A heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment for a vehicle is an apparatus for heating or cooling air by introducing air outside the vehicle into the interior of the vehicle or circulating the air in the interior of the vehicle to cool or heat the interior of the vehicle and includes an evaporator for cooling an inside of an HVAC case, a heater core for a heating action, and a blowing mode switching door for selectively blowing the air cooled or heated by the evaporator or the heater core into each part of the interior of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, as a vehicle penetration rate is not only continuously increased but time in which a user stays in a vehicle is also increased, researches for maintaining comfort of the interior of the vehicle have been conducted, but as the interior of the vehicle is narrow and closed to be prone to be polluted and the pollution of the interior of the vehicle is becoming more and more heavy due to fine dust and various pollutants of a downtown area, an air purifier for a vehicle that purifies indoor air of a vehicle has recently been developed.
As an example, a cooling apparatus with a deodorizer for a vehicle has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2549032 (Registration date: May 30, 1997, entitled “Cooling apparatus with a deodorizer for a vehicle).
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the existing cooling apparatus with a deodorizer for a vehicle.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the existing cooling apparatus with a deodorizer for a vehicle includes a case 20 having an outdoor air inlet 21 and an indoor air inlet 22 provided therein and an intake door 23 rotatably provided to selectively open and close the outdoor air inlet 21 and the indoor air inlet 22. An actuator 30 connected to a rotating shaft of the intake door 23 is controlled by a controller 31. A downstream side of the intake door 23 is provided with a blower 25 for blowing the air introduced from the indoor and outdoor air inlets 21 and 22 to the downstream side and the blower 25 includes a fan 32 and a motor 33 rotating the fan 32. An evaporator 26 is provided on the downstream side of the blower 25 and cools air by exchanging heat with the air passing therethrough. An air passage 28 on the downstream side of the evaporator 26 is provided with a photocatalytic filter 27 for generating active oxygen by irradiation of long wavelength light.
The photocatalytic filter 27 produces active oxygen by irradiation of an ultraviolet lamp 29. Here, the active oxygen oxidizes and decomposes substances giving out an odor to make the substances into an extremely low-concentration oxidizable compound. The ultraviolet lamp 29 is disposed between the evaporator 26 and the photocatalytic filter 27. A downstream side of the photocatalytic filter 27 is provided with a metal catalytic filter 34 for removing ozone contained in flowing air. Reference numerals 35, 36, 37, and 24 that are not explained each represent a temperature sensor, a sensor for sensing an odor level, a fan switch, and an air outlet.
However, the existing cooling apparatus with a deodorizer for a vehicle may not be applied to a vehicle due to various environmental factors because the ultraviolet lamp 29 used as a light source of the photocatalyst contains mercury harmful to a human body.
In addition, since the photocatalytic filter 27 is installed on the downstream side of the evaporator 26 to adsorb and deodorize the odor generated from the evaporator 26, there is a problem in that the photocatalytic filter needs to be replaced due to a decrease in an air volume when there is a large amount of dust.
In addition, the existing cooling apparatus with a deodorizer for a vehicle has a problem in that the ultraviolet lamp 29 and the photocatalytic filter 27 are separate components and therefore the assembling performance deteriorates.
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USPTO Backgrounds