Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyota Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho

Hoshizaki Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyota Jidosha Kaisha

Nippondenso Co., Ltd., 1-1

Yutaka Suzuki

Nobuhito Hobo

Osamu Ito

Yoshihiko Tsuzuki

Eiju Matsunaga

Yuji Yokoya

Makoto Shiozaki

Yasuhiro Tsutsumi

Yoshimichi Hara

Akira Fukami

Hiroyuki Kawata

Toshinobu Ishida

Itsushi Kawamoto

Masaharu Sumiyoshi

Satoshi Haseda

Takashi Hasegawa

Yoshimune Konishi

Takashi Naitou

Masatoshi Kuroyanagi

Akira Masuda

Tetsuya Nakamura

Hiroki Nakajima

Mikio Kumano

Yasumasa Hagiwara

Hironari Nukata

Kenro Sekino

Takashi Naito

Yoshirou Tomioka

Daisaku Sawada

Taro Tanaka

Hideaki Sasaya

Kenji Goto

Nobuyoshi Onogi

Sigeru Kamiya

Takashi Shigematu

Shigeru Kamiya

Tetsuo Soshiroda

Yuji Takeda

Suguru Sato

Kimikazu Ikemoto

Michio Iyoda

Youzou Majima

Yoshinobu Omiya

Kuniaki Matsui

Shinichiro Nakamura

Nizo Enomoto

Yoshiki Tanaka

Masaru Adachi

Yuzo Kawakami

Tsuneharu Mori

Tomohiro Kase

Kouichi Makii

Akira Hukami

Shinichirou Nakamura

Yoshihiko Huruya

Kazuo Takasou

Takehiko Takahashi

Shingo Nishimura

Kazuhiro Sano

Takashi Hisegawa

Yoshichika Yamada

Kiyotoshi Yano

A plurality of freezing cells opening downwardly are defined like a grid in a freezing chamber of an injection type ice making machine. The freezing chamber, which is made of a metal having good thermal conductivity, is coated on the surface with a material containing a substance having an antibacterial substance. Contaminant-free ice cubes are adapted to be formed by the thus formed coating layer. As a material of this coating layer, a melt of tin (96.5%) and silver (3.5%) can be suitably used.

Ice making machine

Disclosed are alloying elements and microstructures suited for realizing a marked increase in strength of low-carbon or ultra-low-carbon steel plate using a high-density energy source such as a laser. Steel blanks satisfying both high formability and high strength requirements are provided which show sufficient press formability and yet can be markedly increased in strength by laser treatment or which have been markedly increased in strength by laser treatment in areas not to be subjected to severe forming.

Process of Producing high-formability steel plate with a great potential

The object of the present invention is to provide an aluminum plate for fabrication which has an excellent formability, easy degrease after fabrication, coating properties, and less tendency of flawing, in which the aluminum plate for fabrication which is plated, and coated with a lubricant containing (A) a fatty acid ester of polyol, (B) an alkaline or alkaline metal salt of sulfonate, and (C) a controlling agent, and having saponification value of 20 or more.

Aluminum plate excellent in formability

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for each wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force change rate detector which detects a damping force change rate indicating a rate of change of a damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping force controller which alters the setting of the damping force on the basis of a relationship between the damping force change rate and an adjustment reference value. The system also includes a road surface condition detector which detects a condition of a road surface on which the vehicle is running on the basis of a change of the damping force of the shock absorber. Further, the system includes a damping force adjustment correcting unit which corrects the adjustment reference value by learning the adjustment reference value on the basis of a parameter related to the damping force of the shock absorber which reflects the condition of the road surface.

Suspension control system

A piercing die including a punch and a die cooperating with each other to effect a piercing operation on a metallic workpiece sheet, the punch having an outer peripheral edge having a closed profile at a working end thereof. The outer peripheral edge of the punch has a first and a second chamfered portion which are formed such that the amount of chamfer of the first chamfered portion is larger than that of the second chamfered portion. The first and second chamfered portions are formed along large-curvature and small-curvature portions of the closed profile of the punch, respectively, and/or along acute and obtuse outer peripheral portions of the punch whose working end face is inclined with respect to the direction perpendicular to the piercing direction. A piercing method using the punch and die is also included.

