Patent ID: 8840452

Claim:
An air conditioner for a vehicle comprising: an air-conditioning case having a defrost vent, a face vent, and a floor vent for discharging air blown from a blower; an evaporator and a heater core mounted on air passageways inside the air-conditioning case; and a mode door having a gear shaft mounted inside the air-conditioning case and a plate member slidably engaging with the gear shaft for opening and closing the vents, wherein the plate member comprises: a first door portion for closing at least two vents out of the vents; a second door portion spaced apart from the first door portion at a predetermined interval in a sliding direction and adapted to close at least one vent out of the vents; and bridge portions adapted to connect the first door portion and the second door portion with each other, wherein the plate member further comprises open portions formed between the first door portion and the second door portion to open at least one vent out of the vents according to the sliding position of the plate member, wherein the face vent is divided into a center vent formed at the center thereof and side vents formed at both sides of the center vents by a plurality of partition walls, which are formed inside the face vent, and wherein the bridge portions are respectively formed at positions corresponding to the plural partition walls, wherein the gear shaft comprises gear portions formed at both end portions thereof and the first door portion has a plurality of gear slots that are formed at both end portions of the first door portion and are spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval in the sliding direction of the plate member in such a way as to engage with the gear portions of the gear shaft, and wherein an interval between the gear slots is larger than a width of one gear slot to thereby prevent the plate member from being cut, wherein a width of the second door portion is smaller than a width of the first door portion in an axial direction of the gear shaft, and the end portions of the first door portion and of the second door portion in an axial direction of the gear shaft do not connect, wherein the first door portion comprises extension portions formed on one end portion thereof, which faces the second door portion, the extension portions extending to a predetermined length toward the second door portion and respectively having a plurality of gear slots perforated thereon to extend an area engaging with the gear portions of the gear shaft.