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EP-3321597-B1 - INDOOR UNIT FOR AIR CONDITIONER

EP3321597B1EP 3321597 B1EP3321597 B1EP 3321597B1EP-3321597-B1

Inventors

  • KATO, FUMIHIRO
  • MURAMATSU, NAOKI

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20150708

Claims (5)

  1. An indoor unit (100) of an air conditioner comprising: a fan motor (3) provided in a housing (1a); a blower fan (2) rotated by the fan motor (3); a heat exchanger (4) enclosing a discharge direction of air from the blower fan (2); and a drain pan (5) disposed below the heat exchanger (4) configured to receive drain water, a guide member (10) provided below an air discharge port of the blower fan (2) and upstream of the heat exchanger (4), wherein the guide member (10) has a guide portion (10a), which is disposed to face an end surface of the heat exchanger (4) upstream thereof, the guide portion (10a) has a linear cross-sectional shape parallel to the end surface of the heat exchanger (4) when cut along a plane including a rotation axis (11) of the blower fan (2), characterized in that the guide member (10) has a fixed portion (10b), which is fixed to the drain pan (5) by screwing from below.
  2. The indoor unit (100) of the air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the fixed portion (10b) is disposed at a position corresponding to a corner in the housing (1a) having a rectangular shape in plan view.
  3. The indoor unit (100) of the air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the guide member (10) is formed of a resin material.
  4. The indoor unit (100) of the air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the guide member (10) is disposed over an entire circumference in a radially inner direction around the rotation axis (11) in the heat exchanger (4).
  5. The indoor unit (100) of the air conditioner according to claim 4, wherein the guide member (10) is divided into a plurality of portions in a circumferential direction around the rotation axis (11).

Description

[Technical Field] The present invention relates to an indoor unit of an air conditioner, and especially to an indoor unit for a ceiling-embedded type air conditioner. [Background Art] As the indoor unit of the air conditioner, there is an indoor unit which is embedded in a ceiling (ceiling-embedded type). The indoor unit of the ceiling-embedded type air conditioner sucks indoor air by rotating a centrifugal fan, cools the sucked air by a heat exchanger during cooling, and blows out the air from an outlet thereof to cool a room. Although the centrifugal fan discharges the air toward the heat exchanger, since height of a discharge port of the centrifugal fan is about half height of the heat exchanger, the air does not uniformly hit an entire region in a height direction of the heat exchanger. As a result, since heat transfer performance of the heat exchanger is degraded, cooling capacity is reduced. On the other hand, an increase of a volume of the air to compensate for the reduction in the cooling capacity leads to an increase in noise and an increase in fan power. In contrast, there has been proposed an indoor unit including a flow path expansion member which gently spreads a flow of the air blown out from the fan toward the heat exchanger (see Patent Document 1). [Citation List] [Patent Literature] Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-156885Patent Document 2: US 2014/231051 describes a turbo fan and an air conditioner using the same. The turbo fan includes a shroud which includes a guide surface having a predetermined curvature and an air guide connected to a side of the shroud.Patent Document 3: EP 0 926 452 A1 describes an air conditioner equipped with centrifugal fan having a shroud which is provided with an annular guide portion being provided radially outside its blade support portion. [Summary of Invention] [Technical Problem] In the indoor unit described in Patent Document 1, it is intended that the air sent from the fan flows adhering to the flow path expansion member which gently expands (see paragraph 0017 of Patent Document 1). However, since the air from the fan is directly sent out toward the heat exchanger, there is a possibility that the air discharged particularly from a lower portion of the discharge port of the fan does not flow along the flow path expansion member. In that case, less air flows into a lower portion of the heat exchanger. In addition, since the flow path expansion member described in Patent Document 1 has a large-sized and complicated shape, a mounting space is also necessary, which leads to an increase in cost. Patent Document 3 discloses an indoor unit of an air conditioner comprising features of the preamble of claim 1. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an indoor unit of an air conditioner capable of more uniformly guiding air from a blower fan in a height direction of a heat exchanger by a compact and inexpensive member, while facilitating removal of the blower fan or the fan motor for maintenance purposes after installation of the indoor unit. [Solution to Problem] The above problem is solved by the indoor unit comprising the features of claim 1. Preferred embodiments are defined in the dependent claims. In particular, an indoor unit of an air conditioner according to the present invention includes a fan motor provided in a housing, a blower fan rotated by the fan motor, a heat exchanger enclosing a discharge direction of air from the blower fan, and a guide member provided below an air discharge port of the blower fan and upstream of the heat exchanger, wherein the guide member has a guide portion disposed to face an end surface upstream of the heat exchanger, and the guide portion has a linear cross-sectional shape parallel to the end surface when cut along a plane including a rotation axis of the blower fan, wherein the guide member has a fixed portion which is fixed to the drain pan by screwing from below. [Advantageous Effects of Invention] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an indoor unit of an air conditioner capable of more uniformly guiding air from a blower fan in a height direction of a heat exchanger by a compact and inexpensive member, while facilitating removal of the blower fan or the fan motor for maintenance purposes after installation of the indoor unit. [Brief Description of Drawings] FIG. 1 is a half cross-sectional view of an indoor unit of an air conditioner according to an example, not falling under the present invention;FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional perspective view for explaining a flow of air in the indoor unit shown in FIG. 1;FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional perspective view for explaining a mounting structure of a guide member in an indoor unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the indoor unit according to the present invention, viewed