JPH11348550A - Defogging device for vehicle window - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a burden to a battery, and increase defogging effect on a window glass. SOLUTION: In this defogging device, a hygroscopic honeycomb rotor 1 is divided into at least adsorption and desorption zones 3 and 4, and air heated by a heating radiator 11 is passed through a heater 6, to pass the air passed through the heater 6 to the zone 4. Moreover air left from the zone 4 is sent outside a vehicle, and air passed through the zone 3 is made to abut on a window glass through a defroster.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an anti-fog device for a vehicle window used for, for example, an automobile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, vehicles that emit less carbon dioxide have been demanded, and in particular, the fuel consumption rate of automobiles has been remarkably improved. Accordingly, a phenomenon has occurred in which waste heat of the engine decreases and the temperature of warm air discharged from the air conditioner during heating decreases.

[0003] For this reason, there has been a problem that fogging of the window glass cannot be sufficiently prevented even by the defroster especially in a cold region. In other words, the window glass is cooled by the outside air, and dew forms inside and fogging occurs.

[0004] Therefore, warm air is generated from the defroster and applied to the window glass. By doing so, the air whose relative humidity has decreased with the rise in temperature hits the inside of the window glass, and the temperature of the window glass also increases, thereby preventing dew condensation.

[0005] However, if the temperature of the warm air generated from the defroster is low, the anti-fogging effect is reduced, and the problem that the window glass is fogged occurs. For this purpose, it is conceivable to raise the temperature of the hot air discharged from the defroster by using a combustion-type heating device or an auxiliary heating heat source such as an electric heater.
There is no point in consuming energy as a heat source even if the fuel consumption rate is improved.

Therefore, it has been considered to install a dehumidifying device using a moisture adsorbent such as silica gel to apply dry air to a window glass of a vehicle to prevent dew condensation on the window glass.

[0007]

When a dehumidifier using an adsorbent as described above is used, energy consumption is smaller than when a combustion-type heating device or an auxiliary heating heat source using an electric heater is used. Has almost no effect on fuel consumption.

However, although the dehumidifier using the adsorbent consumes less power than the auxiliary heating heat source using the electric heater, there is still a problem that large power is consumed for desorbing moisture adsorbed on the adsorbent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide an anti-fog device for a vehicle window which has a small load on a battery and a high anti-fog effect of a window glass.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems A honeycomb rotor for moisture adsorption is divided into at least an adsorption zone and a desorption zone,
Pass the air heated by the heating radiator through the heating means,
While passing the air that passed through the heating means to the desorption zone, and sending the air that exited the desorption zone to the outside of the vehicle,
The air that passed through the adsorption zone was applied to the window glass.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention has a honeycomb rotor for absorbing moisture, divides the honeycomb rotor for absorbing moisture into at least an adsorption zone and a desorption zone, and circulates engine coolant. The air that has passed through the radiator is passed through the heating means, the air that has passed through the heating means is passed through the desorption zone, the air that has exited the desorption zone is sent out of the vehicle, and the air that has passed through the adsorption zone is passed through a window. The air inside the car is dried because the air preheated by the radiator is heated by the heating means to save the energy for desorption and the humid air after desorption is taken out of the car. It has the action of:

[0012]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of an anti-fog device for a vehicle window according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a flow pattern diagram showing the flow of air in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a honeycomb rotor for absorbing moisture. FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a vehicle to which the anti-fog device for a vehicle window of the present invention is attached. FIG. 4 is a fragmentary cutaway view of the dehumidifying means used in the anti-fog device for a vehicle window of the present invention.

1 is a honeycomb rotor for absorbing moisture,
This is obtained by, for example, laminating a corrugated glass fiber paper or a ceramic fiber paper with a flat paper and winding it up, and synthesizing silica gel on the sheet. Such a material has a large surface area and is capable of removing about 80 to 90% of moisture in the passing air.

First, the dehumidifying means will be described. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 2 denotes a casing, which is divided into a processing zone 3 and a regeneration zone 4. The honeycomb rotor 1 for moisture adsorption is rotatably held inside the casing 2 and is driven to rotate by a geared motor 5.

In FIG. 1, a heater 6 is provided on the inflow side of the regeneration zone 4. A temperature sensor 7 such as a thermistor such as a thermocouple is provided downstream of the heater 6. The output signal of the temperature sensor 7 is supplied to the control means 8, which is connected between the battery 9 and the heater 6, and which is connected to the heater 6 according to the output signal of the temperature sensor 7.
The power applied to the heater 6 is controlled so that the air temperature on the outlet side of the heater becomes constant at, for example, 100 ° C.

The control means 8 comprises a comparator for comparing the reference voltage with the voltage of the temperature sensor 7, and a switching element such as a transistor or a relay for opening and closing the current from the battery 9 in accordance with the output of the comparator. Is general, and a detailed description is omitted.

The air entering the processing zone 3 is adsorbed by the moisture adsorbing honeycomb rotor 1 and is discharged as dry air. The air heated by the heater and turned into hot air enters the regeneration zone 4 and enters the moisture-absorbing honeycomb rotor 1. Thus, the moisture adsorbed on the moisture adsorbing honeycomb rotor 1 that has adsorbed the moisture is desorbed. The desorbed moisture is discharged from the regeneration zone 4.

Next, the overall description will be made with reference to the flow pattern diagram of FIG. 1 and the schematic sectional view of the vehicle of FIG. Reference numeral 10 denotes a blower for sending air to the entire apparatus of the present invention. 11 is a radiator that generates warm air during heating,
The engine coolant is circulating. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the casing 2 is housed inside the dashboard 12 in the vehicle interior.

