JPH0755615B2 - Air conditioner for vehicle - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioner in which measures are taken to prevent snow from entering the air conditioning duct during traveling during snowfall. .

[Prior Art] In a wagon car or the like in which an engine is mounted on the rear part of the vehicle body, a fresh air conditioner for air conditioning in the vehicle compartment is provided from an opening provided in the front part of the vehicle body, for example, around a headlamp or an intake port under the floor at the frontmost part of the vehicle body. The outside air is taken in, and the air is introduced into the air conditioning duct by the suction force of the blower through a short air guide path.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In a vehicle adopting the outside air intake method as described above, the length of the air guide passage from the air intake port at the front of the vehicle body to the outside air intake port of the air conditioning duct is Because it is extremely short, when driving in snow during severe cold, the snow-blown air enters the air conditioning duct as it is, and the inside / outside air switching damper for switching between outside air and inside air is installed in contact with the outside air intake port. It accumulates around the rotary shaft and freezes, and the rotational operation force of the rotary shaft is forcibly transmitted to damage this damper, or snow blows into the blower and freezes it, causing rotation of the blower motor. There was a high possibility of causing inconvenience such as stopping.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner having a structure that does not cause the inconvenience as described above even when traveling in snow during cold weather.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a vehicle air conditioner according to the present invention has an air inlet and an air outlet, and has a blower, an air conditioning heat exchanger, and a wind inside. It is provided along the longitudinal direction of the air conditioning duct incorporating the road switching damper and the front bumper of the vehicle, an air intake is provided at one end in the longitudinal direction, and an air outlet is provided at the other end. An air duct expanding part that expands the air duct is provided in the middle part of the air duct, and a snow separating duct having a snow discharge drain in the air duct expanding part and the air outlet of the snow separating duct are connected to the air conditioning duct. And a communication means for communicating with the air intake port of.

[Operation and Effect of the Invention] In the vehicle air conditioner having the above-described configuration, the snow-covered air sucked into the air intake port of the snow separation duct as the vehicle travels, the ram pressure and the blower It flows through the inner space of the snow separation duct toward the air outlet by the suction force. Then, the dynamic pressure of the air flowing into the air duct expansion portion is reduced due to the expansion. For this reason, when the snowflakes flow into the air duct expansion portion, the air resistance increases, and the velocity in the longitudinal direction of the snow separation duct is suddenly lost. As a result, the snowflakes that flowed into the air duct expansion will
Before passing through the air duct expansion part, it falls to the bottom of the air duct expansion part due to gravity and is separated from the air flow. The separated snow is discharged to the outside of the snow separation duct through the snow discharge drain.

The outside air from which snow has been removed reaches the air outlet of the snow separation duct, and then is introduced into the outside air intake port of the air conditioning duct through the communication means. Therefore, even if the vehicle is traveling in snow during a severe cold, the inconvenience as described above due to the intrusion of snow into the air conditioning duct cannot occur.

[Embodiment] A vehicle air conditioner according to the present invention will be specifically described below based on an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings.

1 to 3 show an example in which the device of the present invention is mounted on a wagon vehicle. In this embodiment, the front bumper A also has a function as a snow separation duct. Bumper A
Is attached to the body frame D by using a bumper stay C.

An air conditioning duct B, which is a main body of the air conditioner, is mounted on a lower portion of a driver's seat instrument panel E of the vehicle, and has an outside air intake port 11 forming part of its air intake port and an air outlet of the front bumper A. 5 is communicated with a short intermediate duct 7 as a communication means.

In this embodiment, the bumper A provided with a hollow cylindrical shape in order to have a function as a snow separation duct is a metal bumper body 1 having a shape similar to that of a conventional bumper. The back plate 1a is formed into a tubular shape by attaching it by welding, screwing or any other suitable method, and the openings at both ends thereof are sealed by the end face plates 1b.

An air-conditioning air intake 2 (outside air) is provided on one end side of the tubular bumper A in the longitudinal direction, and an air outlet 5 is provided on the other end side thereof. The air intake 2 is provided for dust removal and design effect. A grill 6 is detachably attached to the. In addition, in the intermediate portion between the air inlet 2 and the air outlet 5, an air duct expansion portion 3 formed when the back plate 1a is pressed and a snow drain 4 connected to the expansion portion 3 are formed. Is formed integrally with the back plate 1a. 4a is a snow removal hole. The air duct extension 3 and the snow discharge drain 4 may be integrally formed separately and then assembled to the back plate 1a or the bumper body 1.

The role of the air duct expansion portion 3 is that the air duct a in the cylindrical bumper A is caused by the ram pressure from the air intake 2 of the bumper A as the vehicle travels.
There is a point that the flow velocity of the outside air blown into the snow is decelerated to stall the snow as a flying object, but the inventor of the present invention who has the idea of such a snow separation method uses a wind tunnel. As a conclusion of analyzing the data obtained by conducting the experiment, the flow velocity
It was found that when decelerating the snow-covered air flow at a speed of 3 m / sec or more to a flow velocity of 3 m / sec or less, the snowflakes of the flying object stalled surely and separated and dropped from the airflow. It is necessary to design the shape and dimensions of the air duct expansion portion 3 to be provided in the above so as to satisfy such a snowflake stall condition.

