Aisan Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Naruto Ito

Mamoru Yoshioka

Makoto Fukui

Takashige Inagaki

Kasumi Mishima

Sunao Kitamura

Hiroshi Misumi

Toshiyuki Fujimura

Hironori Suzuki

Shinji Kawai

Kaisho So

Masahiro Kobayashi

Takio Suzuki

Akinari Yasue

Yasuaki Kono

Hiroshi Sugiura

Tutomu Nishitani

Tadamasa Osako

Youzou Sakakibara

Mitsuru Takeuchi

Musashi Suzuki

In a fuel cell system, when fully closing an upstream-side valve, a controller performs controlled fully-closed opening-degree control that adjusts the opening degree of the upstream-side valve to a controlled fully-closing opening degree greater than zero by means of a drive mechanism. Upon determining that, during the controlled fully-closed opening-degree control, there is a leakage of oxidant gas in the upstream-side valve, the controller corrects the controlled fully-closed opening degree to the valve-closing side until reaching a zero-position opening degree at which the amount of leakage of the oxidant gas in the upstream-side valve becomes zero.

Fuel cell system

An eccentric valve has a drive mechanism, a drive force receiving part, a bearing for supporting a rotary shaft, and a return spring for generating a return spring force. During non-operation of the drive mechanism, the eccentric valve generates a separating-direction urging force to cause the rotary shaft to incline about the bearing serving as a fulcrum and urge the valve element in a direction away from the valve seat, the separating-direction urging force being a force caused by the return spring force. Either the valve element or the valve seat is provided with a sealing member to seal between the valve element and the valve seat during non-operation of the drive mechanism.

Eccentric valve

In a fuel cell system, each of an inlet sealing valve and an outlet integration valve is provided with a valve seat including a valve hole and a seat surface formed on a circumferential edge of the valve hole, a valve element formed, on its outer periphery, with a seal surface corresponding to the seat surface, and a motor to move the valve element away from the valve seat upon receipt of electric power supplied from outside. The valve seat is provided with a seal member to seal between the valve element and the valve seat during non-operation of the motor. In an inlet-side bypass passage connected to an air supply passage by detouring around the inlet sealing valve, there are arranged an inlet-side bypass passage and an inlet bypass valve.

An intake apparatus includes an intake manifold, an EGR gas distributor, and an EGR cooler. The intake manifold includes a surge tank and branch pipes. The EGR gas distributor includes a gas inlet, a gas chamber, and gas distribution pipes connected to the branch pipes. The branch pipes are each formed with a connecting hole for the gas distribution pipes. The EGR cooler is provided adjacent to the gas chamber to warm the inside wall of the gas chamber and includes a hot water passage and a gas passage. The gas chamber and the hot water passage are arranged to traverse the branch pipes. The gas distribution pipes are connected to the corresponding connecting holes. The EGR gas distributor and the EGR cooler in an integrated form are attached to the intake manifold.

Intake apparatus

A valve housing that has a flow passage. Arranged in the flow passage are a valve seat that includes a valve hole, valve body that can be seated on the valve seat, and a section of a rotary shaft with the valve body fixed to the tip thereof. A ring-shaped seat surface is formed in the valve hole of the valve seat. A ring-shaped sealing surface corresponding to the seat surface is formed on the perimeter of the disc-shaped valve body. By rotating the rotary shaft, the valve body rotates open from a closed state in which the valve body is seated on the valve seat and the sealing surface is in contact with the seat surface. A tapered upstream-side flow regulating part is provided in the valve hole of the valve seat, so as to widen from the seat surface toward the upstream side of the EGR gas flow.

Exhaust gas recirculation valve

A fuel cell system uses, as an inlet sealing valve, an eccentric valve having a rubber seat provided with a seal part having such a shape as to increase the surface pressure of a portion in contact with a seal surface of a valve element when pressure in an air supply passage rises. Each of an outlet integration valve and a bypass valve is constituted of an eccentric valve basically identical in structure to the inlet sealing valve. When supply of air to a fuel cell stack is to be stopped during deceleration of a vehicle, a controller closes the inlet sealing valve and opens the bypass valve and, after the inlet sealing valve is fully closed, closes the bypass valve.

In a casing, a cooler valve element is placed in a cooler flow passage, while a bypass valve element is placed in a bypass flow passage. The cooler valve element is adjacent and fixed to a first shaft end portion of a valve shaft. The bypass valve element is adjacent and fixed to a second shaft end portion of the valve shaft. A first bearing is provided between the casing and the first shaft end portion and a second bearing is provided between the casing and the second shaft end portion. A first seal member is placed, adjacent to the first bearing, and a second seal member is placed adjacent to a second bearing. A driven gear is fixed to a leading end of the first shaft end portion. The first bearing consists of a rolling bearing and the second bearing is formed of a slid bearing.

EGR cooler bypass valve

A flow control valve comprising a valve seat provided with a valve hole and a seat surface, a valve element formed with a sealing surface corresponding to the seat surface, and a rotary shaft to which the valve element is integrally provided, the central axis of the rotary shaft being arranged eccentrically toward the radial direction of the valve hole from the central axis of the valve hole, and the sealing surface being arranged eccentrically toward the direction in which the central axis of the valve element extends from the central axis of the rotary shaft. The flow control valve has a valve element movement direction restriction member for stopping rotation of the valve element, and thereafter moving the valve element toward the valve seat while also relatively rotating the valve element about the eccentric axis eccentric from the central axis of the rotary shaft, relative to the rotary shaft.

Flow control valve

An EGR valve includes a valve seat in a flow passage of a housing, a valve element seatable on the valve seat, a rotary shaft to open or close the valve element, a motor and a speed reducing mechanism, a return spring urging the valve element in a valve closing direction, and an opening-degree sensor to detect an opening degree of the valve element. An electronic control unit (ECU) diagnoses abnormality due to lodging of foreign matter between the valve seat and the valve element during full close. When driving the motor to urge the valve element in the valve closing direction during full close of the valve element, the ECU determines the EGR valve to be abnormal because of lodging of foreign matter if a difference between a value detected by the opening-degree sensor and a predetermined reference value is larger than a first determination value.

Full-close abnormality diagnosis apparatus for flow control valve

A throttle body for an internal combustion engine, comprising a suction passage for supplying a suction air to the internal combustion engine; a throttle valve provided in the suction passage and fixed to a rotatable throttle valve shaft so as to adjust a quantity of the suction air; an interconnecting lever rotatably mounted to an interconnecting shaft and adapted to be rotated by pulling an accelerator cable; a throttle valve operating lever mechanically connected to the interconnecting lever and fixed to the throttle valve shaft, the throttle valve operating lever being rotated in predetermined relational association with rotation of the interconnecting lever to open and close the throtle valve; and a tension spring for normally biasing the throttle valve in a valve closing direction, the tension spring having one end or pivotal point fixed to a part fixed to the throttle body and the other end or operation point fixed to the throttle valve operating lever; wherein the pivotal point and the operation point are located at positions such that a distance from the throttle valve shaft to a line connecting the pivotal point and the operation point is gradually reduced as the throttle valve is opened, and a connection point between the interconnecting lever and the throttle valve operating lever is approached to a line connecting the throttle valve shaft and the interconnecting shaft as the throttle valve is opened.

Growing community of inventors

Nisshin, Japan

Naruto Ito