JPH1053021A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain considerable miniaturization and weight reduction of the whole air conditioner by providing a heater unit having a built-in heater core, with an evaporator that can change an air direction so as to practically make a U-turn inside. SOLUTION: A heater core 3 is arranged in an inclined state in a duct constituting a heater unit 2. This heater unit 2 is provided internally or directly with an evaporator 5, formed of a tubular heat exchanger with a large number of small diameter tubes 4 arranged, as an evaporator that can change an air direction so as to practically make a U-turn inside. The evaporator 5 has a large number of small diameter tubes 4 disposed between upper and lower tanks 6a, 6b, and refrigerant flows in the small diameter tubes 4. The U-turn of the air direction can thereby be made inside the evaporator 5 itself, so that there is no need to separately provide a special U-turn air duct so as to attain miniaturization and weight reduction with extreme efficiency.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner suitable for a vehicle, and more particularly to an air conditioner capable of improving the performance while reducing the size and weight.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an air conditioner, particularly a vehicle air conditioner, includes respective components such as a blower, an evaporator, and a heater core.
It passes through the evaporator and the heater core, and is discharged from the outlet (VENT, DEF, FOOT) of each mode.
An air mix damper, a damper for switching each blowing mode, and the like are provided in the air path.

[0003] An air conditioner usually comprises a blower unit having a blower, a cooling unit having an evaporator, and a heater unit having a heater core.
The heater unit is configured, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, in which a heater core 102 is incorporated in a heater unit 101, and an air mix damper 103 is disposed immediately upstream of the heater core 102. On the upstream side of the heater unit 101,
A cooling unit incorporating an evaporator is arranged (not shown). The wind blown from the blower or the wind sucked by the blower passes through the evaporator in the cooling unit vertically, and is then divided by the air mix damper 103 in the heater unit 101 into a wind passing through the heater core 102 and a wind not passing through. The cool air and the hot air are sent individually or mixed to the downstream side, and the air outlet of each mode, for example, the VENT air outlet 10
4. Discharged from the DEF outlet 105 and the FOOT outlet 106. Note that reference numeral 107 in FIG. 5 denotes a heater core shut damper, which prevents the cool air from touching the heater core 102 as much as possible at the time of cool max.

[0004]

In the air conditioner of the above structure, the air flow first passes through the evaporator substantially vertically, and then passes through the heater core of the heater unit. Therefore, these devices are arranged in series in the flow direction, and there is a limit in reducing the size and weight of the entire air conditioner.

An object of the present invention is to achieve a significant reduction in the size and weight of the entire air conditioner by making improvements in the flow of air and the arrangement of equipment, and at the same time, with regard to windage loss and heat exchange performance at that time. The idea is to add ideas and improvements.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an air conditioner according to the present invention is provided with an evaporator capable of substantially making a U-turn in the wind direction in a heater unit incorporating a heater core. Characterized by the following.

In this air conditioner, it is preferable that the evaporator comprises a multi-tube heat exchanger in which a number of thin tubes are arranged. In the multi-tube heat exchanger, the wind direction can be changed substantially freely inside the heat exchanger, and the wind direction can be U-turned inside, with one surface serving as a wind entrance / exit surface. Such an evaporator is incorporated in the heater unit or directly attached to the heater unit.

Also, a blower can be incorporated in the heater unit, and the blower can be arranged to face a part of the evaporator. With this configuration, the wind from the blower is sent into the evaporator from the entrance / exit surface of the evaporator, is U-turned in the evaporator, and is blown out from another portion of the entrance / exit surface. The wind that was blown out
It is sent to the heater core, passes through the heater core, and bypasses the heater core.

[0009] Further, the extending direction of the thin tube of the evaporator is as follows.
There is no particular limitation as long as the wind direction can be U-turned in the evaporator, but it is desirable that the wind direction is substantially the same as the wind direction at the time of U-turn. In this case, the wind can make a U-turn at the same time as flowing along the thin tube, and an increase in windage loss can be suppressed.

In addition, when the thin tubes of the evaporator are arranged so that the thin tube rows arranged in series are arranged in parallel with respect to the first surface serving as the entrance / exit surface of the evaporator, a meandering wind is provided between the thin tube rows. Since no small wind path is formed, windage loss can be reduced.

Further, by setting the flow direction of the refrigerant in the narrow tube of the evaporator to the direction opposite to the wind direction at the time of U-turn, the heat exchange efficiency is improved.

