Patents by Inventor Karl Kapfhammer

Karl Kapfhammer 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: 6693368
    Abstract: A power supply system for a motor vehicle has a low-voltage onboard power supply and a higher-voltage onboard power supply. Either the minus connection or the plus connection of at least the high-power consuming devices of the higher-voltage onboard power supply is coupled via a central bus line with the corresponding (minus or plus) connection of the low-voltage onboard power supply. The central bus line is provided with a controllable switch. Devices are provided for measuring the voltage of the low-voltage onboard power supply, and/or for measuring the differential current between the current flowing on the plus line and the current flowing on the minus line in the higher-voltage onboard power supply. The controllable switch is opened when the voltage in the low-voltage onboard power supply has exceeded a defined voltage threshold and/or when the differential current has exceeded a defined current threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Anton Schumann, Karl Kapfhammer, Xaver Pfab, Alfred Grom
  • Publication number: 20020050742
    Abstract: A power supply system for a motor vehicle has a low-voltage onboard power supply and a higher-voltage onboard power supply. Either the minus connection or the plus connection of at least the high-power consuming devices of the higher-voltage onboard power supply is coupled via a central bus line with the corresponding (minus or plus) connection of the low-voltage onboard power supply. The central bus line is provided with a controllable switch. Devices are provided for measuring the voltage of the low-voltage onboard power supply, and/or for measuring the differential current between the current flowing on the plus line and the current flowing on the minus line in the higher-voltage onboard power supply. The controllable switch is opened when the voltage in the low-voltage onboard power supply has exceeded a defined voltage threshold and/or when the differential current has exceeded a defined current threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2001
    Publication date: May 2, 2002
    Inventors: Anton Schumann, Karl Kapfhammer, Xaver Pfab, Alfred Grom
  • Patent number: 4567459
    Abstract: In a transmission method for variable parameters from loaded vehicle wheels, wherein energy is transmitted to a secondary coil (5) mounted concentrically on a wheel during varying excitation by a primary coil (2) integral with a vehicle, and an information signal, which is a function of the output signal of a sensor, is fed back from this secondary coil to a receiving coil integral with the vehicle, the primary coil (2) itself serves as the receiving coil. The information signal can be temperature-compensated, and compared in an evaluation circuit with a set value which is modified in accordance with various pressure-related parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 1982
    Date of Patent: January 28, 1986
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Josef Folger, Hans-Dieter Fournell, Hans-Rudolf Hein, Karl Kapfhammer, Josef Rambock, Michael Weber
  • Patent number: 4170748
    Abstract: A circuit arrangement for electrically driven motor vehicles with an electric driving motor which is fed from a driving battery, with a transformer which is adapted to be connected on the primary side to an A.C. power supply network and on the secondary side by way of a rectifier arrangement to the driving battery, and with a D.C. converter which includes a chopper, an A.C. voltage step-down device and a rectifier and which recharges a power supply battery having a rated voltage that is lower than that of the driving battery, from the driving battery; the transformer thereby forms the A.C. step-down device, to one side of which the driving battery is connected by way of the chopper and to the other side of which the power supply battery having a correspondingly matched stepped-down ratio is connected by way of the rectifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 1978
    Date of Patent: October 9, 1979
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Karl Kapfhammer
  • Patent number: 4162478
    Abstract: In order to test at least one of the operating and capacitating conditions of an automotive vehicle, plural parallel circuits are included in a test circuit associated with sensors for each condition to be tested. These parallel circuits contain at least one pilot lamp and at least one switching unit. The switching unit may have simple switch contacts or may contain an electronic switching element. During normal operating conditions, the switching units are closed to provide a conductive path therethrough. During non-normal operating conditions and/or capacity conditions, the switching units open. For testing any condition, an individual test switch, which energizes each pilot lamp in the plural parallel circuits, is connected in series with the switching contacts and/or the conductive electronic switching elements of the switch units and with the pilot lamps in the plural circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 1976
    Date of Patent: July 24, 1979
    Assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
    Inventors: Manfred Huber, Karl Kapfhammer, Erwin Schweiger, Franz Jochmann, Alfred Krappel