Patents by Inventor Shinichi Mitani

Shinichi Mitani 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: 11352970
    Abstract: An internal combustion engine includes a fuel injection valve that injects fuel into a combustion chamber and an ignition plug that ignites an air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber. A control device of the internal combustion engine includes an electronic control unit configured to, when a cold-starting of the internal combustion engine is started, execute a plurality of fuel injections into each cylinder in one cycle, after the cold-starting of the internal combustion engine is started, retard a timing of an ignition by the ignition plug in each cylinder, and after the timing of the ignition by the ignition plug is retarded, decrease the number of fuel injections into each cylinder in one cycle according to the retardation of the ignition timing by the ignition plug.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shinichi Mitani
  • Patent number: 11242818
    Abstract: A control device that controls an internal combustion engine includes an electronic control unit configured to, during an operation other than a start-up of the internal combustion engine, cause the fuel injection valve to execute one or a plurality of fuel injections in each cycle such that a target fuel injection amount in one injection becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined minimum injection amount, and when the internal combustion engine is started up, in a case where startability of the internal combustion engine is insufficient, execute an excess split injection control for causing the fuel injection valve to execute more fuel injections than the maximum number of fuel injections per cycle while making the target fuel injection amount in one injection smaller than the minimum injection amount per cycle and maintaining a target total fuel injection amount per cycle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2022
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shinichi Mitani
  • Publication number: 20210381465
    Abstract: A control device that controls an internal combustion engine includes an electronic control unit configured to, during an operation other than a start-up of the internal combustion engine, cause the fuel injection valve to execute one or a plurality of fuel injections in each cycle such that a target fuel injection amount in one injection becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined minimum injection amount, and when the internal combustion engine is started up, in a case where startability of the internal combustion engine is insufficient, execute an excess split injection control for causing the fuel injection valve to execute more fuel injections than the maximum number of fuel injections per cycle while making the target fuel injection amount in one injection smaller than the minimum injection amount per cycle and maintaining a target total fuel injection amount per cycle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Inventor: Shinichi MITANI
  • Publication number: 20210381455
    Abstract: An internal combustion engine includes a fuel injection valve that injects fuel into a combustion chamber and an ignition plug that ignites an air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber. A control device of the internal combustion engine includes an electronic control unit configured to, when a cold-starting of the internal combustion engine is started, execute a plurality of fuel injections into each cylinder in one cycle, after the cold-starting of the internal combustion engine is started, retard a timing of an ignition by the ignition plug in each cylinder, and after the timing of the ignition by the ignition plug is retarded, decrease the number of fuel injections into each cylinder in one cycle according to the retardation of the ignition timing by the ignition plug.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Inventor: Shinichi MITANI
  • Patent number: 10677178
    Abstract: An operating range boundary for switching a cam for driving an intake valve (drive cam) is changed in a direction of decreasing an engine load if a target EGR rate is predicted to increase across the contour line of the EGR rate. By changing the boundary, the drive cam is switched from a large cam to a small cam before an operating point is transferred from a partitioned range with a low target EGR rate to a partitioned range with a high target EGR rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Akira Kato, Shinichi Mitani, Shintaro Hotta
  • Patent number: 10502148
    Abstract: An electronic control unit is configured to select a first cam as a driving cam of an intake valve in a first operation range where a target value of an EGR rate is set to a specified EGR rate, and is configured to select a second cam as the driving cam in a second operation range smaller in valve duration and lift amount than the first cam. Accordingly, in most of the operation regions, the first cam is selected, and the second cam is selected only in a high-torque and high-speed region. When the second cam is selected in the high-torque and high-speed region, the state where an actual compression ratio is high can be eliminated, and suction efficiency can be decreased. Therefore, decrease in a knocking limit can be suppressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shintaro Hotta, Akira Kato, Shinichi Mitani
  • Patent number: 10132001
    Abstract: A vapor phase growth apparatus according to an embodiment includes n reaction chambers, a main gas supply passage supplying a process gas to the n reaction chambers, a main mass flow controller arranged in the main gas supply passage to control a flow rate of the process gas flowing in the main gas supply passage, (n?1) first sub gas supply passages being branches of the main gas supply passage to supply divided process gases to the (n?1) reaction chambers among the n reaction chambers, (n?1) first sub mass flow controllers arranged in the first sub gas supply passages to control flow rates of the process gases flowing in the first sub gas supply passages, and one second sub gas supply passage being a branch of the main gas supply passage to supply a remainder of the process gas to the one reaction chamber other than the (n?1) reaction chambers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: NuFlare Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Hideshi Takahashi, Shinichi Mitani, Yuusuke Sato
