Patent Application
20220194169
The present disclosure relates to a door assembly for a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system and the HVAC system having the door assembly.
Current vehicle heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) cases are suitable for their intended use, but are subject to improvement. For example, some vehicle HVAC cases provide concentrated airflow to a specific area, e.g., a driver seat of the vehicle, while other HVAC cases do not. HVAC cases that provide concentrated airflow to the specific area currently require different types of air distribution doors. It would therefore be desirable to have an air distribution door design that can be used in applications that provide concentrated airflow to the specific area of the vehicle. The present disclosure advantageously addresses this need in the art, as well as numerous others as described in detail herein.
In an example, a door assembly for a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system has a first door and a second door. The first door is fixed to a shaft. The second door is adjacent to the first door along a circumferential direction of the shaft and is fixed to a secondary shaft. The shaft and the secondary shaft are aligned coaxially and coupled with each other to be rotatable about a rotational axis independently of each other. The first door and the second door rotate about the rotational axis independently of each other in conjunction with the shaft and the secondary shaft.
In an example, a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system has a door assembly and a controller. The door assembly includes a first door fixed to a shaft and a second door adjacent to the first door along a circumferential direction of the shaft and fixed to a secondary shaft. The controller controls the shaft and the secondary shaft separately. The shaft and the secondary shaft are aligned coaxially and coupled with each other to be rotatable about a rotational axis independently of each other. The first door and the second door rotate about the rotational axis independently of each other in conjunction with the shaft and the secondary shaft.
Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will become apparent from the detailed description, the claims and the drawings. The detailed description and specific examples are intended for purpose of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.
The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
In the drawings, reference numbers may be reused to identify similar and/or identical elements.
Various heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are designed to control flows of air flowing into a vehicle cabin. Such HVAC systems have a plurality of air openings that discharge air from the HVAC systems to a vehicle cabin. The HVAC systems further have a plurality of doors that open and close the air openings selectively to discharge the air from selected air outlets. For example, when only a driver is in the vehicle cabin, the HVAC systems may open driver-side air opening and close other air openings to perform a driver-side concentration mode in which the HVAC systems discharge air from driver-side air openings mainly so that airflows flowing out of the HVAC systems are concentrated to the driver. The driver-side concentration mode contributes to energy saving by shutting air openings other than the driver-side air openings when no passenger other than the driver is present in the vehicle cabin.
As one example, an HVAC system has a case including a driver face opening, a passenger face opening, and a defroster opening. The HVAC system further has two doors located in the passenger face opening and the defroster opening respectively. In the driver-side concentration mode, the HVAC system operates the two doors to close the passenger face opening and the defroster opening respectively so that air in the HVAC system flows out from the driver face opening mainly.
As another example, an HVAC system has a single barrel door instead of the above-described two doors. By employing the barrel door, a quantity of doors can be reduced. Reducing the quantity of doors results in saving manufacturing cost. In addition, a control system for the single barrel door may be simple as compared to a control system that controls a plurality of doors separately. However, conventional barrel doors do not open and close a driver face opening and a passenger face opening separately. Specifically, the conventional barrel doors, in a face mode, open all face openings (e.g., the driver face opening and the passenger face opening) while closing a defroster opening. Alternatively, the conventional barrel doors, in a defrost mode, close all of the face openings while opening the defroster opening. That is, according to the HVAC system having the conventional barrel door, the driver-side concentration mode may not be performed.
The present application addresses the above-described issues and is directed to a unique and innovative door assembly for HVAC systems and an HVAC system having the door assembly.
Example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
Referring to
A door assembly 44 which will be described later is attached to the case 36 at a most downstream end of the case 36 along the flow direction of air. The door assembly 44 defines a distribution chamber 48 therein. When the door 42 allows the air to flow into the second heat exchanger 40, the cool air from the first heat exchanger 38 and the warm air from the second heat exchanger 40 are mixed and flow into the distribution chamber 48. When the door 42 shuts off a flow of the air flowing into the second heat exchanger 40, the cool air from the first heat exchanger 38, only, may flow into the distribution chamber 48.
The door assembly 44 has a plurality of air openings, e.g., a driver face opening 50, a passenger face opening 52 and defroster openings 54 and 56. The door assembly 44 distributes the air to the vehicle cabin 16 from the air openings. Air flowing out of the driver face opening 50 flows toward a face of a driver at the driver seat 30 via the driver side outlet 20 and the driver center outlet 22. Air flowing out of the passenger face opening 52 flows toward a face of a passenger at the passenger seat 32 via the passenger side outlet 24 and the passenger center outlet 26. Air flowing out of the defroster openings 54 and 56 flows toward the windshield 34 via the defroster outlets 28.
