Navistar International Transportation Corporation

Other

Trw Limited

International Truck Intellectual Property Company, LLC

Gary L Vandermolen

Frederick D Venable

Brad A Hively

Bernard C Hudgens

Brian M Shaklik

Andrew J Zielinski

Ronald A Vallette

Lowell D Stingley

An airbag inflation system for a vehicle utilizes a truck's an ambient air compression system including a holding tank for providing compressed air to vehicle systems and an air pump. An outlet is added to the holding tank with a frangible seal closing the outlet until discharge of the air is required to inflate the airbag. An air line connecting the outlet to the airbag is filled upon activation of a squib for breaking the frangible seal upon detection of a rollover related event.

Rollover air bag system

A programmable bus stopping system of a mobile vehicle in electrical communication with controllers or actuators for all of the safety and warning devices requiring actuation upon a vehicle stop for passenger egress. The electrical communication may be through an area wide network that may allow multiplexing. In addition the controllers or actuators, the communication network may be electrically engaged to an electronic system controller for coordinating operation of controllers and actuators. There may be a manual switch, push-button, or actuator accessible to the driver of the vehicle that allows communication to activate a series of activities that must occur upon a bus stopping to let on or let off passengers. The system activation points may be tied to vehicle speed or to vehicle position relative to a stop requiring a component or components to activate. The system may learn a route and the automatic actions of the safety and warning devices of the vehicle when a driver drives the route once manually initiating the actions and then the system programs itself to perform all the actions related to safety and warning devices.

Programmable vehicle stopping system and process for route learning

The vehicle seat suspension system of the present invention provides an active seat suspension system responsive to conditions indicative of a collision or rollover for moving the seat downwardly to the limit of its vertical travel. The seat assembly comprises the seat, an active suspension system for maintaining an equilibrium position of the seat, sensors responsive to accident conditions for generating accident indication signals, and a seat positioning signal generator responsive to the accident indication signals for providing a seat relocation signal, where the active suspension system being responsive to the seat relocation signal for moving the seat to a retracted location.

Integrated active seat suspension and seat lockup device

A switching valve (,) for a hydraulic power steering system (,) includes a longitudinally movable valve spool (,). A spring (,) biases the spool (,) to a neutral position. The switching valve (,) is configured to direct hydraulic fluid from a primary pump (,) to a steering control valve (,) when the spool (,) is in a primary position, and to direct hydraulic fluid from an auxiliary pump (,) to the control valve (,) when the spool (,) is in an auxiliary position. The spool (,) is movable against a bias of the spring (,) from the neutral position to the primary position under the influence of a hydraulic fluid pressure differential between the opposite ends of the spool (,). The switching valve (,) defines a flow path for directing hydraulic fluid from the primary pump (,) to an end of the spool (,) when the spool (,) is in the neutral position. The flow path extends axially over a flat portion (,) of an outer surface of the spool (,).

Switching valve for a hydraulic power steering system

The vehicle seat suspension system of the present invention utilizes an extensible linkage supporting a seat frame. Height adjustment of the seat frame on the extensible linkage is done through an adjustable air spring. Movement of the seat frame due to jostling of the vehicle is normally dampened using a variable damping rate, extensible shock absorber. The damping rate is essentially pushed in infinity, fully locking the shock absorber positionally in response to detection of an accident condition. In one embodiment of the invention, a bleed valve between the compression and rebound chambers of the shock absorber is closed to effect lock up. In an alternative embodiment, the electrorheological or magnetorheological working fluid of a shock absorber may be solidified to lock positionally the shock absorber. Condition detection sensors include accelerometers and roll over detectors. To allow for the possible loss of vehicle power, the lock up signal is supplied by an independent power source.

Growing community of inventors

Fort Wayne, IN, United States of America

Gary L Vandermolen