US 5,364,303 AGranted

Air vent adjustable vanes for controlling air flow direction

AssigneeSummit Polymers, Inc.

InventorWarren W. Terry

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Abstract

An air vent comprising a first row of air vanes for controlling the lateral orientation of air emitted from the air vent and a second row of air vanes for controlling the vertical orientation of air emitted from the air vent. The first and second row of air vanes can be adjusted independently. The first row of air vanes has a control vane to which is mounted a control knob. The control knob is connected to the second row of air vanes by a ball joint mounted pin, whereby the vertical movement of the control knob results in rotation of the second row of air vanes about a horizontal axis. The control knob is connected to the first row of air vanes by links. The lateral movement of the control knob results in a corresponding parallel rotational movement of the first row of air vanes to control the lateral position of a concentrated stream of the air emitted from the air vent. The control knob is mounted for outward movement which results in rotation of the first row of vanes into a diffused position to diffuse the air emitted from the air vent. The sets of end vanes in the first row of vanes are rotated away from the control knob when the control knob is pulled outwardly of the housing.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An air vent for a motor vehicle heating and cooling system comprising:

a housing having an outlet opening;
a first row of vanes pivotally mounted to the housing to control the direction of the flow of air emitted from the outlet opening, the first row of vanes comprising two sets of end vanes located at opposite ends of the first row of vanes and a control vane positioned between the two sets of end vanes;
a linkage for rotating the first row of air vanes in parallel to direct the air flow through the housing outlet and for rotating the two sets of end vanes transversely with respect to the control vane to diffuse the air passing through the outlet;
the improvement comprising:
an actuator slidably mounted to the control vane for movement in a direction outwardly of the housing outlet opening;
a first linkage having opposed ends with one end pivotally mounted to the actuator and the other end pivotally mounted to one set of the end vanes at one end of the first row of vanes;
a second linkage having opposed ends with one end pivotally mounted to the actuator and the other end to the other set of end vanes at the other end of the first row;
whereby movement of the actuator in a direction outwardly of the housing outlet opening rotates the two sets of end vanes in opposite directions to diffuse the air passing through the housing outlet.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.