Referring to
The tubular case 46 is provided with a first bearing 58, a second bearing 60, and a third bearing 62 arranged side by side along an axial direction of the tubular case 46. The second bearing 60 is located between the first bearing 58 and the third bearing 62 along the axial direction. Each of the first bearing 58, the second bearing 60 and the third bearing 62 has a discoid shape and is located to be perpendicular to the axial direction. The first bearing 58 has a first shaft hole 64 at a center thereof. The second bearing 60 has a second shaft hole 66 at a center thereon. The third bearing 62 has a third shaft hole 68 at a center thereof. The first bearing 58, the second bearing 60 and the third bearing 62 support a door member rotatably as described later so that the door assembly 44 houses the door member rotatably.
The driver face opening 50 is located between the first bearing 58 and the second bearing 60 along the axial direction. The passenger face opening 52 is located between the second bearing 60 and the third bearing 62 along the axial direction and is adjacent to the driver face opening 50 along the axial direction. The defroster opening 54 is located between the first bearing 58 and the second bearing 60 along the axial direction and is adjacent to the driver face opening 50 along a circumferential direction of the tubular case 46. The defroster opening 56 is located between the second bearing 60 and the third bearing 62 along the axial direction. The defroster opening 56 is adjacent to the passenger face opening 52 along the circumferential direction and is adjacent to the defroster opening 54 along the axial direction.
Referring to
The door member 100 has a first door 120 and a second door 130 connected to a shaft 140. The first door 120 and the second door 130 are adjacent to each other along a rotational axis Ax of the shaft 140. The first door 120 is coupled with the shaft 140 by way of a pair of connector plates 124 and 126. The second door 130 is coupled with the shaft 140 by way of a pair of connector plates 134 and 136. When the shaft 140 rotates about the rotational axis Ax, the first door 120 and the second door 130 rotate together in conjunction with the shaft 140. The first door 120 and the second door 130 may not rotate separately.
The tubular case 46 supports the shaft 140 and houses the first door 120 and the second door 130 rotatably. The shaft 140 extends along the tubular case 46 and located coaxially with the tubular case 46. Accordingly, the axial direction of the tubular case 46 is parallel to the rotational axis Ax.
The first door 120 has a base plate 122 curved along the circumferential direction and connecting the pair of connector plates 124 and 126. A sealing member 128 is attached to an outer surface of the base plate 122. The second door 130 has a base plate 132 curved along the circumferential direction and connecting the pair of connector plates 134 and 136. A sealing member 138 is attached to an outer surface of the base plate 132. As an example, the shaft 140, the base plate 122, the pair of connector plates 124 and 126, the base plate 132 and the pair of connector plates 134 and 136 are made of the same material and molded all together at the same time.
The shaft 140 passes through the first shaft hole 64, the second shaft hole 66 and the third shaft hole 68. The first door 120 is located between the first bearing 58 and the second bearing 60 along the rotational axis Ax. The second door 130 is located between the second bearing 60 and the third bearing 62 along the rotational axis Ax. An actuator rotates the shaft 140. A controller operates the actuator.
Referring to
Referring to
With reference to
The third door 500 has the same structure as the first door 120 of the door member 100. The third door 500 has a base plate 502 curved along the circumferential direction and connecting a pair of connector plates 504 and 506. The third door 500 is fixed to the shaft 140 by way of the pair of connector plates 504 and 506. A sealing member 508 is attached to an outer surface of the base plate 502.
As shown in
The first connector plate 302 is misaligned from the second connector plate 304 along the circumferential direction. As an example, the first connector plate 302 and the second connector plate 304 do not overlap with each other when viewing in the axial direction.
The second door 400 is located adjacent to the first door 300 along the circumferential direction. The second door 400 is connected to the shaft 140 via a secondary shaft 402. The secondary shaft 402 is located coaxially with the shaft 140 and rotates about the rotational axis Ax. The shaft 140 and the secondary shaft 402 rotate independently of each other. Accordingly, the first door 300 and the second door 400 rotate about the rotational axis Ax separately from each other. As an example, different actuators may move the shaft 140 and the secondary shaft 402. A common controller may control the actuators. Alternatively, different controllers may control the actuators respectively.
The second door 400 has a sealing member 408 attached to an outer surface of a base plate 404. When the second door 400 is located to be in contact with the first door 300, the sealing member 308 and the sealing member 408 are connected seamlessly. In other words, when the second door 400 is located to be in contact with the first door 300, the sealing member 308 and the sealing member 408 are aligned to be flush.
