Patents by Inventor Eiji Kittaka
Eiji Kittaka has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 8042419Abstract: An outer circumference of a shift drum of a vehicle transmission is provided with at least one particular lead groove among multiple lead grooves which continuously extends beyond one circle of the shift drum. Two ends of the particular lead groove are arranged so as to be out of alignment with each other in the axial direction of the shift drum. A common shift position adapted to establish gear trains with two shift stages different from each other is set at one position corresponding to the two ends of the particular lead groove along the circumferential direction of the shift drum. The resulting configuration prevents an increase in the diameter of a shift drum and eliminates the significant change of the shape of a lead groove, even as the number of shift positions set on the shift drum is increased.Type: GrantFiled: March 25, 2008Date of Patent: October 25, 2011Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Kinya Mizuno, Hiromi Sumi, Masako Takahashi, Masaki Kobayashi, Eiji Kittaka
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Patent number: 7966902Abstract: A vehicular transmission includes a shift drum center with a plurality of gear train establishment notches disposed, equally spaced apart from each other, on the outer periphery thereof. The gear train establishment notches establish a specific gear train selected from among a plurality of gear trains by selectively engaging a drum stopper arm therein. The shift drum center further includes half neutral notches to be engaged with the drum stopper arm. The half neutral notches are disposed on the outer periphery of the shift drum center and at a central portion between each pair of the gear train establishment notches, respectively. The resulting configuration effectively suppresses an engagement noise during changing of a gear position through a sliding motion of a shifter.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 2007Date of Patent: June 28, 2011Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Hiroshi Sotani, Kinya Mizuno, Seiji Hamaoka, Eiji Kittaka
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Patent number: 7926373Abstract: A vehicular transmission for an internal combustion engine includes lead grooves disposed on an outer periphery of a shift drum having communication portions connecting a pair of gear train establishment portions extending circumferentially along the shift drum. The communication portions include half neutral portions formed at a center thereof, extending circumferentially along the shift drum. The resulting configuration suppresses an engagement noise to a minimum during changing of a gear position through a sliding motion of a shifter.Type: GrantFiled: September 26, 2007Date of Patent: April 19, 2011Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Hiroshi Sotani, Kinya Mizuno, Seiji Hamaoka, Eiji Kittaka
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Patent number: 7775133Abstract: A vehicle transmission includes first and second main shafts that enable switching of power transmission from an engine; a counter shaft connected to a drive wheel; and gear trains with a plurality of shift stages provided between each of the first and second main shafts and the counter shaft. The vehicle transmission also includes shifters which switch between engagement with and disengagement from a gear constituting part of each of the gear trains so as to switch the established states of the gear trains, and to prevent, during running at the most frequently used shift stage, the occurrence of gear rattle produced by a gear train other than the gear train with such a shift stage. With this configuration, in the running state of using a particular gear train with the highest frequency of the established states among the gear trains, the gear trains, excluding the particular gear train, are in the non-established state.Type: GrantFiled: March 6, 2008Date of Patent: August 17, 2010Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Kinya Mizuno, Hiroshi Sotani, Seiji Hamaoka, Eiji Kittaka, Kazuhiro Yasuda
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Patent number: 7765886Abstract: An automatic transmission that includes oil passages with a simple structure provided for twin clutches can allow the number of production steps to be reduced. The automatic transmission includes a number of gear trains equal to the number of speeds between a primary shaft and a countershaft. The automatic transmission performs connection and disconnection of a rotational driving force between a crankshaft and a gearbox by means of twin hydraulic clutches including first and second clutches, which are made of the same components and disposed on the axis of the primary shaft back to back. Oil passages can be formed into a more simple shape and can be configured to have the same total length. The first clutch performs connection and disconnection for first and third speeds, and the second clutch performs connection and disconnection for second and fourth speeds.Type: GrantFiled: March 30, 2006Date of Patent: August 3, 2010Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Yoshiaki Hori, Toshiyuki Sato, Eiji Kittaka
