Kabushiki Kaisha Toyoda Jidoshokki Seisakusho

Fumihiko Kitani

Takashi Ban

Tsutomu Sato

Takahiro Moroi

Hidefumi Mori

Tatsuyuki Hoshino

Tatsuya Hirose

Kiyoshi Yagi

Takanori Okabe

Shintaro Miura

Sigeru Suzuki

An improved heating apparatus for a vehicle is disclosed. A water circuit circulates water to cool an engine. A viscous fluid type heater is disposed in a fluid circuit that is separately arranged from the water circuit. The heater has a heating chamber and a heat exchange chamber close to the heating chamber. The heat exchange chamber communicates with the fluid circuit. The heating chamber accommodates viscous fluid and a rotor rotatable to shear the viscous fluid for producing heat. The heat is transmitted to the heat exchange chamber from the heating chamber. The fluid in the heat exchange chamber is heated and flows to the fluid circuit.

Vehicle heating system

A variable heat generating viscous fluid type heat generator having a housing assembly including movable and fixed plate members arranged to define an axially bounded region in which a heat generating chamber is formed to have an axial width which is changed by the axial movement of the movable plate member with respect to the fixed plate member within the housing assembly by the controlled operation of the moving unit. The change in the axial width of the heat generating chamber causes a change in the gap size of a fluid filled gap between the outer face of the rotor element and the inner wall surface of the heat generating chamber and, accordingly, the heat generating performance of the viscous fluid type heat generator is adjustably varied.

Variable heat generation viscous fluid type heat generator

A viscous fluid type heat generator including a housing assembly defining a heat generating chamber, a fluid storing chamber communicated through fluid passageway means with the heat generating chamber, and a heat receiving chamber for permitting a heat exchanging fluid to circulate therethrough to receive heat from the heat generating chamber. A rotor element is mounted on a drive shaft for rotation in the heat generating chamber with a gap defined between the inner wall surfaces of the heat generating chamber and the outer faces of the rotor element. The fluid passageway means includes a fluid withdrawing passageway for withdrawing the viscous fluid from the gap into the fluid storing chamber and a fluid supply passageway for supplying the viscous fluid from the fluid storing chamber into the gap. The fluid withdrawing passageway has a separate duct configuration and opens at one end to an outer peripheral region of the heat generating chamber to communicate the outer peripheral region with the fluid storing chamber. The fluid supply passageway has a separate duct configuration and opens at one end to a radially inner region of the heat generating chamber to communicate the radially inner region with the fluid storing chamber.

Viscous fluid type heat generator

Variable capacity type viscous heater

A viscous fluid type heat generator includes a housing assembly defining a heat generating chamber and a heat receiving chamber for permitting a heat exchanging fluid to circulate therethrough to receive heat from the heat generating chamber. A rotor element is supported by the housing assembly separately from the drive shaft to be rotationally driven by the drive shaft for rotation within the heat generating chamber. A viscous fluid is held in a gap defined between the inner wall surfaces of the heat generating chamber and the outer faces of the rotor element, for heat generation under a shearing stress applied by the rotation of the rotor element. Frictional coupling means are provided for frictionally coupling the drive shaft with the rotor element and for mechanically transmitting a rotation of the drive shaft to the rotor element to permit the rotor element to rotate in the heat generating chamber at a speed not higher than a predetermined thermal limit speed. If the rotation speed of the rotor element 22 exceeds the predetermined thermal limit speed, the viscous fluid could generate excessive heat, which would probably accelerate the thermal degradation of the viscous fluid.

Viscous fluid type heat generators

Growing community of inventors

Kariya, Japan

Fumihiko Kitani