Denso Corporation

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Masayasu Ushida

Jun Yamada

Kinya Takahashi

Takao Nojiri

Kazutoshi Iwasaki

Michio Adachi

Seiji Yaoko

Yoshio Matsumoto

Seiji Yaokou

Osamu Sato

Kyo Hattori

Yasushi Morii

Kenji Tada

Hisashi Kayano

Sanemasa Kawabata

Yukio Nakamura

Taro Tabata

Motohiro Okada

Kouji Yamada

Tomomasa Oonishi

Mitomu Mohri

Kei Abe

Hitoshi Tagami

Yoshio Kawaharaguchi

Isamu Inai

Hiroyuki Yamazaki

Sigeru Nakao

An assist spring is fixed at its one end to a vane rotor and at its other end to a spring hook provided at an outside of a housing. A signal plate is fixed to the vane rotor on a side of the spring hook. A cam angle sensor is provided at an outer peripheral side of the signal plate for detecting a rotational angle of the signal plate. The assist spring and the spring hook are arranged in an area, which is inside of an outer periphery of the signal plate in a radial direction, so that the cam angle sensor may not misidentify the assist spring and the spring hook and thereby exactly detects the rotational angle of the signal plate.

Valve timing control apparatus

A first one-way valve is provided in a first advance passage connecting a hydraulic pump to a control advance chamber. A second one-way valve is provided in a first retard passage connecting the hydraulic pump to a control retard chamber. A first control valve is provided in a second advance passage to bypass the first one-way valve for communication of the first advance passage. A second control valve is provided in a second retard passage to bypass the second one-way valve for communication of the first retard passage. The first control valve operates by the pilot pressure to close the second advance passage at advance controlling and opening it at retard controlling. The second control valve operates by the pilot pressure to close the second retard passage at retard controlling and open it at advance controlling.

Valve timing controller

A first-side check valve prevents a hydraulic fluid from being discharged out of a retard chamber, and a second-side check valve prevents the hydraulic fluid from being discharged out of an advance chamber. A first-side control valve opens or closes a first-side discharge passage by a pilot pressure received through a retard pilot passage. A second-side control valve opens or closes a second-side discharge passage by the pilot pressure received through an advance pilot passage. Another check valve is disposed in a supply passage between a phase switch valve and a branch point, at which a supply passage is branched.

Valve timing control system

A phase control valve, which supplies a drive hydraulic pressure to an advance chamber or a retard chamber, is integrated with a drain switch valve, which controls opening and closing of an advance drain control valve and opening and closing of a retard drain control valve, to form a solenoid spool valve. The advance drain control valve is provided in an advance check valve bypass passage, which bypasses an advance check valve, and is driven by a pilot hydraulic pressure to open and close the advance check valve bypass passage. The retard drain control valve is provided in a retard check valve bypass passage, which bypasses a retard check valve, and is driven by a pilot hydraulic pressure to open and close the retard check valve bypass passage.

One of retard passages, which supplies working fluid to one of retard chambers, is a dedicated passage. The other remaining retard passages, which supply the working fluid to the other remaining retard chambers, are branch passages, which are branched from a retard passage that serves as a supply passage. With this construction, a flow quantity of working fluid per unit time supplied from the one of retard passages to the one of retard chambers becomes larger than a flow quantity of working fluid per unit time supplied from the other remaining retard passages to the other remaining retard chambers. Thus, the one of retard chambers can be filled with the working fluid earlier than the other remaining retard chambers.

A valve timing adjusting apparatus has a housing and a vane rotor to form multiple fluid chambers, and a relative position of the vane rotor to the housing is adjusted by the fluid pressure supplied into the fluid chambers. A check valve is provided in a branched passage portion, so that working fluid may not be pushed out from an advancing fluid chamber to a low pressure side, even when the working fluid in the advancing fluid chamber is temporally compressed to increase its fluid pressure due to a torque change applied from a cam shaft to the vane rotor.

Valve timing adjusting apparatus

A shoe housing receives a driving force from a crankshaft and a vane rotor rotates with a camshaft in combination. The vane rotor is received in the shoe housing in such a way as to freely turn. Each of the vanes of the vane rotor partitions each of three receiving chambers into a retard hydraulic chamber and an advance hydraulic chamber. A check valve is disposed in an advance supply passage. The check valve allows a working oil to flow from an oil pump through the advance supply passage to the advance hydraulic chamber and prohibits the working oil from flowing back from the advance hydraulic chamber through the advance supply passage to a drain.

A base material of a peripheral wall and a vane rotor is formed by extrusion molding an aluminum alloy and cutting an extrusion molded article to the desired length. Further, the extrusion molded article can be molded with high accuracy by extracting the aluminum alloy after extrusion. Preferably, 6000 system of Al&mdash;Mg&mdash;Si is used as an aluminum alloy. The cutting process and polishing process are applied to the roughly molded base material to form the peripheral wall and the vane rotor. By varying the length to be cut, the volume of each retard hydraulic chamber and each advance hydraulic chamber are adjusted. When the volume of the hydraulic chambers are adjusted, the torque for relatively rotating and driving the vane rotor with respect to the housing member can be changed even pressure of working oil is the same.

