Patent ID: 7857041
Filing Date: 2010-12-28
Classification: B60H

Abstract:
1. An air conditioner for a vehicle having a passenger compartment, the air conditioner comprising: an air conditioning case for defining an air passage through which air flows into the passenger compartment; a heating heat exchanger for heating air, located in the air conditioning case; an air outlet opening portion provided in the air conditioning case at a downstream air side of the heating heat exchanger, wherein the air outlet opening portion includes a defroster opening through air is blown toward a windshield of the vehicle, a center face opening through which air is blown toward a first upper area of the passenger compartment, a side face opening through which air is blown toward a second upper area of the passenger compartment, and a foot opening through which air is blown toward a lower area of the passenger, and wherein the side face opening is provided at two sides of the center face opening in a vehicle left-right direction; a first communication path provided in the air conditioning case to communicate with the defroster opening and the center face opening; a second communication path provided in the air conditioning case at left and right sides of the first communication path in the vehicle left-right direction to communicate with the side face opening and the defroster opening; a first door that is a rotary door and is located to open and close the foot opening; a second door that is located to open and close the defroster opening and the center face opening; a first seal rib for defining a peripheral end portion of a door-upstream opening portion at an upstream side of the first door in the air conditioning case; and a second seal rib for defining a peripheral end portion of the foot opening, wherein: the first door includes a rotation shaft, a door surface that is spaced from an axial line of the rotation shaft radially outside and is rotated integrally with the rotation shaft, and a seal portion provided at a peripheral end portion of the door surface; the door surface has a first door face at a position corresponding to the first communication path, and a second door face positioned at left and right sides of the first door face to correspond to the second communication path; the first door face has an outer shape such that the seal portion of the first door face contacts the second seal rib; at least a part of the second door face has a radial dimension from the axial line, that is smaller than that of the first door face so as to form a door outer peripheral space between the seal portion of the second door face and the second seal rib; when the first door is rotated to a foot-mode position to open the foot opening, the seal portion of the first door face contacts the second seal rib to shut a path communication between the foot opening and the first communication path, and the second communication path communicates with the foot opening through the door outer peripheral space; the door surface has an anti-foot opening side peripheral end that is shaped such that the seal portion of the anti-foot opening side peripheral end contacts an entire area of the second seal rib when the foot door is rotated to the foot-mode position; and the first seal rib is provided with a door-side opening portion such that the door-upstream opening portion directly communicates with the second communication path through the door-side opening portion when the foot door is rotated to the foot-mode position.