ZONAL VEHICLE GLASS HEATING STRATEGY

• US 20140217080A1
• Filed: 02/06/2013
• Published: 08/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Hoke, Paul Bryan, Fusco, Frank
• Granted Patent: US 9,045,043 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 219/203
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00785 by the detection of humidity or frost
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00864 Ventilators and damper doors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 1/02 to electric heating circuits

Abstract

A vehicle glass heating system may include a vehicle glass having two or more electrically heated zones. The system may also have a controller, which determines an output based on an input signal and selectively actuates at least a portion of the heated zones to heat the vehicle glass according to the output.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a vehicle glass having a plurality of electrically heated zones; and

a controller determining an output based on an input signal and selectively actuating at least a portion of the heated zones to heat the vehicle glass according to the output.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller sequentially actuates the heated zones according to the output.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the heated zones include at least one of:

a pair of laterally opposing side zones disposed along a pair of opposing side edge portions of the vehicle glass;

a pair of corner zones disposed at a pair of corner portions of the vehicle glass; and

a pair of vertically opposing zones disposed along a respective one of top and bottom edge portions of the vehicle glass.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the controller in a first step actuates a pair of heating members carried by the pair of opposing side portions of the vehicle glass.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the controller in a second step actuates a pair of heating members carried by the pair of corner portions of the vehicle glass.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the controller in a third step actuates a pair of heating members carried by a respective one of the top edge portion and the bottom edge portion of the vehicle glass.

7. A system, comprising:

a vehicle glass having a plurality of electrically heated zones; and

an airflow device selectively providing a demist flow to the plurality of heated zones; and

a controller determining an output based on at least one input signal and selectively actuating the airflow device and at least a portion of the heated zones to heat the vehicle glass according to the output.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least a portion of the heated zones is adjacent to an edge portion and a corner portion of the vehicle glass.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the heated zones includes at least one of:

a vertically opposed zones disposed along top and bottom edge portions of the vehicle glass;

a pair of corner zones disposed at a pair of corner portions of the vehicle glass; and

a pair of opposing side zones disposed along a pair of opposing side edge portions of the vehicle glass.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of heated zones carries at least one electric heating member.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the electric heating member is at least one of a resistive wire and a metallic coating.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the controller determines a maximum blower setting is warranted based on the at least one input signal, actuates a blower of the airflow device to operate at a maximum speed and sequentially actuates the heated zones.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the controller sequentially actuates the heated zones.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the heated zones include at least one of:

a pair of laterally opposing side zones disposed along a pair of opposing side edge portions of the vehicle glass;

a pair of corner zones disposed at a pair of corner portions of the vehicle glass; and

a pair of vertically opposing zones disposed along a respective one of top and bottom edge portions of the vehicle glass;

wherein the controller sequentially actuates the pair of laterally opposing side zones, the pair of corner zones and the pair of vertically opposing zones.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the airflow device includes:

a plurality of ducts directed to the heated zones;

at least one door movable between at least two positions for directing the demist flow through at least a portion of the plurality of ducts; and

at least one actuator coupled to the at least one door for moving the at least one door between the at least two positions;

wherein the controller generates an actuation signal based on the at least one input signal and transmits the actuation signal to the at least one actuator for moving the at least one door between the at least two positions.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one door directly controls at least one of an airflow from a multiple-function airflow duct, an airflow to a dedicated demist duct, and an airflow through an airflow plenum to control airflow volume.

17. The system of claim 7, wherein the controller actuates the heated zone to at least one of reduce the fogging risk for the heated zone and reduce a total energy usage by the heated zone and the airflow device.

18. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a computer readable medium storing a reference lookup table including a plurality of actuation signals for a plurality of corresponding reference input signals;

wherein the controller accesses the reference lookup table and determines the first and second actuation signals from the plurality of actuation signals, based on referencing the at least one input signal with the plurality of corresponding reference input signals.

19. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one input signal is generated by at least one of a human machine interface, a sun-load sensor, an ambient temperature sensor, an ambient relative humidity sensor, a cabin temperature sensor, a cabin relative humidity sensor, a vehicle tracking sensor, a received weather report, a rain sensor, a wiper operation sensor, an engine coolant temperature sensor and a discharge temperature sensor detecting a demist flow temperature discharged from the airflow device.

20. A method, comprising:

determining, by a controller based on comparing a fogging probability indicative of a fogging risk in a zone of a vehicle glass to a fogging risk threshold, a change in at least one of a demist flow and an electrical heating for the zone to at least one of reduce the fogging risk and reduce energy usage; and

selectively providing an output to adjust at least one of the demist flow and the electrical heating to the zone of the vehicle glass when the change is warranted.