As shown in
The secondary shaft 402 is coupled with the shaft 140 rotatably and rotates about the rotational axis Ax independently. The shaft 140 and the secondary shaft 402 are coupled in a known manner. For example, the shaft 140 has a male portion at one end 142 along the axial direction and the secondary shaft 402 has a female portion at one end 410 along the axial direction. The male portion and the female portion fit each other and coupled to be rotatable with respect to each other. Alternatively, the shaft 140 has a female portion at the one end 142 and the secondary shaft 402 has a male portion at the one end 410.
The first door 300 has a base plate 310 connected to the shaft 140 via the first connector plate 302. The first door 300 is curved along the circumferential direction. The first connector plate 302 extends from the shaft 140 and perpendicular to the shaft 140. The first base plate 310 is perpendicular to the first connector plate 302 and parallel to the shaft 140. As an example, the shaft 140, the base plate 310, the pair of connector plate 302 and 304, and the tab 306 may be made of the same material and molded all together at the same time.
The second door 400 has the base plate 404 connected to the secondary shaft 402 via a connector plate 406. The base plate 404 is curved along the circumferential direction. The connector plate 406 extends from the secondary shaft 402 and perpendicular to the secondary shaft 402. The base plate 404 is perpendicular to the connector plate 406 and parallel with the secondary shaft 402. As an example, the secondary shaft 402, the base plate 404 and the connector plate 406 may be made of the same material and molded all together at the same time.
The second door 400 slides on the first door 300. Specifically, the base plate 404 of the second door 400 slides on the first base plate 310 of the first door 300.
As shown in
As an example, the first base plate 310 and the second base plate 312 may be made of the same material and molded together at the same time. However, the first base plate 310 and the second base plate 312 may be made of different materials, formed separately, and coupled to be a single piece.
The step 314 serves as a stopper portion when the second door 400 comes in contact with the first door 300. Specifically, the base plate 404 abuts to the step 314 at an edge 412 of the second door 400 along the circumferential direction. When the base plate 404 abuts to the step 314, the first base plate 310 may entirely overlap with the base plate 404 of the second door 400. As an example, a length of an outer surface of the first base plate 310 along the circumferential direction may be equal to a length of an inner surface of the base plate 404 along the circumferential direction.
Returning to
The sealing member 308 of the first door 300 is attached to the outer surface of the second base plate 312. The sealing member 408 of the second door 400 is attached to the outer surface of the base plate 404. When the base plate 404 abuts to the step 314, the sealing member 308 and the sealing member 408 are connected seamlessly, i.e., the sealing member 308 and the sealing member 408 are aligned to be flush.
Referring to
In the normal face mode, the controller moves the door member 200 so that the driver face opening 50 and the passenger face opening 52 are open and the defroster openings 54 and 56 are closed. Accordingly, air in the distribution chamber 48 flows toward the driver seat 30 and the passenger seat 32. More specifically, the controller rotates the shaft 140 so that first door 300 and the third door 500 open passenger face opening 52 and the driver face opening 50 respectively, and rotates the secondary shaft 402 so that the second door 400 opens the passenger face opening 52.
As shown in
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However, as another example, the second door 400 may be moved away from the first door 300 to form a gap between the first base plate 310 and the base plate 404 so that some air flows out through the gap. The second door 400 may be moved to change a distance between the first door 300 and the second door 400. In other words, the gap between the first door 300 and the second door 400 may be changed to obtain a required volume of air flowing from the passenger face outlet 54 toward the passenger seat 32.
Thus, the door member 200 can open and close the driver face opening 50 and the passenger face opening 52 selectively by moving the first door 300 and the second door 400 separately. Therefore, the driver-side concentration mode can be performed with the door assembly 44.
The foregoing description is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses. The broad teachings of the disclosure can be implemented in a variety of forms. Therefore, while this disclosure includes particular examples, the true scope of the disclosure should not be so limited since other modifications will become apparent upon a study of the drawings, the specification, and the following claims. It should be understood that one or more steps within a method may be executed in different order (or concurrently) without altering the principles of the present disclosure. Further, although each of the embodiments is described above as having certain features, any one or more of those features described with respect to any embodiment of the disclosure can be implemented in and/or combined with features of any of the other embodiments, even if that combination is not explicitly described. In other words, the described embodiments are not mutually exclusive, and permutations of one or more embodiments with one another remain within the scope of this disclosure.
