Patents Examined by John K. Ford
  • Patent number: 7665513
    Abstract: A heat exchanger structure of an automatic transmission stabilizing a temperature of oil is provided. A heat exchanger structure of an automatic transmission includes an automatic transmission, a first heat exchanger provided on an upstream side and a second heat exchanger provided on a downstream side, each capable of cooling oil ejected from the automatic transmission, and a thermo valve capable of supplying oil subject to heat exchange by at least one of first and second heat exchangers to the automatic transmission. When a temperature of the oil is relatively low, the thermo valve supplies oil passed through the first heat exchanger to the automatic transmission and shuts off a flow of oil from the second heat exchanger to the automatic transmission. When a temperature of the oil is relatively high, the thermo valve supplies oil passed through first and second heat exchangers to the automatic transmission.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2010
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kazumichi Sasaki
  • Patent number: 7661469
    Abstract: A method of cooling a plurality of devices operated in parallel and heated by relatively long duration pulses using a single coolant flow channel to the devices in series that transports the heat from the several devices in a contiguous series of heat pulses to the heat exchanger.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2010
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventor: James P. O'Loughlin
  • Patent number: 7664977
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method for cooling a CPU. The method includes the steps of: setting a passive cooling mode; setting a critical temperature and a reference temperature that is lower than the critical temperature; setting a plurality of temperature intervals between the reference temperature and the critical temperature; predetermining a duty cycle corresponding to each temperature interval; detecting a current temperature of the CPU; comparing the current temperature with the reference temperature and the critical temperature; entering into the passive cooling mode if the current temperature is between the reference temperature and the critical temperature; confirming which temperature interval the current temperature falls in; confirming a corresponding predetermined duty cycle according to the temperature interval; and switching the CPU between a working status and a sleeping status according to the confirmed predetermined duty cycle. A related system is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2010
    Assignees: Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd., Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Fei-Zhou Wang
  • Patent number: 7654307
    Abstract: An automotive air conditioning system is disclosed comprising an evaporative cooler in series with the conventional vapor compression system. The evaporative cooler comprises an array of dry channels and a contiguous array of wet channels. The primary air stream to be conditioned by the evaporator of the conventional air conditioning system is preconditioned by the evaporative cooler by lowering its dry bulb temperature without changing its absolute humidity. An evaporator core is supported downstream of the evaporative cooler for receiving the primary air from the dry channels and thereby produces liquid condensate. The system is distinguished by conducting the liquid condensate from the evaporator core to the wicking tank for use in the wet channels of the evaporative cooler.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: Delphi Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mohinder Singh Bhatti, Ilya Reyzin, Kurt Dale Hollasch
  • Patent number: 7654312
    Abstract: The invention relates to a heating and/or cooling system (2) for a motor vehicle with a combustion engine (4) and a catalytic converter (8) arranged in the exhaust gas path (6) of the combustion engine (4), comprising a burner (10) attached before the catalytic converter (8) to the exhaust gas path (6) as well as a heat exchanger (12) for transmitting heat generated in the burner (10) to a heating and/or cooling circuit (28) of the motor vehicle. It is proposed that the heat exchanger (12) be arranged behind the catalytic converter (8) in the exhaust gas path (6) of the combustion engine (4) and can be acted upon through the catalytic converter (8) with hot combustion gases from the burner (10).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: Michael Baeuerle, Klaus Ries-Mueller
  • Patent number: 7654308
    Abstract: A heat exchanger which has a base plate and several carrier plates projecting from the base plate. At least one cooling element is located on each carrier plate. The cooling elements have a substrate with an underside and an upper side. Webs project from the upper side of the substrate and lie one behind the other, the height of which is less than the distance between adjacent webs. The substrate has a plurality of regularly arranged channels that extend through the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2010
