Air blower device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018043752-A1
Application number	US-201615550970-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 12, 2016
Priority date	Mar 11, 2015
Publication date	Feb 15, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

An air blower device includes: a blow-out portion A having an outlet A opening in a meter peripheral region to blow out air from an air sending device to the vehicle rear side through an inner side of a steering wheel provided between the meter panel and the driver's seat in a vehicle front-rear direction, wherein the meter peripheral region includes: a portion, which is other than a meter in a meter panel provided on a vehicle front side of a driver's seat in a compartment; and a meter hood provided to spread in a vehicle width direction above the meter panel and protruding to a vehicle rear side farther than the meter panel; and a blowing direction regulation device provided to the blow-out portion A, having an air guiding surface A along which air blown out from the outlet A flows, and regulating a blowing direction of air blown out from the outlet A by changing an angle of the air guiding surface A.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An air blower device, comprising:
a blow-out portion A having an outlet A opening in a meter peripheral region to blow out air from an air sending device to the vehicle rear side through an inner side of a steering wheel provided between the meter panel and the driver's seat in a vehicle front-rear direction, wherein the meter peripheral region includes: a portion, which is other than a meter in a meter panel provided on a vehicle front side of a driver's seat in a compartment; and a meter hood provided to spread in a vehicle width direction above the meter panel and protruding to a vehicle rear side farther than the meter panel; and a blowing direction regulation device provided to the blow-out portion A, having an air guiding surface A along which air blown out from the outlet A flows, and regulating a blowing direction of air blown out from the outlet A by changing an angle of the air guiding surface A.

2 . The air blower device according to claim 1 , wherein
the meter hood has: a hood rear end located rearmost in the meter hood on the vehicle rear side; and a hood bottom surface provided below the hood rear end and extending diagonally downward to the vehicle front side, and the outlet A opens in the hood bottom surface in the meter peripheral region and faces the vehicle rear side.

3 . The air blower device according to claim 1 , wherein
the blow-out portion A is provided with a blow-out air passage extending from the outlet A to the vehicle front side to cause air from the air sending device to flow to the outlet A, the blowing direction regulation device has a plate-shaped air guiding member provided with the air guiding surface A, and the air guiding member is provided relatively on an upper side in the blow-out air passage.

4 . The air blower device according to claim 1 , wherein
the blow-out portion A is provided with a blow-out air passage extending from the outlet A to the vehicle front side to cause air from the air sending device to flow to the outlet A, the blowing direction regulation device has a plate-shaped air guiding member provided with the air guiding surface A, and given that a region of the blow-out air passage upper than a center of the blow-out air passage in a top-bottom direction is an upper region of the blow-out air passage, then the air guiding member is provided in such a manner that at least a part of the air guiding member is situated in the upper region of the blow-out air passage.

5 . The air blower device according to claim 1 , wherein
the blow-out portion A is provided with a blow-out air passage extending from the outlet A to the vehicle front side to cause air from the air sending device to flow to the outlet A, the blowing direction regulation device has a plate-shaped air guiding member provided with the air guiding surface A, and given that a region of the blow-out air passage upper than a center of the blow-out air passage in a top-bottom direction is an upper region of the blow-out air passage, then the air guiding member is provided in such a manner that the air guiding member is entirely situated in the upper region of the blow-out air passage.

6 . The air blower device according to claim 3 , wherein
the air guiding member has a front end at an end of the air guiding member on the vehicle front side and regulates a blowing direction of air blown out from the outlet A up and down by rotating about the front end.

7 . The air blower device according to claim 3 , wherein
the blow-out portion A has: an outlet rim portion forming a rim of the outlet A; and a passage inner wall surface surrounding and thereby defining the blow-out air passage, and the passage inner wall surface is provided in such a manner that an upper portion of the passage inner wall surface extends diagonally downward to the vehicle front side from an upper portion of the outlet rim portion.

8 . The air blower device according to claim 3 , wherein
the blow-out portion A has: an outlet rim portion forming a rim of the outlet A; and a passage inner wall surface surrounding and thereby defining the blow-out air passage, and the passage inner wall surface is provided in such a manner that an upper portion of the passage inner wall surface extends diagonally upward to the vehicle rear side toward an upper portion of the outlet rim portion.

9 . The air blower device according to claim 3 , further comprising:
an intermediate duct portion provided upstream of the blow-out air passage in a flow of air and provided with an air passage where air from the air sending device flows, wherein the intermediate duct portion is provided on the vehicle front side of the meter panel.

10 . The air blower device according to claim 1 , wherein
the blow-out portion A has an outlet rib provided to lie across the outlet A and restricting foreign matter from coming inside through the outlet A.

11 . The air blower device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a blow-out portion B provided with an outlet B from which air from the air sending device is blown out in parallel with the first outlet, wherein the outlet B opens faced up and is located more on the vehicle front side than the outlet A, the blow-out portion B has an outlet rear surface forming a portion of the outlet B on the vehicle rear side, the outlet rear surface is curved in such a manner that an airflow downstream side of the outlet rear surface warps to the vehicle rear side with respect to an airflow upstream side, and the blow-out portion B forces air blown out from the second outlet to head to the vehicle rear side by causing the air to flow along the outlet rear surface while forming an airflow heading to the vehicle rear side above the steering wheel.

12 . The air blower device according to claim 11 , further comprising:
an air volume regulation device A regulating an air volume ratio of a volume of air blown out from the outlet A and a volume of air blown out from the outlet B.

13 . The air blower device according to claim 12 , wherein
the air volume regulation device A regulates the air volume ratio in such a manner that: a wind velocity of an airflow blown out from the outlet B becomes lower than a wind velocity of an airflow blown out from the outlet A; and the airflow from the outlet A and the airflow from the outlet B generate a difference in wind velocity, with which the airflow from the outlet B is drawn to the airflow from the outlet A.

14 . The air blower device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a blow-out portion C provided with an outlet C opening in the meter hood above the outlet A to blow out air from the air sending device to the vehicle rear side, wherein the blow-out portion A is provided with a blow-out air passage extending from the outlet A to the vehicle front side to cause air from the air sending device to flow to the outlet A, and the blow-out portion C is provided with a branch passage branched off from the blow-out air passage to cause air from the air sending device to flow to the outlet C.

15 . The air blower device according to claim 14 , wherein
the branch passage branches off from the blow-out air passage at a point upstream of the air guiding surface A in a flow of air.

16 . The air blower device according to claim 14 , further comprising:
an air volume regulation device B regulating an air volume ratio of a volume of air blown out from the outlet A and a volume of air blown out from the outlet C.

17 . The air blower device according to claim 14 , wherein
the blow-out p

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Motomura Hirohisa
• Niimi Yasuhiko
• OTSUKI Takeyuki

Classifications

• B60K35/23

  Head-up displays [HUD] (optical aspects of head-up displays G02B27/01) · CPC title

• B60K37/20

  Dashboard panels · CPC title

• B60H1/242 Primary

  located in the front area · CPC title

• B60H1/3414

  with means for adjusting the air stream direction (B60H1/345 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60K35/60 Primary

  Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles (arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10) · CPC title