WO2004024480A1

WO2004024480A1 - Vent assembly with drawer-type grill unit for automobiles

Info

Publication number: WO2004024480A1
Application number: PCT/KR2003/001823
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sung-Ho Cho
Original assignee: Sung-Ho Cho
Priority date: 2002-09-10
Filing date: 2003-09-05
Publication date: 2004-03-25
Also published as: KR100445696B1; AU2003258878A1; KR20040023030A

Abstract

The object of this invention is to provide a vent assembly with a drawer-type grill unit for automobiles. This vent assembly includes a grill unit (1) and a housing (2) installed in the dashboard. The grill unit has a grillwork (11), a grillwork holder (10), and a drawer part (12). The drawer part has a stopper (16) at a rear end thereof to engage with and disengage from a push button switch (36) installed in the housing, and has a drive roll (31) at a bottom thereof. A drive spring (3) is connected at a first end thereof to the drive roll to be wound around and unwound from the drive roll. A rack (15a) is provided along an upper surface of one of movable rails (15) to engage with a reduction gear (35) installed in the housing. Further, the housing has a drive opening (32) on a bottom thereof.

Description

VENT ASSEMBLY WITH DRAWER-TYPE GRILL UNIT FOR

AUTOMOBILES

Technical Field

The present invention relates, in general, to vent assemblies used for discharging hot and cold air into the passenger compartment of an automobile for accomplishing an air conditioning effect for the passenger compartment and, more particularly, to a vent assembly for automobiles, which has a movable grill unit designed to be appropriately ejected from or retracted into a housing by an elastic force of a spring within a predetermined range capable of preventing an undesired complete removal of the grill unit from the housing, thus allowing a user to selectively eject or retract the grill unit from or into the housing, and which thus allows the user to open the housing when it is desired to clean the grill unit and the interior of the housing, so the vent assembly blows fresh, clean and scented air into the passenger compartment.

Background Art

As well known to those skilled in the art, most automobiles are typically provided with air conditioning apparatuses, such as heaters or air conditioners, for discharging impure air from the passenger compartment to the atmosphere and feeding fresh hot or cool air into the compartment. Such fresh air fed from such an air conditioning apparatus is blown into the passenger compartment through the grill unit of a vent assembly installed in a dashboard.

The grill unit of a conventional vent assembly, acting as the final path guiding the fresh hot or cool air into the passenger compartment, includes a plurality of grating bars which have a blade shape and are movably set in a grill frame fixedly installed in the venting channel of a dashboard. Therefore, when it is desired to change the air blowing direction of the grillwork, the grating bars are manually tilted upward, downward, leftward or rightward at a limited angle within the fixed grill frame.

In such a conventional vent assembly for automobiles, the air blowing direction of the grillwork is limitedly controlled by manually tilting the blade- shaped grating bars in the fixed grill frame to a desired direction within a limited angular range. It is thus almost impossible to clean the interior of the venting channel in back of the grill frame or the housing, and so a great quantity of dust is deposited in the venting channel as time goes by after the production of an automobile. Such deposited dust is blown into the passenger compartment along with fresh hot or cool air during an operation of an air conditioning apparatus, such as a heater or an air conditioner, thus being bad for passengers' health, particularly, for passengers' respiratory organs, and causing several diseases in said organs. Furthermore, the conventional vent assembly does not allow an installation of an air filter at a position around it, and so most passengers, including a driver while driving an automobile, inevitably breathe dust-laden air blown from the grillwork.

In addition to the above-mentioned problems of difficulty in cleaning the interior of the venting channel or installing an air filter, another problem of the conventional vent assembly caused by an absence of any means for holding air quality enhancing agents, such as aromatics, germicides, and/or deodorizers, in the assembly. Such agents are thus laid on the top wall of the dashboard or the rear shelf provided in back of the rear seats inside the passenger compartment, or attached to the front of the grillwork such that air laden with components of the agents circulates in the passenger compartment. However, such installation of the agents makes the interior of the passenger compartment messy, as well as interfering with the safe driving of a driver.

