Patent ID: 7667165

Claim:
An auxiliary heating device for motor vehicles, comprising: an open housing accommodating a layered structure which includes at least one radiator element and at least one heat-emitting element, the heat emitting element including at least one PTC heating element, and further accommodating at least one spring element providing a pretensioning force which pretensions said layered structure, a plurality of contacts being held in said housing in an insulating manner and electrically connected to the at least one PTC heating element, wherein the housing comprises a lower housing component and at least one displacer which, for applying the pretensioning force, is adapted to be inserted into said lower housing component in a direction approximately perpendicular to the plane of the layered structure and which, in a mounted position, is secured in position relative to said lower housing component, wherein said at least one displacer is adapted to apply a biasing force transversely across the housing by compressing the spring element when the displacer is inserted into said housing such that, while the displacer is being inserted into the housing, the displacer slides across and correspondingly pretensions the spring element, eliminating a certain amount of play between individual elements of the layered structure and the spring, and wherein when the housing is fully assembled, the spring element (i) is located and compressed between the layered structure and the displacer, and (ii) applies the pretensioning force to the layered structure.