DEVICE OF TREATMENT Of COMPACT AIR FOR MOTOR VEHICLE

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Compact air treatment device for motor vehicle

The invention provides an air treatment apparatus for treating the air to be introduced into the interior of a motor vehicle, comprising means for water separation, means for selecting between outside air and recirculated air and of the filter means.

The air treated by such a device is used commonly to the ventilation and/or heating, or air conditioning, of the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Known devices comprise all or part of the following shortcomings:

-The means are arranged at different locations of the vehicle. They must be mounted separately, which increases the cost of hardware and of the hand-d operating, and space requirements of the device. The circuit of air is long and complex, thereby increasing the energy required to circulate and noise emissions.

-The dispersion selection means creates variations in flow rate and noise between the outside air and recirculated air operation, adversely affecting the driving comfort of the passengers.

-The recirculated air is not filtered.

The aim of the invention is to remedy these drawbacks.

The invention particularly relates to a device of the kind defined at the outset, and provided that the above-mentioned means are all housed in a common housing attached to a partition separating the engine compartment of the passenger compartment of the vehicle.

The invention provides a processing device compact, economical to manufacture and install. Aggregation of the components and their location cause a decrease in the energy required to circulate air and noise emissions.

Optional features of the invention, complementary or substitution, cited below:

-The common housing is located in the engine compartment.

-The common housing is located partially in the engine compartment and partly in the passenger compartment.

-The common housing is located in the passenger compartment.

-The device also includes a fan capable of sucking air passed through the filtering means, disposed in the vicinity thereof in the passenger compartment.

-The fan has a separate housing attached to said common housing or to the partition.

-The septum has a first port for the passage of the recirculated air of the passenger compartment to the selection means and a second port for the passage of air filtration means the fan.

-The septum has a common opening through which said housings define a first passage for feeding recirculated air of the passenger compartment to the selection means and a second passage for supplying air to the fan of the filter means.

-The first passage is annular and surrounds the second passage.

-The fan is located in said common housing.

-The fan comprises a fan wheel and a drive motor coaxially therewith, the drive motor projecting axially with respect to the wheel exclusively on the side facing the filter means.

-The fan comprises a fan wheel and a drive motor coaxially therewith, the drive motor projecting axially with respect to the wheel exclusively on their side lying opposite the filtering means.

-The filter means comprises at least an annular filter through which the air from the outside to the inside.

-The annular filter is coaxial with the axis of rotation of the fan.

-The selection means comprise at least two switching elements angularly spaced about the axis of said annular filter and adapted to be controlled in synchronism for carrying an annular space surrounding thereof in communication, either with an outside air inlet, is with the interior of the passenger compartment.

-The selection means comprise two switch members positioned symmetrical to each other with respect to the axis of the annular filter.

-The internal walls of the common housing, or at least one of the two housings, are coated with a sound absorbing material.

The features and advantages of the invention will be exposed in more detail in the following description, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figures 1 to 6 are schematic partial sectional views of devices according to the invention.

The device, which is shown in Figure 1 comprises two plastics housings 1 and 2 respectively disposed in the engine compartment 3 and 4 in the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle, of on both sides of a partition sheet metal 5, called apron, which forms part of the vehicle body and separates the compartments 3 and 4. The reference 6 denotes means for air-tight fastening of the housing 1 on the partition 5, surrounding a circular opening 7 formed by the partition. A pivoting flap 8 and an annular filter 9 are represented within the housing 1. These components cooperate with the walls of the housing to define four distinct volumes therein. A first volume 10 communicates with an exterior air inlet not shown. A second annular volume 11 surrounds an inner annular wall 12 of the housing, coaxial with the opening 7, and communicates with the annular portion of the latter which surrounds the wall 12. A third annular volume 13 surrounds the filter frustoconical annular 9, which is coaxial with the opening 7 and to the wall 12, the volume 13 being separated from the space 11 by a radial annular wall 14 of the housing. The fourth volume 15 is located radially inward of the filter 9 and the wall 12.

The housing 2 houses a fan wheel 20. It comprises a coaxial annular wall 21 to the wall 12 and connected thereto by-tight fastening means 22. The wheel 20 is driven by an electric motor 23 which is coaxial and whose stator is fixed to the housing 2, the wheel being arranged axially between the filter and the engine.