Method for manufacturing valve timing adjusting apparatus

A valve timing adjusting device, in which the housing member including a chain sprocket and a shoe housing, and a vane rotor are relatively rotatable. The inner surfaces on both axial sides of the housing member and the outside surfaces on both axial sides of the vane rotor slide each other. A retard oil passage communicating with each retard hydraulic chamber is formed in an outside surface of the vane rotor on the side to which a hydraulic fluid is supplied through an oil passage formed in a camshaft. Furthermore, an advance oil passage communicating with each advance hydraulic chamber is formed at an interval of about 90 degrees at the center of an inner surface of the chain sprocket on the side to which the hydraulic fluid is supplied through a groove oil passage formed in the camshaft.

Valve timing adjusting device

A valve timing adjusting apparatus is designed for quickly starting an engine at the intermediate position between the most retarded angle and the most advanced angle and for preventing hammering sound. A top end surface of a stopper piston receives a retard hydraulic pressure, and an annular surface of a large diameter sliding portion receives the retard hydraulic pressure from a hydraulic chamber. The retard hydraulic pressure applied to the top end surface and the annular surface acts in the direction to pull out the stopper piston from a fitting bore. An annular surface of the large diameter sliding portion receives an advance hydraulic pressure when an advance hydraulic chamber is communicated to a hydraulic chamber. The hydraulic pressure of the hydraulic chamber acts as a force for pushing the stopper piston in a fitting member. When the through hole is closed by the large diameter sliding portion, the hydraulic chamber acts as a damper chamber.

A seal plate partitions a sectorial space which houses a vane and a circumferential groove which houses a torsion spring, so that the sectorial space is formed to prevent the communication between an advance angle pressure chamber and a retard angle pressure chamber regardless of the space of the circumferential groove. As a result, by setting the inner diameter of the vane smaller than the outer diameter of the torsion spring, the outer diameter of the vane can be made relatively small without lowering the engine performance. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the actuator in size without lowering the engine performance, to reduce the weight of a valve timing adjusting device and to obtain a mounting space easily for mounting the valve timing adjusting device on the engine.

A shoe housing,is connected to and rotatable together with an input shaft. A vane rotor,is connected to an output shaft and accommodated in shoe housing,so as to cause a rotation within a predetermined angle with respect to shoe housing,Vane rotor,and shoe housing,cooperatively define hydraulic chambers,and,whose volumes are variable in accordance with a rotational position of vane rotor,with respect to shoe housing,A locking member,is accommodated in vane rotor,and shiftable in a direction parallel to a rotational axis common to shoe housing,and vane rotor,And, an engaging bore,formed on a front plate,secured to shoe housing,receives locking member,through a tapered surface. With this arrangement, it becomes possible to provide a control apparatus for varying a rotational or angular phase between the input and output shafts, while adequately maintaining the durability of the apparatus with a simple configuration easy to manufacture and suitable for downsizing without causing hammering noises or increasing operational resistances.

Control apparatus for varying a rotational or angular phase between two rotational shafts

A shoe housing 3 is connected to and rotatable together with an input shaft. A vane rotor 9 is connected to an output shaft and accommodated in shoe housing 3 so as to cause a rotation within a predetermined angle with respect to shoe housing 3. Vane rotor 9 and shoe housing 3 cooperatively define hydraulic chambers 10, 11, 12 and 13 whose volumes are variable in accordance with a rotational position of vane rotor 9 with respect to shoe housing 3. A locking member 7 is accommodated in vane rotor 9 and shiftable in a direction parallel to a rotational axis common to shoe housing 3 and vane rotor 9. And, an engaging bore 20, formed on a front plate 4 secured to shoe housing 3, receives locking member 7 through a tapered surface. With this arrangement, it becomes possible to provide a control apparatus for varying a rotational or angular phase between the input and output shafts, while adequately maintaining the durability of the apparatus with a simple configuration easy to manufacture and suitable for downsizing without causing hammering noises or increasing operational resistances.

Control apparatus for varying a rotational or angular phase between two

A shoe housing 3 is connected to and rotatable together with an input shaft. A vane rotor 9 is connected to an output shaft and accommodated in shoe housing 3 so as to cause a rotation within a predetermined angles with respect to shoe housing 3. Vane rotor 9 and shoe housing 3 cooperatively define hydraulic chambers 10, 11, 12 and 13 whose volumes are variable in accordance with a rotational position of vane rotor 9 with respect to shoe housing 3. A locking member 7 is accommodated in vane rotor 9 and shiftable in a direction parallel to a rotational axis common to shoe housing 3 and vane rotor 9. And, an engaging bore 20, formed on a front plate 4 secured to shoe housing 3, receives locking member 7 through a tapered surface. With this arrangement, it becomes possible to provide a control apparatus for varying a rotational or angular phase between the input and output shafts, while adequately maintaining the durability of the apparatus with a simple configuration easy to manufacture and suitable for downsizing without causing hammering noises or increasing operational resistances.

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Okazaki, Japan

Masayasu Ushida