Solenoid valve control system, a control valve system, and a method of controlling electronic valve

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9891634-B2
Application number	US-201514847305-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 8, 2015
Priority date	Sep 8, 2014
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

A solenoid valve control system comprising a solenoid valve drive circuit applying a drive current to the solenoid valve; a pressure data calculation unit calculating a pressure data including a band and a cycle of pressure fluctuation from a pressure value; a pressure hysteresis calculation unit calculating a difference between the pressure value when the drive current value is increased and the pressure value when the drive current value is decrease as a hysteresis amount; a vibration determination unit determining whether or not the pressure data is included in an area outside the pressure data range, which is outside a first predetermined range; a hysteresis determination unit determining whether or not the pressure hysteresis amount is included in an area outside the pressure hysteresis amount range, which is outside a second predetermined range; and a drive frequency adjustment unit adjusting a drive frequency based on the determination result.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A solenoid valve control system for controlling a solenoid valve interposed between an input side and an output side of a flow path for oil, comprising:
a solenoid valve drive circuit which applies a drive current to the solenoid valve based on designated drive current value and drive frequency;
a pressure data calculation unit which calculates a pressure data including a pressure fluctuation band and a pressure fluctuation cycle from a pressure value of the oil on the output side of the solenoid valve;
a pressure hysteresis calculation unit which calculates a difference between the pressure value when the drive current value is increased and the pressure value when the drive current value is decreased as a hysteresis amount;
a vibration determination unit which determines whether or not the pressure data is included in an area outside a pressure data range, which is outside a first predetermined range;
a hysteresis determination unit which determines whether or not the pressure hysteresis amount is included in an area outside a pressure hysteresis amount range, which is outside a second predetermined range; and
a drive frequency adjustment unit which adjusts a drive frequency based on the determination result from the vibration determination unit and the hysteresis determination unit.

2. The solenoid valve control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the vibration determination unit determines that the pressure data is included in the area outside the pressure data range when the pressure fluctuation band is bigger than a preset first pressure threshold, and the pressure fluctuation cycle is smaller than a preset cycle threshold.

3. The solenoid valve control system according to claim 2 ,
wherein the vibration determination unit determines an uncontrollable state when the pressure fluctuation band is bigger than a second pressure threshold which is bigger than the first pressure threshold, and when the vibration determination unit determines an uncontrollable state, the drive frequency adjustment unit maintains the drive frequency.

4. The solenoid valve control system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the drive frequency adjustment unit changes an object frequency to a frequency higher than the current drive frequency when the vibration determination unit determines that the pressure data is included in the area outside the pressure data range, and changes the object frequency to a frequency lower than the current drive frequency when the hysteresis determination unit determines that the pressure hysteresis amount is included in the area outside the pressure hysteresis amount range.

5. The solenoid valve control system according to claim 4 ,
wherein, when the changed object frequency is higher than a predetermined upper frequency limit and lower than a predetermined lower frequency limit, the drive frequency adjustment unit sets the changed object frequency as the drive frequency,
wherein, when the changed object frequency is lower than the lower frequency limit, the lower frequency limit is set as the drive frequency, and
when the changed object frequency is higher than the upper frequency limit, the upper frequency limit is set as the drive frequency.

6. The solenoid valve control system according to claim 1 ,
further comprising an area setting unit which sets the area outside the pressure data range and the area outside the pressure hysteresis amount range based on information input from outside.

7. A control valve system for supplying drive oil to an automatic transmission, comprising:
a valve body having an oil path inside thereof;
a solenoid valve interposed in the oil path;
the solenoid valve control system described in claim 6 which controls the solenoid valve; and
a sensor which measures oil pressure inside the oil path on the output side of the solenoid valve.

8. The control valve system according to claim 7 ,
wherein information of a vehicle, on which the automatic transmission is mounted, is provided to the area setting unit, and the area setting unit sets the area outside the pressure data range and the area outside the pressure hysteresis amount range based on the information of the vehicle.

9. The control valve system according to claim 8 ,
wherein number of engine revolutions of the vehicle and oil temperature information which indicates the temperature of the oil are input to the area setting unit, and the area setting unit sets the area outside the pressure data range and the area outside the pressure hysteresis amount range based on the number of engine revolutions and the oil temperature information.

10. A method of controlling a solenoid valve by applying drive current to the solenoid valve interposed between an input side and an output side of a flow path of oil, comprising:
a) a pressure detection step for detecting a pressure value of the oil on the output side of the solenoid valve;
b) subsequent to step a), a pressure data calculation step for calculating a pressure data including a pressure fluctuation width and a pressure fluctuation cycle from the pressure value;
c) subsequent to step b), a vibration determination step for determining whether or not the pressure data is included in an area of pressure data range outside a first predetermined range;
d) subsequent to step c), a pressure hysteresis calculation step for calculating a pressure hysteresis amount from a pressure value difference between the increasing and decreasing of the drive current value;
e) subsequent to step d), a hysteresis determination step for determining whether or not the pressure hysteresis amount is included in an area of pressure hysteresis amount range outside a second predetermined range; and
f) a drive frequency adjustment step for adjusting a drive frequency of the drive current based on the determination results of step c) and step e).

Assignees

• Nidec Tosok Corp

Inventors

• Sugimoto Yoshihisa
• Sakashita Jyunichi
• Kobayashi Naoki

Classifications

• F15B2211/8646

  the abnormal condition being hysteresis · CPC title

• F15B2211/328

  with signal modulation, e.g. pulse width modulation [PWM] · CPC title

• F15B2211/427

  with signal modulation, e.g. using pulse width modulation [PWM] · CPC title

• F16H2061/0255

  Solenoid valve using PWM or duty-cycle control · CPC title

• F15B2211/8616

  the abnormal condition being noise or vibration · CPC title