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Patent number: 7757655Abstract: A crankcase structure of an internal combustion engine has a desirable shaft support achieved by maintaining the strength of a side wall of a crankcase at a high level without increasing the weight and the size of the internal combustion engine even when the internal combustion engine has an output shaft projecting from the crankcase. A crankcase structure has a crankshaft and a counter shaft that are rotatably supported on a partitioning plane of a crankcase. A main shaft is oriented in the fore-and-aft direction and is rotatably supported on opposed front and rear walls of either one of the upper and lower crankcases. An output shaft to be driven by a power of the counter shaft penetrates through the front and rear walls of one of the upper and lower crankcases by which the main shaft is not rotatably supported, and projects to the front and rear.Type: GrantFiled: September 24, 2007Date of Patent: July 20, 2010Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Hiroatsu Inui, Hiromi Sumi, Eiji Kittaka
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Patent number: 7752936Abstract: An automatic transmission assembly having a transmission unit including a plurality of gear pairs, a shift drum, a pair of clutches; and a controller. The controller performs a preliminary upshifting action in advance for angularly moving the shift drum depending on a next gear position in an upshifting direction while rotary drive power is being maintained at a given gear position, and when an upshifting command is output, the controller engages one of the clutches simultaneously with the command. When a downshifting command is output, the controller performs a preliminary downshifting action in advance based on the downshifting command. The partially neutral positions are provided between predetermined angular positions on the shift drum for temporarily reducing the angular speed of the shift drum when the shift drum is being angularly rotated.Type: GrantFiled: February 19, 2008Date of Patent: July 13, 2010Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Masaki Kobayashi, Seiji Hamaoka, Kinya Mizuno, Eiji Kittaka, Yusuke Funayose, Kazuhiko Sakaguchi, Hiroshi Tanaka
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Patent number: 7717223Abstract: An output shaft of a power unit having a driven gear for supplying a power of an internal combustion engine via a transmission mechanism and for outputting the power to an outside of a unit case. Borne members are connected respectively at each end of a cylindrical member of the output shaft. The borne members are rotatably supported by the unit case via a pair of bearings. The driven gear is fitted to one of the borne members in a position adjacent to one of the bearings. As a result, the output shaft of the power unit can be manufactured by a compact manufacturing apparatus, and the output shaft can be reduced in weight while maintaining the strength.Type: GrantFiled: September 21, 2007Date of Patent: May 18, 2010Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Hiroatsu Inui, Shinya Koyama, Hiromi Sumi, Eiji Kittaka, Hiroyuki Oketani
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Publication number: 20100082210Abstract: A shift controller for a motor vehicle includes an electric motor configured to rotate a shift drum associated with a transmission. An oil temperature sensor is configured to detect temperature of lubricating oil for the transmission. A controller is configured to control the electric motor. The controller controls the electric motor to operate in a preset first motor duty until a first predetermined time elapses after operation of the electric motor is started when the shift drum is turned from a first predetermined position to a second predetermined position. The controller is also configured to operate the electric motor in a second motor duty calculated based upon oil temperature after the first predetermined time elapses.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 18, 2009Publication date: April 1, 2010Applicant: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.Inventors: Masaki Kobayashi, Kenichi Machida, Eiji Kittaka, Seiji Hamaoka
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Publication number: 20100081547Abstract: A shift controller with a first clutch CL1 that connects/disconnects the torque to a first main shaft and a second clutch CL2 connects/disconnects the torque to a second main shaft. A transmission is configured so that dog clutches DC1, DC2 for first speed and for second speed are engaged in a predetermined turned position P1-2 of a shift drum. A linear solenoid valve that supplies clutch oil pressure, a shift solenoid that switches a destination of the supply oil pressure between both clutches and a controller that controls the supply oil pressure and the turning of the shift drum are provided. The controller supplies predetermined oil pressure P1 to the CL2 in neutral, switches the destination of supply oil pressure to the CL1 when the shift drum is turned to P1-2 according to a shift instruction to engage gears and supplies maximum oil pressure P3 to the CL1 in predetermined time ta.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 2, 2009Publication date: April 1, 2010Inventors: Masaki KOBAYASHI, Kenichi Machida, Eiji Kittaka, Seiji Hamaoka
