Vehicle cooling-fan motor/inverter system, control method therefor, and program therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10050577-B2
Application number	US-201314764891-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2013
Priority date	Feb 22, 2013
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

Included are: a motor control device that has a switching element, that converts DC power supplied from a high-voltage power supply into three-phase AC power, and that supplies the three-phase AC power to a three-phase motor; a first control portion that controls the motor control device; an isolated-type CAN driver that is activated by using power supplied from a low-voltage power supply and that exchanges information with a vehicle ECU that is mounted in the vehicle and that is superordinate to a vehicle cooling-fan motor/inverter system; and an isolation portion that electrically isolates a low-voltage system to which power is supplied from the low-voltage power supply from a high-voltage system to which power is supplied from the high-voltage power supply. If a fault in the switching element is detected, the first control portion outputs fault information notifying that there is a fault in control of the three-phase motor to the vehicle ECU via the isolated-type CAN driver.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle cooling-fan motor/inverter system that controls a three-phase motor that drives a cooling fan for supplying air to an in-vehicle heat exchanger, comprising:
a motor control device that has a switching element, that converts DC power supplied from a high-voltage power supply into three-phase AC power, and that supplies the three-phase AC power to the three-phase motor;
a communication driver that is activated by using power supplied from a low-voltage power supply and that exchanges information, via a vehicle network, with a second control unit that is mounted in a vehicle and that is on a superordinate side to the vehicle cooling-fan motor/inverter system;
an isolation unit that electrically isolates a low-voltage system to which power is supplied from the low-voltage power supply from a high-voltage system to which power is supplied from the high-voltage power supply;
a PWM driver that is activated by using power supplied from the low-voltage power supply, and that receives a PWM signal from a channel different from the vehicle network and outputs a rotation-speed instruction for the three-phase motor; and
a first control unit that obtains a rotation-speed instruction for the three-phase motor via the PWM driver and the communication driver and that controls the motor control device based on the obtained rotation-speed instruction for the three-phase motor,
wherein, if a fault in the switching element is detected, the first control unit outputs fault information notifying that there is a fault in control of the three-phase motor to the second control unit via the communication driver.

2. A vehicle cooling-fan motor/inverter system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a measurement unit that measures and outputs at least one of a temperature value, a current value, and a voltage value of the switching element of the motor control device,
wherein the first control unit includes a determination unit that determines whether there is a fault in the switching element based on at least one of the temperature value, the current value, and the voltage value obtained from the measurement unit.

3. A control method for a vehicle cooling-fan motor/inverter system that controls a three-phase motor that drives a cooling fan for supplying air to an in-vehicle heat exchanger,
the vehicle cooling-fan motor/inverter system including: a motor control device that has a switching element, that converts DC power supplied from a high-voltage power supply into three-phase AC power, and that supplies the three-phase AC power to the three-phase motor; a communication driver that is activated by using power supplied from a low-voltage power supply and that exchanges information, via a vehicle network, with a second control unit that is mounted in a vehicle and that is on a superordinate side to the vehicle cooling-fan motor/inverter system; an isolation unit that electrically isolates a low-voltage system to which power is supplied from the low-voltage power supply from a high-voltage system to which power is supplied from the high-voltage power supply, a PWM driver that is activated by using power supplied from the low-voltage power supply; and that receives a PWM signal from a channel different from the vehicle network and outputs a rotation-speed instruction for a three-phase motor; and a first control unit that control the motor control device, the control method comprising:
configuring the first control unit to obtain a rotation-speed instruction for the three-phase motor via the PWM driver and the communication driver,
controlling, by the first control unit, the motor control device based on the obtained rotation-speed instruction for the three-phase motor; and
outputting, by the first control unit, fault information notifying that there is a fault in control of the three-phase motor to the second control unit via the communication driver if a fault in the switching element is detected.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Heavy Ind Thermal Systems Ltd

Inventors

• Nakano Koji
• Suzuki Atsushi
• Kamitani Hiroyuki

Classifications

• F04D25/08

  the working fluid being air, e.g. for ventilation · CPC title

• F01P7/048

  using electrical drives · CPC title

• Y02T10/88

  Optimized components or subsystems, e.g. lighting, actively controlled glasses · CPC title

• F04D27/004

  by varying driving speed · CPC title

• H02P27/08 Primary

  with pulse width modulation · CPC title