Ceiling-embedded air conditioner with windbreak ribs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional ceiling-embedded air conditioners with omnidirectional air blowoff structures often cause uneven room temperatures and can malfunction human sensors due to direct airflow strikes, especially when wind direction plates move during operation.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates windbreak ribs and a wind guide path on the decorative panel to redirect airflow away from human sensors, ensuring they are not directly struck by conditioned air, and includes a pyroelectric infrared sensor housed in a concave portion with additional windbreak ribs for protection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If air blowoff openings are provided at four sides of the decorative panel, then the structure is simple, but air cannot be blown from corner portions causing uneven room temperatures
Solution Approach 1:
The air blowoff function is segmented into multiple independent paths: four side blowoff openings and four corner blowoff openings. Each path operates independently to deliver conditioned air to different regions of the room, ensuring both structural simplicity and uniform temperature distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The air blowoff system transitions from a one-dimensional arrangement (four sides only) to a two-dimensional omnidirectional arrangement by adding corner blowoff openings. This dimensional expansion enables air to be discharged in all directions including diagonals, achieving uniform room temperature while maintaining manufacturing simplicity.
2Ease of operation
If wind direction plates are made movable to adjust airflow direction, then operational flexibility is improved, but human sensors may malfunction due to direct airflow strikes
Solution Approach 1:
A sensor protection structure is introduced as an intermediary element between the movable wind direction plates and the human sensor. This protective structure intercepts and redirects airflow away from the sensor, preventing direct strikes that would cause malfunction while allowing the wind direction plates to maintain their full range of motion for operational flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The protective structure is applied locally only at the sensor location rather than restricting the entire airflow system. This localized protection allows wind direction plates to move freely for adjusting airflow to different areas of the room, while only the specific region around the sensor is protected from direct airflow strikes.
3Temperature
If auxiliary blowoff openings are added at corner portions to achieve omnidirectional air blowoff, then room temperature uniformity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The corner blowoff openings are merged with the existing side blowoff openings to form a unified octagonal ring-shaped air blowoff system. This integration allows the system to achieve omnidirectional air discharge (improving room temperature uniformity) while sharing common structural elements and control mechanisms, thereby minimizing the increase in device complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration effectively suppresses airflow strikes on human sensors, preventing malfunctions and maintaining accurate temperature detection, while ensuring conditioned air is blown in all directions for uniform room temperature distribution.
Implementation Method 1
a heat exchanger disposed in the casing main body to surround the outer periphery of the turbo fan
Implementation Method 2
a human sensor for detecting a human body
Data Source
AI summary
A ceiling-embedded air conditioner includes: a decorative panel; a turbo fan; a heat exchanger; an air suction path; air blowoff paths; an air suction opening and air blowoff openings that are provided in the decorative panel; corner panels disposed at corner portions between the adjacent air blowoff openings; a human sensor that is provided on a specific corner panel; a wind guide path that flows conditioned air blown from the air blowoff openings; and windbreak ribs that are erected from the specific corner panel to suppress direct strike, on the human sensor, of the conditioned air flowing from the wind guide path to the specific corner panel.