Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

The Ohtsu Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd.

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

501 Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Shoichi Sano

Yoshimi Furukawa

Masami Ogura

Hajime Kajiwara

Isao Osada

Yutaka Tashiro

Suguru Yoshida

Tetsuro Hamada

Yasuharu Oyama

Masaru Abe

Hiroshi Takamatsu

Noriyuki Takahashi

Kazuo Inoue

Makoto Sato

Osamu Yamamoto

Tsuneo Konno

Mitsuya Serizawa

Yutaka Nishi

Kenichi Nagahiro

Yasuhiko Fujita

Isao Tsunoda

Takamitsu Tajima

Masataka Kumata

Toshihiko Aoyama

Masashi Kitagawa

Kunitaka Furuya

Akihiko Takei

Tokuro Takaoka

Hiroo Shimada

Tateo Kawade

Goro Urushiyama

Yoshinobu Ono

Seiji Kasai

Yoshimi Fufukawa

Yusuke Koizumi

Masahiro Hashiguchi

Ken Uchida

Masao Ohno

Yasuaki Ohno

Tetsur Hamada

In a steer-by-wire vehicle steering apparatus where a steering operator member is operatively connected to steerable road wheels via an electric wire, a control section controls a steering motor in such a manner that an angle of travel direction of the vehicle and a steering angle of the steering operator agree with each other, and a resistive force generation section generates and imparts a steering resistive force to the steering operator in accordance with an actual steered angle of the steerable road wheels. Thus, the steering apparatus permits the vehicle to be steered with an increased accuracy.

Vehicle steering apparatus

A joint structure includes a sandwiched structural body comprising a core layer having opposite surfaces and a pair of first and second outer skin layers covering the opposite surfaces, respectively, and a substantially concave joint region defined in the first outer skin layer and comprising a side wall and a bottom wall contiguous to the side wall, the bottom wall being joined to the second outer skin layer. The side wall of the joint region is of a tapered shape. The sandwiched structural body is formed primarily of synthetic resins, and may additionally include reinforcing fibers.

Joint structure for sandwiched structural body

Disclosed is a suspension having an improved transverse leaf spring with its longitudinal axis extending transversely of a car body. The leaf spring is operatively associated at opposite ends with the right and left wheels of a car and is curved along its intermediate length in the direction in which the car moves ahead or back. The curved portion may be along a full length of the leaf spring or along a length defines between support points on the leaf spring, and in the latter case, lengths extending from the respective support points to the ends of the leaf spring most adjacent thereto remain linear to form linear portions extending substantially perpendicularly with respect to respective suspension arm rocking shafts. Various forms of support elements are described for securing the leaf spring for only pivotal movement about one of the support points and both pivotal and linear movement about the other thereof.

Transverse leaf spring type suspension

A steering system for a vehicle with a steerable front wheel (5) and a rear wheel (11) controlled to be steered in accordance with a travelling state representative quantity (.delta..sub.f, V,.alpha..sub.a), wherein the rear wheel is steered taking into account at least a ratio of a cornering power (Kr) thereof to a vertical load on the tire thereof, besides the travelling state representative quantity.

Steering system for vehicles

A power unit mounting structure in a motor vehicle includes a power unit comprising an engine having a crankshaft, a transmission coupled to the crankshaft of the engine, and a differential interposed between drive axles connected to a pair of laterally spaced front road wheels of the motor vehicle and the transmission. The power unit is mounted in a front portion of the motor vehicle with its center of gravity positioned rearwardly of the drive axles extending from the differential toward front road wheels serving as the drive road wheels. A steering gearbox extends parallel to the drive axles and is disposed forwardly of the drive axles.

Mounting structure for the power unit of a motor vehicle

The part-mounting structure of the present invention includes a part-mounting portion of a sandwich structure constituted by a core layer and plastic skin layers formed on both surfaces of the core layer, and a part-mounting metal member, at least one of the skin layers having a tapered recess having a sloped side wall and a flat bottom wall, the bottom wall being constituted by the skin layers bonded together, the part-mounting metal member having a bottom plate, and a pair of side plates vertically extending from the bottom plate substantially on both sides, at least one of the side plates having a dent tapered complementarily to the tapered recess of the sandwich structure. The part-mounting metal member is mounted to the part-mounting portion of the sandwich structure with a surface of the tapered recess of the sandwich structure and a surface of the tapered dent of the part-mounting metal member bonded together by an adhesive. This structure is suitable for mounting various parts such as engines, suspension beams, upper arms, radius rods, dampers, seat slide rails, etc. to the vehicle body.

Part-mounting structure for vehicle body

A steering system (1) for vehicles including a front wheel steering mechanism (1a) for steering front wheels (5) at an angle in accordance with a steering operation of a driver, and a rear wheel steering mechanism (1b) for steering rear wheels (11) at an angle (Sr) in accordance with a travelling state of the vehicle. For the steering of the rear wheel, a reference steering angle (Ar) according to a turning state of the vehicle and a corrective steering angle (Ac) according to a velocity derivative thereof are computed, and the steering angle (Sr) of the rear wheel is obtained by making either an addition or a subtraction of the reference and corrective steering angles at least in accordance with the velocity derivative.

