Patent ID: 6796368
Filing Date: 2004-09-28
Classification: B60H,Y10S

Abstract:
An air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle having a passenger compartment, said air conditioning apparatus comprising:a case forming an air passage, said case defining a bottom portion; and a cooling heat exchanger, for cooling air passing therethrough, disposed in said case, wherein: said cooling heat exchanger includes: a core portion having a plurality of tubes extending in a longitudinal direction, through which a fluid flows to perform a heat exchange with air, and a tank portion for distributing the fluid into said tubes or for joining the fluid from said tubes, said tank portion being provided on one end of each tube in the longitudinal direction; said cooling heat exchanger is disposed in said case to be inclined from a horizontal direction by a predetermined angle to define an upper end and a lower end so that air is introduced into said cooling heat exchanger from below and flows upwardly, said lower end of said cooling heat exchanger being spaced from said bottom portion of said case to form a lower space under said cooling heat exchanger; said tank portion is positioned at said lower end of cooling heat exchanger; said cooling heat exchanger is inclined in the same direction as the longitudinal direction of said tubes so that one end of said tubes in the longitudinal direction becomes lower than the other end of said tubes in the longitudinal direction; said cooling heat exchanger is disposed so that a flow direction of air flowing into said lower space under said cooling heat exchanger is generally parallel to said cooling heat exchanger and approximately perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of said tubes; said case has an air inlet through which said air is introduced into said lower space under said cooling heat exchanger, approximately horizontally; said cooling heat exchanger is disposed at an upper side of said air inlet, said air introduced through said air inlet being directed to a position directly under the entire core portion but not to a position directly under said tank portion such that condensed water collected on said tank portion is not disturbed by said air introduced through said air inlet; and said air inlet is opened and extended to a position proximate to a boundary between said core portion and said tank portion in the longitudinal direction of the tubes.