Aisin Aw Co., Ltd.

Kaoru Nadayoshi

Masahiro Hayabuchi

Hiroshi Tsutsui

Yoshihisa Yamamoto

Kazumasa Tsukamoto

Masaaki Nishida

Nobutada Sugiura

Seiya Ozawa

A differential case has no hole other than two oil holes except for a pinion shaft hole and a pair of drive shaft holes and has an annular receiver attached thereto that has an inner periphery smaller than the outer periphery of side gear washers with respect to the rotation center of the rotation axis of drive shafts and that has an outer periphery located beyond the outermost edge of the oil holes with respect to the rotation center of the rotation axis. This controls the outflow of lubricating oil located radially outward of the inner periphery of the receiver, thus allowing the side gear washers to be supplied with lubricating oil, regardless of whether the differential case is rotating or stops rotating.

Differential apparatus

A control system for an automatic transmission includes a clutch for transmitting the rotation of an engine to the transmission and a hydraulic servo for applying/releasing the clutch. A starting state is determined by satisfaction of at least one of the following conditions: the throttle opening is not fully closed; the brake pedal is released; and/or the vehicle speed is substantially above zero. Sensors detect the throttle opening of the engine and the applied/released state of the clutch and send signals to a control unit. A hydraulic controller controls the oil pressure fed to the hydraulic servo. When the starting state is detected, the control unit detects the actual applied/released state of the clutch to determine the difference between the applied/released state and a predetermined ideal applied/released state to set an oil pressure correction according to that difference. Next, a predetermined oil pressure for achieving the ideal engaging characteristics of the clutch is read, oil pressure correction is added to the read oil pressure, and the sum is output to the hydraulic controller. As a result, even if an error occurs in the output of the control valve of the hydraulic controller or if the clutch has aged, the oil pressure is corrected by the oil pressure correction according to the difference between the actual applied/released state and the ideal applied/released state so that the engaging characteristics obtained can approximate the ideal.

Control system for automatic transmission

An transmission control unit includes a sensor for detecting a vehicle condition, a traffic condition monitor for determining whether or not traffic is heavy, a transmission pattern selector, and a transmission controller. The traffic condition monitor adds or subtracts a predetermined value in response to vehicle speed detected at set intervals of time so as to provide a vehicle speed value. The heavier the traffic, the larger the additional value. Also, the lighter the traffic, the larger the subtractive value. The vehicle traffic value is used in order to determine how heavy the traffic is.

Heavy/light traffic based on vehicle speeds and throttle positions

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Anjo, Japan

Kaoru Nadayoshi