    Assignee: NFT Nanofiltertechnik GmbH
    Inventor: Wilfried Hofmann
  • Patent number: 7637308
    Abstract: The heating plate (1) has cavities (2), in which electrically heatable heating bodies (3) are disposed. A heat exchange medium circulated by a pump (4) transmits the heat emitted by the heating bodies (3). The heating plate is designed to obtain a uniform temperature distribution using as low a volume of heat exchange medium as possible. To this end, the cavities (2) are elongate and the heating bodies (3) are bar-shaped.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2009
    Assignee: Swiss Sustainable Systems AG
    Inventors: Patrick Hofer-Noser, Jürg Zahnd, Christoph Boos
  • Patent number: 7610910
    Abstract: A building component system includes a building component that is controllable between a first state and a second state in response to a sensed condition. The system may include a sensor on a first side of the building component and a sensor on the second side of the building component. The building component may be a window that is controllable between an opaque state and a clear state by a micro electromechanical system (MEMS) network that senses the conditions on both sides of the window.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2009
    Assignee: Siemens Building Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Osman Ahmed
  • Patent number: 7607474
    Abstract: An air-conditioning apparatus for a vehicle, in which a temperature in a vehicle interior is automatically adjusted under a stable driving mode in which a difference between the temperature in the vehicle interior and a set temperature is lesser than a predetermined value or a transitional driving mode in which the difference is larger than the predetermined value so that the temperature in the vehicle interior approaches to the set temperature when an amount of solar radiation in the vehicle interior is one of parameters, the apparatus including a detecting device provided in the vehicle interior and configured to detect the amount of solar radiation, and a correcting device for correcting the amount of solar radiation detected by the detecting means to obtain a corrected amount of solar radiation, the corrected amount of solar radiation being used as a parameter of the amount of solar radiation for adjusting the temperature in the vehicle interior, under the stable driving mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2009
    Assignee: Calsonic Kansei Corporation
    Inventor: Tomohiro Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 7604045
    Abstract: Provided is an air conditioner for a vehicle, including a blower unit that blows air, an air conditioning case including an evaporator and a heater core, which are sequentially disposed in an airflow path, and an air inlet path that allows air to flow to an evaporator from the blower unit, wherein the airflow path includes a first path that allows air entered from the air inlet path to flow to a lower part of the evaporator and second and third paths that allow the air to flow to the lower part of the evaporator after passing through both sides of the evaporator. The air conditioner increases an amount of airflow and reduces airflow resistance since airflow paths are formed on both sides of the evaporator in addition to a direction perpendicular to the separator. Consequently, the airflow entering a lower part of the evaporator can be uniformly distributed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2009
    Assignee: Halla Climate Control Corporation
    Inventor: Seong Seck Han
  • Patent number: 7594536
    Abstract: An EGR cooler including tubes and a shell enclosing the tubes. Cooling water is supplied into and discharged from the shell. Exhaust gas is guided from a diesel engine into the tubes for thermal exchange of the exhaust gas with the cooling water. A bypass flow path for guiding the cooling water is constituted within the shell so as to prevent stagnation of the cooling water in the shell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2009
    Assignees: Hino Motors, Ltd., Sankyo Radiator Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Sugihara, Makoto Tsujita, Yoji Yamashita, Naoto Miwa, Junji Honma
  • Patent number: 7565924
    Abstract: An air handling system for an indoor space comprising a first forced indoor air treatment component, an input indoor air duct element and an output treated air duct element respectively coupling said first forced indoor air treatment component to said indoor space, a second forced air treatment component a stale air duct element coupled to said second forced air treatment component and to said input indoor air duct, a return air duct element coupling said second forced air treatment component to said output treated air duct element characterized in that said system comprises a secondary air path means for coupling said return air duct element to said input indoor air duct element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2009
    Assignee: Venmar Ventilation Inc.
