Nippon Soken, Inc.

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyota Jidosha Kaisha

Akira Fukami

Hiroki Noguchi

Kunio Okamoto

Junzi Mizuno

Yutaka Suzuki

Yuji Yokoya

Yoshimichi Hara

Yasuhiro Tsutsumi

Hiroyuki Kawata

Eiju Matsunaga

Takeshi Ishii

Tadashi Hattori

Hideaki Sasaya

Nobuyoshi Sakakibara

Teiichi Nabeta

Kazuhiko Miura

Toshiki Kobayashi

Takao Oshiro

Hiroshi Hamaguchi

Yukihisa Takeuchi

Hisasi Kawai

Shigeyuki Akita

Masahiro Tomita

Seiji Morino

Junji Kitagawa

Masao Wakayama

Naomi Miyazaki

KenIchi Hanaki

Yauo Kondo

Junji Mizuno

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for each wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force change rate detector which detects a damping force change rate indicating a rate of change of a damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping force controller which alters the setting of the damping force on the basis of a relationship between the damping force change rate and an adjustment reference value. The system also includes a road surface condition detector which detects a condition of a road surface on which the vehicle is running on the basis of a change of the damping force of the shock absorber. Further, the system includes a damping force adjustment correcting unit which corrects the adjustment reference value by learning the adjustment reference value on the basis of a parameter related to the damping force of the shock absorber which reflects the condition of the road surface.

Suspension control system

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for a wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force detector which generates a damping force detection signal which indicates a change of a damping force of the shock absorber based on a condition of a road surface on which the vehicle is running. The system also includes a sprung resonance component extraction unit which extracts a sprung resonance component signal from the damping force detection signal. The sprung resonance component signal includes components having frequencies around a sprung resonance frequency of the shock absorber. Further, the system includes a determining part which determines whether or not the sprung resonance component signal exceeds a first level range provided for detecting a sign of the occurrence of a long-term vehicle vibration and which outputs a determination result. Moreover, the system includes a damping force controller which controls the shock absorber so that when the determining part determines that the sprung resonance component signal exceeds the first level range, the damping force of the shock absorber is altered to and maintained at an increased level and thus the suspension is maintained at a state which corresponds to the increased level and which is harder than before.

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for a wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force change rate detector which detects a damping force change rate indicating a rate of change of a damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping force controller which alters the setting of the damping force on the basis of the relationship between the damping force change rate and an adjustment reference value. The system also includes a road surface condition detector which detects, for every first period, the condition of a road surface on which the vehicle is running on the basis of a change of the damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping force adjustment correcting unit which corrects the adjustment reference value by learning, for every second period, the adjustment reference value on the basis of a parameter related to the damping force of the shock absorber which reflects the condition of the road surface. Further, the system includes a period adjustment unit which adjusts the first period on the basis of a vehicle speed.

A shock absorber control system having shock absorbers provided respectively between wheels of a vehicle and a body thereof includes road surface condition detecting units provided for the respective shock absorbers, and damping force characteristic alteration units provided for the respective shock absorbers. The shock absorber control system also includes a correction unit for separately generating signals indicative of detection characteristics of the road surface condition detecting units provided for the respective shock absorbers on the basis of road surface condition detection signals generated by the road surface condition detecting units and for separately correcting either reference values used for determining whether or not the road surface is rough by the damping force characteristic alteration units or the road surface condition detection signals on the basis of the detection characteristics of the road surface condition detecting units provided for the respective shock absorbers.

Shock absorber control system

A suspension control system controls suspensions provided for wheels of a vehicle includes a driving condition detecting part for detecting a driving condition of the vehicle, and a determination part for determining whether or not the driving condition detected by the driving condition detecting part coincides with a predetermined driving condition. The suspensions are grouped into a plurality of groups. Also the system includes a control part for separately controlling the suspensions on the basis of the driving condition when the determination part determines that the driving condition does not coincide with the predetermined driving condition and for controlling the suspensions for each of the groups so that the suspensions in an identical group are set to an identical condition when the determination part determines that the driving condition coincides with the predetermined driving condition.

An air cleaner using an ionic wind having discharge electrodes, a counter electrode arranged downstream of the discharge electrodes, and first and second parallel plate electrodes arranged alternately downstream of the counter electrode. The second parallel plate electrodes are connected to a potential pick-up electrode arranged in the vicinity of the discharge electrodes. The first and second parallel plate electrodes which are arranged alternately serve as dust collecting electrodes.

Air cleaner using ionic wind

A car spoiler having an aerodynamic surface for controlling the airflow around the automotive body is provided with a built-in liquid handling means which is used as a liquid reservoir, heat storage tank, or heat exchanger. The heat storage tank may be used to store the hot coolant of the cooling system of the engine during normal operation and to supply the hot coolant to the cooling system in order to quickly warm up the engine or to the hot-water car heater system in order to heat the passenger compartment during cold start of the engine. The built-in heat exchanger may be used to cool the engine coolant, engine lubricant, or transmission oil of the automatic transmission system.

