Smh Management Services Ag

The Swatch Group Management Services Ag

Robert Apter

Gianni Francescutto

Patrick Theurillat

Luigi Del Re

Antoine Toth

Rene Jeanneret

Raphael Brunner

Luc Bossoney

Daniel Handschin

Rainer Sonntag

A combined system for cooling drive units and for heating the inner space of a hybrid vehicle comprises a cooling circuit, in which are connected in series an internal combustion engine, a thermostat valve, a cooler and an electrovalve. The system comprises a cooler bypass in which are arranged an electric heater and a heat exchanger for heating the inner space of the vehicle. According to the mode of operation of the hybrid vehicle, the heat exchanger (,) may take up heat from the internal combustion engine or from the electric heater (,), wherein, in the electric operating mode, i.e. with the internal combustion engine not running, for the purpose of keeping the heat losses low, an uncoupling of the internal combustion engine and cooler (,) from the heat exchanger (,) is made possible by means of the thermostat valve and electrovalve.

System for cooling drive units and for heating the inner space of a hybrid vehicle

The method according to the invention is based on the discovery that the pollutant emissions in the first minutes of operation of an internal combustion engine also depend on the preceding operation and switching off procedure. It is suggested to subject the internal combustion engine and the catalytic converter to a cleaning or a scavenging phase before the standstill of the motor. With this cleaning or scavenging phase the movement of the internal combustion engine is still maintained for a certain time before standstill of the motor either by sparking or by an external drive and at least temporally in at least individual cylinders of the internal combustion engine the supply of fuel is interrupted and exclusively air is delivered. By way of this it is achieved that the remaining pollutants accumulated in the internal combustion engine are supplied to the catalytic converter which is still at the operating temperature and the catalytic converter is enriched with oxygen. For example one may let the internal combustion engine run out, by which means its rotational speed (n) from the beginning of the scavenging procedure (t,) to the standstill of the motor (t,) continuously decreases.

Method for reducing the pollutant emission of an internal combustion engine

A hybrid vehicle and operating method, wherein, given a pending change in the rotational speed of a combustion engine of the hybrid vehicle, provides for a battery, independently of the power to be transmitted to the driving wheels, to be so charged or discharged in a directed manner that the change in rotational speed is effected as swiftly as possible. With regard to fuel consumption, pollutant emission and/or care of the engine, optimal operating points are passed through. On the one hand in the case of a pending increase in power of the combustion engine, it is provided for the battery to be more heavily discharged or less heavily charged according to the initial situation, and in the case of a pending reduction in power, to be more heavily charged or less heavily discharged.

Method for operating a non-railborne hybrid vehicle

The series hybrid traction assembly comprises an electric generator set, a static converter and at least one tandem traction set intended to drive two driving wheels of a vehicle. The traction set (1) comprises two back-gear motors each comprising an electric motor (4, 14) and a reducing gear (7, 17) which drives the wheel by means of a transmission shaft. The two reducing gears are adjacent to a median plane (24). The motor driving the wheel situated on one side of the median plane is on the other side of such plane, so that each driving line preferably has a Z-shaped outline and the axial space requirement of the traction set is reduced. The assembly also comprises a generator set (40) formed of a heat engine (41) and a generator (42), this set being arranged facing one (4) of the electric motors, on the other side of the median plane. A very compact assembly results.

Series hybrid traction assembly and vehicle comprising such an assembly

The invention concerns a driving system for a hybrid-powered motor vehicle. It includes a generator set producing a direct current used by a driving set with an electric motor for driving at least one driving wheel of the vehicle. Using an accelerator, the driver gives a power set-point signal that is used by a first adjusting device which acts on the thermal engine, the generator, and the AC/DC converter of the generator set. A second adjusting device adjusts the power of the driving set as a slave of the generator set, according to the variations in the voltage of the supply circuit with respect to a desired voltage, without considering the signal from the accelerator.

Driving system for hybrid-powered motor vehicle and control method for

In a motor vehicle driving system comprising several asynchronous electric machines (11, 12) each coupled to a driving wheel (13, 14), a polyphase supply device (2) and a regulating device (6) using a reference signal (SR) representative of a speed of one of the driving wheels, the invention provides a method and a device allowing an optimum electric supply to be assured when one or more of the driving wheels skid in drive mode or locks in the event of braking. For each driving wheel, a measured speed signal (NM1, NM2) is processed in a detection unit (23, 24) which detects skidding or locking and delivers binary skid (P1, P2) and locking (B1, B2) signals and a corrected speed signal (NC1, NC2) representing, as required, the speed prior to skidding or locking. A selection unit (25) selects one of the corrected speed signals as reference signal. Applications to electric or hybrid-powered vehicles.

Method and device for the common regulation of several electric motors

The invention concerns a method for adjusting the electric power distribution in a direct voltage supply circuit (2) in a motor vehicle, e.g. a hybrid-powered vehicle comprising an electric generator set (1) and one or several electric elements (3, 6, 7, 8) capable of consuming and/or producing power in the supply circuit, one of said electric elements being an electric driving set (3) capable of driving the driving wheels (4) of the vehicle. The power of the generator set is adjusted on the basis of a power demand given by the driver. One (3, 7) of said electric elements is defined as a power balancing element. A desired voltage (U.sub.0c) of the supply circuit is determined, the effective voltage (U.sub.0) of said circuit is continuously monitored, and the power of the balancing element is adjusted so as to maintain the effective voltage at the level of the desired voltage.

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Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland

Robert Apter