Piercing die whose punch has different amounts of chamfer at different

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for a wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force detector which generates a damping force detection signal which indicates a change of a damping force of the shock absorber based on a condition of a road surface on which the vehicle is running. The system also includes a sprung resonance component extraction unit which extracts a sprung resonance component signal from the damping force detection signal. The sprung resonance component signal includes components having frequencies around a sprung resonance frequency of the shock absorber. Further, the system includes a determining part which determines whether or not the sprung resonance component signal exceeds a first level range provided for detecting a sign of the occurrence of a long-term vehicle vibration and which outputs a determination result. Moreover, the system includes a damping force controller which controls the shock absorber so that when the determining part determines that the sprung resonance component signal exceeds the first level range, the damping force of the shock absorber is altered to and maintained at an increased level and thus the suspension is maintained at a state which corresponds to the increased level and which is harder than before.

The expanding/contracting accelerations of shock absorbers on a motor vehicle are detected and compared with preset accelerations, respectively, by an electronic controller, which individually varies the damping forces of the shock absorbers as a result of the comparison. The electronic controller corrects the preset accelerations so that the damping forces of the shock absorbers will be switched over at a uniform frequency or the damping forces of the front left and rear left shock absorbers and the damping forces of the front right and rear right shock absorbers will be switched over at a constant frequency.

A system for controlling damping force of shock absorbers by adaptively

A suspension control system for controlling a suspension having a shock absorber provided for a wheel of a vehicle includes a damping force change rate detector which detects a damping force change rate indicating a rate of change of a damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping force controller which alters the setting of the damping force on the basis of the relationship between the damping force change rate and an adjustment reference value. The system also includes a road surface condition detector which detects, for every first period, the condition of a road surface on which the vehicle is running on the basis of a change of the damping force of the shock absorber, and a damping force adjustment correcting unit which corrects the adjustment reference value by learning, for every second period, the adjustment reference value on the basis of a parameter related to the damping force of the shock absorber which reflects the condition of the road surface. Further, the system includes a period adjustment unit which adjusts the first period on the basis of a vehicle speed.

A shock absorber control system having shock absorbers provided respectively between wheels of a vehicle and a body thereof includes road surface condition detecting units provided for the respective shock absorbers, and damping force characteristic alteration units provided for the respective shock absorbers. The shock absorber control system also includes a correction unit for separately generating signals indicative of detection characteristics of the road surface condition detecting units provided for the respective shock absorbers on the basis of road surface condition detection signals generated by the road surface condition detecting units and for separately correcting either reference values used for determining whether or not the road surface is rough by the damping force characteristic alteration units or the road surface condition detection signals on the basis of the detection characteristics of the road surface condition detecting units provided for the respective shock absorbers.

Shock absorber control system

A variable-damping-force shock absorber includes a piezoelectric actuator for producing a displacement, a hydraulic pressure chamber filled with a working oil and having a volume variable in response to the displacement produced by said piezoelectric actuator, and a plunger slidably disposed in a sleeve and reciprocally movable in response to a change in the volume of said hydraulic pressure chamber. The sleeve and said plunger define therebetween a gap communicating with said hydraulic pressure chamber. A supply passage for supplying a working oil from an external working oil source into said hydraulic pressure chamber extends through the gap. A leakage of the working oil from the hydraulic pressure chamber through the gap can automatically be compensated for by working oil supplied through the supply passage. Since the working oil leaks from and is supplied into the hydraulic pressure chamber through the gap, the leakage and supply of the working oil are kept in equilibrium.