Here, the geared motor 5, the heater 6 and the blower 10 are energized to operate the entire motor. Then, a part of the air in the vehicle compartment is sent to the radiator 11 by the blower 10 and heated to 40 to 70 ° C., and the rest is sent to the adsorption zone 3 of the dehumidifying means.

A part of the air heated by the radiator 11 is sent to the heater 6 to be heated to 100 ° C., and the rest is returned to the vehicle interior for heating if necessary. The high-temperature air leaving the heater 6 is sent to the regeneration zone 4. Here, the moisture adsorbed on the honeycomb rotor for moisture adsorption 1 by the high-temperature air is desorbed. Then, the humid air that has exited the regeneration zone 4 is discharged outside the vehicle compartment.

The air sent to the adsorption zone 3 is adsorbed by the humidity-adsorbing honeycomb rotor 1 and becomes dry air. At the time of this adsorption, heat of adsorption is generated, so that the temperature of the dry air becomes high. The high-temperature dry air is guided to the defroster 13 on the upper surface of the dashboard 12 so as to be blown onto the window glass.

Here, if the air sent to the adsorption zone 3 is at a high temperature, the adsorbing action of the honeycomb rotor 1 for adsorbing moisture is not sufficiently exerted.
Send to

The humid air that has exited the regeneration zone 4 is discharged to the outside of the vehicle compartment, and outside air corresponding to the amount of the discharged air enters through a gap in a vehicle door or the like, and the air in the vehicle room is reduced by that much. Replaces with outside air.

The anti-fog device for a vehicle window according to the present invention, which has the above-described configuration and operation, applies dehumidified and dried high-temperature air to the window glass. The anti-fog effect is remarkably higher than that applied to the window glass, and the power consumption is remarkably smaller than that applied to the window glass by producing high-temperature air by an electric heater.

The anti-fog device for a vehicle window according to the present invention having the above-described configuration and operation can be used when the temperature of the engine coolant rises when the vehicle is traveling on a long uphill or in a traffic jam. The temperature of the air heated by the radiator 11 rises, and the power consumed by the heater 6 decreases. That is, if the temperature of the air heated by the radiator 11 has risen to 70 ° C., the heater 6 only needs to further raise the temperature of the air by 30 ° C.

In particular, when the vehicle is caught in traffic, the rotation of the engine is low and the generated power is reduced, and when it is nighttime, the power consumption by the lamp is added to the power consumption, so that the power margin is reduced. In this case, the power consumption of the heater 6 is reduced in the vehicle window anti-fog device of the present invention.

Conversely, when the vehicle is traveling on a long downhill, the fuel consumption of the engine decreases and the engine is cooled by the ram wind pressure, so that the temperature of the engine coolant decreases. However, in such a case, since the rotation speed of the engine is high and a sufficient power generation amount can be ensured, there is no problem even if the power consumed by the heater 6 is slightly increased.

Further, since the humid air discharged from the regeneration zone 4 is discharged outside the room, it is possible to dehumidify the room. This can also solve the problem that the window is fogged when a large number of people get on the vehicle.

Although the above description has been made as a means for solving the problem in a cold region, the energy consumption of the vehicle can be reduced even in the dehumidification during the rainy season. In other words, in order to perform indoor dehumidification in the case of high humidity such as during the rainy season, cooling and heating are simultaneously performed, and dehumidified air that has been dewed by an evaporator and heated by a radiator is supplied to the room. Therefore, it is necessary to operate the compressor of the refrigerator, and the energy consumption increases.

On the other hand, the anti-fog device for a vehicle window according to the present invention has a dehumidifying effect in the room because the humid air after the moisture adsorption / removal of the honeycomb rotor is released to the outside of the vehicle.
In this case, the load on the generator is only slightly increased, so that the fuel consumption does not significantly increase.

[0031]

As described above, the anti-fog device for a vehicle window according to the present invention is constructed as described above, so that the dehumidified dry high-temperature air is applied to the window glass. An anti-fog effect can be exhibited. In addition, the energy consumed is only the desorption energy of the honeycomb rotor for moisture adsorption, so the energy consumption is basically small.Moreover, the desorption of the honeycomb rotor for moisture adsorption uses the waste heat of the engine and the heater. The power is only the shortage of engine waste heat. Further, the anti-fog device for a vehicle window according to the present invention can reduce power consumption and reduce the load on the battery during traffic congestion or the like where the amount of power generation is small. Moreover, since the present invention has an indoor dehumidifying effect and does not consume a large amount of energy during operation, the fuel consumption of the vehicle does not increase remarkably for dehumidification.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow pattern diagram showing a flow of air in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a honeycomb rotor for absorbing moisture used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a vehicle to which the anti-fog device for a vehicle window of the present invention is attached.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary cutaway view of a dehumidifying unit used in the anti-fog device for a vehicle window of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Honeycomb rotor for moisture adsorption 2 Casing 3 Processing zone 4 Regeneration zone 5 Geared motor 6 Heater 7 Temperature sensor 8 Control means 9 Battery 10 Blower 11 Radiator

Claims (2)

[Claims] The present invention has a honeycomb rotor for absorbing moisture and divides the honeycomb rotor for absorbing moisture into at least an adsorption zone and a desorption zone, and passes air passing through a radiator through which a coolant for the engine is circulated to a heating means. The air that has passed through the heating means is passed to the desorption zone, the air that has exited the desorption zone is sent outside the vehicle, and the air that has passed through the adsorption zone is applied to a window glass. Anti-fog device for vehicle windows. 2. The antifogging device for a vehicle window according to claim 1, further comprising control means for keeping the temperature of the air passing through the heating means constant.