Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Yazaki Corporation

Toshiaki Ozaki

Tatsuya Kawahara

Kazumi Nagasawa

Norihito Shimizu

Hisao Kato

Katsuhiko Kinoshita

Naoto Ishikawa

Seiji Mizuno

Takeyuki Amari

Masayoshi Taki

Kazutomo Fujinami

Yoshimasa Negishi

Norihiro Shimizu

Yoshitaka Kino

Load type electrical parts incorporated in auxiliary machine modulestoare driven by electrical connectorstohaving communicating units, control units and load driving units mounted on electronic boards. An electronic door control unitconnected to a sub bus connected to the electrical connectorstoconverts the communication protocol of a control signal of the load type electrical parts received from a LAN in a vehicle serving as a main bus of the vehicle to the communication protocol of the sub bus and transmits the protocol converted control signal to the electrical connectorsto. Further, sensors or switches in the auxiliary machine modulestooutput signals to the control units.

Electronic door system with a lin-subbus

A front electronic equipment system includes a load electrical parts provided at a front portion of a vehicle, a front electrical control unit which receives a control signal for controlling the drive of the load electrical parts through a main bus line of the vehicle, and a drive control unit connected to the front electrical control unit through a sub bus line, converting the control signal into a drive signal, and driving the load electrical parts based on the drive signal. The front electrical control unit converts a communication protocol of the control signal from a communication protocol of the main bus line into a communication protocol of the sub bus line, and transmits the converted control signal received through the main bus line to the drive control unit through the sub bus line.

Front electronic equipment system with a LIN-subbus

An electronic connector connected to a sensor or a switch, and communicating a signal through a common bus includes an I/O unit receiving a signal from the sensor or the switch, a control unit generating a control signal for controlling the driving of a load corresponding to the sensor or the switch according to the signal received from the I/O unit, and a communication unit having a function of decoding the control signal and transmitting the control signal to an equipment connected to the corresponding load through the common bus.

Method of communicating a signal from a sensor, connected to a connector, to an auxiliary module

A polymer electrolyte fuel cell includes an electrode including a catalyst layer and a diffusion layer. The catalyst layer is divided into a plurality of portions including an upstream portion and a downstream portion along a reactant gas flow direction. The upstream portion of the catalyst layer has a structure for preventing a drying-up of the cell, and the downstream portion of the catalyst layer has a structure for preventing a flooding of the cell. A structure of the diffusion layer also may differ between at the upstream portion and at the downstream portion.

Fuel cell

A device and a method for simply and accurately evaluating-performance of fuel cells have been provided. Hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide gas are caused to flow into a sample holder where an electrode catalyst sample is laid, and the amount of carbon monoxide gas discharged therefrom is detected. The amount of carbon monoxide gas adsorbed by the electrode catalyst sample is calculated based on the amount of supplied carbon monoxide gas and the amount of detected carbon monoxide gas. The output voltage of a fuel cell is calculated based on a correlation between calculated amounts of carbon monoxide gas adsorbed by the electrode catalyst and output voltages of the fuel cell.

DEVICE AND METHOD FOR EVALUATING PERFORMANCE OF FUEL CELLS, DEVICE AND METHOD FOR EVALUATING SPECIFIC SURFACE AREA OF FUEL-CELL ELECTRODE CATALYSTS, FUEL-CELL ELECTRODE CATALYST, AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME

A field effect transistor is provided between the ground and an H bridge circuit for rotating a motor in forward and reverse directions in a manner that the drain of the transistor is grounded and the gate thereof is coupled to a DC power source such as a battery serving as a bias source which supplies electric power to the H bridge circuit. Thus, when the DC power source such as a battery is reversely connected, the field effect transistor normally in an on state is turned off. A controller monitors the source voltage of the field effect transistor, and when the controller detects an excess current, the controller outputs a control signal to the high-side driver to prevent the supply of electric power to the motor.

Driving circuit for rotating motor in forward and reverse direction

The present invention is directed to a fuel reformer device that produces a hydrogen rich gas from a hydrocarbon and steam. The steam reforming reaction that produces the hydrogen rich gas from the hydrocarbon and steam is endothermic. A known technique supplies heat required for the steam reforming reaction by an exothermic oxidation reaction proceeding in parallel with the steam reforming reaction. This known technique may, however, cause an excessive temperature rise in an area of the vigorous oxidation reaction in the fuel reformer device. A reformer unitincluding a Cu&#x2014;Zn catalyst receives a supply of a crude fuel gas containing the air flown through a second fuel supply conduit. The crude fuel gas is subjected to the steam reforming reaction and the oxidation reaction proceeding inside the reformer unit. A resulting hydrogen rich gaseous fuel is discharged to a third fuel supply conduit. The reformer unitincludes an upper stream reaction unitand a lower stream reaction unit. Both the reaction unitsandhave honeycomb structures, wherein the total sectional area of the flow path in the upper stream reaction unitis made smaller than the total sectional area of the flow path in the lower stream reaction unit. This arrangement causes the gas flowing through the reformer unitto have the higher flow velocity on the upstream side than on the downstream side. The higher flow velocity on the upstream side extends the area of the vigorous oxidation reaction to the lower stream portion and enables the heat generated on the upstream side to be effectively transmitted to the lower stream portion. This arrangement thus effectively prevents an excessive temperature rise on the upstream side.

Fuel reformer device

A device and a method for simply and accurately evaluating performance of fuel cells have been provided. Hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide gas are caused to flow into a sample holder where an electrode catalyst sample is laid, and the amount of carbon monoxide gas discharged therefrom is detected. The amount of carbon monoxide gas adsorbed by the electrode catalyst sample is calculated based on the amount of supplied carbon monoxide gas and the amount of detected carbon monoxide gas. The output voltage of a fuel cell is calculated based on a correlation between calculated amounts of carbon monoxide gas adsorbed by the electrode catalyst and output voltages of the fuel cell.

Two electrodes contact an electrolyte membrane on both sides of the electrolyte membrane and each electrode contacts each separator on the other side of the electrode. An electrochemical fuel cell comprises a plurality of unit cells which comprise the electrolyte membrane, the electrode, and the separator. The electrode comprises a catalyst layer and a gas diffusion layer. The gas diffusion layer comprises an inner layer and an outer layer. The catalyst layer contacts the electrolyte membrane. The inner layer is interposed between the catalyst layer and the outer layer. The outer layer of the gas diffusion layer contacts the inner layer on the inner side and the separator on the outer side. Since the gas diffusion layer is formed as a double-layer structure which includes the inner layer having low electric resistance and close and fine structure made of carbon powder and the porous outer layer having a high water repellency, a gas diffusion ability, a water repellency, an electric collection ability of the electrode can be improved.

Electrode for fuel cell and a method for producing the electrode

A motor vehicle peripheral monitoring apparatus uses a monitor region extension member as optical image forming means. The monitor region extension member comprises an upper image passage part and an upper image compression part. The upper image passage part includes a prism structural element of substantially a semi-conical shape whose prism apical angles become the maximum angle at the center of the member and are decreased toward the extremity from the center of the member. The upper image compression part includes a cylindrical structural element having a curved surface whose angles are set to be smaller continuously from the prism apical angles of the upper image passage part.

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Toyota, Japan

Toshiaki Ozaki