Marelli Cabin Comfort Japan Corporation

Calsonic Kansei Corporation

Tomohiro Maeda

Takayuki Ishikawa

Satoshi Ogihara

Tatsuya Osaki

Jun Hatakeyama

Kojiro Nakamura

Mitsuaki Nagata

Yasuhito Ookawara

Yunhan Ri

Koujirou Nakamura

Shuuji Kumamoto

An air-conditioning device includes a heater unit that heats the air to be lead to a vehicle cabin using the heat of the refrigerant compressed by a compressor, a liquid receiver arranged at the downstream side of an outside heat exchanger, a liquid receiver separating the refrigerant lead from the outside heat exchanger into a liquid-phase refrigerant and a gaseous-phase refrigerant and storing the liquid-phase refrigerant, and a restrictor mechanism provided between the heater unit and the outside heat exchanger, the restrictor mechanism decompressing and expanding the refrigerant. When there is a dehumidification request, the operation mode is temporarily switched from a dehumidifying cabin-heating mode which evaporates the refrigerant by an evaporating unit and radiates heat by the heater unit in the state in which the restrictor mechanism restricts the flow of the refrigerant, to the cabin-cooling mode which evaporates the refrigerant by the evaporating unit while promoting the storage of the liquid-phase refrigerant in the liquid receiver.

Air-conditioning device

An air-conditioning device includes: a compressor; an outdoor heat exchanger; an evaporating unit configured to evaporate refrigerant a heater unit configured to heat the air by using the heat of the refrigerant a liquid receiver arranged at the downstream side of the outdoor heat exchanger and a restrictor mechanism provided between the heater unit and the outdoor heat exchanger, wherein, in an operation state in which the flow of the refrigerant is restricted by the restrictor mechanism and heat is released in the heater unit, a first operation mode and a second operation mode are switched, the first operation mode being set such that the liquid-phase refrigerant is stored in the liquid receiver and the gaseous-phase refrigerant is guided to the compressor and the second operation mode being set such that the liquid-phase refrigerant stored in the liquid receiver is guided to the evaporating unit.

A vehicle air-conditioning device is a heat pump type vehicle air-conditioning device including an external heat exchanger that performs heat exchange between refrigerant flowing the inside thereof and outside air. With the vehicle air-conditioning device, a controller functions as a temperature-difference calculation unit that calculates the temperature difference &#x394;T between the refrigerant in a refrigerant flow path on the exit side of the external heat exchanger and the outside air, and in addition, the controller functions as a frost formation determination unit that determines that frost formation is caused on the external heat exchanger on the basis of the elapsed time to of a state in which the temperature difference &#x394;T is equal to or larger than a frost-formation temperature difference at which the frost formation may be caused on the external heat exchanger.

Vehicle air-conditioning device

An air-conditioning device includes: a heating cycle configured to circulate the heating medium through a heater core, the heater core being configured to heat blown air; an auxiliary heating device configured to heat the heating medium by an electric heater; a refrigeration cycle configured to circulate cooling medium discharged from a compressor through a condenser, the condenser being configured to heat the heating medium; refrigeration cycle control means configured to operate the refrigeration cycle such that temperature of the heating medium reaches target heating-medium temperature; auxiliary heating device control means configured to operate the auxiliary heating device such that the temperature of the heating medium reaches the target heating-medium temperature; and switching means configured to stop the operation of the refrigeration cycle in the state in which the temperature of the heating medium is equal to or higher than the threshold value.

A cooling medium circulating apparatus includes first and second flow paths configured to circulate a cooling medium, and a flow path switchover unit for connecting or disconnecting between the first and second flow paths. A method for controlling a cooling medium circulating apparatus includes detecting temperatures of the cooling medium flowing through the flow paths. The method further includes calculating a temperature difference between temperatures of the cooling medium flowing through the first and second flow paths. In the cooling medium circulating apparatus and method, a prescribed cycle is set, and connecting and disconnecting periods are set. The connecting and disconnecting periods are periods for connecting and disconnecting, respectively, between the flow paths in the prescribed cycle. The flow path switchover unit is controlled based on the connecting and disconnecting periods. The prescribed cycle becomes shorter as the temperature difference becomes larger.

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Saitama, Japan

Tomohiro Maeda