Patent Description:
The air conditioning system for a passenger compartment of a road vehicle introduces treated (heated, cooled, dehumidified, and/or filtered) air into the passenger compartment according to the passengers' preferences. For this purpose, the air conditioning system comprises an air treatment unit, which is adapted to treat the air that is subsequently introduced into the passenger compartment through a series of air vents present in the passenger compartment itself.

Generally, in order to be able to independently adjust the treated air introduced by two side by side air vents, two separate supply ducts are used, each of which originates from the air treatment unit and ends in a corresponding air vent. However, this solution poses major space problems in the case of the rear air vents in a front-engine and rear-wheel-drive vehicle as the available space along the transmission tunnel (which runs longitudinally through the road vehicle from the front to the rear) in which to position the two separate supply ducts is small.

The patent application <CIT> describes an air conditioning system of a vehicle comprising two central outlet vents and two lateral outlet vents arranged in the instrument panel. The adjustment of the flow rate of air flowing out of the four outlet vents is adjusted by three hinged blades.

The patent application <CIT> describes an end part of an air conditioning system for a passenger compartment of a vehicle, in which two overlapping outlet vents are provided; the flow rate of air flowing out of the two overlapping outlet vents is adjusted by a hinged blade arranged upstream of the two outlet vents.

Patent <CIT> represents the closest prior art and discloses a center console for a vehicle including air vents at a rear end of the center console; an air passage to deliver heated or cooled air to the air vents is formed within the center console by foam molded to the hard plastic which forms the center console housing.

Patent <CIT> discloses a telescopic and portable temperature control unit for the rear seat portion of an automobile.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a road vehicle provided with an air conditioning system of the passenger compartment that is free of the drawbacks described above and is, at the same time, easy and inexpensive to produce.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a road vehicle as set out in independent claim <NUM>. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are laid down in the appended dependent claims.

The present invention will now be described with reference to the appended drawings, which illustrate a non-limiting example embodiment thereof:.

In <FIG>, the number <NUM> denotes as a whole a road vehicle (in particular an automobile) provided with two driven (namely, non-driving) front wheels and with two driving rear wheels. An internal combustion engine is arranged in the front position, which produces torque that is transmitted to the driving wheels by means of a transmission.

The road vehicle <NUM> comprises a passenger compartment <NUM> that is provided with multiple seats <NUM> each adapted to accommodate a corresponding occupant; namely, there is always a place for a driver in the passenger compartment <NUM> to which passengers can be added (whose presence is, of course, optional).

The road vehicle <NUM> comprises an air conditioning system <NUM> provided with an air treatment unit <NUM> adapted to treat (heat, cool, dehumidify and/or filter) the air that must be introduced into the passenger compartment <NUM>. A plurality of air vents <NUM> are connected to the air treatment unit <NUM>, which air vents have the function of introducing the air treated by the air treatment unit <NUM> into the passenger compartment <NUM> and are distributed within the passenger compartment <NUM> in order to be able to introduce the air into different areas of the passenger compartment <NUM> itself.

According to what is illustrated in <FIG>, two twin rear air vents <NUM> are arranged in front of the two rear seats <NUM> and in a central position (namely, in the area of the transmission tunnel T that is schematically illustrated in <FIG> and runs longitudinally through the passenger compartment <NUM> from front to rear), which are arranged side by side and are directed one towards a right side of the passenger compartment <NUM> (namely, towards the right rear seat <NUM> and obviously arranged on the right side) and the other towards a left side of the passenger compartment <NUM> (namely, towards the left rear seat <NUM> and obviously arranged on the left side). In particular, the two rear air vents <NUM> are obtained in a rear body <NUM> arranged in the centre of the passenger compartment <NUM> in the area of the transmission tunnel T.

According to what is illustrated in <FIG>, the air treatment unit <NUM> is connected to the two rear air vents <NUM> to supply treated air to the two rear air vents <NUM> by means of a single common supply duct <NUM>. The common supply duct <NUM> originates from the air treatment unit <NUM> and ends in a bifurcation <NUM> that has two branches <NUM>, each of which is connected to a corresponding rear air vent <NUM>. Namely, the bifurcation <NUM> connects the common supply duct <NUM> to the two rear air vents <NUM> and has a right branch <NUM> which ends in a right rear air vent <NUM> and a left branch <NUM> which ends in a left rear air vent <NUM>.

