1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a two layer type air conditioner of a vehicle, and more particularly, to a two layer type air conditioner of a vehicle, which can easily drain water, such as rainwater, induced into a blower through an outside air intake to a condensed water outlet formed for draining condensed water generated from an evaporator to the outside, and can prevent backflow of water to a blower.
2. Background Art
In general, an air conditioner of an automotive vehicle incurs a great loss of fuel due to a heavy load of a compressor if only the outside air is discharged to the inside of the vehicle through an outside air intake of a blower when the air conditioner is operated. Moreover, the air conditioner causes a passenger's inconvenience due to pollution of the inside air of the vehicle if only the inside air is circulated through the inside air intake of the blower. Particularly, the air conditioner increases the passenger's inconvenience since it cannot rapidly heat the vehicle and cannot defrost windows of the vehicle at the same time when the air conditioner is operated in a heating mode by an outside air intake mode in winter.
Considering the above points, for instance, Japanese Patent Publication No. 1999-170841 discloses a two layer inside air and outside air flow air conditioner. In the two layer inside air and outside air flow air conditioner, the inside air of the vehicle previously heated in the heating mode is induced through an inside air intake of a blower and heated in a heater core, and then, discharged to the inside of the vehicle through a floor vent. After that, the outside air of a low humidity is induced through the outside air intake of the blower and heated, and then, discharged to the inside of the vehicle through a defrost vent.
As shown in FIG. 1, the two layer type air conditioner includes: the blower 10 for controlling the airflow of the air discharged to the inside of the vehicle by inhaling the inside air and outside air according to the air intake mode; and an air conditioning case 60 housing an evaporator 80 embedded therein for cooling the air blown from the blower 10 and a number of vents (not shown) mounted on an outlet for controlling the air flow of the air discharged to the inside of the vehicle. The air conditioning case 60 may further include a heater core (not shown) embedded therein for heating the air.
In more detail, the blower 10 includes: an intake duct 20 having at least one inside/outside air intake (in the drawing, one outside air intake 26 and two inside air intakes 22 and 24 are formed) and at least one door for controlling opening and closing of the inside/outside air intake (in the drawing, two doors 28 and 30 are formed); a double suction type scroll case 40 embedded in the intake duct 20 and divided into a first flow channel 44 and a second flow channel 46 by a partition plate 42; a blower fan 48 rotatably extending from the first flow channel 44 to the second flow channel 46; and a motor 50 for rotating the blower fan 48.
Furthermore, also the air conditioning case 60 is divided into two passages 66 and 68 by a partition plate 62 in correspondence with the first and second passages 44 and 46. A condensed water outlet 64 for draining condensed water generated from the evaporator 80 to the outside is formed on the bottom of the air conditioning case 60 corresponding to the evaporator. Furthermore, an insulator 70 serving as a cushioning material, seal material or insulating material is mounted between the air conditioning case 60 and the evaporator 80. The insulator 70 has a drain hole 72 for inducing the condensed water generated from the evaporator 80 to the condensed water outlet 64.
However, water is flown into the blower 10 from the outside air intake 26 due to various environments, for instance, when the vehicle travels on a waterway, travels in the rain, or is washed. When water is induced into the blower 10, the blower 10 cannot be operated due to a damage of the motor 50. Therefore, a technology to discharge water induced into the blower 10 to the condensed water outlet 64 has been disclosed.
That is, as shown in FIG. 1, when a drain pipe 90 is connected from the bottom of the intake duct 20 to the upper portion of the insulator 70 mounted on the air conditioning case 60, water induced into the intake duct 20 through the outside air intake 26 is induced to the upper portion of the insulator 70, so that the water can be drained to the outside through the drain hole 64 of the insulator 70 and the condensed water outlet 64.
However, the conventional two layer type air conditioner has several problems in that water and condensed water may flow backward to the blower 10 since static pressure directing to the evaporator 80 is higher than that directing to the bottom of the intake duct 20, and in that the flow channel for naturally draining water to the outside may be stopped due to its small area. Additionally, the blower 10 may be sealed in order to prevent backflow of water or condensed water to the blower 10. At this time, to improve sealing efficiency, a sealing rib (not shown) protrudes to the side surface of the air conditioning case 60, and a number of screws are used for enhancing its assembling performance, thereby the manufacturing costs of the conventional two layer type air conditioner is increased. Furthermore, in case where water induced into the blower 10 is drained to the drain hole, the number of components of the air conditioner is increased, and the system package of the air conditioner is increased in volume.