A suspension system in a motor vehicle has a suspension including at least a resilient member extending transversely of the motor vehicle and having one end operatively coupled to a knuckle, the resilient member supporting a vehicle body of the motor vehicle, and a detector disposed on the resilient member for detecting at least one of a change in a load and a change in the height of the motor vehicle from the ground due to an external force applied to the suspension. The resilient member comprises at least a leaf spring, and the detector is attached to the leaf spring for detecting a strain of the leaf spring due to flexing thereof. A calculator is provided for calculating at least one of a vertical load applied to a road wheel coupled to the knuckle and a displacement of the road wheel with respect to the vehicle body based on a change in the strain detected by the detector.

Suspension system

A steering system for a motor vehicle having power steering means including an actuator for turning steerable road wheels of the motor vehicle includes a control mechanism for eliminating a deviation between a desired direction of travel of the motor vehicle and an actual direction of travel of the motor vehicle, based on an output signal from a direction indicating mechanism which indicates the desired direction and an output signal from a direction detecting mechanism which detects the actual direction. The control mechanism determines a target turning angle for the steerable road wheels dependent on the deviation between the desired direction and the actual direction, and controls the power steering mechanism to turn the steerable road wheels up to the target turning angle.

Steering system for motor vehicle

A steering system for a vehicle with a steerable front wheel (5) and a rear wheel (11) controlled to be steered in accordance with a travelling state representative quantity (.delta..sub.f, V, .alpha..sub.a), wherein the rear wheel is steered taking into account at least a ratio of a cornering power (Kr) thereof to a vertical load on the tire thereof, besides the travelling state representative quantity.

A suspension device in a motor vehicle has at least one component separate from a damper and to which vertical movement of a road wheel can be transmitted. The component comprises a resilient member supported on a vehicle body at a portion spaced from another portion operatively coupled to the road wheel, for giving vertical resiliency to the road wheel. The suspension device also has a counteracting load mechanism for applying a counteracting load which is variable dependent on an amount of flexing of a section of the component caused by vertical movement of the road wheel. The suspension device further includes a vehicle height adjusting mechanism operatively coupled to the counteracting load means for varying a static counteracting load of the counteracting load mechanism when the motor vehicle is at rest, to thereby vertically displace the section of the component for adjusting the height of the motor vehicle.

Suspension device

A steering system for the front and rear wheels of an automotive vehicle comprises a front wheel steering mechanism having an output shaft, a rear wheel steering mechanism having an input shaft coupled to the output shaft, an output member for steering the rear wheels, and a motion converting mechanism for converting rotation of the input shaft to movement of the output member, a vehicle speed sensor, and a control unit connected to the vehicle speed sensor for controlling operation of the motion converting mechanism dependent on the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor. The motion converting mechanism comprises a shaft angularly movable by the input shaft, the shaft having an arm extending radially from one end thereof, a guide mounted on the output member and extending in a vertical direction transverse to an axis of the output member, a slide assembly disposed between and interconnecting the arm and the guide, and a drive device controlled by the control unit for moving the slide assembly along the guide. The drive device includes a gear mechanism connected with said slide assembly and a pair of motors coupled to the gear mechanism for driving the same, the pair of motors being driven in association with each other.

Steering system for front and rear wheels of automotive vehicle

A vehicle height adjusting device includes a resilient member having an outer end coupled to a wheel support member and an inner end supported on a vehicle body, the resilient member having a vertically resilient characteristic and serving as a suspension component, and a load unit disposed between the resilient member and the vehicle body for applying a vertical bonding stress to the resilient member to displace the resilient member for thereby varying the height of the vehicle body. Another vehicle height adjusting device includes an elongate resilient member extending transversely of a vehicle body and having opposite ends coupled respectively to two laterally spaced wheel support members, the resilient member having a vertically resilient characteristic and serving as a suspension component, retaining members supporting an intermediate portion of the elongate resilient member slidably and swingably on the vehicle body at at least two spaced points on the intermediate portion, and a load unit for applying a vertical bending stress to the resilient member to displace the resilient member for thereby varying the height of the vehicle body.

Vehicle height adjusting device

A wheel alignment control system for a vehicle having at least one pair of rear road wheels opposing each other in the transverse direction of the vehicle, for changing and setting a wheel alignment factor of the wheels in relation to a current speed of the vehicle. The wheel alignment factor to be set by the control system is a camber angle of the rear wheels, a static toeing angle of the rear wheels, or a dynamic toeing angle of the rear wheels. The dynamic toeing angle of changed to be set by changing a stroke characteristic of each of a pair of suspenion units respectively supporting the rear wheels, on which the stroke characteristic of an associated one of the suspension units exerts an effect such that, in accordance with a stroke length thereof, the toeing angle of a corresponding one of the rear wheels is varied.

Wheel alignment control system for vehicles

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Shoichi Sano