Jtekt Corporation

Koyo Seiko Company, Ltd.

Masami Naka

Yoshimichi Higashiyama

Tsukasa Sakazaki

Shiro Nakano

Kenji Higashi

Kosuke Yamanaka

Tomoyasu Kada

Shigeki Nagase

Shingo Maeda

Ryouhei Hayama

Yoshiyuki Shibata

Naoki Maeda

Kouji Kitahata

Atsushi Ishihara

Yasuyuki Yoshii

Daisuke Maeda

Takaya Nagahama

Kazuya Yoshioka

Takashi Kageyama

Shimon Jimbo

A control apparatus controls driving of an oil feeding unit. The oil feeding unit includes a piezoelectric body that deforms in response to a voltage applied thereto, and a reservoir to store lubricating oil. The capacity of the reservoir changes in accordance with deformation of the piezoelectric body so as to discharge lubricating oil from the oil feeding unit. The control apparatus includes N driving circuitstoconfigured to apply voltages to the piezoelectric body (where N is an integer equal to or greater than two). The N driving circuitstoare connected in parallel to the piezoelectric body. During oil feeding, the control apparatus uses a predetermined number of the driving circuits selected from the N driving circuits. The predetermined number is smaller than N.

Control apparatus and fluid feeder control method

A rolling bearing device includes: a bearing portion that has an inner ring, an outer ring, a plurality of balls, and a cage that holds the plurality of balls; and an oil supply unit that supplies lubricating oil to the bearing portion. The oil supply unit has: a pump that discharges the lubricating oil through drive of a piezo element; a voltage boost portion that boosts a voltage to be applied to the piezo element; and a control portion that causes the pump to operate while varying a voltage boost time included in a period since the start of voltage boost by the voltage boost portion until the start of the drive of the piezo element.

Rolling bearing device, oil supply unit, method of supplying lubricating oil, and program

A pump included in an oil supply unit includes a piezoelectric body that is repeatedly deformed when a pulsed drive voltage is applied from a drive unit. The pump discharges lubricant as the volume of a storage unit that stores fluid to be supplied decreases with deformation of the piezoelectric body. An abnormal discharge detection device that detects an abnormal fluid discharge operation of the pump includes: a measurement unit that measures a terminal voltage of the piezoelectric body; and a control unit functioning as a determination unit that determines if the discharge operation is being performed normally or not based on whether or not the measured terminal voltage has changed with time during application of a pulse of the drive voltage.

Abnormal discharge detection device and abnormal discharge detection method

A bearing device includes: a bearing portion that has an inner ring, an outer ring, a plurality of balls interposed between the inner ring and the outer ring, and a cage that holds the balls; and an oil supply unit provided adjacent to the bearing portion in the axial direction. The oil supply unit has a pump that discharges a minute amount of lubricating oil to the bearing portion, and varies the amount of oil supplied to the bearing portion by discharge of lubricating oil from the pump.

Bearing device

A rolling bearing device includes: a bearing portion that has an inner ring, an outer ring, a plurality of balls interposed between the inner ring and the outer ring, and a cage that holds the plurality of balls; and an oil supply unit provided adjacent to the bearing portion in the axial direction. The oil supply unit has a pump configured to supply lubricating oil to the bearing portion. The pump has a pump body provided with a nozzle that discharges lubricating oil and a vibration element that vibrates the pump body.

Rolling bearing device and oil supply unit

A rolling bearing device includes a bearing portion and an oil supply unit provided adjacent, in the axial direction, to an annular space between an inner ring and an outer ring of the bearing portion to supply lubricating oil to the annular space. The oil supply unit includes an oil chamber that accommodates lubricating oil, a nozzle that discharges lubricating oil in the oil chamber, a pump body that applies a discharge force for causing lubricating oil in the oil chamber to fly from the nozzle toward the annular space, and a detection portion that detects gathering of lubricating oil at a discharge port of the nozzle. The detection portion includes a pair of electrodes disposed with the discharge port of the nozzle interposed therebetween, and a measurement portion that measures the capacitance of the pair of electrodes.

Rolling bearing device

A rolling bearing device includes: a bearing portion that has an inner ring, an outer ring, a plurality of balls, and a cage that holds the plurality of balls; and an oil supply unit provided adjacent to the bearing portion in the axial direction and configured to supply lubricating oil to the bearing portion. The oil supply unit has: a pump that suctions lubricating oil into an oil chamber and discharges the lubricating oil by varying a capacity of the oil chamber by periodically driving a piezo element; and a control portion that causes the pump to operate by varying a rising time of a voltage applied to the piezo element in accordance with whether a drive period of the piezo element is long or short.