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Patent number: 7631570Abstract: A transmission includes a first shifting part and a second shifting part which shift power of an internal combustion engine, a first shift clutch transmitting and interrupting the power to the first shifting part, and a second shift clutch transmitting and interrupting the power to the second shifting part, and a selection mechanism which selects gear steps. The selection mechanism includes three shifters that are respectively guided by cam grooves of a single shift drum through shift forks. The shifters can be respectively moved to selection positions where the gear steps are selected and to neutral positions where the gear steps are not selected in the first shifting part and the second shifting part. The cam grooves guide the shifters to the selection positions in each of the first shifting part and the second shifting part for each of predetermined rotational positions of the shift drum.Type: GrantFiled: September 27, 2006Date of Patent: December 15, 2009Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Kinya Mizuno, Yasushi Fujimoto, Seiji Hamaoka, Eiji Kittaka
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Publication number: 20090188765Abstract: In a clutch device wherein a plurality of clutch plates are relatively non-rotatably engaged with a clutch outer, a plurality of clutch disks disposed alternately with the clutch plates are relatively non-rotatably engaged with a clutch inner, and an end plate disposed so that the clutch plates and the clutch disks are disposed between itself and a piston slidably fitted in the clutch outer is relatively non-rotatably and axially movably supported on the clutch outer in the manner of being restricted in movement toward one end side in the axial direction, to prevent the clutch inner from coming out of position at the time of assembling the clutch device into position, thereby to enhance workability in the assembling operation, and to prevent the clutch inner from generating a collision sound by colliding against other member than the component members of the clutch device when the clutch is disengaged.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 22, 2009Publication date: July 30, 2009Inventors: Kinya MIZUNO, Seiji Hamaoka, Eiji Kittaka, Kazuhiro Yasuda
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Publication number: 20080257298Abstract: A crankcase structure of an internal combustion engine has a desirable shaft support achieved by maintaining the strength of a side wall of a crankcase at a high level without increasing the weight and the size of the internal combustion engine even when the internal combustion engine has an output shaft projecting from the crankcase. A crankcase structure has a crankshaft and a counter shaft that are rotatably supported on a partitioning plane of a crankcase. A main shaft is oriented in the fore-and-aft direction and is rotatably supported on opposed front and rear walls of either one of the upper and lower crankcases. An output shaft to be driven by a power of the counter shaft penetrates through the front and rear walls of one of the upper and lower crankcases by which the main shaft is not rotatably supported, and projects to the front and rear.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 24, 2007Publication date: October 23, 2008Applicant: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.Inventors: Hiroatsu Inui, Hiromi Sumi, Eiji Kittaka
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Publication number: 20080236316Abstract: An outer circumference of a shift drum of a vehicle transmission is provided with at least one particular lead groove among multiple lead grooves which continuously extends beyond one circle of the shift drum. Two ends of the particular lead groove are arranged so as to be out of alignment with each other in the axial direction of the shift drum. A common shift position adapted to establish gear trains with two shift stages different from each other is set at one position corresponding to the two ends of the particular lead groove along the circumferential direction of the shift drum. The resulting configuration prevents an increase in the diameter of a shift drum and eliminates the significant change of the shape of a lead groove, even as the number of shift positions set on the shift drum is increased.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 25, 2008Publication date: October 2, 2008Inventors: Kinya MIZUNO, Hiromi Sumi, Masako Takahashi, Masaki Kobayashi, Eiji Kittaka
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Publication number: 20080229854Abstract: A vehicle transmission includes first and second main shafts that enable switching of power transmission from an engine; a counter shaft connected to a drive wheel; and gear trains with a plurality of shift stages provided between each of the first and second main shafts and the counter shaft. The vehicle transmission also includes shifters which switch between engagement with and disengagement from a gear constituting part of each of the gear trains so as to switch the established states of the gear trains, and to prevent, during running at the most frequently used shift stage, the occurrence of gear rattle produced by a gear train other than the gear train with such a shift stage. With this configuration, in the running state of using a particular gear train with the highest frequency of the established states among the gear trains, the gear trains, excluding the particular gear train, are in the non-established state.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 6, 2008Publication date: September 25, 2008Inventors: Kinya Mizuno, Hiroshi Sotani, Seiji Hamaoka, Eiji Kittaka, Kazuhiro Yasuda
