Patent ID: 7275586

Claim:
A heating or air-conditioning system for a motor vehicle, comprising: a housing; a heater that produces warm air situated within the housing, wherein the heater is located centrally within the housing and occupies the entire area within an outer periphery having a first lateral side and a second lateral side opposite to said first lateral side; first and second cold-air ducts formed in the housing, the first cold air duct located on said first lateral side and the second cold air duct located on said second side of the heater outer periphery, the cold-air ducts being configured to channel air into separate air streams that are each routed laterally around a different one of said opposed lateral sides of the outer periphery of the heater and each cold-air duct having an associated cold-air flap that controls air flow therethrough; and partition walls within the housing, the partition walls forming four independent air-mixing chambers downstream of the heater in a direction of air flow, each individual mixing chamber including a warm-air control element that controls air flow therethrough and an air duct that feeds to an associated heating/air-conditioning zone, wherein the warm-air control element includes a plurality of moveable lamellae movable between an open position and a closed position to block heated air from the heater, one of the partition walls dividing each of the cold air ducts into two separate cold air ducts, to define four independent cold air ducts with each cold air duct communicating with one of the air mixing chambers and having said associated cold air flap therein.