Multi-pressure valve controller and method for a vehicle braking system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9802593-B2
Application number	US-201113154641-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2011
Priority date	Jun 7, 2011
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle braking system includes a brake associated with a respective wheel of the vehicle, a multi-pressure valve associated with the brake, and a controller electrically communicating with the multi-pressure valve. The multi-pressure valve receives fluid at a first pressure at a supply port and is capable of delivering the fluid at a delivery port at a plurality of pressure profiles. A control signal is transmitted to the multi-pressure valve. The multi-pressure valve delivers the pressurized fluid to the brake, via the delivery port, at one of the plurality of delivery pressure profiles based on the control signal.

First claim

We claim:

1. A vehicle braking system, the system comprising:
a brake associated with a respective wheel of the vehicle;
a multi-pressure valve associated with the brake, the multi-pressure valve receiving fluid at a first pressure at a first supply port and a second pressure at a second supply port, the multi-pressure valve being capable of delivering and maintaining the fluid at a delivery port of the multi-pressure valve at a respective one of a plurality of discrete pressure profiles determined based on a desired braking situation, the multi-pressure valve including:
a plurality of electromechanical sub-valves that receive the pressurized fluid at the first pressure from the first supply port, receive the pressurized fluid at the second pressure from the second supply port, and deliver respective delivery pressures based on respective states of the electromechanical sub-valves, the delivery pressure of a first of the sub-valves being one of the first pressure and the second pressure, the delivery pressure of a second of the sub-valves being one of a reduced pressure of the first pressure and a reduced pressure of the second pressure; and

a controller, electrically communicating with the sub-valves of the multi-pressure valve, transmitting a control signal based on the desired braking situation and including respective sub-control signals to the sub-valves, each of the sub-valves being set to a respective one of the plurality of the states based on the sub-control signal, the multi-pressure valve delivering the pressurized fluid to the brake, via the delivery port, at one of the plurality of delivery pressure profiles, the discrete delivery pressure profile being selected by setting the respective states of the sub-valves during the desired braking situation so that the pressurized fluid delivered from the multi-pressure valve to the brake is maintained during the desired braking situation.

2. The vehicle braking system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of electromechanical sub-valves are in a pneumatically parallel arrangement.

3. The vehicle braking system as set forth in claim 2 , wherein:
the plurality of electromechanical sub-valve are defaulted to a first of the states;
the first of the electromechanical sub-valves is set to the second state, based on the respective first of the sub-control signals, to deliver the second of the respective delivery pressures; and
the second of the electromechanical valves is set to the second state, based on the respective second of the sub-control signals, to deliver the reduced pressure of the second pressure.

4. The vehicle braking system as set forth in claim 3 , wherein:
the controller transmits the control signal to not set the first and second electromechanical valves to the respective second states simultaneously.

5. The vehicle braking system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the electromechanical valves are solenoid valves.

6. The vehicle braking system as set forth in claim 2 , wherein a first of the electromechanical valves and a second of the electromechanical valves deliver substantially the same respective delivery pressures, the valve further including:
a pressure reducer arranged in series with the second electromechanical valve.

7. The vehicle braking system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein:
the respective delivery pressures from each of the electromechanical sub-valves is greater than zero.

8. A vehicle braking system, the system comprising:
a brake associated with a respective wheel of the vehicle;
a multi-pressure valve associated with the brake, the multi-pressure valve receiving fluid at a first pressure at a supply port and being capable of delivering the fluid at a delivery port at a plurality of pressure profiles, the multi-pressure valve including a plurality of electromechanical sub-valves, in a pneumatically parallel arrangement and defaulted to a first state, that receive the pressurized fluid at the first pressure and deliver respective delivery pressures;
a controller, electrically communicating with the multi-pressure valve, transmitting a control signal to the multi-pressure valve, the multi-pressure valve delivering the pressurized fluid to the brake, via the delivery port, at one of the plurality of delivery pressure profiles based on the control signal, the control signal including a plurality of sub-control signals for the respective plurality of sub-valves;
a first of the electromechanical sub-valves is set to a second state, based on a respective first of the sub-control signals, to deliver the first of the respective delivery pressures;
a second of the electromechanical valves is set to a second state, based on a respective second of the sub-control signals, to deliver a second of the respective delivery pressures, the first delivery pressure being higher than the second delivery pressure;
the controller is configured to transmit the control signal to set the first sub-valve to the second state to deliver the pressurized fluid at the delivery port according to a continuous full pressure profile, which is one of the delivery pressure profiles;
the controller is configured to transmit the control signal to set the second sub-valve to the second state to deliver the pressurized fluid at the delivery port according to a continuous reduced pressure profile, which is one of the delivery pressure profiles;
the controller is configured to transmit the control signal to alternately set the second sub-valve to between the first state and the second state to deliver the pressurized fluid at the delivery port according to a stepped-up pressure profile, which is one of the delivery pressure profiles; and
the controller is configured to transmit the control signal to set the first sub-valve to the second state until the full pressure is achieved at the delivery port, the controller then transmits the control signal to alternately set the first sub-valve between the first and second states until a reduced pressure is achieved at the delivery port to deliver the pressurized fluid at the delivery port according to a stepped-down pressure profile, which is one of the delivery pressure profiles.

9. The vehicle braking system as set forth in claim 3 , further including:
a modulator, the controller controlling the modulator to achieve various stepped-up and stepped-down pressure profile applications of the fluid at the delivery port.

10. The vehicle braking system as set forth in claim 8 , wherein:
the continuous full pressure profile application of the fluid at the delivery port is used during a traction control braking event;
the continuous reduced pressure profile application of the fluid at the delivery port is used during a hill start assistance (HSA) function;
the stepped-up pressure profile application of the fluid at the delivery port is used during an adaptive cruise with braking (ACB) function; and
the stepped-down pressure profile application of the fluid at the delivery port is used during a vehicle stability function.

11. The vehicle braking system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein:
the controller transmits a series of the control signals to the valve, the valve delivering various ones of a plurality of delivery pressures, based on the respective control signal, to the brake.

12. A controller for controlling delivery pressure of a fluid to a vehicle system, the controller comprising:
at least one electronic input receiving signals indicating a condition of the vehicle and a deceleration request, the condition of the vehicle including at least one of a speed of the vehicle, a yaw of the vehicle, and an amount of requested service brake pressure; and
electro

Assignees

• Frashure Timothy J
• Custer Robert J
• Conklin Richard J
• Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems Llc

Inventors

• Frashure Timothy J
• Custer Robert J
• Conklin Richard J

Classifications

• B60T13/683 Primary

  in pneumatic systems or parts thereof (in vacuum systems B60T13/72) · CPC title

• B60T8/34

  having a fluid pressure regulator responsive to a speed condition · CPC title

• B60T13/662

  characterised by specified functions of the control system components · CPC title

• B60T8/243

  for roll-over protection · CPC title