A bearing apparatus includes a lubrication unit and a sensor to sense the temperature of the lubricant in the lubrication unit. The lubrication unit has a pump having a storage portion in which the lubricant is stored and a piezoelectric body that is deformed by an applied voltage, the pump enabling the lubricant in the storage portion to be discharged into the annular space by reducing the volume of the storage portion in conjunction with the deformation of the piezoelectric body, the pump also enabling the lubricant to be sucked into the storage portion to refill the storage portion with the lubricant by increasing the volume of the storage portion, and a control unit that performs control by outputting a control signal allowing the speed of change in the volume of the storage portion to depend on the temperature of the lubricant.

Bearing apparatus and method for feeding lubricant to bearing

A rolling bearing apparatus includes a bearing main body having an outer ring that is a fixed ring and an inner ring that is a rotating ring, the outer ring and the inner ring being concentrically provided, and a plurality of rolling elements provided between the outer ring and the inner ring, and a control unit having a vibration detector attached to the outer ring and a calculation unit that calculates a value for vibration of the bearing main body and a rotation speed thereof based on a detection signal from the vibration detector. The calculation unit calculates the rotation speed based on frequency components of vibration obtained from the detection signal and the number of vibrations inherent in the bearing main body.

Rolling bearing apparatus and detection method for abnormality in rolling bearing

At least part of each bridge portion is heated and molten to form a keyhole, and a nonmagnetic element is disposed around the keyhole. Thus, even when the width of the bridge portion in the radial direction is increased, the bridge portion is demagnetized. Therefore, leakage flux in the bridge portion is reduced, and the output power of a motor is increased. Moreover, by increasing the width of the bridge portion in the radial direction, the strength of the bridge portion is increased, and breakage of the bridge portion due to a centrifugal force at high-speed rotation of a rotor is prevented.

Rotor for motor and method of manufacturing the same

A control section () of a vehicle steering system has a steer-by-wire mode, a power steering mode, and a transition mode. In the steer-by-wire mode, a steering actuator () is controlled for steering and a reaction force actuator () is controlled for reaction force. In the power steering mode, steering assistance control is performed with either of the steering actuator () and the reaction force actuator () caused to function as an assistance unit. In the transition mode, in a transition period from either of the steer-by-wire mode and the power steering mode to the other, the reaction force actuator () is controlled for reaction force.

Vehicle steering system

A steering shaft is composed of an upper shaft, a lower shaft, an input shaft, and an output shaft. The upper shaft, the lower shaft, and the input shaft can rotate together, and the input shaft and the output shaft are relatively rotatably coupled to each other via a torsion bar. The rotational position of a rotor coupled to the output shaft is calculated based on the detected rotational position of the lower shaft and a steering torque detected based on the amount of relative rotational displacement of the input shaft and the output shaft. Thus, it is not necessary to include a rotor rotational position detecting unit for detecting the rotational position of the rotor within the electric motor, which reduces the size of the electric motor.

Electric power steering device

There is provided a steering apparatus to ease an uncomfortable feeling given to an operator when a steering wheel is connected to a steering mechanism, on a fail. The apparatus includes a unit that varies an angular ratio of a steering angle of front wheels with respect to an operational angle of a steering wheel. The apparatus also includes a connection unit such as a electromagnetic clutch for connecting the steering wheel to the steering mechanism in order to fix the angular ratio, on a fail such as a failure of a steering motor. The apparatus also includes a rotational body which relatively rotates with respect to the steering wheel by an angular deviation upon this connection. Accordingly, since a real neutral position of the steering mechanism coincides with a neutral position recognized by a pattern on the rotational body being seen, it eases the uncomfortable feeling onto the operator.

Steering apparatus for vehicle

A rotation transmitting apparatus comprises a first sun gear joined to a first shaft so as to rotate interlockingly, a second shaft arranged to the first shaft coaxially, a second sun gear joined to the second shaft so as to rotate interlockingly, a first planetary gear meshed with the first sun gear, a second planetary gear rotating with the first planetary gear and meshed with the second sun gear, and a carrier supporting the first and second planetary gears and arranged to be driven by a differential electric motor. In particular, the number of teeth of each of the first and second sun gears and the first and second planetary gears is determined so that the ratio of a torque applied to the second shaft to a torque applied to the first shaft ranges from 1:0.7 to 1:0.9.

Steering apparatus

A rotation transmitting apparatus according to the present invention includes a first sun gear, a second sun gear, first planetary gears and second planetary gears. A carrier for supporting the respective planetary gears is integrally provided with a rotor of a speed change motor for changing a speed of rotation to be transmitted, so that the number of mesh portions in the gears is reduced. Further, the rotor is formed of a cylindrical shape and an input shaft for rotating the first sun gear is inserted into the rotor, so that a limited space is effectively used.

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Yamatokoriyama, Japan

Masami Naka