1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly, to an air conditioner that is designed to be associated with a picture or photograph, thereby providing an improved external appearance as well as its inherent air-conditioning effect.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an air conditioner is operated as a refrigerant goes through a cooling cycle having a series of processes such as a compression process, a condensing process, an expanding process, and a vaporizing process. That is, after the refrigerant is compressed to a high temperature and pressure state, heat is discharged to an outer side by a condenser. Then, the temperature and pressure of the refrigerant are lowered as it goes through an expansion valve. Then, the refrigerant goes through the vaporizer to absorb heat and returns to the condenser.
Here, the compression, condensing and expansion processes are performed in an indoor unit of the air conditioner. The vaporizing process is performed by a blower fan and a heat exchanger.
Meanwhile, the air conditioner is generally classified into a window type air conditioner that is designed to be mounted on a window and to integrate a cooling cycle device therein and a sprit air conditioner having indoor and outdoor units that are separated from each other and installed on indoor and outdoor sides, respectively.
The sprit air conditioner is further classified according to an installing method of the indoor unit into a wall-mounted type, a standing type, a ceiling-mounted type, and a ceiling-buried type.
There is also provided a convertible type indoor unit that can be used any one of the wall-mounting type, the standing type and ceiling-mounted type.
Meanwhile, the indoor unit of the air conditioner is classified according to locations of air intake and outlet into a variety of types. For example, in a type where indoor air is introduced through a side portion of the indoor unit and exhausted through a front portion of the indoor unit, a louver is installed on the front portion of the indoor unit to uniformly distribute the air in the indoor room by rotating up and down and left and right.
In the typical indoor unit of the air conditioner, the front portion is designed to simply function as a cover. That is, a front cover defining the front portion of the indoor unit functions to prevent a variety of parts such as an air intake fan, a heat exchanger and the like that are installed inside the indoor unit to be exposed outward, thereby preventing a user from getting electric shock by touching the parts installed inside the indoor unit. That is, since the front cover is designed considering only the simple functions, it cannot affect on improving the interior atmosphere.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds