JPH04345784A - Heater unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a heater unit which is used for heating a seat in a vehicle to provide comfortable surface temperatures. CONSTITUTION:An insulating material 1 placed between an auxiliary heater 27 which is sewed and fixed on a base cloth 21 and a low-profile thermostat 30 which is fixed on the base cloth 21 via a stiffening cloth 22 is used to allow the temperature rise gradient of the low-profile thermostat 30 to be freely set. That is, the situation that no heating effect is caused by the prematually cutoff thin thermostat is avoided and the occurrence of an abnormal heating condition due to malfunction of the thin thermostat at a low temperature is prevented.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heater unit used for heating the seats of a vehicle.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, heater units that have a built-in heater in a vehicle seat and provide heating have become popular. Hereinafter, the configuration of a conventional heater unit will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 12. As shown in the figure, the seat part 10 and the back part 1
Heater units 1 are installed between the skins 13 and 14 of the seat 12 and the main pads 15 and 16, respectively.
7 and 18 are provided, and a round thermostat 19 attached to the heater unit 17 is connected to the seat part 10 and the back part 11.
The round thermostat 19 eliminates the feeling of a foreign body when sitting.

The heater unit 17 has a heater 20 sewn and fixed to the base cloth 21, and the round thermostat 19 is attached to the base cloth 21 with a cutout cloth 22 so that a part of the round thermostat 19 is exposed. The round thermostat 19 is fixed and connected to one end of the power source 23 via a lead wire 24, and an auxiliary heater 27 for warming the round thermostat 19 is connected via a lead wire 25 and a connecting portion 26. A heater 20 is connected to the other end of the heater 20 via a connecting portion 26 by a lead wire 28, and the auxiliary heater 27 is connected to the other end of the heater 20 to form an electric circuit.

[0004] Furthermore, since there is a possibility that juice, sweat, etc. may seep into the seat 12 where the round thermostat 19 is installed, a waterproof tube 29 is provided on the round thermostat 19 so that it does not get in the way when sitting. part 10 and back 1
It was configured so that it was set at the boundary of 1.

[0005] Then, when power is supplied from the power source 23 to the heater 20 and the auxiliary heater 27, the heater 20
The auxiliary heater 27 warms the epidermis 13 of the waterproof tube 29
The round thermostat 19 was warmed through the heat exchanger, and when the round thermostat 19 reached a predetermined temperature, it was turned off and the electricity supply was stopped.

However, because the thickness of the round thermostat 19 is large, the part of the outer skin 13 of the seat 10 where the round thermostat 19 is provided is raised, and the back part 1
There was a problem in that when the thermostat 1 was tilted back and forth, the raised part rubbed and the outer skin 13 was torn, exposing the round thermostat 19 to the outside of the outer skin 13. Further, in the round thermostat 19, a tube 29 had to be attached as a post-processing for waterproofing, which caused an increase in cost. Furthermore, depending on the shape of the seat 12, there are seats in which the thermostat is located in the front lower calf area of the seat 10, and if there are too many protrusions on the surface, there are problems such as feeling uncomfortable when they hit the feet. Therefore, in order to solve these problems, a thin thermostat with a small thickness as shown in FIG. 8 has been used.

The thin thermostat 30 is entirely molded with resin and has a structure in which the lead wire 31 comes out directly from the thin thermostat 30 body, eliminating the need for a waterproof tube 29 as in the round thermostat. It had become.

[0008]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, as thermostats have become thinner and more compact, their heat capacity has become smaller, and since the waterproof tube 29, which also served as insulation, has been abolished, the thermostat has become simply called the round thermostat 19. When replaced, the thin thermostat 30 becomes the round thermostat 1.
A premature cut-off phenomenon occurred in which the temperature reached a predetermined temperature earlier than 9 and turned off. In other words, as shown in the graph of Figure 11, when the round thermostat 19 reaches the predetermined temperature (40°C), (curve 1) the surface temperature of the seat 12 reaches a comfortable temperature (35°C) when seated. It is designed to be de-energized at this point. However, when the round thermostat 19 and the thin thermostat 30 are simply replaced, the thin thermostat 30 has a small heat capacity due to the above-mentioned reason and does not have the waterproof tube 29 which also had an insulating effect, so the time it takes to reach a predetermined temperature becomes faster ( Curve 3)
The power was turned off when the surface temperature of the seat was lower than the comfortable temperature, and the heating function of the seat heater could not be obtained. As a solution to this problem, in order to delay the time it takes to reach a predetermined temperature, the power consumption of the auxiliary heater 27 is reduced as shown in FIG.
If it is made smaller, the situation will be as shown in (curve 5), and this time, when the outside temperature is low (-20℃ in the figure), the thermostat cannot be heated to the specified temperature (40℃) and the thermostat will not turn off. As a result, the surface temperature of the seat 12 becomes abnormally high, resulting in a hot phenomenon (the same phenomenon occurs even if the off-temperature of the thermostat is increased).

