature of the warm air blown out from the left and right outlets of the floor duct and the opening degree of the air mix door in the foot mode comparing the product of this example and the conventional product. 5 is a principle diagram showing an example of an automotive air conditioner using a conventional automotive heater unit, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the - line in FIG. 5. FIG. 21... Heater core, 22... Air mix chamber, 23... Floor surface of air mix chamber,
24... Floor surface downstream of heater core, 25... Floor duct, 26... Floor duct opening, 27...
Butterfly door, 28... Vent duct opening, 30, 31... Floor duct outlet, 3
3...Casing of heater unit, 34...Mix door, 35...Side wall.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] The heater core 21 is installed so that a detour for passing cold air is formed in the upper part of the casing 33, and the air passing through the heater core 21 and the detour is mounted on the upstream front surface of the heater core 21. A mix door 34 is provided to change the ratio of the amount of the heater core 2.
An air mix chamber 22 is formed on the downstream side of the air mix chamber 22, and an air mix chamber 22 is provided on the floor of the air mix chamber 22 to extend in the front and back direction of the air mix chamber 22, and distributes air to the left and right toward the lower part of the vehicle interior. A floor duct 25 for distributing air is installed in a row at a position relatively above the air mix chamber 22.
A vent duct opening 28 for distributing air toward the upper part of the vehicle interior is provided on the floor of the chamber 22.
In the automotive heater unit having a floor duct opening 26 communicating with the floor duct, a required portion of the floor surface 23 of the air mix chamber 22 is separated from the floor surface 24 of the warm air blowing area of the heater core 21. While also lifting and forming the air mix chamber 22, the floor surface 23 of the air mix chamber 22 formed by lifting is inclined, and the floor duct opening 26 is opened in the floor surface 23, and the floor duct opening 26 is opened and closed. A heater unit for an automobile, characterized in that a butterfly door 27 is provided to rotate in the longitudinal direction of the chamber 22, and the volume of a floor duct 25 connected to the air mixture chamber 22 is increased.