Dual-function car spoiler

An air cleaning apparatus having an electrical dust collecting section has discharge electrodes, electrical field forming electrodes arranged parallel to the flow of charged particles, and dust collecting electrodes each of which is arranged between corresponding two adjacent electrical field forming electrodes to be parallel thereto. One high voltage power source is arranged to generate a potential difference between the discharge electrodes and the dust collecting electrodes. Another high voltage power source is arranged to generate a potential difference between the electrical field forming electrodes and the dust collecting electrodes. Negative electrodes consisting of either the electrical field forming electrodes or the dust collecting electrodes are covered by insulator members.

Air cleaning apparatus

An air spoiler apparatus with solar cells includes an air spoiler wing mounted on an outer surface of a vehicle body, solar cells mounted on an upper surface of the air spoiler wing, a running detector for detecting a running state of a vehicle, and an elevation angle adjustment unit of the air spoiler wing. The air spoiler elevation angle adjustment unit adjusts an elevation angle of the air spoiler wing within select angular ranges to increase power generation efficiency of the solar cells during parking, stopping, low-speed or high speed running represented by the running state detected by the running detector. During high speed operation the angular range is restricted to an optimum range for aerodynamic efficiency.

Air spoiler apparatus with solar cells for vehicle

An air cleaner has a discharge electrode member, an intermediate electrode member, and a counter electrode member disposed opposed and spaced apart from each other. A voltage source is connected between the discharge member and the intermediate member for generating ionic wind. A further voltage source is connected between the intermediate member and the counter member for accelerating the ionic wind such that the gradient direction of the electric field between the discharge member and the intermediate member is identical to that between the intermediate member and the counter member.

A device for detecting the amount of liquid in a vessel, such as a fuel tank of an automobile, using a torsion support member such as a torsion bar arranged between the vessel and the body of the automobile. The torsion displacement of the member corresponding to the amount of the liquid is detected in a detection circuit and processed in an electronic unit which includes a portion for generating a pulse width signal corresponding to the amount of the liquid on the basis of signals from the detection circuit, a portion for generating a signal having a pulse number proportional to the pulse width on the basis of the generated pulse width signal, and a portion for averaging at predetermined intervals the value corresponding to the pulse number of the signal from the pulse width detection portion using timing pulses generated at predetermined intervals and for displaying the average amount of the liquid digitally on a display portion.

Device for detecting liquid amount in a vessel

A ventilation system for a motor vehicle such as an automobile includes a ventilating hole defined in a body of the motor vehicle for venting an interior of the body to atmosphere, and an aerodynamic device such as an air spoiler mounted on the body at the ventilating hole and having a lower surface held against an outer surface of the body, a front surface for forming a negative angle of elevation with respect to an air current flowing along the body while the automobile is running, and a rear surface for separating the air current off said body. The aerodynamic device has a vent hole extending therethrough from the lower surface to the rear surface in communication with the ventilating hole.

Ventilation system for motor vehicles

A heating system for automobiles utilizing the hot water from the engine cooling system as a heat source includes a heating radiator and a heat accumulating water tank, and pipe lines are provided between the engine cooling system, heating radiator and heat accumulating water tank. The flow passages of the cooling water through the pipe lines are switched by electromagnetic valves provided in the pipe lines so that the heating radiator and the heat accumulating water tank are connected in series or in parallel with each other with respect to the engine cooling system, or a circulating passage is formed between the heating radiator and the heat accumulating water tank. The heat accumulating water tank has a mixing preventing device to prevent cold cooling water flowing into the water tank from mixing with hot water contained in the water tank.

Heating system for automobiles with heat storage tank

An air humidifier having a humidifier element provided with an air passage constructed by a water-absorbable material. The air is humidified as it flows through the air passage in the humidifier element.

Humidifier

A ventilating device for an automotive vehicle mounted in a rear portion of the vehicle comprises an atmospheric air passageway for introducing atmospheric air from the outside of the vehicle into a vehicle compartment, and an internal air passageway provided in a manner to cross the atmospheric air passageway for leading the air in the rear portion of the vehicle compartment to the outside of the vehicle. The atmospheric air passageway is arranged to cause the atmospheric air to be blown from the rear to the front of the vehicle compartment, so as to improve ventilation performance in the rear portion of the compartment. Further, a total heat exchanger is mounted at the crossing portion of the two passageways for effecting exchange of both sensible heat and latent heat between the atmospheric air flowing through the atmospheric air passageway and the air flowing through the internal air passageway.

Growing community of inventors

Okazaki, Japan

Akira Fukami