In an effort to overcome the problems experienced in the conventional vent assembly with the fixed grill frame, there was proposed and has been used an interior vent nozzle for air conditioning apparatuses of automobiles in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. Sho. 61-137,012. This vent nozzle, which corresponds to a grill frame with a grillwork and is referred to as "grill frame" herein below, is removably installed in a housing fixedly set in the dashboard of an automobile such that the grill frame with the grillwork is completely removed from the housing by pulling the grill frame from the housing when desired. That is, this grill frame has a detachable structure, which allows a user to install or remove the grill frame with the grillwork in or from the housing provided in the dashboard. However, due to such a detachable structure, this grill frame is not stably installed in the housing, and so it is undesirably moved in the housing to generate noises upsetting passengers around the grill frame when the automobile runs at speed with substantial vibrations. In addition, when the grill frame is repeatedly removed and installed from or in the housing, the assembling parts of both the grill frame and the housing may be damaged or broken, thus sometimes forcing the user to change the damaged or broken grill frame and/or housing with new ones. This grill frame is thus inconvenient to the user, and forces the user to pay excessive money for purchasing the new grill frame and/or housing. Another problem of the above grill frame resides in that it may be damaged or lost when it is completely removed from the housing and kept in the removed state for a period of time.

Disclosure of the Invention

Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vent assembly for automobiles, which has a drawer-type movable grill unit designed such that the grill unit is appropriately ejected from a housing horizontally by an elastic force of a spring within a predetermined range to prevent an undesired complete removal of the grill unit from the housing, and designed such that a stopper engages with a push button switch against the elastic force of the spring to allow the grill unit to restore a retracted position, thus allowing a user to selectively eject or retract the grill unit from or into the housing, and which thus allows the user to open the housing when it is desired to clean the grill unit and the interior of the housing, and thereby blowing fresh, clean and scented air into the passenger compartment.

In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a vent assembly for automobiles, which is installed at a front of a venting channel defined in a dashboard and includes a grill unit, the grill unit being movably set in a housing so that the grill unit is ejected from the housing within a predetermined range by an elastic force of a drive spring. Further, the grill unit is designed such that a stopper engages with a push button switch against the elastic force of the drive spring, so as to be retracted into the housing.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a vent assembly for automobiles, according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 2a and 2b are side sectional views, showing the operation of the vent assembly of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3a and 3b are side sectional views, showing the operation of a vent assembly for automobiles, according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a grill unit of a vent assembly, according to a modification of the first embodiment of this invention; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view, showing a vent assembly of this invention, which is installed in a dashboard of an automobile at a desired position.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Reference should now be made to the drawings, in which the same reference numerals are used throughout the different drawings to designate the same or similar components.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vent assembly with a drawer-type grill unit for automobiles, according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2a and 2b are side sectional views, showing the operation of the vent assembly of FIG. 1. As shown in the drawings, the vent assembly for automobiles of this invention includes a grill unit 1, a housing 2, and a drive spring 3. The grill unit 1 of the vent assembly according to the first embodiment of this invention includes a grillwork 11, a grillwork holder 10, and a drawer part 12. The grillwork 11 is provided at a front of the grillwork holder 10 to control the direction of air blown into the passenger compartment of an automobile through the vent assembly. The grill unit 1 is ejected from the housing 2 within a predetermined range by an elastic force of the drive spring 3. For such an operation of the grill unit 1, the drawer part 12 has a drive roll 31 at a bottom thereof, and a drive spring 3 is connected at a first end thereof to the drive roll 31 to be wound around or unwound from the drive roll 31. The drawer part 12 also has a stopper 16 at a rear end thereof to engage with and disengage from a push button switch 36 which is installed in the housing 2. Further, movable rails 15 are arranged along outer surfaces of both side walls of the drawer part 12, and are seated on fixed rails 20 to slide along the fixed rails 20 which are arranged along inner surfaces of both sidewalls of the housing 2. Along an upper surface of one of the movable rails 15 is arranged a rack 15a. The rack 15a engages with a reduction gear 35 installed in the housing 2 to allow the grill unit 1 to be slowly and smoothly retracted into the housing 2.