    Inventors: Martin Gagnon, Daniel Marcoux, Michel Julien, Jean-Bernard Piaud, Eric Charlebois
  • Patent number: 7562698
    Abstract: An air-conditioning system for a vehicle having an engine adapted to stop idling on predetermined stop conditions of the vehicle, which system comprises an electric motor for driving a refrigerant compressor when the engine idling is stopped, motor speed control means for controlling the speed of the motor in correspondence with an evaporator outlet temperature, and evaporator temperature correction means for, when the engine idling is stopped while outside air is being introduced, correcting the evaporator outlet temperature to a lower temperature in correspondence with a temperature of the outside air and a temperature of engine cooling water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2009
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tsutomu Fujiki, Shinji Yasuno
  • Patent number: 7559356
    Abstract: A heat transfer system comprising a primary heat exchanger for receiving heat from a heat source; a secondary heat exchanger for exhausting heat to a heat sink; a conduit connecting the primary heat exchanger and the secondary heat exchanger; and an electrokinetic pump for pumping a heat exchange fluid between the primary heat exchanger and the secondary heat exchanger through the conduit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2009
    Assignee: Eksident Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Phillip H. Paul, Deon S. Anex, Don W. Arnold
  • Patent number: 7556091
    Abstract: A heating heat exchanger in a coolant circuit for motor vehicles is provided whereby the air to be heated can be additionally heated by a refrigerant circuit, operable as heat pump or short circuit, for additional heating. A gas cooler/condenser for the additional heating operation and a functionally separated evaporator for the cooling plant operation of the refrigerant circuit are provided. The heat exchanger surfaces of the gas cooler/condenser for the additional heating operation are integrated into the heating heat exchanger and an additional heating operation the air to be heated is simultaneously heated by the heating heat exchanger and the gas cooler/condenser.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2009
    Assignee: Visteon Global Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Roman Heckt, Dragi Antonijevic
  • Patent number: 7556090
    Abstract: When a target blown air temperature TAO is in a predetermined intermediate temperature zone, a blower is automatically stopped (S80), an outside air mode is selected when the blower 8 is automatically stopped. When an outside air temperature Tam is a first predetermined temperature (15° C.) or lower, an opening degree of an air mix door is corrected to a high temperature side in comparison with the time of the operation of the blower (S120), and when the outside air temperature Tam is a second predetermined temperature (25° C.) or higher, the opening degree of the air mix door is corrected to the low temperature side in comparison with the time of the operation of the blower (S130).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2009
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Norio Asai, Yuji Honda
  • Patent number: 7546868
    Abstract: An air conditioner housing having an evaporation device, a heating device, an air control device, an interior space in which air flow paths are formed, and having a housing which surrounds the interior space, is proposed. The air conditioner housing (1) is defined in that a first air flow path (15) and a second air flow path (17) are formed, and in that the air control device (9) has at least two mixing flaps (11, 13), a first mixing flap (11) of which is designed to the first air flow path (15), and a second mixing flap (13) of which is assigned to the second airflow path (17), and in that the mixing flaps (11, 13) each completely open the assigned air flow path (15, 17) in a first functional position and completely close it in a second functional position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2009
    Assignees: Behr GmbH & Co. KG, Behr France S.A.R.L.
    Inventors: Henri Klein, Evripidis Koukouravas
  • Patent number: 7540321
    Abstract: An air conditioner for a vehicle includes a housing for defining an air passage, and the air passage has a main passage and first and second separate passages branched from the main passage. The first separate passage is provided for leading air from the main passage to a front area of a passenger compartment, and the second separate passage is provided for leading air from the main passage to a rear area of the passenger compartment. Furthermore, an evaporator is disposed in the main passage of the housing, and a heat exchanger is disposed in the main passage at a downstream air side of the evaporator in a part area of the main passage. In the air conditioner, a control member is provided to adjust an air flow from the evaporator into the first separate passage and an air flow from the heating heat exchanger into the first separate passage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2009
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, DENSO Automotive Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Wolfgang Simmet, Kenji Matsui, Kotaro Suda
  • Patent number: 7533718
    Abstract: An air-conditioning device and an air conditioning method make it possible to reduce the problem that, on entry in a tunnel with a warm internal temperature, in the case of otherwise cold outside temperatures as a result of which, inter alia, the vehicle windowpanes and exterior mirror surfaces are cooled, this cold windowpane and exterior mirror surfaces, the surface temperature of which is lower than the dew-point temperature of the warm air in the tunnel interior, immediately fog up, since the absolute humidity on the surface then corresponds to more than 100% relative humidity. The air-conditioning device according to the invention and the air-conditioning method according to the invention use data supplied by already existing sensors and relating to the ambient weather, for example temperature data from an outside temperature sensor and moisture data from a dew-point sensor, in order to detect weather which is critical to this fogging.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2009
    Assignee: Daimler AG
    Inventor: Wolfgang Straub
  • Patent number: 7530390
    Abstract: The invention relates to an air conditioner for a motor vehicle, comprising a coolant circuit (1) that is provided with several heat-transferring devices through which a coolant can be directed, a heat-transferring device (12) also being part of a coolant circuit. Coolant is redirected from portions of the coolant circuit (1), which are shut down during heating, into a portion of the coolant circuit (1), which is active during heating, as required. Also disclosed is a method for operating such an air conditioner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2009
    Assignee: BEHR GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Günther Feuerecker, Andreas Kemle