  • Publication number: 20180209360
    Abstract: An operating range boundary for switching a cam for driving an intake valve (drive cam) is changed in a direction of decreasing an engine load if a target EGR rate is predicted to increase across the contour line shown in FIG. 3. By changing the boundary, the drive cam is switched from a large cam to a small cam before an operating point is transferred from a partitioned range R2 to a partitioned range R1. When the small cam is selected as the drive cam, suction efficiency is frequently lowered as compared to a case where the large cam is selected as the drive cam. Therefore, the drive cam is switched to the small cam before the operating point is transferred from the partitioned range R2 to the partitioned range R1, thereby enabling the suction efficiency to be lowered in many cases.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Publication date: July 26, 2018
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Akira KATO, Shinichi MITANI, Shintaro HOTTA
  • Publication number: 20180202374
    Abstract: An electronic control unit is configured to select a first cam as a driving cam of an intake valve in a first operation range where a target value of an EGR rate is set to a specified EGR rate, and is configured to select a second cam as the driving cam in a second operation range smaller in valve duration and lift amount than the first cam. Accordingly, in most of the operation regions, the first cam is selected, and the second cam is selected only in a high-torque and high-speed region. When the second cam is selected in the high-torque and high-speed region, the state where an actual compression ratio is high can be eliminated, and suction efficiency can be decreased. Therefore, decrease in a knocking limit can be suppressed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2017
    Publication date: July 19, 2018
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shintaro HOTTA, Akira KATO, Shinichi MITANI
  • Patent number: 9810172
    Abstract: An objective of the present invention is to stabilize the fuel injection amount for each cylinder and to execute fuel injection control accurately in a single-pressure-feed dual-injection type alcohol fuel injection system. An engine includes two injection valves and and a single-pressure-feed dual-injection type fuel supply system. The fuel supply system is configured such that fuel is injected sequentially in two cylinders during the pressure-feed-interval period from the execution of one fuel pressure-feed operation to the execution of the next fuel pressure-feed operation. If the alcohol concentration in the fuel is higher than a predetermined determination value ? at a startup operation time, an ECU executes only a cylinder injection for the first of the two cylinders described above, and executes both an intake passage injection and a cylinder injection for the second cylinder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinichi Mitani, Eiji Murase, Takahiro Tsukagoshi, Kazuhisa Matsuda
  • Patent number: 9752529
    Abstract: A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine, wherein the internal combustion engine includes a fuel injection valve injecting fuel directly into a cylinder. The control apparatus includes an ECU. The ECU is configured to execute a divided injection control to inject fuel from the fuel injection valve by a plurality of partial lift injections. The ECU is configured to execute a division number reduction control when the value of a spray shape parameter representing spray shape fluctuation is greater than a division number reduction determination value. The division number reduction control is control to reduce the number of partial lift injections in one engine cycle and to lengthen an injection time of each of the partial lift injections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinichi Mitani, Daisuke Uchida, Naoya Kaneko, Kenji Hoshi, Hiroaki Adachi, Susumu Hashimoto
  • Publication number: 20170145943
    Abstract: In an in-cylinder injection spark-ignition internal combustion engine, in which fuel is injected toward a cavity formed in a crown surface of a piston, when split injection for dividing and injecting the fuel for plural times is performed during a compression stroke, an arrival lift amount that is a maximum value of displacement of a valve body of a fuel injection valve during fuel injection is set as a larger value at least in a first period as a crank angle of the internal combustion engine approaches compression top dead center.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2015
    Publication date: May 25, 2017
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinichi MITANI, Daisuke UCHIDA, Naoya KANEKO, Kenji HOSHI, Hiroaki ADACHI, Susumu HASHIMOTO
  • Patent number: 9587597
    Abstract: In the present invention, an internal combustion engine is provided with an in-cylinder fuel injection valve and a secondary air supply device and is formed so as to make possible first catalyst warming control and second catalyst warming control that promote the raising of the temperature of an exhaust gas purification catalyst. The first catalyst warming control comprises control to inject fuel from the in-cylinder fuel injection valve during the compression stroke to form a stratified state, and control to greatly delay ignition timing. The second catalyst warming control comprises control to supply secondary air to an engine exhaust gas passage. The internal combustion engine executes the first catalyst warming control after startup and, after the first catalyst warming control is executed, carries out control (third catalyst warming control) to execute the first catalyst warming control and the second catalyst warming control simultaneously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoya Kaneko, Shinichi Mitani, Daisuke Uchida
