Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho

Other

Denso Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Shin-etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Jinnai Industries Inc.

Panasonic Corporation

Kazuo Tojima

Yoshiaki Kikuchi

Arimitsu Usuki

Toshiyuki Sekimori

Shinobu Okayama

Hisato Takeuchi

Hiromitsu Tanaka

Masayoshi Iwase

Narihito Tatsuda

Yoshiyuki Nakayama

Toshiaki Nakanishi

Tadao Kimura

Akane Okada

Yasuhide Kurimoto

Akio Fukui

Toshio Kurauchi

Hiromichi Kuno

Fumihiko Asakawa

Susumu Ukita

Yoshimi Shoji

Toshiro Okamoto

Hiroshi Yoshioka

Masaaki Yamaya

Shinji Hamada

Munehisa Ikoma

Toyohiko Eto

Masahiro Takada

Junichi Matsumoto

Keigo Mizutani

Akihiro Taniguchi

Noriyuki Fujioka

Masahiko Mitsui

Kazuhiko Yoshida

Yoshiyuki Nakamura

Masatoshi Uchida

Tomokazu Yamauchi

Kazuhisa Yano

Takashi Kondou

Kensaku Miyazawa

Hidetaka Hayashi

Hitoshi Nakamura

Yasuhiro Ohtsuka

Atsushi Shirasawa

Yasutaka Terashima

Haruyoshi Sakakibara

Kouji Otsubo

Tomohiro Sekiya

Ai Kobayashi

Naomi Ohkuwa

Yasufumi Shibata

Yoshitaka Kiuchi

Sadao Mizuno

Yozoh Ogino

Koji Otsubo

Susumi Ukita

A method for evaluating an electric power storage device includes causing a short circuit by inserting an electrically conductive probe into a stacked portion in a thickness direction of electrode layers; measuring a penetration depth of the probe after the short circuit occurs; and evaluating the number of electrode layers involved in the short circuit based on the penetration depth. The penetration depth is identified by measuring a length of an adhesion portion in an axial direction of the probe. The adhesion portion is a portion of a surface of the probe to which a constituent material of the stacked portion adheres.

Method for evaluating electric power storage device and method for manufacturing electric power storage device

An assembled battery reusing system for reusing an assembled battery including a plurality of single cells is provided. The rebuild candidate determining unit () determines based on the information about the assembled battery whether a retrieved assembled battery is a rebuild candidate, and the information is acquired by the assembled battery information acquisition unit (i.e. communication unit) (). The single cell amount determining unit () determines an amount of rebuilding-usable single cells included in the rebuild-candidate assembled battery determined by the rebuild candidate determining unit (). The assembled battery demand information acquisition unit () acquires an amount of rebuilding-required single cells required to rebuild a required new assembled battery. The determination unit () determines based on the determined amount of rebuilding-usable single cells and the acquired amount of rebuilding-required single cells whether to send the rebuild-candidate assembled battery to a rebuilding process.

Assembled battery reusing system, and apparatus for assembled battery reusing system

A data collection system that collects information indicating a status of a battery mounted on a vehicle from the vehicle after shipment from a factory, includes a battery information collection server that is configured to periodically receive information of the battery and identification information, with which it is possible to identify the vehicle, that are transmitted wirelessly from a computer that is mounted on the vehicle and is configured to acquire and store the information of the battery mounted on the vehicle. The data collection system may further include a battery information analysis section that is configured to display a result of associating the information of the battery received by the battery information collection server with each vehicle using the identification information.

Data collection method and data collection system

In a pre-replacement process, a replacement battery module is provided with a memory effect before being dispatched, by performing at least one of the process of performing a cyclic charge/discharge operation on the replacement battery module while limiting the width of SOC change to an intermediate range, and the process of setting an initial SOC and then letting the replacement battery module stand for a predetermined time in an environment of temperature above normal temperature. This pre-replacement process substantially eliminates the difference between the voltage characteristic of the replacement battery module yet to be used and the voltage characteristic of a battery module having a history of use, thereby achieving a uniform voltage characteristic of a battery pack as a whole.

Secondary cell replacing method

A hydrogen sensor which may be employed in an overcharge/overdischarge detector for a battery and a hydrogen leakage detector for a fuel cell is provided. The hydrogen sensor includes a sensor element and a diffused resistor member. The gas to be measured passes through the diffused resistor member and reaches the sensor element. The sensor element outputs a signal indicative of the concentration of hydrogen contained in the gas as a function of a decrease in concentration of oxygen contained in the gas arising from reaction of the hydrogen on the oxygen. The diffused resistor member is so designed that speeds of diffusion of the hydrogen and the oxygen when passing through the diffused resistor member are different from each other for increasing the sensitivity of measurement of the concentration of hydrogen.

Hydrogen sensor for use in battery overcharge/overdischarge detector and hydrogen leakage detector

A battery ECU includes a central processing unit (CPU). The CPU calculates plural deterioration degrees based on data input from a thermistor, an ammeter, and a voltmeter which detect state quantities of a nickel-hydrogen battery, and reads, from a memory, contribution degrees each of which corresponds to each of the calculated plural deterioration degrees. Then the CPU calculates a total deterioration degree of the nickel-hydrogen battery based on the deterioration degrees and the contribution degrees, calculates the contribution degrees based on the calculated total deterioration degree, and stores the contribution degrees in the memory.

