Air conditioner for an automobile

An air conditioner for an automobile having a passenger compartment, said air conditioner comprising:

• a case having an air passage for introducing conditioned air to said passenger compartment;
• a cooler, disposed in said air passage, for cooling air passing therethrough;
• a heater, disposed on a downstream side of said cooler in said air passage, for heating air passing therethrough;
• a warm air passage through which said heated air passes;
• a cool air passage, through which cool air passes, formed in parallel with said warm passage;
• a cool air/warm air mixing chamber formed at a downstream side of said cool air passage and said warm air passage, for mixing said cool air passing through said cool air passage and warm air passing through said warm air passage;
• a plurality of air outlet passages formed at a downstream side of said cool air/warm air mixing chamber, for introducing air passing through said cool air/warm air mixing chamber into said passenger compartment;
• a sliding door disposed at an upstream side of said heater, said sliding door being slidable in a crossing direction which is proximate to and substantially parallel to both said cool air passage and said warm air passage, for controlling a ratio between a volume of air flowing to said warm air passage and a volume of air flowing to said cool air passage;
• a link mechanism, connected to said sliding door, for operating said sliding door in said crossing direction;
• a temperature control mechanism for operating said link mechanism to control a predetermined cooling/heating capacity;
• wherein said link mechanism includes:
• a first lever disposed on said sliding door;
• a drive shaft for being rotated by said temperature control mechanism;
• and
• a second lever member connected at one end thereof to said drive shaft;
• said second lever member and said first lever member are engaged together so that an amount of movement of said first lever member is maintained to be substantially zero in response to an amount of movement of said second lever member in a maximum cooling region and a maximum heating region of said temperature control mechanism.