Patent Application
20180172312
The present invention relates to a wall-mounted type air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit that is installed on a wall surface, and particularly relates to a front panel structure.
An air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit is installed within a room where a resident or other person is present, and thus the appearance thereof comes into sight of the resident or the other person. Therefore, in some air-conditioning apparatus indoor units, in order to improve the design property thereof, the front side of a front panel of an indoor unit main body is subjected to coating or printing. However, the front side of the front panel is often subjected to stimulation such as rubbing from the outside, and thus there is a problem in that the coated surface or the printed surface is easily flawed or peeled to deteriorate, so that the design surface deteriorates. Therefore, there are air-conditioning apparatus indoor units in which deterioration of a design surface is suppressed (see, for example, Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2).
In Patent Literature 1, a transparent front panel is provided on the front side of an indoor unit main body, and color or a pattern is provided on the back side of the transparent front panel. In addition, in Patent Literature 2, a transparent front panel is provided on the front side of an indoor unit main body, a plurality of recesses and projections are provided on the back side of the transparent front panel, pearl coating is applied thereunto, and coating of a background color is further applied thereunto.
As described above, in Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2, by providing a design on the back side of the transparent front panel by means of coating or the like, the design is made hard to be subjected to stimulation such as rubbing from the outside, thereby improving the design property while suppressing deterioration of the design surface.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-184051
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent No. 5264860
When the design surface is seen from below in a state where the air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit is installed on an upper portion of a wall surface, since a design is provided on the back side of the transparent front panel by means of coating or the like in the related art such as Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2, the design is seen through transparency, but there is a problem in that it is hard to see the design through transparency.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit having an improved design property while deterioration of a design surface is suppressed.
An air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit according to the present invention is an air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit to be mounted on a wall, including: a front panel provided on a front side of an indoor unit main body; and a design cover formed of a transparent component and mounted so as to cover the front side of the front panel, wherein the design cover includes a rectangular flat portion and peripheral wall portions provided at side portions of the flat portion and projecting on a back side of the flat portion, a plurality of projections each of which extends continuously from a left end portion of the flat portion to a right end portion of the flat portion in a front view, or a plurality of recesses each of which extends continuously from the left end portion of the flat portion to the right end portion of the flat portion, are provided on a back side of the flat portion, the projections or the recesses are aligned in an up-down direction, a pearl coating is provided on a back side of the design cover, and a background color coating is further provided on the pearl coating.
According to the air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit according to the present invention, by providing the plurality of projections on the back side of the flat portion of the design cover such that the projections project continuously from the left end portion of the flat portion to the right end portion of the flat portion and are aligned in the up-down direction, the pearl coating sufficiently enters between the projections. Thus, the projections that are provided in the right-left direction are prominently seen when the air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit is seen from below. In addition, it is possible to adjust the entire color tone further by the color coating, which is provided on the pearl coating. As a result, in a state where the air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit is installed on an upper portion of the wall surface, even when the design covers, which form the design surface, are seen from below, it is possible to clearly see the design of the projections through transparency, and thus it is possible to improve the design property.
Hereinafter, Embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited by Embodiment described below. In addition, the relationship of the size of each constituent element in the drawings described below may be different from the actual relationship.
In the following description, for easy understanding, terms representing a direction (e.g. “up”, “down”, “right”, “left”, etc.) are used as appropriate, but are for description, and are not intended to limit the invention of the present application. In addition, in Embodiment, “up”, “down”, “right”, and “left” are used in a state where an indoor unit main body 100 is seen in a front view.
Hereinafter, the configuration of the indoor unit will be described with reference to
The indoor unit according to Embodiment supplies conditioned air to an air-conditioning target area such as an indoor space by using a refrigeration cycle through which refrigerant circulates. In Embodiment, the case where the indoor unit is a wall-mounted type indoor unit to be mounted on a wall surface in the air-conditioning target area is shown as an example.
As shown in
As shown in
The air-sending fan 6 is, for example, a cross-flow fan, and the heat exchanger 7 is, for example, a fin-tube-type heat exchanger, but the air-sending fan 6 and the heat exchanger 7 are not limited thereto.
A filter 9 for removing dust, etc. included in the sucked indoor air is provided between the upper air inlet 4 and the front air inlets 12, and the heat exchanger 7. Furthermore, a vertical air direction adjusting plate 10 that controls the direction in which air flow is blown out is provided at the air outlet 5.
Next, flow of air within the indoor unit main body 100 will be briefly described.
First, indoor air flows through the upper air inlet 4 and the front air inlets 12 of the indoor unit main body 100 into the indoor unit main body 100 by the air-sending fan 6. At this time, dust, etc. included in the air is removed by the filter 9. The indoor air is heated or cooled into conditioned air by the refrigerant flowing within the heat exchanger 7, when passing through the heat exchanger 7. Then, the conditioned air is adjusted in direction by the vertical air direction adjusting plate 10, and is blown out through the air outlet 5 to the outside of the indoor unit main body 100, that is, to the air-conditioning target area.
