Work vehicle and control method for work vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8955472-B2
Application number	US-59528508-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2008
Priority date	Jun 25, 2007
Publication date	Feb 17, 2015
Grant date	Feb 17, 2015

Abstract

A work vehicle is provided with an engine, a traveling device driven by driving force from the engine to cause the work vehicle to travel, a first hydraulic pump driven by the driving force from the engine to discharge hydraulic oil, and a cooling device having a cooling fan driven by the hydraulic oil supplied by the first hydraulic pump to cool the engine, and a control unit. The control unit performs a normal cooling control in which an upper limit fan speed is determined based on an engine speed, and a cooling suppression control in which the upper limit fan speed determined based on the engine speed is suppressed to be less than the upper limit fan speed during the normal cooling control when a predetermined operation required to increase the engine speed is performed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A work vehicle comprising:
an engine;
a traveling device configured and arranged to be driven by driving force from the engine to cause the work vehicle to travel;
a first hydraulic pump configured and arranged to be driven by the driving force from the engine to discharge hydraulic oil;
a cooling device including a cooling fan configured and arranged to be driven by the hydraulic oil supplied by the first hydraulic pump to cool the engine;
a plurality of temperature detecting sections configured and arranged to detect at least a temperature of a cooling water of the engine and a temperature of a hydraulic oil of the first hydraulic pump;
an engine speed detecting section configured and arranged to detect an actual engine speed of the engine, and
a control unit programmed to selectively perform a normal cooling control or a cooling suppression control to control a speed of the cooling fan,
the normal cooling control being configured to control the speed of the cooling fan to the smaller of a target fan speed and a first upper limit fan speed, the target fan speed being determined based on at least one of the temperatures detected by the temperature detecting sections, and the first upper limit fan speed being determined based on a first upper limit fan speed data that indicates a relationship between the first upper limit fan speed and the actual engine speed, and
the cooling suppression control being configured to control the speed of the cooling fan to the smaller of the target fan speed and a second upper limit fan speed, the second upper limit fan speed being determined based on a second upper limit fan speed data that is different from the first upper limit fan speed data and indicates a relationship between the second upper limit fan speed and the actual engine speed so that the second upper limit fan speed is smaller than the first upper limit fan speed if the actual engine speed is in a high actual engine speed region and equal to the first upper limit fan speed if the actual engine speed is in a low actual engine speed region,

the first and second upper limit fan speed data being stored in advance, and
the control unit being programmed to perform the cooling suppression control when an engine speed instruction value changes from a predetermined first speed or less to a value greater than or equal to a second speed faster than the first speed while the actual engine speed is smaller than the second speed.

2. The work vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the control unit is programmed to end the cooling suppression control when at least one of a condition in which the actual engine speed reaches a predetermined speed and a condition in which a predetermined time elapses from a predetermined reference timing set on or after a start timing of the cooling suppression control is satisfied.

3. The work vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the traveling device has a transmission configured and arranged to shift between neutral, forward, and reverse modes, and
the control unit is further programmed to perform the cooling suppression control when the transmission is put into the forward or reverse mode from the neutral mode.

4. The work vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the traveling device has a transmission configured and arranged to shift between a plurality of gear positions, and
the control unit is further programmed to calculate drive force of the work vehicle and to perform the cooling suppression control when the drive force is constant and the transmission shifts down.

5. The work vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein
the traveling device has a transmission configured and arranged to shift between neutral, forward and reverse modes,
the transmission has a clutch configured and arranged to be driven by hydraulic oil,
the control unit is further programmed to perform the cooling suppression control when the transmission is shifted from the neutral mode to the forward or reverse mode, and
the reference timing is a modulation ending timing of the clutch.

6. The work vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the traveling device has a torque converter with a lock-up clutch, and
the control unit is further programmed to perform the cooling suppression control when the lock-up clutch changes from on to off.

7. The work vehicle according to claim 1 , further comprising
a decelerator device configured and arranged to reduce the engine speed instruction value from a normal value when the decelerator device is changed to on state, and to increase the engine speed instruction value back to the normal value when the decelerator device is changed to off state,
the control unit being further programmed to perform the cooling suppression control when the decelerator device is changed from the on state to the off state and the actual engine speed is smaller than a speed corresponding to the normal value.

8. The work vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein
the traveling device has a torque converter with a lock-up clutch,
the control unit is further programmed to perform the cooling suppression control when the lock-up clutch changes from on to off, and
the reference timing is the start timing of the cooling suppression control.

9. A work vehicle comprising:
an engine;
a first hydraulic pump configured and arranged to be driven by the driving force from the engine to discharge hydraulic oil;
a second hydraulic pump configured and arranged be driven by the engine to discharge hydraulic oil;
a work implement configured and arranged to be driven by the hydraulic oil supplied by the second hydraulic pump;
a traveling device configured and arranged to be driven by driving force from the engine to cause the work vehicle to travel, the traveling device having a transmission configured and arranged to switch gears by changing over engagement of a clutch using hydraulic oil;
a cooling device including a cooling fan and a hydraulic motor, the hydraulic motor being configured and arranged to be driven by hydraulic oil supplied by the first hydraulic pump to rotate the cooling fan, the cooling device being configured and arranged to cool cooling water of the engine, the hydraulic oil supplied to the work implement and the hydraulic motor, and the hydraulic oil supplied to the clutch;
a plurality of temperature detecting sections configured and arranged to detect at least a temperature of a cooling water of the engine and a temperature of a hydraulic oil of the first hydraulic pump;
an engine speed detecting section configured and arranged to detect an actual engine speed of the engine, and
a control unit programmed to selectively perform a normal cooling control or a cooling suppression control to control a speed of the cooling fan,
the normal cooling control being configured to control the speed of the cooling fan to the smaller of a target fan speed and a first upper limit fan speed, the target fan speed being determined based on at least one of the temperatures detected by the temperature detecting sections, and the first upper limit fan speed being determined based on a first upper limit fan speed data that indicates a relationship between the first upper limit fan speed and the actual engine speed, and
the cooling suppression control being configured to control the speed of the cooling fan to the smaller of the target fan speed and a second upper limit fan speed, the second upper limit fan speed being determined based on a second upper limit fan speed data that is different from the first upper limit fan speed data and indicates a relationship between the second upper limit fan speed and the actual engine speed so that the second upper limit fan speed is smaller than the

Assignees

• Shintani Satoru
• Yamamoto Shigeru
• Suzuki Kazuyuki
• Takaura Takeshi
• Nakagawa Tomohiro
• Komatsu Mfg Co Ltd

Inventors

• Shintani Satoru
• Yamamoto Shigeru
• Suzuki Kazuyuki
• Takaura Takeshi
• Nakagawa Tomohiro

Classifications

• F02D29/04

  peculiar to engines driving pumps · CPC title

• F01P7/044

  using hydraulic drives · CPC title

• F01P7/08

  by cutting in or out of pumps · CPC title

• F02D29/02

  peculiar to engines driving vehicles; peculiar to engines driving variable pitch propellers · CPC title

• E02F9/2025 Primary

  Particular purposes of control systems not otherwise provided for (E02F3/16, E02F3/26, sub-groups of E02F3/43, E02F3/651, sub-groups of E02F3/84, E02F3/907, E02F5/145 take precedence) · CPC title