Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Denso Corporation

Toyota Technical Development Corporation

Kimihide Horio

Kota Manabe

Naohiro Yoshida

Nobuo Fujita

Tadaichi Matsumoto

Hiroaki Mori

Kenji Kurita

Shinya Sakaguchi

Takashi Yamamoto

Yutaka Hotta

Yasushi Araki

Tomoya Ogawa

Tadahisa Naganawa

Hideaki Mizuno

Hironori Noto

Norihiko Saito

Kenichiro Takama

Shinsuke Takenishi

Hiroki Wada

Hiroya Fujita

Tsutomu Tomita

Michihiko Miyasaka

Yasunobu Kikuchi

Kei Abe

Takafumi Tsurumaru

There is disclosed a fuel cell system capable of stably operating auxiliary devices driven at a high voltage and the like, even in a case where a poisoned electrode catalyst is recovered or a fuel cell is warmed up. On detecting that the electrode catalyst is poisoned, a controller derives a target operation point which is sufficient for recovering an activity of the poisoned electrode catalyst. Then, shift of the operation point from a usual operation point to a low-efficiency operation point is realized so that an output power is held to be constant.

Fuel cell system

A fuel cell () includes a fuel cell stack () in which a plurality of fuel cell units are stacked on one another, a pair of end plates () respectively contact both ends of the fuel cell stack in a direction (Ds) in which the plurality of fuel cell units are stacked, and a side member () that extends in the stacking direction and is disposed between the end plates. The fuel cell further includes a connecting bolt portion, having a bolt shank () that penetrates one of the end plates substantially along the stacking direction. The connecting bolt portion connects the one of the end plates and the side member. The fuel cell further includes a cushion joint () disposed between the side member and one of the end plates, and through which the bolt shank passes.

Fuel cell and fuel cell fastening device

There is disclosed a fuel cell system or the like capable of stably operating an auxiliary machine and the like, even when recovering a poisoned electrode catalyst and warming up a fuel cell. A controller derives a target operation point sufficient for recovering activity of the poisoned electrode catalyst, and realizes shift of an operation point to a target operation point in a state in which an output power is held to be constant. The operation is switched to a low-efficiency operation point, whereby an output voltage of the fuel cell lowers, but the voltage is raised to an allowable input voltage of a high-voltage auxiliary machine by a DC/DC converter.

Fuel cell system and mobile object

A membrane-electrode assembly () is characterized by including an electrolytic membrane () having proton conductivity and a first electrode () jointed on the electrolytic membrane. The first electrode has a catalyst () and a first ionomer () covering the catalyst and acting as a proton exchange group. A ratio of water-generation amount (mol/min) at rated output point of the membrane-electrode assembly/volume (cm) of the first ionomer in the first electrode is 1350 or larger.

Membrane-electrode assembly and fuel cell having the same

A fuel cell, which employs power generation units that have an electrolyte membrane and electrodes respectively disposed to either side of the electrolyte membrane, comprises a stack that includes a stacked plurality of the power generation units, a clamping member, and a shear elastic member. The clamping member is used for clamping the stack in the stacking direction. The shear elastic member is interposed between the clamping member and an end face of the stack in the stacking direction, and elastically deform in a shearing direction which lies orthogonal to the stacking direction.

Fuel cell

There is provided a fuel cell system capable of warming up a fuel cell while inhibiting generation of a rush current. A control device switches the connection/disconnection between a fuel cell and a short circuit by a shorting relay. The control device spends, before switching the shorting relay from disconnection to connection during starting at a low temperature, an oxidizing gas remaining in the cathode of the fuel cell by driving auxiliary devices to generate an oxidizing gas-deficient state. Then, the control device switches FC relays from ON to OFF and the shorting relay from OFF to ON to thereby complete the preparation for supplying a short-circuit current.

The fuel cell system is provided which detects a freeze among specific components and portions thereof by evaluating various conditions upon starting operation of the fuel cell system. If a freeze is detected through those evaluations, the start of the system is prohibited in order to prevent some deterioration in the fuel cell system.

Fuel cell system and method of controlling the same fuel cell system

A ceramic valve assembly is housed in a recess formed in a metal pipe and is supported via gaskets by the metal pipes. Each gasket has a larger coefficient of linear expansion than that of the metal pipe. A clearance generated due to the thermal expansion difference between the metal pipe and the ceramic housing is absorbed by the large thermal expansion of the gasket so that no play is generated between the ceramic valve assembly and the metal pipe and the sealing force is maintained. Each gasket has beads constructed of spring material. An excessively large load does not act on the ceramic assembly because the beads are deformed to absorb the load.

Support structure for a ceramic valve assembly

An air intake system for internal combustion engine comprises a surge tank the inside of which is divided by a partition wall into two elongated parallel volumetric chambers. The surge tank has a portion extending beyond the branch tube that is located most remote from an air inlet in the tank. The partition wall of the surge tank extension is provided with an aperture for communicating the volumetric chambers with each other. The aperture is opened and closed by a butterfly valve operated by an actuator in response to engine operating conditions, to match the effective length of the intake system with an engine speed. In a preferred embodiment, the surge tank extension provided with the butterfly valve and the actuator forms a valve assembly which is separate from the remainder of the surge tank.

Internal combustion engine air intake system with variable effective

This V-type engine has first and second banks of cylinders, each odd in number, with first intake and exhaust cam shafts provided along the first cylinder head and second intake and exhaust cam shafts provided along the second cylinder head. One of the first intake and exhaust cam shafts, and one of the second intake and exhaust cam shafts, is rotationally driven from the crank shaft. A first intake cam shaft gear wheel is provided on the first intake cam shaft at a longitudinal position between the middle cylinder of the first bank of cylinders and the next cylinder to the rear from the middle cylinder, and a first exhaust cam shaft gear wheel, meshed with this first intake cam shaft gear wheel, is provided on the first exhaust cam shaft at a similar longitudinal position between the middle cylinder of the first bank of cylinders and the next cylinder to the rear therefrom. A second intake cam shaft gear wheel is provided on the second intake cam shaft at a longitudinal position between the middle cylinder of the second bank of cylinders and the next cylinder to the front from the middle cylinder, and a second exhaust cam shaft gear wheel, meshed with this second intake cam shaft gear wheel, is provided on the second exhaust cam shaft at a similar longitudinal position between the middle cylinder of the second bank of cylinders and the next cylinder to the front therefrom. Thereby, the bulges corresponding to these meshed pairs of gear wheels are brought as close together as practicable.

V-type internal combustion engine with centrally located drive gears

A timing adjustment mechanism in a wrapping connector driving device includes a first pulley fixedly mounted on a first revolving shaft; a second pulley fixedly mounted on a second revolving shaft, the second pulley tightly fitting on the second shaft and being seated on an end surface of the second shaft; an intermediary wrapping connector wound on the first and second pulleys and extending therebetween; an idle pulley lever swingable about the axis of rotation of the second revolving shaft; a first idle pulley disposed near the second pulley on the tension side of the intermediary wrapping connector and rotatably secured to one end of said pulley holding lever; and an idle pulley rotatably secured to the other end of said pulley holding lever near said second pulley on the slack side of said intermediary wrapping connector, wherein all of the central portions of swing of the first and second pulleys, the tension and slack side pulleys and the pulley holding lever lie in the same plane.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi-gun, Japan

Kimihide Horio