The drawer part 12, having a box shape which is opened at a top thereof, is provided at a back of the grillwork holder 10. The drawer part 12 has, at a rear wall 17 thereof, an air inlet opening 18 to allow air to smoothly blow from an air conditioning apparatus (not shown) to the grillwork 11. The housing 2 is installed at a front of a venting channel defined at a predetermined portion of a dashboard B so that the grill unit 1 is ejected from or retracted into the housing 2. Further, the fixed rails 20 are arranged along the inner surfaces of the both sidewalls of the housing 2 to be opposite to each other, so that the movable rails 15 of the grill unit 1 are seated on the fixed rails 20, respectively, to be guided along the fixed rails 20. The reduction gear 35 is provided at a predetermined position of the housing 2 to engage with the rack 15a which is provided along the upper surface of one of the movable rails 15. The push button switch 36 is installed at a rear end of the housing 2 to engage with and disengage from the stopper 16 of the grill unit 1.

Further, a drive opening 32 of a predetermined area is provided on a bottom of the housing 2. The drive spring 3, connected at the first end thereof to the drive roll 31 of the grill unit 1, is connected at a second end thereof to an outer surface of a front portion of the bottom of the housing 2 so that the drive roll 3 is moved forward and backward along both side edges of the drive opening

32.

The drive spring 3 is connected at the first end thereof to the drive roll 31 which is mounted to the bottom of the drawer part 12 while being connected at the second end thereof to the outer surface of the front portion of the bottom of the housing 2 so that the restoring force acts in a winding direction of the drive spring 3. Thus, the grill unit 1 is elastically moved outward relative to the housing 2.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the drive spring 3 comprises a torsion spring. Alternatively, the drive spring 3 may comprise a coil spring 3-1, as shown in FIGS. 3a and 3b.

The operation of the vent assembly A with the drawer-type grill unit for automobiles, according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in the following.

In the vent assembly A of this invention, the housing 2 is installed at the front of the venting channel defined in the dashboard B. Next, the grill unit 1 is movably set in the housing 2. In this case, the grill unit 1 is set in the housing 2 such that the movable rails 15 arranged along outer surfaces of the both sidewalls of the drawer part 12 of the grill unit 1 are slidably moved along the fixed rails 20 of the housing 2. The rack 15a is provided along the upper surface of one of the movable rails 15 to engage with the reduction gear 35 installed in the housing 2, thus allowing the grill unit 1 to be slowly and smoothly ejected from the housing 2.

When the air conditioning apparatus is operated in such a state, hot or cool air is blown into the passenger compartment through the grill unit 1. When it is desired to eject the grill unit 1 from the housing 2, a user only has to lightly press a front of the grill unit 1. At this time, the stopper 16 provided at the rear end of the drawer part 12 disengages from the push button switch 36, and the grill unit 1 is ejected from the housing 2 by the restoring force of the drive spring 3 which returns from its unwound state to its wound state. In this case, two support pieces 31a to support the drive roll 31 are stopped by front and rear edges of the drive opening 32 provided on the bottom of the housing 2, thus limiting a moving range of the grill unit 1.

