Seat air conditioner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11325441-B2
Application number	US-201916529254-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 1, 2019
Priority date	Feb 14, 2017
Publication date	May 10, 2022
Grant date	May 10, 2022

Abstract

The seat air conditioner configured to supply conditioning air to a seat in a vehicle cabin includes a refrigeration cycle, an air blower, and a conditioning air supply unit. The refrigeration cycle includes a compressor that compresses and discharges a refrigerant, a heat emitting portion that emits heat of the refrigerant discharged from the compressor to generate a warm air, a decompressor that decompresses the refrigerant flowing out of the heat emitting portion, and a heat absorbing portion that evaporates the refrigerant decompressed by the decompressor to generate a cold air. The air blower blows air to exchange heat with the refrigerant. The conditioning air supply unit supplies each of the warm air generated by the heat emitting portion and the cold air generated by the heat absorbing portion as the conditioning air to the seat.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A seat air conditioner configured to supply conditioning air to a seat in a vehicle cabin, comprising:
a refrigeration cycle including a compressor that compresses and discharges a refrigerant, a heat emitting portion that emits heat of the refrigerant discharged from the compressor to generate a warm air, a decompressor that decompresses the refrigerant flowing out of the heat emitting portion, and a heat absorbing portion that evaporates the refrigerant decompressed by the decompressor to generate a cold air;
a housing disposed between a seal portion of the seat and a floor surface of the vehicle cabin in a vertical direction;
an air blower that blows air to exchange heat with the refrigerant; and
a conditioning air supply unit that simultaneously supplies each of the warm air generated by the heat emitting portion and sent through the air blower and the cold air generated by the heat absorbing portion and sent through the air blower as the conditioning air to the seat, wherein
the conditioning air supply unit supplies the warm air and the cold air respectively to different portions of the seat, and
the housing houses the compressor, the heat emitting portion, the decompressor, and the heat absorbing portion of the refrigeration cycle, and the air blower.

2. The seat air conditioner according to claim 1 , wherein the conditioning air supply unit has
an upper outlet disposed at an upper portion of a backrest part of the seat to blow out the cold air, and
an intermediate outlet located below the upper outlet in the backrest part to blow out the warm air.

3. The seat air conditioner according to claim 1 , wherein the conditioning air supply unit has
an intermediate outlet disposed in a backrest part of the seat to blow out the cold air, and
a lower outlet disposed in a seat portion of the seat to blow out the warm air.

4. The seat air conditioner according to claim 1 further comprising:
a controller that controls the conditioning air supply unit, wherein the controller is configured to switch a first supply mode and a second supply mode from each other,
the cold air is blown out from an upper outlet disposed at an upper portion of a backrest part of the seat, and the warm air is blown out from an intermediate outlet located below the upper outlet in the backrest part in the first supply mode, and
the cold air is blown out from the intermediate outlet, and the warm air is blown out from a lower outlet disposed in a seat portion of the seat in the second supply mode.

5. The seat air conditioner according to claim 1 , further comprising: an auxiliary heating unit located adjacent to a surface of the seat in contact with an occupant to emit a warm heat.

6. The seat air conditioner according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a controller that controls the conditioning air supply unit, wherein
the controller is configured to switch a first supply mode and a second supply mode from each other,
the conditioning air supply unit has a plurality of upstream passages, a plurality of downstream passages, and a passage switching mechanism disposed at a connection between the plurality of upstream passages and the plurality of downstream passages,
the passage switching mechanism is configured to switch a flow of the conditioned air at a downstream of the connection, and
the controller controls the passage switching mechanism to switch the first supply mode and the second supply mode from each other, such that the cold air and the warm air are blown out from outlets at different positions on the seat.

7. The seat air conditioner according to claim 6 , wherein
the housing has an air inlet, a warm air outlet to output the warm air and a cold air outlet to output the cold air,
the conditioning air supply unit is connected to the warm air outlet and the cold air outlet of the housing, and
the conditioning air supply unit has an intermediate outlet located in a backrest part to blow out the warm air or the cold air by switching the first supply mode and the second supply mode from each other.

8. The seat air conditioner according to claim 7 , wherein
the conditioning air supply unit has
an upper outlet disposed at an upper portion of the backrest part of the seat to blow out the cold air, and
a lower outlet disposed in the seat portion of the seat to blow out the warm air, and

the intermediate outlet is located below the upper outlet in the backrest part.

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Kawano Shigeru
• Ota Koji
• Ota Aun

Classifications

• B60N2/5657 Primary

  blown towards the seat surface · CPC title

• B60N2/5671

  forming a windbreak, e.g. warm air blown on the neck of the passenger of an open vehicle · CPC title

• F25B21/02

  using Peltier effect; using Nernst-Ettinghausen effect · CPC title

• B60H1/03

  and from a source other than the propulsion plant · CPC title

• B60H1/00285 Primary

  for vehicle seats · CPC title