Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Masaru Odajima

Hideo Nakamura

Hitoshi Yokotani

Yoshitaka Nukada

Yohei Kawasaki

Masahiko Natsuume

Kenichi Omori

Tokiyuki Wakayama

Noriaki Ishii

Tutomu Asaina

Masayuki Fukuda

A power unit has an internal combustion engine and a first auxiliary machine. The internal combustion engine includes a crankshaft and a balancer shaft. The first auxiliary machine operates on rotational power generated in the internal combustion engine. The first auxiliary machine is driven by rotational power of the balancer shaft.

Power unit

A vehicle includes a front wheel, a rear wheel, and a power unit. The power unit is disposed between the front wheel and the rear wheel in a front-rear direction of the vehicle. An internal combustion engine and a compressor are modularized. The compressor is configured to operate on rotational power generated in the internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine includes a crankshaft and an output shaft. Rotation axes of the crankshaft and the output shaft are parallel to each other and extend in the front-rear direction of the vehicle. The compressor is disposed on one side of the crankshaft in a left-right direction. The output shaft is disposed on the other side of the crankshaft in the left-right direction.

Vehicle

An internal combustion enginefor a motorcycle includes a superchargerarranged above a crankcasepositioned below a front cylinder headof a front bankA and a rear cylinder headof a rear bankB. In the internal combustion enginefor the motorcycle, the crankcaseis covered with a case coverfrom the outside in a vehicle width direction, and the superchargeris supported by a supercharger supporting portionprovided above the case cover

Internal combustion engine with supercharger for saddle-ride type vehicle

A drive unit and a rear cushion overlap each other in a vehicle front view. Since the rear cushion is disposed to overlap the drive unit, the dimension in a vehicle width direction can be made smaller than that in the case where the cushion is disposed on the vehicle width center side of the drive unit.

Electric vehicle

In an electric vehicle, a bearing supporting portion supporting another end of a motor shaft is provided in a reducer case and protrudes to a recessed portion while extending at a lateral side of the knuckle. The reducer case being part of a drive unit is partially housed in the recessed portion of a wheel. The drive unit can be located closer to a rear wheel by an amount corresponding to the housed portion. Accordingly, it is possible to dispose part of the drive unit inside the wheel and thereby suppress protruding of the drive unit to a small degree.

A body member and flange members are butted together at first and second abutment portions, and are retained by first and second backing jigs. In this arrangement, inner circumferential surfaces of the first and second abutment portions are fitted on and in close contact with outer circumferential surfaces of the first and second backing jigs. Subsequently, the friction stir welding is performed along each of the first abutment portion and the second abutment portion by using a probe which is rotated at a high speed.

Friction stir welding apparatus

Method of friction stir welding

A body member and flange members are butted together at a first abutment portion and a second abutment portion. The first and second abutment portions are held by first and second backing jigs, respectively. The first backing jig has a circumscribing recessed section corresponding to an inner circumferential surface of the first abutment portion. Further, the first backing jig has a circumscribing opening communicated with the bottom of the recessed section. On the other hand, the second backing jig has a circumscribing recessed section corresponding to an inner circumferential surface of the second abutment portion. Further, the second backing jig has a circumscribing opening communicated with the bottom of the recessed section. First and second buffer members are attached to the recessed sections, respectively.

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Wako, Japan

Masaru Odajima