As described above, in the air conditioner according to the present invention, by providing the heater unit with an evaporator capable of making a U-turn in the wind direction, the entire air conditioner is significantly reduced in size and weight, and is suitable for vehicles. Air conditioner is obtained. In addition, as described above, by specifying the extending direction and arrangement of the thin tubes of the evaporator and the flow direction of the refrigerant, it is also possible to improve the air conditioning performance.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of an air conditioner according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 3 show an air conditioner according to one embodiment of the present invention, and show a case where the present invention is applied to a vehicle air conditioner. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an entire air conditioner, and a heater core 3 is arranged in a duct constituting a heater unit 2 at an angle. An evaporator 5 is provided from a multi-tube heat exchanger in which a large number of thin tubes 4 are arranged as an evaporator capable of making the wind direction substantially U-turn inside the heater unit 2 or directly inside the heater unit 2. ing. The evaporator 5 has a number of thin tubes 4 disposed between upper and lower tanks 6a and 6b.
A refrigerant is circulated in the small tube 4.

In this embodiment, a blower 7 is also incorporated in the heater unit 2, and the blower 7 is arranged so as to face a part of a first surface 5 a serving as an entrance / exit surface of the evaporator 5. On both sides of the blower 7 of the heater unit 2, air intakes 9a and 9b having dampers 8 are provided. In this embodiment, the blower 7 is configured as a double-shaft blower that sucks air from both sides, but may be a single-shaft blower.

An air mix damper 10 is provided between the heater core 3 and the evaporator 5 to control the amount of air passing through the heater core 3 and the amount of air bypassing.

A VENT mode outlet 11, a DEF mode outlet 12 and a FOOT mode outlet 13 are opened on the downstream side of the heater unit 2 in the air flow direction.

After the wind from the blower 7 flows into the evaporator 5, it is U-turned in the evaporator 5, and the extending direction of the thin tube 4 of the evaporator 5 and the wind direction at the time of the U-turn are substantially the same. It has been.

Further, as shown in FIG.
Are arranged such that a row of thin tubes arranged in series is arranged in parallel with a first surface 5a which is an entrance / exit surface of the evaporator 5.

Further, the flow direction of the refrigerant in the narrow tube 4 is set to the direction C in FIG. 2 and is set to the direction opposite to the wind direction during the U-turn in the evaporator 5.

In the air conditioner thus configured, an evaporator 5 for internally turning the wind direction is used, and the evaporator 5 is provided in the heater unit 2, and the blower 7 is also incorporated in the heater unit 2. Therefore, the size and weight of the entire air conditioner can be significantly reduced. That is, since the wind direction is U-turned inside the evaporator 5 itself, there is no need to separately provide a special U-turn air path, and the size and weight can be reduced extremely efficiently.

Also, as in this embodiment, the evaporator 5
If the direction in which the thin tube 4 extends is the same as the wind direction during the U-turn, the wind can make a U-turn while flowing along the thin tube 4 in the evaporator 5, so that the windage loss is extremely small.

Also, as shown in FIG. 3, by arranging the thin tube rows arranged in series in parallel with the first surface 5a, it is possible to form a small air passage having a small resistance between the thin tube rows. Thus, windage loss can be further reduced.

Further, by setting the flow direction of the refrigerant to the direction opposite to the U-turn direction, it is possible to improve the heat exchange efficiency while making the U-turn.

[0024]

As described above, according to the air conditioner of the present invention, by providing an evaporator capable of making a U-turn inside the heater unit in the heater unit, it is possible to greatly reduce the size and weight of the entire air conditioner. .

Further, by using a multi-tube heat exchanger for the evaporator and specifying the arrangement state of the thin tubes and the flow direction of the refrigerant, it is also possible to improve the air-conditioning performance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the evaporator along a line III-III in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional air conditioner.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 air conditioner 2 heater unit 3 heater core 4 thin tube 5 evaporator 5a first surface 6a, 6b vertical tank 7 blower 8 damper 9a, 9b air intake 10 air mix damper 11, 12, 13 blowout outlet

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An air conditioner, wherein an evaporator capable of making a wind direction substantially U-turn is provided inside a heater unit incorporating a heater core. 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein said evaporator comprises a multi-tube heat exchanger in which a number of thin tubes are arranged. 3. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein a blower is incorporated in the heater unit, and is arranged to face a part of the evaporator. 4. The extension direction of a thin tube of the evaporator is as follows.
The air conditioner according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the direction is substantially the same as the wind direction during the U-turn. 5. The evaporator according to claim 1, wherein the thin tubes of the evaporator are arranged in such a manner that a row of thin tubes arranged in series is arranged in parallel with a first surface serving as an entrance / exit surface of the evaporator. An air conditioner according to any one of the above. 6. A flow direction of a refrigerant in a narrow tube of the evaporator is a direction facing a wind direction at the time of the U-turn.
An air conditioner according to any one of claims 1 to 5. 7. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the air conditioner is a vehicle air conditioner.