Patent ID: 7013967

Claim:
An air conditioner for a vehicle having a passenger compartment, the air conditioner comprising: an air conditioning case defining an air passage, the air conditioning case having a partition for dividing the air passage into a first opening portion for blowing air toward a front side of the passenger compartment and a second opening portion for blowing air toward a rear side of the passenger compartment; a cooling heat exchanger, disposed in the air conditioning case, for cooling air; a heating heat exchanger for heating air from the cooling heat exchanger, the heating heat exchanger being disposed in the air conditioning case to form a warm air passage and first and second bypass passages through which air having passed through the cooling heat exchanger bypasses the heating heat exchanger; a first air mixing door for adjusting a ratio between an amount of air passing through the first bypass passage and an amount of air passing through the heating heat exchanger in such a manner that air blown from the first opening portion has a predetermined temperature; a second air mixing door for adjusting a ratio between an amount of air from the second bypass passage and an amount of air from the heating heat exchanger in such a manner that air blown from the second opening portion has a predetermined temperature; a switching door movable to a partition position for partitioning the warm air passage of the heating heat exchanger into a first passage portion for introducing air toward the first opening portion and a second passage portion for introducing air toward the second opening portion; and an operation mechanism used for operating both the switching door and the second air mixing door, wherein: the switching door is movable between the partition position and a rear shutting position where all air from the heating heat exchanger flows toward the first opening portion; and the switching door and the second air mixing door are operatively linked to the operation mechanism and to each other such that the operation mechanism regulates the movement f the switching door based on the movement of the second air mixing door.