Patent ID: 6244335
Filing Date: 2001-06-12
Classification: B60H

Abstract:
A vehicular air-conditioner comprising:an air-conditioning unit (10) forming a flow path of air into a passenger compartment and arranged at a front position of the passenger compartment;a face inlet (50) communicating with an upper position of the air-conditioning unit (10);a rear face duct (26) communicating with the face inlet (50) and leading air-conditioned air introduced to the face inlet (50) toward the upper torsos of passengers in a rear seat;a foot inlet (28) arranged at an upper position of the air-conditioning unit (10) so as to be aligned in the vertical direction with the face inlet (50) of the rear face duct (26); anda foot duct (31) communicating with the foot inlet (28) so as to follow the shape of the rear face duct (26), and leading air-conditioned air introduced to the foot inlet (28) toward the lower torsos of the passengers in the rear seat and passengers in a front seat; wherein:the air-conditioned air flowing into the foot duct (31) being able to be blown split to a right side front seat passenger, a right side rear seat passenger, a left side front seat passenger, and a left side rear seat passenger;a downward extending portion of the foot duct (31) and a downward extending portion of the rear face duct (26) being arranged to overlap in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle;the foot duct (31) is provided witha right side duct portion (31a) arranged at a vehicle right side of the air-conditioning unit (10) and blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torsos of the front seat right side passenger and rear seat right side passenger anda left side duct portion (31b) arranged at a vehicle left side of the air-conditioning unit (10) and blowing air-conditioned air toward the lower torsos of the front seat left side passenger and rear seat left side passenger andthe rear face duct (26) is arranged between the left side duct portion (31b) and the right side duct portion (31a) so that at least part is aligned in the widthwise direction of the vehicle with respect to the right side duct portion (31a) and left side duct portion (31b);the right side duct portion (31a) and the left side duct portion (31b) are formed by splittng the foot duct (31) into two from an intermediate position at the downstream side;at the upstream side from the position where the foot duct (31) is split into the right side duct portion (31a) and left side duct portion (31b), the rear face duct (26) and foot duct (31) are arranged to be aligned in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle and the rear face duct (26) is positioned to the vehicle rear from the foot duct (31); andthe rear face duct (26) is bent to the vehicle front at an intermediate position extending downward and is arranged between the left side duct portion (31b) and right side duct portion (31a);a cooling heat exchanger for cooling the air is arranged inside the air-conditioning unit (10) and a heating heat exchanger for heating the air is arranged at a downstream side of the cooling heat exchanger;the air-conditioning unit (10) integrally accommodates the cooling heat exchanger and the heating heat exchanger and is comprised of two air-conditioning cases (11a and 11b) mating along the widthwise direction of the vehicle;the foot duct (31) and the rear face duct (26) are formed integrally with the air-conditioning cases (11a and 11b) so as to form ducts by the assembly of the two air-conditioning cases (11a and 11b);a first partition (53) included downward from the vehicle left side to the vehicle right side, splitting the air-conditioned air from the foot inlet (28), and guiding it to flow to the vehicle right side is provided at the right side case (11a) positioned at the vehicle right side among the two air-conditioning cases;a second partition (54) inclined downward from the vehicle right side to the vehicle left side, splitting the air-conditioned air from the foot inlet (28), and guiding it to flow to the vehicle left side is provided at the left side case (11b) positioned at the vehicle left side among the two air-conditioning cases (11a and 11b); andthe left side duct portion (31b) and right side duct portion (31a) obtained by splitting the foot duct (31) into two toward the left and right are formed by aligning the top ends of the first partition (53) and second partition (54) in a state with the two air-conditioning cases (11a and 11b) assembled.