Nippon Soken, Inc.

Denso Corporation

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Other

Inter-University Research Institute Corporation National Institutes of Natural Sciences

Tohru Yoshinaga

Tokio Kohama

Kiyohiko Watanabe

Hiroshi Yorita

Kenji Kanehara

Shinichi Okabe

Yasuyuki Kawabe

Jun Yamada

Tetsuya Miwa

Shingo Morishima

Yukihiro Shinohara

Osamu Fujishiro

Toshihiko Igashira

Kazuhiro Sakurai

Masao Kano

Kouji Yoshizaki

Hideaki Itakura

Masaki Takeyama

Hiroshi Hirayama

Akihiro Izawa

Yasuyuki Satou

Takaaki Itou

Keiji Kanao

Naoya Kato

Toshihiro Takada

Makoto Toriyama

Tetsuo Nagami

Hideyuki Kato

Takehiko Kato

Masakatsu Sanada

Kazuto Maeda

Masatoshi Ikeda

Masahiko Ogai

Hiroaki Ichikawa

Masamichi Shibata

Takeo Maekawa

Hiromi Hiramatsu

Takunori Taira

Nobuhiko Koyama

Kenichi Harada

Kouhei Igarashi

Takanobu Kawano

Atsuya Mizutani

Keiji Ito

Taiyo Kawai

Akira Ii

Tatsushi Nakashima

Toshio Imamura

Katsuyuki Tanaka

Masahiro Takigawa

Yoshihiro Nakase

Koji Shimoji

Katsuhiko Aoyama

Yoichi Sugiura

Toshiaki Yamaura

Kenichi Hirada

Masatoshi Basaki

Yukinobu Anezaki

Katuo Azegami

Katsuo Azegami

Aki Abe

Naoya Katou

A plasma ignition system includes an ignition plug attached to an engine and having a center electrode, a ground electrode, and a discharge space, a discharge power source circuit, a plasma generation power source circuit, a resistance element between the discharge power source circuit and the center electrode, a rectifying device between the plasma generation power source circuit and the center electrode, and an element receiving portion in a periphery of the center electrode. The plug puts gas in the discharge space into a plasma state to ignite a fuel/air mixture in the engine, as a result of application of high voltage to the plug by the discharge power source circuit and supply of high current to the plug by the plasma generation power source circuit. The resistance element and the rectifying device are placed in the receiving portion.

Plasma ignition system

A plasma ignition system includes an ignition plug attached to an engine and a high-voltage supply. The plug includes a center electrode serving as a positive pole, a ground electrode serving as a negative pole, and an insulating member insulating the center electrode from the ground electrode and defining a discharge space therein. At least a part of a surface of the center electrode faces the space, and at least a part of a surface of the ground electrode faces the discharge space. The plug puts gas in the space into a plasma state and injects the gas into the engine as a result of application of high voltage and supply of a large current to the plug by the high-voltage supply. The center electrode has a recess portion opposed to the space and recessed in a direction opposite to an injection direction.

Plasma ignition system with recess porton in the center electrode

A laser type ignition device for an internal combustion engine includes a laser oscillator mounted in the internal combustion engine so as to focus its laser beam on an air-fuel mixture supplied into the combustion chamber, a pressure sensor for detecting pressure in the combustion chamber, a power source for the laser oscillator and a control unit for controlling the power source to supply the laser oscillator with the current whose amount changes according to the pressure in the combustion chamber. The power of the laser beam increases as the pressure in the combustion chamber decreases to completely ignite the air-fuel mixture.

Laser type engine ignition device

A power-saving type of ignition apparatus is provided with a spark plug of which electrodes () are regulated in their shapes to lower an amount of energy required for its ignition. To face to a tip () of a center electrode () extending from a mounting bracket (), a cylindrical protrusion () is built on one surface () of an earth electrode (). The protrusion extends toward the center electrode to form a discharge gap () between the protrusion and the tip of the center electrode. Both of the tip of the center electrode and the protrusion of the earth electrode are 2.3 [mm] or less in each diameter (D, D), thus an amount of energy required for ignition being limited to 17 [mJ] or less.

Spark plug and ignition apparatus using same

A power-saving type of ignition apparatus is provided with a spark plug of which electrodes () are regulated in their shapes to lower an amount of energy required for its ignition. To face to a tip () of a center electrode () extending from a mounting bracket (), a cylindrical protrusion () is built on one surface () of an earth electrode (). The protrusion extends toward the center electrode to form a discharge gap () between the protrusion and the tip of the center electrode. Both of the tip of the center electrode and the protrusion of the earth electrode are 2.3 [mm] or less in each diameter (DD), thus an amount of energy required for ignition being limited to 17 [mJ] or less.

A combustion condition detecting device detects combustion ions between opposing electrodes in a combustion chamber by ion current flowing between the electrodes in response to a.c. current voltage applied between the electrodes. A low pass filter for eliminating current components having high order frequencies of the a.c. voltage is disposed in a primary side of the transformer so that a waveform of the a.c. voltage approximates a sine wave. Thus, detection accuracy of the combustion ions is prevented from being affected by variation of capacitive current included in the current flowing between the electrodes, wherein the variation of the capacitive current is caused by distortion of the waveform of the a.c. voltage.

Device and method for detecting engine combustion condition

An insulator includes a coil side cylindrical portion extending from a plug side cylinder portion in a direction departing from a combustion chamber. One end of the coil side cylindrical portion protrudes in the direction departing from the combustion chamber with respect to a primary winding and a secondary winding. A pressure sensing element is disposed next to the one end of the coil side cylindrical portion. The signal lines of the pressure sensing element are taken out of a casing without passing aside an ignition coil. Thus, the diameter of the casing does not increase. The output signal of the pressure sensing element is not adversely influenced by discharge noises generated from the ignition coil.