  • Publication number: 20160215724
    Abstract: A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine, wherein the internal combustion engine includes a fuel injection valve injecting fuel directly into a cylinder. The control apparatus includes an ECU. The ECU is configured to execute a divided injection control to inject fuel from the fuel injection valve by a plurality of partial lift injections. The ECU is configured to execute a division number reduction control when the value of a spray shape parameter representing spray shape fluctuation is greater than a division number reduction determination value. The division number reduction control is control to reduce the number of partial lift injections in one engine cycle and to lengthen an injection time of each of the partial lift injections.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2014
    Publication date: July 28, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinichi MITANI, Daisuke UCHIDA, Naoya KANEKO, Kenji HOSHI, Hiroaki ADACHI, Susumu HASHIMOTO
  • Publication number: 20160131091
    Abstract: In the present invention, an internal combustion engine is provided with an in-cylinder fuel injection valve and a secondary air supply device and is formed so as to make possible first catalyst warming control and second catalyst warming control that promote the raising of the temperature of an exhaust gas purification catalyst. The first catalyst warming control comprises control to inject fuel from the in-cylinder fuel injection valve during the compression stroke to form a stratified state, and control to greatly delay ignition timing. The second catalyst warming control comprises control to supply secondary air to an engine exhaust gas passage. The internal combustion engine executes the first catalyst warming control after startup and, after the first catalyst warming control is executed, carries out control (third catalyst warming control) to execute the first catalyst warming control and the second catalyst warming control simultaneously.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 9, 2014
    Publication date: May 12, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoya KANEKO, Shinichi MITANI, Daisuke UCHIDA
  • Patent number: 9309796
    Abstract: An excessively large electric current is suppressed from flowing to an electrode. Provision is made for an electrode arranged in an exhaust passage of an internal combustion engine, a power supply connected to the electrode for applying a voltage thereto, an air fuel ratio detection device for detecting or estimating an air fuel ratio of an exhaust gas which flows through the exhaust passage, and a power upper limit setting device for setting an upper limit for electric power supplied to the electrode from the power supply in cases where the air fuel ratio detected or estimate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinichi Mitani, Hiroshi Nomura, Eiji Murase
  • Patent number: 9284869
    Abstract: A concentration of HC in an exhaust gas is estimated with a high degree of accuracy by making use of a particulate matter processing apparatus (1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shinichi Mitani, Hiroshi Nomura, Eiji Murase
  • Publication number: 20160047351
    Abstract: In a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine, which implements temperature increasing processing in which an ignition timing is retarded to a predetermined target ignition timing in order to increase an exhaust gas temperature, a period required for an actual ignition timing to become equal to the target ignition timing following the start of retardation of the ignition timing during the temperature increasing processing is lengthened when a startup torque, which is a torque generated by the internal combustion engine during a startup process, is small.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2014
    Publication date: February 18, 2016
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Susumu HASHIMOTO, Shinichi MITANI
  • Publication number: 20160032488
    Abstract: A vapor phase growth apparatus according to an embodiment includes n reaction chambers, a main gas supply passage supplying a process gas to the n reaction chambers, a main mass flow controller arranged in the main gas supply passage to control a flow rate of the process gas flowing in the main gas supply passage, (n?1) first sub gas supply passages being branches of the main gas supply passage to supply divided process gases to the (n?1) reaction chambers among the n reaction chambers, (n?1) first sub mass flow controllers arranged in the first sub gas supply passages to control flow rates of the process gases flowing in the first sub gas supply passages, and one second sub gas supply passage being a branch of the main gas supply passage to supply a remainder of the process gas to the one reaction chamber other than the (n?1) reaction chambers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2015
    Publication date: February 4, 2016
    Inventors: Hideshi TAKAHASHI, Shinichi MITANI, Yuusuke SATO
  • Patent number: 9194044
    Abstract: A deposition apparatus 50 includes a chamber 1 having at its top section a gas inlet 4 for supplying deposition gas 25. Inside chamber 1 is a susceptor 7 on which to place a substrate 6; a heater 8 located below the substrate 6; and a liner 2 for covering the inner walls of the chamber 1. Apparatus 50 deposits a film on the substrate 6 by supplying deposition gas 25 from gas inlet 4 into chamber 1 while heating substrate 6. An upper electric resistance heater cluster 35 is located between the inner walls of the chamber 1 and liner 2 such that the upper heater 35 surrounds the liner 2. The upper heater 35 is divided vertically into electric resistance heaters 36, 37, and 38 which are independently temperature-controlled. The substrate 6 is heated with the use of both heater 8 and the upper heater cluster 35.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignees: NuFlare Technology, Inc., Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Denso Corporation, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kunihiko Suzuki, Shinichi Mitani