Blower unit for vehicle

This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-1103 filed on Jan. 8, 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention relates to a blower unit for a vehicle for generating cooling air for cooling a heat exchanger, such as a radiator, of a vehicle.

In a conventional blower unit employed for a heat exchanger having a relatively long core, two axial fans are disposed on a downstream side of the core with respect to a flow of air, and each of the fans is provided with a fan motor. That is, the blower unit has the fan motors with the same number as the number of the fans. In such a case, the entire size and the weight of the blower unit increases. Also, the number of parts increases.

To address the above issues, it is proposed to drive the multiple fans by a single motor. In such a case, a driving shaft extending from the motor is connected to rotation shafts of the multiple fans through gears. The motor is, for example, fixed to a tank of a heat exchanger, which is disposed at an end of a core of the heat exchanger. Such a blower unit is, for example, described in JP-U-62-112470.

In the blower unit in which the single driving shaft passes through multiple gear boxes to be connected to the rotation shafts of the multiple fans through the gears, if displacement or misalignment occurs between components, such as between the driving shaft and the motor and between the driving shaft and the gear boxes, a connecting portion between the motor and the driving shaft and the gears receive an excess load. Such an excess load is likely to result in deterioration of durability as well as an increase in noise.

The present invention is made in view of the foregoing matter, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a blower unit for a vehicle having multiple fans driven by a single motor through gears, which is capable of improving durability and reducing noise.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a blower unit includes a plurality of blowers, a single motor, a driving shaft, gears, gear boxes and a joint. The blowers are arranged in parallel with each other with respect to a flow of air passing through a heat exchanger of a vehicle. The driving shaft extends from the motor and is connected to rotation shafts of the blowers through the gears. The gears are housed in the gear boxes. The driving shaft and the rotation shafts of the blowers are rotatably supported through the gear boxes. The driving shaft is divided into a plurality of shaft parts in a longitudinal direction thereof. The adjacent shaft parts are connected to each other through the joint in the longitudinal direction of the driving shaft.

Since the driving shaft is divided into the plurality of shaft parts, and the shaft parts are connected through the joint, displacements or misalignment between the components, such as between the driving shaft and the motor and between the driving shaft and the gear boxes, are absorbed. Therefore, durability improves and noise reduces.

For example, the driving shaft has a connecting portion of the shaft parts at a location between the motor and the blower, which is closer to the motor than the other, and/or a location between the blowers. In such a case, the joint can be disposed at a location without interfering with the blowers. Therefore, the size of the joint can be set flexibly. For example, it is possible to increase the size of the joint. If the size of the joint is increased, the effect of absorbing the displacement or misalignment is improved.

For example, the driving shaft has connecting portions of the shaft parts at locations adjacent to the gear boxes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like parts are designated by like reference numbers and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a blower unit for a vehicle, partly including an exploded view, when viewed from a rear location of the vehicle, such as a downstream location with respect to a flow of air, according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a blower of the blower unit, when viewed from a top, according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the blower unit, when viewed from a top, according to the first embodiment; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a blower unit, when viewed from a top, according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

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