The front panel 2 has a front surface with a flat surface shape as a whole for improving the design property thereof. In addition, the front panel 2 has a rectangular shape, and the lengthwise direction of the front panel 2 is the right-left direction, that is, the horizontal direction, and the crosswise direction of the front panel 2 is the up-down direction, that is, the vertical direction, in a state where the indoor unit main body 100 is mounted on the wall surface. In addition, the recess 11 is formed at the center in the up-down direction in a front view so as to extend from the inner side of a left end portion to the inner side of a right end portion. Thus, as shown in
The position at which the recess 11 is formed may not be exactly the center in the up-down direction.
Each design cover 3 is formed of a transparent component, and has a front surface with a flat surface shape as a whole similarly to the front panel 2. The lengthwise direction of the design cover 3 is the right-left direction, that is, the horizontal direction, and the crosswise direction of the design cover 3 is the up-down direction, that is, the vertical direction, in a state where the indoor unit main body 100 is mounted on the wall surface. In addition, as shown in
The peripheral wall portions 3b may not be provided at all of the four side portions of the flat portion 3a, and may be provided at part of the four side portions. In addition, the method for mounting the design cover 3 to the front panel 2 is not limited to the method using the claws, and the design cover 3 may be mounted, for example, by using an adhesive.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The pearl coating 21 is a coating obtained by mixing fine particles of mica of stone, and gives a shine by the fine particles when light is applied thereto. Thus, light of pearl color is refracted and scattered by the projections 20 with the color of the color coating 22 as the background color. Due to the scattering of the light, pearl-color glow prominently appears even when the design cover 3, which is a transparent component, is seen from any angle.
As described above, the projections 20 are provided on the back side of the flat portion 3a, and the pearl coating 21 and the color coating 22 are provided on the back side of the flat portion 3a, but such projections 20 are not provided on the peripheral wall portions 3b, and the pearl coating 21 and the color coating 22 are merely provided on the inner side thereof. Therefore, the peripheral wall portions 3b are not shaded like the flat portion 3a and are seen shiningly due to the transparency thereof, so that the flat portion 3a and the peripheral wall portions 3b are seen differently. Then, this produces contrast and accent and thus is able to improve the design property.
In addition, by providing the plurality of projections 20 on the back side of the flat portion 3a of the design cover 3 such that the projections 20 project continuously from the left end portion of the flat portion 3a to the right end portion of the flat portion 3a and are aligned in the up-down direction, the pearl coating 21 sufficiently enters between the projections 20. Thus, the projections 20 that are provided in the right-left direction are prominently seen when the air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit is seen from below, and it is further possible to adjust the entire color tone by the color coating 22, which is provided on the pearl coating 21.
As a result, in a state where the air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit is installed on an upper portion of the wall surface, even when the design covers 3, which form the design surface, are seen from below, it is possible to clearly see the design of the projections 20 through transparency, and thus it is possible to improve the design property.
The color coating 22 corresponds to a “background color coating” of the present invention.
As shown in
In Embodiment, the design covers 3 are mounted at the upper side and the lower side of the recess 11 of the front panel 2 one by one, but the configuration is not limited thereto, the design cover 3 that is mounted at the upper side of the recess 11 of the front panel 2 may be divided into a plurality of sections, for example, two sections, and the design cover 3 that is provided on the lower side of the recess 11 of the front panel 2 may be similarly divided into a plurality of sections, for example, two sections. Moreover, the recess 11 may be eliminated from the front panel 2, and one design cover 3 may be mounted so as to cover the entire front surface of the front panel 2.
As described above, according to the air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit according to Embodiment, the design is provided on the back side of the design covers 3, and thus it is possible to suppress deterioration of the design surface. In addition, by providing the plurality of projections 20 on the back side of the flat portion 3a of the design cover 3 such that the projections 20 project continuously from the left end portion of the flat portion 3a to the right end portion of the flat portion 3a and are aligned in the up-down direction, the pearl coating 21 sufficiently enters between the projections 20. Thus, the projections 20 that are provided in the right-left direction are prominently seen when the air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit is seen from below, and it is further possible to adjust the entire color tone by the color coating 22, which is provided on the pearl coating 21.
As a result, in a state where the air-conditioning apparatus indoor unit is installed on an upper portion of the wall surface, even when the design covers 3, which form the design surface, are seen from below, it is possible to clearly see the design of the projections 20 through transparency, and thus it is possible to improve the design property.
In Embodiment, the plurality of projections 20 are provided on the back side of each design cover 3 so as to project continuously from the left end portion of the flat portion 3a to the right end portion of the flat portion 3a, but a plurality of recesses may be provided so as to be recessed continuously from the left end portion of the flat portion 3a to the right end portion of the flat portion 3a, instead of the projections 20, or both projections 20 and recesses may be provided.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2015/073703 | 8/24/2015 | WO | 00 |
