Conditioner for steering wheel
AssigneeGentherm Incorporated
InventorAmanda Caroline Pine
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A conditioning system that includes (a) a plurality of conditioning modules, each conditioning module including: (i) one or more heat sinks and (ii) one or more thermoelectric devices in communication with the one or more heat sinks; (b) one or more air movers in fluid communication with the heat sink; the plurality of conditioning modules are located within a rim of a steering wheel and the thermo-electric device is in thermal contact with the rim so that when the plurality of conditioning modules are turned on, the plurality of conditioning modules change a temperature of the rim of the steering wheel; and the one or more air movers move fluid across the heat sink.
Claims20
A conditioning system comprising:
- a. a plurality of conditioning modules, each including:
- i. one or more heat sinks and
- ii. one or more thermoelectric devices in communication with the one or more heat sinks;
- b. one or more air movers in fluid communication with the one or more heat sinks;
- wherein the plurality of conditioning modules are located within a hollow portion of a rim of a steering wheel, the rim includes a first piece and a second piece that cooperate to define a hollow channel between the first piece and the second piece, the plurality of conditioning modules are in contact with only the first piece, the hollow channel having an interior surface defining a central cavity and the one or more thermoelectric devices are spaced apart along the central cavity, and the one or more thermoelectric devices are in direct thermal contact with the interior surface of the hollow channel so that when the plurality of conditioning modules are turned on, the plurality of conditioning modules change a temperature of the rim of the steering wheel,
- wherein the one or more heat sinks are located on the one or more thermoelectric devices and separated from the rim by the one or more thermoelectric devices so that the one or more heat sinks are located within a stream of fluid created by the one or more air movers;
- and
- wherein the one or more air movers move the fluid across the one or more heat sinks.
The conditioning system of 7, wherein individual conditioning modules within the two or more strings are located in an alternating relationship as the strings extend around the steering wheel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.