Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Mitsubishi Denki K.k.

Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo K.k.

Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kaisha

Toshio Iwata

Wataru Fukui

Atsushi Ueda

Atsuko Hashimoto

Toshio Ohsawa

Satoru Ohkubo

Satoshi Komurasaki

Masayuki Ikeuchi

Shigemi Murata

Yoshiaki Danno

Akira Takahashi

Yasuhiko Hosoya

Atsuko Matsuoka

Noriyuki Inoue

Akira Demizu

Yasuo Tada

Seiki Kodama

Kiyoshi Ookawa

Yutaka Ohashi

Kazumasa Iida

Yasuyoshi Hatazawa

Kazutoshi Kaneyuki

Junji Yamada

Tateki Mitani

Masami Matsumura

Mikio Bessho

Takanao Yokoyama

Takeo Sasaki

Yuji Hase

Dairoku Ishii

Tooru Okada

Mitsura Koiwa

Takanobu Yonetsu

A power supplying apparatus for automotive parts can prevent not only wasteful power consumption even if an electric heater is short-circuited, but also any adverse effects on engine operation during an engine start-up operation. To this and, a heater,is connected to a power supply means P for heating the automotive parts. A switch,is connected between the power supply means P and the heater,for selectively switching on and off the power supply from the power supply means P to the heater.

Power supplying apparatus for automotive part

Misfiring in an engine cylinder can be detected based on the pressure therein as sensed by a pressure sensor with a high degree of reliability at any time even if the output signal of the pressure sensor contains an offset component superposed on a pressure component representative of the actual cylinder pressure. In one form, the pressure sensor output is differentiated to eliminate the influence of the offset component and then processed to generate a power stroke pressure information signal in the form of the time of a pressure-change peak in the differentiated pressure sensor output or an integrated value of the differentiated output, which is then compared with a threshold so as to determine whether misfiring took place in the cylinder. In another form, the offset component is calculated based on the pressure in the cylinder at two different crank angles during a compression stroke, and it is then removed from the pressure sensor output and compared with a threshold or it may be integrated for a prescribed crank angle range around TDC before comparison with the threshold. In a further form, an expected pressure in the cylinder at a third crank angle during a power stroke is calculated based on the cylinder pressures at first and second crank angles during a compression stroke preceding the power stroke, and then compared with the cylinder pressure as sensed by the pressure sensor at the third crank angle for misfiring determination.

Method for detecting misfiring in an internal combustion engine

Valve seating noise discriminating system for engine with variable valve

A knock sensor detects the vibration of an internal combustion engine and the half wave of its output of the sensor is amplified by a half wave amplifier. From the amplified output, a vibration-signal producing circuit produces a vibration signal representative of the vibration of engine in synchronism with the crank angle. An arithmetic operation unit produces a reference signal. Then a comparator compares the reference signal with the vibration signal to output a knock signal indicative of the occurrence of knocking of the engine when the vibration signal exceeds the reference signal. A gain adjusting circuit may be provided between the knock sensor and the half wave amplifier for adjusting the input level to the half wave amplifier to set the output level of the amplifier to a proper level. The half wave amplifier may be provided with a gain selecting circuit which automatically changes the gain of half wave amplifier in accordance with the level of the knock sensor output. The gain selecting circuit increases the gain when the sensor output is lower than a predetermined level and decreases when the sensor output is higher than a predetermined level. An inverse transformation circuit may be provided after the half wave amplifier having the gain selecting circuit, so that the level of vibration signal is compressed when the gain of half wave amplifier is increased, and the level is expanded when the gain is decreased so as to reproduce a vibration signal proportional to the knock sensor output,

Knocking detecting apparatus for internal combustion engine

Apparatus and method for detecting misfiring in an internal combustion

Misfiring in a cylinder of an engine can be detected with high reliability using a statistical treatment even if the level of ion current generated by a spark plug upon ignition thereof is affected by noise. An ion current, which is generated when a spark plug for a cylinder discharges, is detected to provide a corresponding voltage which is then integrated or peak held to produce a current component signal which is generated for a predetermined time from the time of discharge of the spark plug. The current component signal is used as misfiring information and compared with a prescribed threshold so as to determine whether there is misfiring in the cylinder. Misfirings thus detected are counted so as to evaluate the state or extent of misfiring in the cylinder. If the state of misfiring is serious, the fuel supply to the cylinder is stopped. If, however, it is light, an appropriate measure for optimizing the operation of the misfiring cylinder is taken to remedy such a situation and recover normal combustion therein.

A cylinder identifying apparatus for a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine can generate an exact reference position signal at an earliest possible time during engine start-up operation, thereby making it possible to identify predetermined reference positions of each cylinder in a highly accurate manner. A first signal generator 1 is provided on a camshaft for generating a cylinder identifying signal SC in synchronization with the rotation of the camshaft. A second signal generator 4 is provided on a crankshaft for generating, in synchronization with the rotation of the crankshaft, a pulse signal P containing a series of pulses each corresponding to predetermined first and second crank positions of each cylinder. A reference position signal generating circuit 2 generates, based on the output signals from the first and second signal generators, a reference position signal ST containing a series of pulses each exactly indicating the predetermined crank position of each cylinder and a cylinder identifying information signal indicative of the cylinder corresponding to each pulse of the reference position signal.