Deterioration degree calculating apparatus and deterioration degree calculating method for a battery

A battery module includes a plurality of cells accommodating an electrode plate group and an electrolyte, and a single integrated battery case for accommodating the plurality of cells. The ratio of the component resistance including the connecting resistance between the cells to the reactive resistance of the electrode plate group and the electrolyte in each cell, is set in the range of 1:99-40:60 at a temperature of 25&deg; C. Thereby, the internal resistance per cell is reduced, and higher power output and improved service life characteristics are achieved.

Battery module

The present invention provides a method of replacing secondary batteries. In the method, batteries can be replaced at a low cost and performance of an overall battery assembly can be maximized after the battery replacement. The battery assembly is composed by electrically connecting a plurality of secondary batteries in series or in parallel. When a portion of the secondary batteries is judged as defective, the defective batteries are replaced by replacement batteries. In an aspect of the method, voltage is detected for every predetermined voltage detection block unit concerning secondary batteries composing the battery assembly in order to judge defects of the secondary batteries in the voltage detection block unit. Batteries in a voltage detection block unit will be replaced with replacement batteries if they are judged as defective.

Method of replacing secondary battery

The temperature of a battery in a hybrid car is supervised by temperature sensors. When the temperature of the battery is at a temperature not exceeding a predetermined temperature, a battery ECU issues a command to a control CPU to perform forcible charge/discharge of the battery to raise the temperature of the battery. When raising of the temperature is performed by charging, a requested output from an engine is increased as compared with a usual state. In such a state, motor-generators are operated as generators so as to generate electric power and charge the battery by passing an electric current to the battery rather than generating a driving force. When raising of the temperature is performed by discharging, the requested output from the engine is reduced as compared with the usual state. In this case, the motor-generators are operated as drive motors to consume electric power so as to draw electric current from the battery causing discharge of the battery. The electric current allowed to flow at this time causes internal resistance to be generated in the battery that heats the battery from an inside portion thereof. Thus, an apparatus for controlling a charge/discharge state of a hybrid car can be provided that quickly and easily controls the temperature of the battery to a predetermined temperature.

Apparatus for controlling state of charge/discharge of hybrid car and

A voltage detector (12) detects the voltage levels of the battery blocks of the battery set (10). A presence of an overdischarged cell is detected when a voltage difference between each of the battery blocks reaches or exceeds a predetermined value (for example, 1V). At this point, a battery ECU (14) sets the SOC value of the battery set (10) at the lower control limit value (for example, 20%). This triggers an HV ECU (16) to control the load (18) such that charging is effectuated in the battery set (10). If further discharge occurs, the battery set (10) is disconnected from the load (18) by a relay (20).

Battery charging and discharging control apparatus for hybrid powered

In the area of the charge level of 20.about.80% where the charge level of a battery does not appear in the terminal voltage of the battery, the battery ECU estimates charge level by integrating the currents of the charge and discharge of the battery. When the engine ECU detects that the ignition key is turned on, the motor generators are driven by the engine, and the generated electric power is accumulated in the battery. When the area where the charge level appears in the terminal voltage, is reached, the calculation of the charge level is performed from the current and voltage at that time. When this charge level has reached 80%, the calibration of said estimated charge level is performed by this value. Furthermore, it is also possible for this calibration to be prohibited when a heavy current is flowing and the error may become large in the calculation of the charge level. By the above mentioned methods, the charge level of a battery can accurately be detected.

Battery charge level detecting device

The charge and discharge are performed by a proper electric power corresponding to the service environment of a battery and the state of the battery. When the temperature of the battery is not more than a specified temperature, or not less than another specified temperature, the upper limit value Pin-s of the charging electric power and the upper limit value Pout-s of the discharging electric power are determined so as to be smaller than those at a normal temperature. The temperature of the battery is detected, and the charging electric power and the discharging electric power are determined so that they may be not more than the upper limit values Pin-s, Pout-s of the charging and the discharging electric power at this temperature, and the charge control of the battery is performed.

Secondary battery charge and discharge control device

A complex crystal is composed of anion of triiodine and cation of a fused compound consisting essentially of at least one nitrogen atom and at least 3 aromatic fused rings. Since the complex crystal has such a stable structure, it shows excellent heat resistance and excellent moisture resisting property. Furthermore, the complex crystal has light-polarizing performance because of an arrangement of the molecular chain of iodine. Moreover, the complex crystal exhibits excellent polarization because of an interaction between the fused compound and iodine. Therefore, the complex crystal is suitable for use as light-adjusting particles of a light valve or a light-adjusting glass.

Complex crystal comprising tricyclic organic bases

Disclosed is a dichroic crystal including at least one member selected from the group consisting of phtharocyanine, a phtharocyanine derivative, phtharocyanine with a central metal introduced therein, a phtharocyanine derivative with a central metal introduced therein, and iodine. It is precipitated when the iodine is added to a solution containing the member, and it includes the iodine in a form of I.sub.3.sup.- and I.sub.5.sup.- ions. It not only has a high dichroic property but also superb heat resistance and weatherability, so that it is applicable to suspended particles display devices used in severe environments.

Dichroic crystal

Polarizable phenanthroline complex crystal having improved stability to

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Toyota, Japan

Kazuo Tojima