Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho

Akihisa Nishimura

Kenji Kimura

Masaaki Yamaoka

Kenichi Suzuki

Toru Sugiyama

Fumio Shimizu

Shigeru Ogino

Masayoshi Taki

Yasuhiro Nobata

Norihiko Saito

Yoshimasa Negishi

Koji Kasahara

Atsushi Takumi

Masatsune Kondo

Ryuhei Isogawa

Hideo Taguchi

A brazing method for brazing metal pieces together via a brazing material includes the step of, in a heating chamber controlled to a preset oxygen concentration or less, sandwiching a workpiece of which the metal plates are stacked via the brazing material between a first heating plate and a second heating plate in such a manner that the first heating plate and the second heating plate cover the workpiece entirely as viewed in a thickness direction of the workpiece, and heating the workpiece to braze the metal plates together via the brazing material.

Brazing method and brazing apparatus for brazing metal plates

A fuel reformer suited for mounting on a vehicle is provided. A raw material gas containing methanol and water is vaporized at a vaporization section The vaporized gas flows horizontally to a reforming section with monolithic catalyst The reforming section is divided into two sides, a front side and a rear side with an interconnecting pipe bent at 180 degrees, for connecting the front and rear sides. By making the material gas flow horizontally, even when the reformer is mounted to a vehicle which has a larger space in its horizontal direction than in its vertical direction, especially a small passenger car, the contact time period between gas and catalyst can be extended. By bending the reforming section by 180 degrees, the size of the reformer can be reduced so that the reformer is suited for mounting on a vehicle having limited space. Because the vaporization section and the CO reducing section can be placed adjacent to each other, by using heat generated at the CO reducing section, the heat loss during pre-heating of the methanol and water can be reduced.

Fuel reformer for mounting on a vehicle

A method for bonding valve seats for intake and exhaust valves to an engine cylinder head. Valve seats are brazed to an aluminum cylinder head using an Al--Zn type brazing material and a fluoride type flux. The brazing material contains 70 to 90 % by weight of Zn. The brazing is preferably carried out at a temperature of 470.degree. to 520.degree. C. To allow the brazing material and flux to be present between the cylinder head and each valve seat, the cylinder head contains U-grooves formed around the opening of each intake or exhaust port. The U-groove consists of an annular step formed along the opening of the intake or exhaust port and a bank extended along the inner circumference of the step. The valve seats are placed in the U-grooves, which are then filled with the brazing material and flux, to carry out brazing of the valve seats onto the cylinder head. After completion of the brazing, the banks are removed to complete bonding of the valve seats to the cylinder head. In another method, a valve seat is directly bonded to a cylinder head by applying a fluoride type flux on the valve seat.

Method for bonding a valve seat with a cylinder head

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Akihisa Nishimura