Cylinder identifying apparatus for a multi-cylinder internal combustion

A direct current power supply applies a positive voltage between the center electrode and the ground electrode of a spark plug in an internal combustion engine after discharge of the spark plug. Ionic current flowing between the electrodes due to the positive voltage is measured by a current sensor. The ionic current caused by the positive voltage is due to electrons, so it has a large magnitude and can be easily measured.

Ionic current sensing apparatus for engine spark plug with negative

A knock suppressing apparatus for an internal combustion engine includes: a knock sensor for sensing the vibrations of an engine and generating a corresponding output signal; an interface circuit for generating a vibration level based on the output signal of the knock sensor; a noise level detector for generating a noise level based on the vibration level; a memory for storing a basic noise level, a basic threshold level and a correction value in relation to the number of revolutions per minute of the engine; a calculator for updating the correction value based on the noise level, the basic noise level and a current engine operating condition, and generating a corrected threshold for knock determination based on the basic threshold and the updated correction value; a knock determiner for making a comparison between the vibration level and the corrected threshold and generating a knock determination signal if the vibration level exceeds the corrected threshold; and a controller for controlling, based on the knock determination signal from the knock determiner, an engine control parameter in a direction to suppress knocking. A condition determiner may be further provided for determining whether the engine is in a predetermined operating range suitable for updating the correction value. In this case, the calculator updates the correction value and generates the corrected threshold if the engine is in the predetermined operating range.

Knock suppressing apparatus for internal combustion engine

An ignition system for internal combustion engines has an ignition coil having a primary winding and a secondary winding. The secondary winding supplies a high voltage for ignition to an ignition plug when the ignition coil is energized at the primary winding at a predetermined period. A voltage producing circuit produces a voltage on the basis of a signal developed across the primary winding when the primary winding is energized at a predetermined period. The voltage causes discharge across the electrodes of the ignition plug to form a path for an ion current developed in the cylinder. A comparator or detector detects the ion current to determine the combustion in a cylinder.

Ignition system for internal combustion engines

A capacitor is connected to an ignition coil for an internal combustion engine so as to be charged by ignition current generated by the ignition coil. After firing of a spark plug in a cylinder by the ignition current, the voltage across the capacitor is applied between the center electrode and the ground electrode of the spark plug to induce an ionic current between the electrodes. The resulting ionic current is measured by a current sensor connected to the capacitor.

Ionic current sensing apparatus

A control apparatus can electronically control the operation of a multi-cylinder engine in a precise manner. A first signal generator 1 and a second signal generator 2 are provided on a camshaft operatively connected with a crankshaft for generating a cylinder identifying signal SC and a reference position signal ST, respectively, in synchronism with the rotation of the camshaft. A pulse signal generator 6 or 12 is provided on a crankshaft for generating a pulse signal P of a high frequency in synchronism with the rotation of the crankshaft. The reference position signal ST contains a series of pulses each indicative of a first and a second reference position for each cylinder which are modified by counting the number of pulses in the pulse signal P to provide exact reference positions. A microcomputer 5 or 15 controls the engine based on the exact reference positions of each cylinder thus obtained. In a modified form, instead of two signal generators 1, 2, a single signal generator 11 is employed which is provided on the camshaft for generating a single signal SCT which contains a series of pulses having different pulse widths corresponding to different cylinders. The signal SCT and the pulse signal P are input via an AND gate 17 to a counter 16 where the number of pulses in the pulse signal P during the pulse width of each pulse of the SCT signal is counted for cylinder identification.

Control apparatus for a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine

A combustion detecting apparatus for an internal combustion engine capable of discriminatively detecting the state of combustion, normal combustion or abnormal combustion such as misfiring, from each other. By applying a voltage of positive polarity to a spark plug for each engine cylinder, an ion current of negative polarity, which is generated upon combustion of a mixture in the cylinder, is detected. Subsequently, the detected ion current signal of negative polarity is transformed to a signal of positive polarity which is then subjected to waveform shaping by using comparators to obtain an ion current detection output signal which is utilized in making decision as to occurrence of misfiring. By making use of the ion current of negative polarity, a high signal level is realized to detect the state of combustion with high reliability even in a high speed or under a heavy load of the engine. By providing a low pass filter which can pass only a shaped signal component having a duration longer than a predetermined time, noise components usually of a short duration can be eliminated to improve combustion detection.

Combustion detecting apparatus for internal combustion engine

A pressure sensor comprising a hollow main body (11) defining a bore (14) extending therethrough and having a detection end and an output end. A pressure sensing assembly is disposed within said bore (14) to divide it into a detection cavity (17) and an output cavity (18) through which output signal lines from said pressure sensing assembly extend. A flexible diaphragm (19) is attached to the detection end of the bore to define a sealed detection cavity (17) in which a pressure transmitting liquid is filled. The pressure sensing assembly comprises support plate (24) welded to said main body (11) and supporting a pressure sensing element (26) within said detection cavity (17) through a mounting bed (4). The signal lines sealingly extend through said support plate (24) from said detection cavity (17) to said output cavity (18).

Pressure sensor

Growing community of inventors

Himeji, Japan

Toshio Iwata