Since the bumpers A are designed to meet the restrictions on the outer dimensions of the vehicle and the demands on the design, the outer dimensions of the air duct expansion portion 3 are also made to correspond to them.
It is better to make an experimental determination to satisfy the above conditions. The shape and dimensions of the snow discharge duct 4 may be appropriately determined based on the installation height that does not collide with obstacles on the road surface during traveling.

The air conditioning duct B has an outside air intake port 11 and an inside air intake port 12
And an inside / outside air switching box 10 including an inside / outside air switching damper 13 for selectively opening / closing these two ports, a blower casing 21, and an air conditioning duct body 20 in this order. A fan driven by a motor 23 is provided in the blower casing 21.
22 are paid.

Inside the air-conditioning duct main body 20 whose upstream opening end is connected to the discharge port of the blower, the amount of air passing through the cooling heat exchanger 24 and the heating heat exchanger 26 is increased and decreased sequentially from the upstream side and blown out. A temperature control damper 25 for adjusting the air temperature and a heat exchanger 26 are housed, and defroster, ventilation and heat outlets 30, 31, and 32 are opened at the downstream end. 27 and 28 are air duct switching dampers for selectively opening and closing these outlets. Note that F and G in the figure are the driver's seat and the passenger seat.

The outside air intake port 11 of the air conditioning duct B and the air intake port 2 of the front damper A connect the air passage a in the bumper A, the air outlet 5 forming the end of this air passage, and the outside air intake port 11. Through the intermediate duct 7 as the above.

The intermediate duct 7 is made by injection-molding or blow-molding a hard synthetic resin like the air-conditioning duct B. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. Although it has a three-divided structure connected by 9, it may of course be formed as an integral structure. When the bumper A or the bumper back plate 1a is made of synthetic resin, the intermediate duct 7 may be formed integrally with them, or may be integrally formed with the inside / outside air switching box 10. Further, in some cases, an assembly structure in which the air outlet 5 of the bumper A and the outside air intake port 11 of the air conditioning duct B are directly connected to each other may be possible.

The operation of the above-described embodiment apparatus is such that when the vehicle is traveling in snow during a severe cold and the outside air introduction air-conditioning mode is selected by the operation panel (not shown) of the apparatus, the outside air intake port 11 is opened and the outside air that is covered with snow is removed. It is pushed into the passage a by the traveling ram pressure from the outside air intake 2 of the bumper A, reaches the air passage expansion portion 3 provided in the middle portion of the air passage A, and the phenomenon as described above occurs and snow falls downward. , Is discarded on the road from the snow discharge hole 4a of the snow discharge drain 4. To prevent the snow drainage drain 4 from being filled with snow due to too much snow mixed in the outside air, warm this place with warm air or hot water generated by an electric heater or engine. You may

Since the front bumper is provided in every vehicle, especially in every vehicle, it is not necessary to install a new member for removing snow inside the vehicle body having a small dead space.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the front bumper A is made to serve as a snow separation duct. However, a duct for snow separation, which is provided with an air inlet and an outlet, an air duct extension and a snow discharge drain, is provided at the front. The bumper A can be mounted separately from the bumper A in parallel with the bumper A or by being fitted into the cavity in the front bumper A.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the air duct expansion portion for decelerating the air flow is provided in the snow separation duct. However, when the cross sectional area of the snow separation duct is sufficiently large, the duct itself has a deceleration function, and therefore the air passage. The extension part becomes unnecessary.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 3 each show an embodiment in which the vehicle air conditioner of the present invention is incorporated in a wagon vehicle, and FIG. 1 shows the arrangement state of the device and the horizontal state of the front bumper A. The cross section and the side cross section of the air conditioning duct B are schematically drawn. FIG. 2 is a first (a)-(a) cross-sectional view, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the front portion of the vehicle body with the front bumper removed from the vehicle body. In the figure, A ... Snow separation duct (front bumper), B ... Air conditioning duct, 1 ... Bumper body, 2 ... Air intake, 3
...... Air path expansion part, 4 ...... Snow drain, 5 ...... Air outlet, 7 ...... Communication means (intermediate duct), 11 ...... Outside air intake, 12 ...... Inside air intake, 21-23 ...... Blower, 24, 26 ……
Air-conditioning heat exchangers, 27, 28 ... Air path switching dampers, 30-32 ...
… Outlet

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An air conditioning duct having an air intake port and an air outlet port, in which a blower, an air conditioning heat exchanger, and an air path switching damper are incorporated, and provided along a longitudinal direction of a front bumper of a vehicle. An air intake is provided at one end side in the longitudinal direction and an air outlet is provided at the other end side, and an air duct expansion part that expands the air duct is provided in the middle part of these both ports. An air conditioner for a vehicle, comprising: a snow separation duct including a snow discharge drain; and a communication means for communicating the air outlet of the snow separation duct with an air intake port of the air conditioning duct.