Hydraulically operated displacement transmission mechanism for shock

A damping force detecting apparatus for detecting a damping force of a variable damping force type shock absorber including a cylinder and a piston slidably inserted thereinto. The damping force detecting apparatus comprises a piezoelectric element assembly for generating a charge corresponding to a pressure applied thereto and a pressurizing device for pressurizing the piezoelectric element assembly. The piezoelectric element assembly has a diameter smaller than a cylindrical piston rod fixedly secured to the piston and is housed therein. The pressurizing device is screwed into the piston rod so as to be in contact relation to the piezoelectric element assembly for pressurizing the piezoelectric element assembly in correspondance with a distortion of the piston rod generated in the sliding directions of the piston with respect to the cylinder due to expanding and contracting action of the shock absorber.

Detection of damping force for shock absorber control

A shock absorber system for controlling the damping forces of shock absorbers comprising a drive apparatus for operating a piezo-actuator which is constructed by laminating a plurality of piezoelectric elements. The drive apparatus comprises a high-voltage generation circuit for generating a high voltage and a charging and discharging circuit for applying the high voltage, generated by the high-voltage generation circuit, to the piezo-actuator and for discharging an electric charge charged in the piezo-actuator due to the application of the high voltage thereto, the charging and discharging results in expansion and contraction of the piezo-actuator. Also included in the drive apparatus is an abnormality detection circuit for detecting a charging current or a discharging current passing through a charging or discharging current passage coupled to the piezo-actuator at the time of charging or discharging by the charging and discharging circuit. The abnormality detection circuit determines an abnormality of the drive apparatus when the detected charging current or discharging current is below a predetermined value.

Piezo-actuator shock absorber damping force controlling system having

An apparatus for controlling a damping force of a shock absorber provided between a wheel of a vehicle and a body thereof includes a road surface condition detecting unit for detecting a roughness of a road surface on which the vehicle is traveling, and a damping force characteristic alteration unit for altering the setting of the damping force of the shock absorber on the basis of the roughness of the road surface detected by the road surface condition detecting unit. The apparatus also includes a damping force detecting unit, for detecting a magnitude of the damping force of the shock absorber, and an alteration speed control unit for controlling, on the basis of the magnitude of the damping force detected by the damping force detecting unit, an alteration speed at which the setting of the damping force is altered so that the alteration speed decreases as the magnitude of the damping force increases.

Apparatus for controlling damping force of shock absorber

A suspension control system controls suspensions provided for wheels of a vehicle includes a driving condition detecting part for detecting a driving condition of the vehicle, and a determination part for determining whether or not the driving condition detected by the driving condition detecting part coincides with a predetermined driving condition. The suspensions are grouped into a plurality of groups. Also the system includes a control part for separately controlling the suspensions on the basis of the driving condition when the determination part determines that the driving condition does not coincide with the predetermined driving condition and for controlling the suspensions for each of the groups so that the suspensions in an identical group are set to an identical condition when the determination part determines that the driving condition coincides with the predetermined driving condition.

A drive system of a piezo-type actuator for use in a motor vehicle, which piezo-type actuator is constructed with a piezoelectric device which is expandable and contractible in accordance with application of a voltage thereto. The drive system includes a voltage-increasing section for increasing an output voltage of a power source mounted on the motor vehicle so as to develop a drive voltage for the piezo-type actuator and a voltage-application section for applying to the piezoelectric device of the piezo-type actuator the drive voltage. Also included in the drive system is an abnormality detection section which is arranged so as to an abnormality of the drive voltage developed by the voltage-increasing section. A safety controller is responsive to an abnormality signal from the abnormality detection section for prohibiting the application of the drive voltage to the piezoelectric device thereof and further discharging charges accumulated in the piezoelectric device thereof when the abnormality detection section detects the abnormality of the developed drive voltage. With this arrangement, it is possible to prevent troubles due to the abnormality of the drive voltage to be applied to the piezoelectric device of the piezo-type actuator.

Drive system of actuator having piezoelectric device for use in motor

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Nishio, Japan

Yutaka Suzuki