The air conditioning system <NUM> comprises a blade <NUM> that is arranged in the area of the bifurcation <NUM> and is mounted movably between a completely closed position (illustrated in <FIG> and <FIG>) of the right branch <NUM> of the bifurcation <NUM> (namely, the right rear air vent <NUM>) and a completely closed position (illustrated in <FIG> and <FIG>) of the left branch <NUM> of the bifurcation <NUM> (namely, the left rear air vent <NUM>). According to a preferred embodiment, the blade <NUM> is hinged in order to rotate around a rotation axis <NUM> between the completely closed position of the right branch <NUM> and the completely closed position of the left branch <NUM>.

The air conditioning system <NUM> comprises an electric actuator <NUM> (illustrated in <FIG> and <FIG>) configured to move the blade <NUM> between the completely closed position of the right branch <NUM> and the completely closed position of the left branch <NUM>. According to a preferred embodiment, the electric actuator <NUM> is rotary and has a rotatable drive shaft that is angularly integral with a rotatable support shaft of the blade <NUM>. In particular, the drive shaft of the electric actuator <NUM> may be coaxial and directly connected to the support shaft of the blade <NUM>, or a mechanical gear transmission may be interposed between the drive shaft of the electric actuator <NUM> and the support shaft of the blade <NUM>.

According to a preferred embodiment, the two branches <NUM> of the bifurcation <NUM> are separated from each other by a fixed dividing wall <NUM> and the blade <NUM> is hinged in the area of an initial end (edge) of the dividing wall <NUM>. In particular, the dividing wall <NUM> is arranged downstream of the blade <NUM> with respect to the air flow namely it is arranged closer to the two rear air vents <NUM> than the blade <NUM>.

According to a preferred embodiment, the common supply duct <NUM> has a vertically oriented end segment and the rotation axis <NUM> of the blade <NUM> is oriented horizontally and longitudinally (with respect to the road vehicle <NUM>). The two branches <NUM> of the bifurcation <NUM> form a sharp bend so as to have a vertical orientation in the area of the blade <NUM> and a horizontal orientation in the area of the two rear air vents <NUM>.

According to what is illustrated in <FIG>, the air conditioning system <NUM> comprises a control unit <NUM> that oversees the operation of the air conditioning system <NUM> and, among other things, drives the electric actuator <NUM> to establish the position of the blade <NUM>. According to what is illustrated in <FIG>, two twin control devices <NUM> are connected to the control unit <NUM>, each of which is associated with a corresponding rear air vent <NUM> (therefore, is arranged in proximity to the corresponding rear air vent <NUM>), is manually operable by a user to request the amount of treated air that has to flow out of the rear air vent <NUM>, and is movable between a position of lack of aeration through the rear air vent <NUM> and a position of maximum aeration through the rear air vent <NUM>. The control unit <NUM> is configured to establish the position of the blade <NUM> depending on the signals provided by the two control devices <NUM>.

According to a different embodiment not illustrated, a single control device <NUM> is present which is manually operable by a user to change the amount of treated air that has to flow out of the two rear air vents <NUM> and is movable between a left limit position in which the treated air only flows out of the left rear air vent <NUM> and a right limit position in which the treated air only flows out of the right rear air vent <NUM>. Obviously, in this embodiment, the control unit <NUM> is configured to establish the position of the blade <NUM> depending on a signal provided by the single control device <NUM>.

According to a preferred embodiment, the control unit <NUM> is configured to establish the position of the blade <NUM> according to a combination of the signals provided by the two control devices <NUM>; in other words, a combination is calculated between the signals provided by the two control devices <NUM> and the result of this combination provides the position of the blade <NUM>. If the signals of the two control devices <NUM> are identical (i.e., they require the same amount of air, which may also be zero), the blade <NUM> is positioned exactly in the centre between the two branches <NUM> of the bifurcation <NUM> (as illustrated in <FIG>), whereas if the signals of the two control devices <NUM> are not identical (i.e., they require different amounts of air), the blade <NUM> is positioned to divert more air towards the rear air vent <NUM> the control device <NUM> of which requires a greater amount of air and therefore to divert less air towards the rear air vent <NUM> the control device <NUM> of which requires a lesser amount of air (until the branch <NUM> of a rear air vent <NUM>, the control device <NUM> of which requires a zero amount of air as illustrated in <FIG>, is completely closed).