Ignition device for an internal combustion engine

In an engine ignition unit, a transistor and a current detecting resistor are connected to primary and secondary windings of an ignition coil, respectively. The current detecting resistor is used for detecting a current flowing between the opposing electrodes of spark plug. At an ignition by the spark plug, high-frequency square wave signals are generated by an oscillator after an ignition signal is cut off. The square wave signals turn on and off the transistor. By this operation, a battery voltage is intermittently applied to the primary winding and an ion current is measured. A frequency of the square wave signals is set close to a resonant frequency of an ion current path including the spark plug, the secondary winding of the ignition coil and the current detecting resistor.

Ion current detecting device for internal combustion engine

A damping chamber is formed in a pressure relaxation device connected to a high pressure fuel pipe. Valve bodies are provided at openings of partitions, and a spring force is applied to the valve bodies by a spring in a valve closing direction. When a high pressure portion reaches an inlet of the damping chamber, the valve body opens to hold and absorb the high pressure portion in the damping chamber. When a low pressure portion reaches the inlet of the damping chamber, the high pressure portion held in the damping chamber is gradually released via a restricted orifice to cancel the low pressure portion, thereby reducing the pressure pulsation of fuel.

Fuel supply system for relieving fuel pressure pulsations and designing method thereof

An ignition device sets a total discharge period, each discharge period and each intermittent period of a multiple discharge are set by a control map in addition to the setting of a throttle opening, fuel injection timing, fuel injection period and ignition timing for the range of non-stratified charge combustion, when a direct injection-type engine operates in the range of stratified charge combustion. Ignition signals including a plurality of rises and falls are outputted in time with a specific ignition timing after fuel injection. Thus a plurality of sparks are generated from the spark plug, ensuring reliable ignition in response to changes in the concentration of sprayed fuel within the operation range for stratified charge combustion.

Spark ignition device for direct injection-type engines

To excellently grow flame kernel while lowering breakdown voltage, a bypass electrode comprising a semiconductor material is installed in a path bypassing an inductive spark gap between a center electrode and a ground electrode, and the center electrode and the ground electrode are electrically connected by the bypass electrode and capacitive discharge is carried out by applying breakdown voltage between the center electrode and the ground electrode via the bypass electrode, and thereafter, inductive discharge is carried out through the inductive spark gap.

Spark plug having a bypass electrode extending along a bypass path between center and ground electrode

An apparatus for detecting a condition of burning in an internal combustion engine includes a pair of opposed electrodes provided in a combustion chamber of the engine, and an AC voltage applying device for applying an AC voltage between the opposed electrodes. A current detecting device is operative for detecting a current flowing between the opposed electrodes. A current generating means for generating a current-representing signal depending on the detected current, the current generating means having a differentiating circuit for differentiating the AC voltage into the capacitance-current representing signal. In another aspect of this invention, the apparatus further comprises calculating means for calculating ratios between a parameter represented by the burning-ion current representing signal and a parameter represented by a signal depending on the AC voltage applied between the opposed electrodes. A waveform processing device is operative for removing the capacitive current component from the current-representing signal to extract a burning ion current component, and for generating a burning-ion-current representing signal depending on the extracted burning ion current component. The capacitive current component occurs in correspondence with the AC voltage. One aspect of the invention utilizes calculating means for calculating a ratio between a parameter represented by the burning-ion-current representing signal and a parameter represented by a signal depending on the AC voltage applied between opposed electrodes. The burning ion current component corresponds to a burning ion current which flows between the opposed electrodes. A burning condition detecting device is operative for detecting a condition of burning in the combustion chamber of the engine on the basis of the burning-ion-current representing signal generated by the waveform processing device. The waveform processing device includes an integration processing device for integrating the current-representing signal to generate the burning-ion-current representing signal.

Apparatus for detecting a condition of burning in an internal combustion

A combustion monitoring apparatus for an internal combustion engine is provided which includes a voltage supply circuit, a combustion monitoring circuit, and a control circuit. The voltage supply circuit applies the voltage to plug electrodes of a spark plug mounted in a combustion chamber of the engine. The combustion ion monitoring circuit monitors a variation in amount of combustion ions existing between the plug electrodes to determine a combustion condition of the engine based on the current flowing through the plug electrodes produced by application of the voltage to the electrodes. The control circuit controls an operation of the voltage supply circuit so that the voltage is applied across the plug electrodes prior to a discharge duration of a spark plug mounted in the combustion chamber of the engine for monitoring preignition.

Combustion monitoring apparatus for internal combustion engine

A combustion monitoring apparatus for an internal combustion engine is provided which is designed to distinguish abnormal combustion conditions from a normal combustion conditions using a combustion ion current included in a current flowing through plug electrodes of a spark plug, resulting from motion of ions between the plug electrodes which are produced by combustion. For example, if a maximum value of the combustion ion current during one combustion cycle is smaller than a given value, it is determined that a misfire has occurred. If an attenuation time from generation of the current flowing through the plug electrodes until a variation in the current is decreased to a given value is shorter than a given time period, it is determined that a flame has been blown out before combustion is completed.

A canister for use in an evaporative emission control system of an automotive vehicle is provided which includes a box-like casing, an inlet port formed in one end wall of the casing through which fuel vapors generated within a fuel tank are drawn into the canister, and a plurality of vapor-adsorbing passages each of which is filled with activated carbon and has a given length through which the fuel vapors drawn through the inlet port flow. The vapor-adsorbing passages are all arranged within said casing in parallel to each other. This arrangement allows the casing to be of a flat shape which facilitates easy installation of the canister within a flat space around a fuel tank.

Canister for use in evaporative emission control system for automotive

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Okazaki, Japan

Tohru Yoshinaga