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a heater unit that can bring the skin of a seat to a comfortable temperature.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, the heater unit of the present invention includes a heating heater sewn and fixed to a base fabric, and a heater unit for controlling electricity supply to the base fabric. The thermostat is equipped with a thermostat fixed to the thermostat and an auxiliary heater that heats the thermostat, and a heat insulating material is provided between the thermostat and the auxiliary heater as means for changing the temperature increase gradient of the thermostat.

[0011]

[Function] With the above-described configuration, the present invention makes it difficult for the heat generated by the auxiliary heater to be transmitted to the thermostat, and even when using a thin thermostat, the surface temperature of the seat can be adjusted to a comfortable temperature, similar to when using a conventional round thermostat. Can be done. Furthermore, the power consumption of the auxiliary heater can be maintained at the same level as that of the round thermostat, and the phenomenon of the thermostat not turning off even at low temperatures will not occur.

0012

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A heater unit according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 11. Note that the same parts as in the conventional example are given the same numbers and detailed explanations are omitted. As shown in the figure, a heat insulating material 1 is provided between the auxiliary heater 27 and the thin thermostat 30 to make it difficult for the heat generated by the auxiliary heater 27 to be transferred to the thin thermostat 30.

By adopting such a configuration, the temperature rise curve (curve 3) of the thin thermostat 30 shown in FIG. Since the power consumption can be maintained at the same level as that of the round thermostat 19, the phenomenon that the thermostat does not turn off even at low temperatures does not occur. Furthermore, if a material with cushioning properties is used as the heat insulating material 1, the corners of the hard and thin thermostat 30 will be prevented from directly touching the auxiliary heater 27, and breakage of the auxiliary heater 27 will be eliminated. Furthermore, by changing the thickness of the heat insulating material 1, the temperature rise curve of the thin thermostat 30 can be changed freely, making it easy to design. In addition, as in the example, the insulation material 1
may be fixed to the auxiliary heater 27 side, or the same effect can be obtained even if it is fixed to the thin thermostat 30 side.

Next, a second embodiment will be explained below using FIGS. 2 and 3. As shown in the figure, the wiring pattern of the auxiliary heater 27 is arranged so as to surround the outer periphery of the thin thermostat 30. With the above configuration, the transmission of heat from the auxiliary heater 27 to the thin thermostat 30 is delayed, so the temperature rise curve of the thin thermostat 30 is improved to the temperature rise curve of the conventional round thermostat 19, as in the first embodiment. can. Moreover, the power consumption of the auxiliary heater 27 can also be maintained.

Furthermore, by bringing a part of the auxiliary heater 27 into contact with the thin thermostat 30 as shown in FIG. 3, the temperature rise curve of the thin thermostat 30 can be changed.

[0016]

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above embodiments, according to the heater unit of the present invention, a heat insulating material is inserted between the thin thermostat and the auxiliary heater. There is no need to worry about heating and heating effects, and even at low temperatures there will be no abnormal heating due to the thin thermostat not working.Furthermore, by freely changing the thickness of the insulation material,
Furthermore, by changing the arrangement method of the auxiliary heater pattern, it is possible to provide a heater unit in which the temperature rise curve can be set freely.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a heater unit in the vicinity of a thin thermostat according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the heater unit in the vicinity of the thin thermostat according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 3] Top view of the same heater unit near the thin thermostat

[Fig. 4] Perspective view of a seat equipped with a conventional heater unit

[
Figure 5: Circuit diagram of the heater unit

[Fig. 6] A perspective view showing the installed state of the thermostat of the same heater unit.

[Figure 7] Cross-sectional view of the heater unit near the round thermostat

[Figure 8] Cross-sectional view of the heater unit near the thin thermostat

[Figure 9] Top view of the heater unit near the round thermostat

[Figure 10] Top view of the heater unit near the thin thermostat

[Figure 11] Characteristic diagram showing the temperature rise curve of the seat and thermostat

[Figure 12] Characteristic diagram showing the power consumption curve of the auxiliary heater

[Explanation of symbols]

1　Insulation material 20 Heater 21 Base fabric 27 Auxiliary heater 30 Thermostat

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: A heating heater sewn and fixed to a base fabric;
A thermostat fixed to the base fabric for controlling electricity supply to the heater and an auxiliary heater for heating the thermostat are provided, and as means for changing the temperature increase gradient of the thermostat, the thermostat is connected between the thermostat and the auxiliary heater. Heater unit equipped with insulation material. 2. The heater unit according to claim 1, wherein an auxiliary heater is provided as the means for changing the temperature increase gradient so as to be located on the outer periphery of the thermostat.