Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Ngk Spark Plug Company, Limited

Aisan Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Toyoto Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Hiroshi Miyata

Shuuichi Buma

Kaoru Ohashi

Shigeru Hoshino

Kazumasa Nakamura

Yuji Yokoya

Naoto Kushi

Hitoshi Araki

Katsumi Ishida

Masanori Hirose

Nobuhiro Hayakawa

Satoshi Ishikawa

Noriyuki Nakashima

Shoji Akatsuka

Yoshiro Noda

Shogo Kawajiri

Nobuo Kawai

Yoshinori Ishiguro

Kohji Kamiya

Masaaki Murase

Yoichi Kato

Naoyasu Sugimoto

Toshio Izumi

Syogo Kawajiri

Shinji Katoh

Ryozo Saito

Hidenori Aoki

A gas sensor including an element for measuring the concentration of a gas to be detected which is contained in a gas under measurement; a protector provided to cover a tip end of the element in the axial direction; and a protection cap removably attached to the gas sensor. The protection cap includes a tubular portion which surrounds a side surface of the protector , support portions which project from an inner surface of the tubular portion and reach the side surface of the protector without axially partitioning the space between the inner surface of the tubular portion and the side surface of the protector , and an air-outlet hole for establishing communication between the interior and exterior of the protection cap

Gas sensor having protector and protection cap

A gas sensor having improved heat resistance and oil resistance. A portion of a cylindrical cover attached to a metallic shell is formed of a bendable resin tube . When the sensor is installed in a location susceptible to oil splashes, a rubber member having intercommunicating holes formed therein can be moved to a position where the rubber member is less susceptible to oil splashes, through appropriate bending of the resin tube . Thus, entry of oil into the interior of the sensor is avoided. Also, since the resin tube is bendable, the length of the resin tube can be increased so long as an ambient space around the installed sensor permits, thereby decreasing heat transmitted from the metallic shell to the rubber member

Gas sensor

A shaft-like heating member is inserted into and fixed to an oxygen sensing element of a hollowed shaft-like member, together with of a terminal member. A heating portion is located at a portion of the heating member closer to the extreme end thereof. The surface of the heating portion is resiliently pressed on the element inner wall in a side-abutting fashion. In this case, a guide mainly gives rise to the elastic force. With such a side-abutting structure, heat generated in the heating portion is directly transferred to the oxygen sensing element, and heats it. Heat radiated from a portion in the vicinity of its contact position additively heats the oxygen sensing element. Temperature of the oxygen sensor quickly reaches an activation temperature.

Oxygen sensor with a heater

A step motor controller including a sampling program for sampling, at predetermined intervals, input target values that represent a position of the step motor. The difference between the sampled target value and a rotational position of the step motor is obtained. A step motor accelerating and decelerating program accelerates the step motor upon finding the difference between the sampled target value and the current position of the step motor is greater than a set value. When the difference is less than the set value the step motor is decelerated. The predetermined sampling time does not correspond to the natural frequency of the step motor system or to a period corresponding to a fractional multiple of the natural frequency.

Step motor controller

A throttle valve controller includes a valve driving device for activating a throttle valve; which is disposed along a air-intake passage. A manipulation detector detects the amount of manipulation of an acceleration pedal by a driver. A drive controller regulates the valve driving device. The throttle valve controller further includes a wheel acceleration detector for detecting the actual rotational angular acceleration of the driving wheels, and a target value calculator for calculating a target value for the rotational angular acceleration of the driving wheels, as a function of the detected manipulation amount The drive controller controls the valve driving device in such a way that the actual rotational angular acceleration of the driving wheels is set equal to the target acceleration value from the target value calculator.

Throttle valve controller for engine system

A controller for a step motor which permits the actual step number of the step motor to properly follow up the target step number may be varied with time. The controller temporarily determines a duration shorter than an actually derived duration, and checks the target step number again when the temporarily determined duration has elapsed. If the target step number has not changed, the actually derived duration is considered as a finally determined duration, while, if the target step number has changed, the duration of energization is re-derived from the changed target step number.

Controller for a step motor

In a vehicle height control system comprising four actuators for controlling vertical positions of a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear wheels relative to a vehicle body and three vehicle height sensors for detecting the vertical positions relative to the vehicle body of three of the pairs of front and rear wheels except a fourth one of the pairs of front and rear wheels, a naught operation exclusion device is provided to prevent vehicle height control system to operate, the naught operation exclusion device detecting running on a rock or the like or falling in a hole or the like of the fourth wheel or jacking up of the vehicle body at the fourth wheel based upon a comparison of the vertical position relative to the vehicle body of a wheel diagonal to the fourth wheel detected by the vehicle height sensor therefor with similar relative vertical positions detected by the vehicle height sensors for the other two wheels located on opposite sides of a diagonal line connecting the fourth wheel and the one wheel diagonal to the fourth wheel.