The flap 8 is movable between two end positions. In the position shown in solid line, it completes the wall 14 to be isolated from one another the volumes 11 and 13, and creating a passage between the volumes 10 and 13. Under the action of suction of the fan 20, external air is taken into the volume 10 and from there into the volume 13, and then passes through the filter 9 to arrive in the volume 15, from which the fan into the passenger compartment of the vehicle after steps possible subsequent processing (cooling, heating, distribution between different access points to the passenger compartment).

When the flap 8 is in the position shown in dotted line, it releases a passage between the spaces 11 and 13 and blocks the flow between the spaces 10 and 13. Air from the passenger compartment is thus drawn, through the opening 7, in the volume 11 and then into the volume 13, from which it travels the path described previously. The flap 8 can take intermediate positions for mixing recirculated air and outside air.

Known means, not shown, for separating water optionally contained in the outside air, for example in the form of gutters, or of baffles, are provided in the volume 10.

On Figure 2, elements similar to that of Figure 1 are designated by the same references and will not be not described again, in particular the engine compartment 3, the passenger compartment 4, the partition 5, the fastening means 6, the annular opening 7 and the filter frustoconical annular 9.

Cylindrical The annular wall 12a which guides air immediately downstream of the filter 9, unlike the wall 12 of Figure 1, belongs to the housing of the fan 2a and not the case the to house the filter. The tight fastening means 22a of the two housings are therefore offset towards the inside of the engine compartment with respect to the mounting means 22. The annular area 11 of Figure 1, located within the housing 1, is replaced by an annular volume aql located outside of the two housings and defined by the walls thereof and by the partition 5. The volume 10 is replaced by a volume 10a which surrounds the volume 13a, like the volume 13, over its entire periphery.

The single flap 8 of Figure 1 is replaced by two flaps 8a positioned symmetrical to each other with respect to the axis of the filter 9, of the wall 12a and 20a of the fan wheel. These two flaps move synchronously between two positions represented in dotted line. In the horizontal position in Figure, they plug passages between the volumes and 13a aql and open passages between the volumes 10a and 13a, for the treatment of air recirculated. In the vertical position, it releases the passages that were closed and close the passages that were released, for the treatment of outside air. As shown in full outline, the flaps 8a can take intermediate positions for mixing recirculated air and outside air.

Here, the electric motor 23a of the fan, whose stator is fixed to the cylindrical annular wall 12a, is located partially inside the wheel 20a and for the remainder projects axially relative thereto exclusively from the side of the filter 9, thereby reducing the axial area of the device.

The device of Figure 3 differs from that of Figure 2 substantially in that the housings and the 2a are replaced by a single housing lb, therefore extends both sides of the partition 5, in the engine compartment in the passenger compartment 3 and 4, and contains the flaps 8a, the filter 9, the wheel 20a and 23a the motor of the fan. The opening 7b of the partition 5 is sufficiently large to allow passage, when the device is mounted on the vehicle, of the housing part lb which is accommodated in the engine compartment 3. The housing has a radial annular flange 22 projecting at periphery, and is connected to the wall 5 by the tight fastening means 6.

The annular filter 9 of Figure 3 is cylindrical and non-tapered as those of Figures 1 and 2, which does not modify the operation of the device.

The devices shown in Figures 4 and 5 are similar to those of Figures 2 and 3 respectively, from which they differ in the arrangement of the motor 23a, which is located partially within the wheel 20a and for the rest protruding axially thereof exclusively opposite to the filter 9.

The device, which is shown in Figure 6 comprises, as those of Figures 1, 2 and 4, the two plastics housings and 2c respectively disposed in the engine compartment 3 and 4 in the passenger compartment of the vehicle, on either side of the apron 5, to which they are attached together by sealing means herein 6 surrounding a circular opening 7a. As in Figure 3, an annular filter 9 and a fan wheel 20a are arranged coaxially to the opening 7a, in the cases, respectively and 2c the. The motor 23a of the fan is located partially within the wheel 20a and in part within the filter 9, further reducing the axial area of the device.

A flap single pivoting 8b is movable between a position shown in solid line, in which it isolates the of the other of the volumes 10 and 13 similar to those of Figure 1, by releasing a second opening 7b of the apron 5, and a position shown in dotted line, in which it closes off the aperture 7b and releases the passage between the spaces 10 and 13.

Although is devices comprising an annular filter, the filter may also be of different shape, for example a flat shape or curvilinear.