It is important to observe that, when the two signals of the two control devices <NUM> are identical and both require the absence of air, the blade <NUM> is still positioned exactly in the centre between the two branches <NUM> of the bifurcation <NUM> (as illustrated in <FIG>) as the two signals of the two control devices <NUM> are identical (namely, there is no preference for one side over the other) and the absence of air is obtained upstream by acting on the air treatment unit <NUM> that no longer supplies air to the common supply duct <NUM>.

According to a preferred embodiment, the control unit <NUM> is configured to establish a flow rate of the treated air supplied through the common supply duct <NUM> depending on the signals provided by the two control devices <NUM>: if overall the signals provided by the two control devices <NUM> require more air, the flow rate of the treated air supplied through the common supply duct <NUM> is increased and vice versa.

By way of example, each control device <NUM> could provide a normalized signal comprised between <NUM> and <NUM>, wherein <NUM> corresponds to the position of no air intake, and <NUM> corresponds to the position of maximum air intake.

According to a preferred embodiment, each control device <NUM> is of a rotary type and comprises a rotary knob <NUM> mounted rotatably between the position of lack of aeration through the corresponding rear air vent <NUM> and the position of maximum aeration through the corresponding rear air vent <NUM>; a sensor <NUM> (an angular encoder) is provided that detects the angular position of the rotary knob <NUM> and transmits the angular position of the rotary knob <NUM> to the control unit <NUM>.

According to a preferred embodiment, the control unit <NUM>, the electric actuator <NUM> and the control devices <NUM> communicate with each other by means of a BUS of the road vehicle <NUM> which, for example, could use the low-speed single-cable serial communication protocol called LIN ("Local Interconnect Network").

The air conditioning system <NUM> described above has several advantages.

Firstly, the air conditioning system <NUM> described above allows a completely independent adjustment of the treated air introduced by the two side by side air vents <NUM> arranged in front of the rear seats <NUM>.

In addition, the air conditioning system <NUM> described above does not pose any problems of space in the area of the transmission tunnel T since it requires the presence of a single common supply duct <NUM> which is arranged along the transmission tunnel T.

Claim 1:
A road vehicle (<NUM>) comprising: a passenger compartment (<NUM>) in which a transmission tunnel (T) is present, a right rear seat (<NUM>) and a left rear seat (<NUM>); and an air conditioning system (<NUM>) of the passenger compartment (<NUM>); the air conditioning system (<NUM>) comprises:
a rear body (<NUM>) that is arranged in the centre of the passenger compartment (<NUM>) in the area of the transmission tunnel (T) and in front of the rear seats (<NUM>);
two air vents (<NUM>) that are obtained in the rear body (<NUM>);
an air treatment unit (<NUM>) connected to the two air vents (<NUM>) in order to supply treated air to the two air vents (<NUM>);
one single common supply duct (<NUM>), which originates from the air treatment unit (<NUM>); and
a bifurcation (<NUM>), which connects the common supply duct (<NUM>) to the two air vents (<NUM>);
the road vehicle (<NUM>) is characterized in that:
the two air vents (<NUM>) are arranged side by side one on the right side of the passenger compartment (<NUM>) and the other on the left side of the passenger compartment (<NUM>), and are directed one towards the right rear seat (<NUM>) and the other towards the left rear seat (<NUM>);
the bifurcation (<NUM>) has a right branch (<NUM>), which ends in a right air vent (<NUM>), and a left branch (<NUM>), which ends in a left air vent (<NUM>);
the air conditioning system (<NUM>) further comprises a blade (<NUM>), which is arranged in the area of the bifurcation (<NUM>) and is movable between a completely closed position of the right branch (<NUM>) of the bifurcation (<NUM>) and a completely closed position of the left branch (<NUM>) of the bifurcation (<NUM>); and
the air conditioning system (<NUM>) further comprises an electric actuator (<NUM>) configured to move the blade (<NUM>) between the completely closed position of the right branch (<NUM>) and the completely closed position of the left branch (<NUM>).