Vehicle height control system with deductive naught operation exclusion

In a power-assisted steering system including an electrically operated bypass valve mounted on a hydraulic power cylinder and disposed within a bypass passage between opposite fluid chambers of the cylinder to permit bypass flow passing therethrough in its energized condition, an electric control apparatus includes a first sensor arranged to detect a travel speed of the vehicle for producing a first electric signal indicative of the vehicle speed, a second sensor arranged to detect a rotation speed of a prime mover of the vehicle for producing a second electric signal indicative of the rotation speed of the prime mover, a microcomputer responsive to the first and second electric signals for determining an optimum steering effort in relation to each value of the electric signals on a bais of predetermined respective functions of the vehicle speed and the rotation speed of the prime mover and for producing an electric control signal indicative of the optimum steering effort. The bypass valve is energized by the electric control signal applied thereto from the computer to control the opening degree of the bypass passage in accordance with the value of the electric control signal.

Electric control apparatus for power steering system

A vehicle suspension includes a variable damping effectiveness type shock absorber, which has an actuator and according to selective actuation thereof can be set to first, second, or third conditions which respectively cause the shock absorber to provide minimum, medium, or maximum damping effect. A control system for this suspension includes: a means for detecting one or more parameters relating to the operational condition of the vehicle and for outputting information signals representative thereof; a means for being manually controlled by an operator and for selecting between first manual, second manual, and auto operational modes; and a control means for: when the manual selecting means is selecting the first manual mode, actuating the actuator to its first condition; when the manual selecting means is selecting the second manual mode, actuating the actuator to its second condition; and, when the manual selecting means is selecting the auto operational mode, actuating the actuator to one of a set of its conditions including its first condition and its third condition according to the information signals outputted by the detecting means. The vehicle operational parameters may include steering angle and vehicle speed which can cause body roll, jerk and sharp acceleration which can cause vehicle squat, braking which can cause vehicle nose diving, and vehicle shift-offable state which can cause starting squat and tail lift; and this selective increase of shock absorber damping effect when these parameters take on troublesome values prevents these problems.

Control system for three way variable shock absorber device for

An apparatus for detecting a steering angle and a steering angular velocity of a steering mounted in a vehicle. The apparatus has a sensor mounted on a steering column tube, and a disc secured onto the outer periphery of a steering shaft. The steering column tube has a projecting form in which a luminescent element and a light receiving element are provided. The projecting form is designed not to contact with the disc.

Apparatus for detecting a steering angle and a steering angular velocity

An air suspension system which includes an air spring provided between a car body and a suspension arm for adjusting the car height by changing the volume of the air spring. The air spring includes a diaphragm and an air piston formed to contact with the diaphragm. The air piston has a plurality of wall portions arranged longitudinally. Each wall portion is different in its external shape from the portion adjacent thereto. The external shapes of the air piston includes a combination of at least two shapes of the group including a straight cylindrical shape, a tapered shape converging downward and a tapered shape diverging downward.

Air suspension

A piezoelectric pick-up device for an internal combustion engine is disclosed, which comprises a metal case mounted on an internal combustion engine cylinder wall or the like, a mounting metal rod projecting from the inner bottom surface of the metal case into the interior thereof, a piezoelectric element and a weight disposed in the case interior and fitted on the mounting rod, the piezoelectric element being electrically coupled to the metal case, a cap-like cover fittedly covering the weight or the entirety of the piezoelectric element and the weight, and a molding material filling the case interior. The cap-like cover is made of an elastic material or a hard material.

Piezoelectric pick-up device for internal combustion engine

A method of adjusting the height of a vehicle provided with an air suspension system capable of adjusting the vehicle height and having two air chambers capable of being communicated with and shut off from each other. The method comprises the steps of shutting off temporarily one air chamber from the remaining one and supplying the compressed air to the other air chamber when the vehicle height is to be increased. The supply of the compressed air is carried out at the same time as or prior to the shutting-off.

Method of adjusting vehicle height

The present invention relates to a device for detecting the center of a steering angle in a vehicle. This device comprises a steering angle sensor provided on a vehicle steering mechanism for electrically detecting a steering angle, a temporary storing portion for temporarily storing a center value calculated in response to an output from the sensor through a first switch, a comparison circuit for comparing the center value stored in the temporary storage portion with an output from the steering angle sensor to ON-OFF operate the first switch, a center storage portion for taking out the center value in the temporary storage portion through a second switch to store the same, and a distance measuring portion controlled by the comparison circuit, for ON-OFF operating the second switch after a lapse of a predetermined running distance upon ON-operation of the first switch, the aforesaid center storage portion including an integration circuit having a resistor and a capacitor. The device can reliably, electrically take out only the substantially effective change in the steering angle in a vehicle, so that various vehicle controls can be effectively performed.

Device for detecting center of steering angle in vehicle

A shock absorber control system controls vehicle shock absorbers by bringing them selectively into a softer dampening mode or a harder dampening mode in response to operation of a steering wheel of a vehicle. The shock absorbers are changed from the softer to the harder dampening mode only when the vehicle speed is higher than a reference vehicle speed and the steering wheel is turned at an angular velocity greater than a predetermined reference angular velocity. The angular velocity of rotation of the steering wheel is used as a parameter to select one of the softer and harder dampening modes only when the vehicle wheel has been angularly moved beyond a certain reference angle dependent on the vehicle speed. Therefore, no unwanted switching between the softer and harder dampening modes takes place when the steering wheel is angularly moved back and forth through relatively small angles. The harder dampening mode continues for a preset interval of time.

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Toyota, Japan

Hiroshi Miyata