As such, when the grill unit 1 is ejected from the housing 2 within a predetermined range, a front of the housing 2 is opened, thus allowing the venting channel inside the housing 2 to be easily cleaned. Thereafter, when it is desired to retract the grill unit 1 into the housing 2 from the ejected position to restore an original position thereof, the user has only to lightly push the front of the grill unit 1 so that the stopper 16 provided at the rear end of the grill unit 1 engages with the push button switch 36 installed in the housing 2, thus making the grill unit 1 be disposed in the housing 2. At this time, the drive spring 3 is restored from the wound state to the unwound state, so that the restoring force acts in the drive spring 3. Such a construction allows the grill unit 1 to be elastically ejected from the housing 2, as soon as the stopper 16 disengages from the push button switch 36. In the vent assembly A shown in FIGS. 3a and 3b, the drive spring 3 does not comprise the torsion spring but comprises the tension coil spring 3-1 to bias the grill unit 1 relative to the housing 2. In this case, the coil spring 3-1 is connected at a first end thereof to the drive roll 31 which is provided on the bottom of the drawer part 12, while being connected at a second end thereof to the outer surface of the bottom of the front portion of the housing 2. Thus, when the grill unit 1 is retracted into the housing 2, the coil spring 3-1 is extended to bias the grill unit 1 outward. Therefore, as soon as the stopper 16 disengages from the push button switch 36, the grill unit 1 is elastically ejected from the housing 2. As shown in FIG. 4, a container 19 may be installed in a rear section of the drawer part 12 which is integrated with the grillwork holder 10 constituting the grill unit 1, so as to contain an aromatic or a deodorizer therein. Alternatively, the aromatic or deodorizer may be directly and removably put in the drawer part 12, without installing the container 19 in the drawer part 12. In such a case, fresh and scented air is discharged into the passenger compartment through the grill unit 1 after flowing through the venting channel. Further, a seating slot 13 may be formed on an upper surface of the front of the grillwork holder 10 so as to removably seat an air filter 5 in the front of the grillwork holder 10. In such a case, the air filter 5 removes dust from air passing through the grill unit 1, thereby cleaning the air before the air is discharged into the interior of the passenger compartment. The vent assembly thus maintains a fresh, clean and pleasant interior atmosphere of the passenger compartment.

In the vent assembly of this invention, two or more grill units 1 may be installed in the housing 2 such that the grill units 1 are independently ejected from or retracted into the housing 2.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims. Industrial Applicability

As described above, the present invention provides a vent assembly with a drawer-type grill unit for automobiles. The drawer-type grill unit is designed such that it is appropriately ejected from or retracted into a housing installed in the dashboard. In the vent assembly, the grill unit is ejected from the housing by an elastic force of a drive spring within a predetermined range capable of preventing an undesired complete removal of the grill unit from the housing. The drive spring is connected to the bottom of the drawer part to elastically bias the drawer part. Further, a stopper provided at a rear end of the grill unit engages with a push button switch installed in the housing, so that the grill unit is retracted into the housing. A user is thus allowed to selectively eject or retract the grill unit from or into the housing, and to open the housing when it is desired to clean the grill unit and the interior of the housing. This vent assembly also has a drawer part at the rear section of the grill unit to contain a desired material, such as an aromatic or a deodorizer, in the drawer part, with an air filter removably seated in a seating slot which is formed at the upper wall of the grillwork holder of the grill unit. The vent assembly thus blows fresh, clean and scented air into the passenger compartment, and maintains a fresh and pleasant interior atmosphere of the passenger compartment of an automobile.

Claims

1. A vent assembly for automobiles, comprising a grill unit, a housing installed at a venting channel of a dashboard, and drive means, the grill unit including a grillwork holder which has at a front thereof a grillwork, and a drawer part which is provided at a back of the grillwork holder and has an air inlet opening, with movable rails arranged along outer surfaces of both sidewalls of the drawer part, and the grill unit being ejected from or retracted into the housing along fixed rails of the housing within a predetermined range by the drive means, wherein the drawer part has a stopper at a rear end thereof to engage with and disengage from a push button switch installed in the housing, and has a drive roll at a bottom thereof, with a drive spring being connected at a first end thereof to the drive roll to be wound around and unwound from the drive roll, and a rack is provided along an upper surface of one of the movable rails which are arranged along the both sidewalls of the drawer part, to engage with a reduction gear installed in the housing; and the housing has a drive opening on a bottom thereof so that the drive roll is moved forward and backward along the drive opening, with a second end of the drive spring being connected to an outer surface of a front portion of the housing.

2. The vent assembly according to claim 1, wherein a container is removably installed in the drawer part at the back of the grillwork holder, and a seating slot is formed on an upper surface of the front of the grillwork holder so as to removably seat an air filter in the front of the grillwork holder.