The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 09, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 20, 2001
Jun Yamada, Ageo, JP;
Yoshiaki Yamada, Ageo, JP;
Yoshito Watanabe, Ageo, JP;
Masakazu Sasaki, Ageo, JP;
Nissan Diesel Co., Ltd., Saitama, JP;
Abstract
In a hybrid drive device which drives an electrical motor with electrical power from a storage device and/or from a generator driven by an engine, a secondary battery is generally used as the storage device. However, the storage device must be replaced at fixed intervals due to a short battery life. In addition, the low charging/discharging efficiency of a secondary battery limits improvements in fuel economy of the drive device. The present invention avoids these shortcomings by providing a storage device that includes a condenser bank with a plurality of condenser cells connected in series, parallel monitors which are connected in parallel to each condenser cell and which bypasses the charging current when the respective terminal voltages exceed a fixed value, and a switching converter with fixed current output characteristics which controls the charging electrical power to the condenser bank. This arrangement allows the present invention to realize improvements in fuel economy and reductions in the running costs of a hybrid drive device.