Air conditioner and railcar

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10343699-B2
Application number	US-201214364051-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 8, 2012
Priority date	Dec 12, 2011
Publication date	Jul 9, 2019
Grant date	Jul 9, 2019

Abstract

An air conditioner includes: a suction port; a suction grill provided at the suction port and including a plurality of bars spaced apart from one another and arranged substantially parallel to one another and a suction surface located at suction-side end portions of the plurality of bars; and an air blower configured to suction air from the suction port through the suction grill. Each of the plurality of bars includes an inclined plate portion and a flow straightening plate portion, which are arranged in this order from the suction surface toward a downstream side of the flow of the air, the inclined plate portion being inclined with respect to the suction surface, the flow straightening plate portion being continuously formed from the inclined plate portion and extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the suction surface and toward the downstream side.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An air conditioner comprising:
a suction port;
a suction grill provided at the suction port and including
a plurality of bars spaced apart from one another and arranged substantially parallel to one another, and
a suction surface located at suction-side end portions of the plurality of bars; and

an air blower configured to suction air from the suction port through the suction grill, wherein
each of the plurality of bars includes an inclined plate portion and a flow straightening plate portion, wherein the flow straightening plate portion is downstream of the inclined plate portion with respect to the suction grill, the inclined plate portion is inclined with respect to the suction surface and with respect to a substantially perpendicular direction to the suction surface, the flow straightening plate portion being continuously formed from the inclined plate portion and extending in the substantially perpendicular direction to the suction surface and toward the downstream side,
an inclination angle of the inclined plate portion with respect to the suction surface is not smaller than 25° and not larger than 55°, and
in a case where: one of two adjacent bars among the plurality of bars is referred to as a first bar; the other bar located at a side where the inclined plate portion of the first bar is inclined toward the suction surface is referred to as a second bar; and a flat surface including both a downstream side end edge and upstream side end edge of the first bar is referred to as a virtual reference surface,
at least a part of a boundary between the flow straightening plate portion and the inclined plate portion of the second bar is located at the first bar side of the virtual reference surface, and a pitch p between the adjacent first bar and second bar is set such that a thickness t of at least one of the first bar and second bar and the pitch p satisfies a relation p>4 t.

2. The air conditioner according to claim 1 , further comprising a flow straightening portion arranged downstream of the suction grill and upstream of the air blower and configured to straighten the air having flowed through the suction grill.

3. The air conditioner according to claim 2 , wherein an upstream main surface of the flow straightening portion is arranged substantially parallel to the suction surface.

4. The air conditioner according to claim 2 , wherein the flow straightening portion is an air filter including a large number of holes through which the air flows.

5. The air conditioner according to claim 1 , wherein an angle of the flow straightening plate portion with respect to the suction surface is within a range of ±20° based on 90°.

6. The air conditioner according to claim 1 , wherein in a case where a length of each of the plurality of bars in a direction perpendicular to the suction surface is denoted by D, a length d 1 of the flow straightening plate portion in the above direction is not shorter than 0.35 D and not longer than 0.65 D.

7. The air conditioner according to claim 2 , wherein in a case where a length of each of the plurality of bars in a direction perpendicular to the suction surface is denoted by D, an interval H between a downstream end surface of the suction grill and an upstream main surface of the flow straightening portion is not shorter than 0 and not longer than 2 D.

8. A railcar comprising:
the air conditioner according to claim 1 ; and
a carbody including a room, wherein
the suction port is formed on a ceiling surface of the room.

Assignees

• Kawasaki Heavy Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Takahashi Masanori
• Onitake Yasuo
• Hara Yoshinori

Classifications

• B60H1/247

  Disposition of several air-diffusers in a vehicle for ventilation-air circulation in a vehicle cabin · CPC title

• B61D27/0018 Primary

  Air-conditioning means, i.e. combining at least two of the following ways of treating or supplying air, namely heating, cooling or ventilating (air-conditioning in general F24F) · CPC title

• B61D27/009 Primary

  Means for ventilating only (ventilation in general F24F) · CPC title

• F24F7/007

  with forced flow (using ducting systems F24F7/06) · CPC title

• B60H1/00371

  for vehicles carrying large numbers of passengers, e.g. buses · CPC title