Patents by Inventor Bernhard Toepfer

Bernhard Toepfer 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).

  • Patent number: 6460943
    Abstract: A method controls brake pressure for a motor vehicle pressure medium-actuated power brake system in which the adjustment of a proportionality factor (k) between deceleration and brake pressure starting from an initial value (ko) is limited to a range bounded by a lower limit value and an upper limit value in which range the initial value (ko) is contained. This produces a warning travel of the pedal when excessive deviation of the brake pressure from the expected value occurs. The warning travel informs the driver of the braking effect which is deviating excessively from the expected degree. Methods are known in which a specific travel (sp) of the brake pedal is interpreted as a setting of a specific desired deceleration (zs) of the vehicle and the required brake pressure is set automatically if appropriate by incrementally adjusting a variable proportionality factor (k).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2002
    Assignees: DaimlerChrysler AG, Temic Telefunken Microelectronic GmbH
    Inventors: Bernhard Toepfer, Wolfgang Mueller, Michael Reiner, Reinhard Helldoerfer
  • Patent number: 5470134
    Abstract: A method of wear-dependent braking force distribution prevents adhesion problems without being limited to lowest brake pressures as is the case with conventional methods. Wear control is dispensed with only in the case of operationally very rare braking actions, for example, those above 0.3 g or a learned adhesion threshold. These rare braking actions are limited, in practice, to genuinely critical braking situations. Otherwise, the control interventions are carried out with to produce balanced wear only in the long term; an attempt is made to achieve wear at the same rate rather than simply balanced wear.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 28, 1995
    Assignee: Mercedes-Benz AG
    Inventors: Bernhard Toepfer, Michael Reiner, Bodo Klein
  • Patent number: 5011236
    Abstract: A process for load dependent braking regulations (ALB) utilizing components, signal paths and transmitters of an existing anti-lock braking system (ABS) to perform an automatically load-dependent braking function which takes effect well below the locking limit. The brake pressure and consequently the brake distribution are controlled by processing only wheel-speed differences as actual values of an electronic brake-pressure controller instead of absolute wheel slips. To compensate for changing load situations and roadway properties, the precontrollable brake-force distribution and the brake-pressure level control triggerable at the pedal are corrected in a self-learning and adaptive manner. The device for carrying out the ALB process consists essentially of a computer and software program using input from the ABS systems. The process according to the invention makes axle-load sensors superfluous.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 1989
    Date of Patent: April 30, 1991
    Assignee: Daimler-Benz AG
    Inventors: Bernhard Toepfer, Michael Reiner