Spatial and functional relationships between elements (for example, between modules, circuit elements, semiconductor layers, etc.) are described using various terms, including “connected,” “engaged,” “coupled,” “adjacent,” “next to,” “on top of,” “above,” “below,” and “disposed.” Unless explicitly described as being “direct,” when a relationship between first and second elements is described in the above disclosure, that relationship can be a direct relationship where no other intervening elements are present between the first and second elements, but can also be an indirect relationship where one or more intervening elements are present (either spatially or functionally) between the first and second elements. As used herein, the phrase at least one of A, B, and C should be construed to mean a logical (A OR B OR C), using a non-exclusive logical OR, and should not be construed to mean “at least one of A, at least one of B, and at least one of C.”
In the figures, the direction of an arrow, as indicated by the arrowhead, generally demonstrates the flow of information (such as data or instructions) that is of interest to the illustration. For example, when element A and element B exchange a variety of information but information transmitted from element A to element B is relevant to the illustration, the arrow may point from element A to element B. This unidirectional arrow does not imply that no other information is transmitted from element B to element A. Further, for information sent from element A to element B, element B may send requests for, or receipt acknowledgements of, the information to element A.
In this application, including the definitions below, the term “module” or the term “controller” may be replaced with the term “circuit.” The term “module” may refer to, be part of, or include: an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC); a digital, analog, or mixed analog/digital discrete circuit; a digital, analog, or mixed analog/digital integrated circuit; a combinational logic circuit; a field programmable gate array (FPGA); a processor circuit (shared, dedicated, or group) that executes code; a memory circuit (shared, dedicated, or group) that stores code executed by the processor circuit; other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality; or a combination of some or all of the above, such as in a system-on-chip.
The module may include one or more interface circuits. In some examples, the interface circuits may include wired or wireless interfaces that are connected to a local area network (LAN), the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), or combinations thereof. The functionality of any given module of the present disclosure may be distributed among multiple modules that are connected via interface circuits. For example, multiple modules may allow load balancing. In a further example, a server (also known as remote, or cloud) module may accomplish some functionality on behalf of a client module.
The term code, as used above, may include software, firmware, and/or microcode, and may refer to programs, routines, functions, classes, data structures, and/or objects. The term shared processor circuit encompasses a single processor circuit that executes some or all code from multiple modules. The term group processor circuit encompasses a processor circuit that, in combination with additional processor circuits, executes some or all code from one or more modules. References to multiple processor circuits encompass multiple processor circuits on discrete dies, multiple processor circuits on a single die, multiple cores of a single processor circuit, multiple threads of a single processor circuit, or a combination of the above. The term shared memory circuit encompasses a single memory circuit that stores some or all code from multiple modules. The term group memory circuit encompasses a memory circuit that, in combination with additional memories, stores some or all code from one or more modules.
The term memory circuit is a subset of the term computer-readable medium. The term computer-readable medium, as used herein, does not encompass transitory electrical or electromagnetic signals propagating through a medium (such as on a carrier wave); the term computer-readable medium may therefore be considered tangible and non-transitory. Non-limiting examples of a non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium are nonvolatile memory circuits (such as a flash memory circuit, an erasable programmable read-only memory circuit, or a mask read-only memory circuit), volatile memory circuits (such as a static random access memory circuit or a dynamic random access memory circuit), magnetic storage media (such as an analog or digital magnetic tape or a hard disk drive), and optical storage media (such as a CD, a DVD, or a Blu-ray Disc).
The apparatuses and methods described in this application may be partially or fully implemented by a special purpose computer created by configuring a general purpose computer to execute one or more particular functions embodied in computer programs. The functional blocks, flowchart components, and other elements described above serve as software specifications, which can be translated into the computer programs by the routine work of a skilled technician or programmer.
The computer programs include processor-executable instructions that are stored on at least one non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium. The computer programs may also include or rely on stored data. The computer programs may encompass a basic input/output system (BIOS) that interacts with hardware of the special purpose computer, device drivers that interact with particular devices of the special purpose computer, one or more operating systems, user applications, background services, background applications, etc.
The computer programs may include: (i) descriptive text to be parsed, such as HTML (hypertext markup language), XML (extensible markup language), or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) (ii) assembly code, (iii) object code generated from source code by a compiler, (iv) source code for execution by an interpreter, (v) source code for compilation and execution by a just-in-time compiler, etc. As examples only, source code may be written using syntax from languages including C, C++, C#, Objective-C, Swift, Haskell, Go, SQL, R, Lisp, Java®, Fortran, Perl, Pascal, Curl, OCaml, Javascript®, HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5th revision), Ada, ASP (Active Server Pages), PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), Scala, Eiffel, Smalltalk, Erlang, Ruby, Flash®, Visual Basic®, Lua, MATLAB, SIMULINK, and Python®.
None of the elements recited in the claims are intended to be a means-plus-function element within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless an element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for,” or in the case of a method claim using the phrases “operation for” or “step for.”