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Publication number: 20080220936Abstract: An automatic transmission assembly having a transmission unit including a plurality of gear pairs, a shift drum, a pair of clutches; and a controller. The controller performs a preliminary upshifting action in advance for angularly moving the shift drum depending on a next gear position in an upshifting direction while rotary drive power is being maintained at a given gear position, and when an upshifting command is output, the controller engages one of the clutches simultaneously with the command. When a downshifting command is output, the controller performs a preliminary downshifting action in advance based on the downshifting command. The partially neutral positions are provided between predetermined angular positions on the shift drum for temporarily reducing the angular speed of the shift drum when the shift drum is being angularly rotated.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 19, 2008Publication date: September 11, 2008Applicant: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Masaki Kobayashi, Seiji Hamaoka, Kinya Mizuno, Eiji Kittaka, Yusuke Funayose
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Publication number: 20080184844Abstract: A transmission for a vehicle in which changing a shift position is achieved by sliding a shifter. In sliding the shifter to change the established condition of gear trains respectively corresponding to a plurality of shift positions, the transmission of power from an engine to a main shaft is cut off. A feed mechanism for sliding the shifter is configured to reduce the sliding speed of the shifter or to once stop the sliding operation of the shifter in a neutral condition during the sliding operation of the shifter in changing the established condition of the gear trains. The resulting configuration reduces the engagement noise when changing the shift position.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 26, 2007Publication date: August 7, 2008Inventors: Kinya Mizuno, Kazuhiko Sakaguchi, Eiji Kittaka, Seiji Hamaoka
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Publication number: 20080103020Abstract: A reverse inhibitor mechanism for a transmission of an all terrain vehicle, in which a shift drum is jounalled to a side wall opposite the transmission case so as to be rotatably supported thereon, and a reverse inhibitor arm is detachably engaged with the reverse inhibitor groove formed in the outer circumferential surface of the shift drum to regulate a reverse setting. A reverse inhibitor shaft having the reverse inhibitor arm supported at one end thereof is positioned within the transmission case. The other end of the reverse inhibitor shaft is rotatably journaled to one of the opposite side walls of the transmission case from the inside of the transmission case. A distal end of the reverse inhibitor arm which swings by the rotation of the reverse inhibitor shaft is brought into engagement with the reverse inhibitor groove during assembly of the reverse inhibitor mechanism.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 15, 2007Publication date: May 1, 2008Applicant: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Hiroatsu Inui, Hiromi Sumi, Shinya Koyama, Eiji Kittaka
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Publication number: 20080081725Abstract: A vehicular transmission includes a shift drum center with a plurality of gear train establishment notches disposed, equally spaced apart from each other, on the outer periphery thereof. The gear train establishment notches establish a specific gear train selected from among a plurality of gear trains by selectively engaging a drum stopper arm therein. The shift drum center further includes half neutral notches to be engaged with the drum stopper arm. The half neutral notches are disposed on the outer periphery of the shift drum center and at a central portion between each pair of the gear train establishment notches, respectively. The resulting configuration effectively suppresses an engagement noise during changing of a gear position through a sliding motion of a shifter.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 26, 2007Publication date: April 3, 2008Inventors: Hiroshi Sotani, Kinya Mizuno, Seiji Hamaoka, Eiji Kittaka
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Publication number: 20080078605Abstract: A vehicular transmission for an internal combustion engine includes lead grooves disposed on an outer periphery of a shift drum have communication portions connecting a pair of gear train establishment portions extending circumferentially along the shift drum. The communication portions include half neutral portions formed at a center thereof, extending circumferentially along the shift drum. The resulting configuration suppresses an engagement noise to a minimum during changing of a gear position through a sliding motion of a shifter.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 26, 2007Publication date: April 3, 2008Inventors: Hiroshi Sotani, Kinya Mizuno, Seiji Hamaoka, Eiji Kittaka