Denso Corporation

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Shigeru Yoshiyama

Kiyoshi Kimura

Taku Itoh

Masashi Hori

Atsushi Kamada

Yoshinobu Nozaki

Toshiki Fujiyoshi

Hideo Inaba

Akihiko Kameshima

Joji Yamaguchi

Mamoru Yoshioka

Hironori Asa

Seiji Nakayama

Mikine Kume

Eiji Isobe

Kunihiko Nakata

Kenichi Oishi

Masaaki Shinojima

Haruki Matsuzaki

Tomoyuki Kashiwagi

Kiyotosi Yano

Eizi Ishikawa

Shunichi Ide

A sun gear is supported by an eccentric portion of a rotor via a bearing and rotatable eccentrically to the rotor axis. A ring gear includes inner teeth via which the ring gear is meshed with outer teeth of the sun gear. An output shaft is located adjacent to the sun gear in the axial direction. A fitted portion of the output shaft is loosely fitted to a fitting portion of the sun gear to transfer rotation of the sun gear to the output shaft. The bearing has a center position located in a fitting overlap region between the fitting portion of the sun gear and the fitted portion of the output shaft in the axial direction and/or located in a gear overlap region between the outer teeth of the sun gear and the inner teeth of the ring gear which are meshed with the outer gear.

Rotary actuator

A shift-by-wire (SBW) device includes a capacitor, which stores electric power. When an abnormality occurs in a battery or an electric power supply system, an actuator of the SBW device receives electric power from the capacitor and changes a shift range of an automatic transmission to a P range at least once. Furthermore, when a lever of a P range releasing arrangement is operated, the P range of the automatic transmission is released.

Shift-by-wire system

A reference position detecting apparatus includes an electric motor and a motor control unit. The electric motor includes a plurality of first coils and a plurality of second coils. The electric motor further includes a rotor that rotates when at least one of the plurality of first coils and the plurality of second coils is supplied with electricity. The motor control unit controls electricity supplied to either one of the plurality of first coils and the plurality of second coils to rotate the rotor to a limit position in a movable range of an object.

Position detecting apparatus having electric motor and method for detecting position

At an initial drive operation after turning on of an electric power source, an ECU sequentially changes each current exciting phase among multiple phases through one complete cycle at a predetermined time schedule, so that a rotational position of a rotor and the corresponding exciting phase coincide with each other at some timing during the initial drive operation, and thereby the rotor is rotated. The ECU counts the A-phase signal and the B-phase signal during the rotation of the rotor in the initial drive operation and learns a relationship among a count value of the A-phase signal and the B-phase signal, a rotational position of the rotor and each exciting one of the plurality of phases at an end of the initial drive operation. When the ECU determines that a result of the learning is erroneous, the ECU re-executes the learning by re-executing the initial drive operation.

Motor control apparatus

A rod-lock mechanism is provided in an automatic transmission for a vehicle. The rod-lock mechanism has an engaging pin which will be engaged with a rod when the rod is in its initial position, so as to hold the rod in its initial position. The rod-lock mechanism further has an electric actuator for driving the engaging pin when electric power is supplied, so that the engaging pin is brought out of engagement from the rod. A forced parking current supply unit controls electric power supply to the electric actuator. When the electric power is supplied to the electric actuator, the rod is moved in a direction of a parking position to bring a vehicle into a parking condition.

Shift range control apparatus

In an electric motor of an SBW actuator, a rotor shaft is rotated upon energization of the motor. A rotor core is rotated integrally with the rotor shaft. A resilient member enables tilting or decentering of the rotor shaft upon application of a decentering force on the rotor shaft. A stator core contacts the rotor core when the rotor shaft is tilted or decentered.

Electric motor and an actuator having the same

A shift-by-wire control system includes a parking lock device that brings an output shaft of an automatic transmission device to a lock state when a range switching unit switches to the P-range. The parking lock device brings the output shaft to a lock-release state when the range switching unit switches to another shift range. An electric motor actuates the range switching unit and the parking lock device in accordance with an instruction of an operator. A manual device transmits manual operation force of the operator to the parking lock device when the electric motor stops. The manual device includes a one-way transmission unit permitting transmission of the manual operation force in a direction toward the lock state, and prohibiting transmission of the manual operation force in a direction toward the lock-release state.

Shift-by-wire control system for automatic transmission device and method for the same

A shift range switching apparatus connects with a motor for switching a shift range of an automatic transmission. The shift range switching apparatus includes a switching unit that is operated by the motor for switching the shift range. The shift range switching apparatus further includes a control unit that outputs a driving current to the motor for switching the shift range to one of a P range, an R range, an N range, and a D range. The control unit controls the driving current at one of a plurality of set values in accordance with a switching pattern of the shift range. The switching pattern may be defined by a combination of two of the P range, the R range, the N range, and the D range.

Shift range switching apparatus and method for switching shift range

A shift range switching device is provided to a shift-by-wire system for an automatic transmission device. The shift range switching device includes a range switching unit for switching a shift range of the automatic transmission device between a P range and the other range. The shift range switching device further includes an actuator including an electric motor and a reduction device. The reduction device transmits driving force of the electric motor to the range switching unit for actuating the range switching unit as instructed. The reduction device has a variable reduction ratio. The reduction device transmits the driving force in switching of the shift range from the P range to the other range at a reduction ratio, which is greater than a reduction ratio in switching of the shift range from the other range to the P range.

Shift range switching device and method for switching shift range

A shift range switching apparatus includes an automatic transmission that includes a shift range switching device having a control rod for switching an actual shift range corresponding to rotation angle of the control rod. The shift range switching apparatus further includes an electric actuator that includes an output shaft connecting with the control rod. The electric actuator switches the actual shift range by rotating the control rod via the output shaft. The shift range switching apparatus further includes an assembly regulating device that allows the electric actuator to be detachable from and attachable to the automatic transmission when the actual shift range of the shift range switching device is set at a specific shift range.

Shift range switching apparatus and method for assembling the same

A brushless synchronous motor includes a stator having a plurality of phase coils, a rotor disposed opposite the stator, a magnetic sensor for detecting a rotation angle of the rotor, a power supply circuit connected to the phase coils, a control circuit for controlling the power supply circuit so that the motor rotates synchronously. In the above motor, a circuit board includes a wiring circuit connecting the phase coils with the power supply circuit, and the magnetic sensor is directly fixed to the circuit board so that dimensional variation of the magnetic sensor relative to the stator can be minimized.

Brushless synchronous motor

By utilizing a mechanical backlash generated between an electric actuator and a shift range switching mechanism, a specific region is obtained, in which a variation in the output shaft angle is relatively small with respect to a variation in rotor angle. In this specific range, an actual shift range position is calculated, whereby the rotor angle that the motor controller recognizes is corrected so as to relate the actual shift range position. A deviation between the rotor angle and the actual shift range is corrected, so that the shift range switching is precisely performed.

Shift range switching apparatus

A radial inner portion of a rotor core, where a rotor core and a rotor shaft are connected, has an electromagnetically excessive capacity. A recess is provided at the radial inner portion of the rotor core. The recess is a cylindrical bore retracting in the axial direction from the front surface of the rotor core, facing to a reduction gear unit, toward the rear surface of the rotor core. A sun gear bearing, supporting a sun gear of the reduction gear unit, is disposed at least partly in the recess. Extending the sun gear bearing in the axial direction brings the effects of preventing inclination of the sun gear, improving transmission efficiency of the reduction gear unit, and producing a large output torque without increasing the overall size.

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Kariya, Japan

Shigeru Yoshiyama