Driveline angle analyzer

• US 20030019293A1
• Filed: 12/14/2000
• Published: 01/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eaton Corp. (Wisconsin) (Eaton Corporation PLC.)
• Original Assignee: Eaton Corp. (Wisconsin) (Eaton Corporation PLC.)
• Inventors: Sirrine, Scott A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,660,710 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/488
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 17/22 characterised by arrangement, location, or type of main drive shafting, e.g. cardan shaft
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 13/02 Gearings; Transmission mechanisms

Abstract

A Driveline Angle Analyzer (DAA) for determining a torsional acceleration and inertias of a vehicle driveline by entering measurements of a vehicle driveline configuration into a graphical user interface program. The user selects the driveline configuration of interest from a plurality of driveline configurations. Then, the user enters information, such as driveline measurements relating to the selected driveline configuration. To aide in gathering the correct information, the user can print out a worksheet for the selected driveline configuration. After the user inputs the information for the selected driveline configuration, the user can select a corrective mode that allows the user to improve the selected driveline configuration. For example, the user can change the angle of a component with the surrounding components by changing their angles and/or length while enabling the components to stay connected to each other, thus maintaining the vehicle'"'"'s driveline geometry.

Claims

1. A method of determining one of a torsional acceleration and an inertia of a vehicle driveline configuration by entering measurements for the vehicle driveline configuration into a graphical user interface program.

2. The method of claim 1, further including the step of selecting the vehicle driveline configuration from a plurality of driveline configurations prior to entering measurements of the vehicle driveline configuration into the graphical user interface program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface program includes a corrective mode for enabling a user to interactively change the entered measurements of the vehicle driveline configuration to determine one of the torsional acceleration and the inertia of the vehicle driveline configuration.

4. The method of claim 1, further including the step of printing a worksheet to aide a user in entering of the measurements for the vehicle driveline configuration.

5. The method of claim 1, further including the step of printing results from the determination of one of the torsional acceleration and the inertia for the vehicle driveline configuration.

6. The method of claim 1, further including the step of saving results from the determination of one of the torsional acceleration and the inertia for the vehicle driveline configuration as an image file.

7. A method of diagnosing and correcting driveline angles and lengths of components of a vehicle driveline, comprising the steps of:

entering measurements of the vehicle driveline into a graphical user interface program;

determining one of a torsional acceleration and an inertia of the vehicle driveline based on the entered measurements of the driveline angles and lengths of the components; and

enabling a user to interactively change the entered measurements of the vehicle driveline to determine one of the torsional acceleration and the inertia of the vehicle driveline.

8. The method of claim 7, further including the step of selecting the vehicle driveline from a plurality of drivelines.

9. The method of claim 7, further including the step of printing a worksheet to aide a user in entering of the measurements for the vehicle driveline.

10. The method of claim 7, further including the step of printing results from the determination of one of the torsional acceleration and the inertia for the vehicle driveline configuration.

11. The method of claim 7, further including the step of saving results from the determination of one of the torsional acceleration and the inertia for the vehicle driveline configuration as an image file.

12. A method of determining one of a torsional acceleration and a driveline inertia of a vehicle driveline configuration, comprising the steps of:

selecting a vehicle driveline configuration from a plurality of driveline configurations;

entering measurement data for the selected vehicle driveline configuration;

determining one of the torsional acceleration and the driveline inertia of the selected vehicle driveline configuration; and

displaying one of the torsional acceleration and the driveline inertia of the selected vehicle driveline configuration.

13. The method of claim 12, further including the step of enabling a user to interactively change the entered measurements of the vehicle driveline configuration to determine a different one of the torsional acceleration and the inertia of the vehicle driveline configuration.

14. The method of claim 12, further including the step of printing a worksheet to aide a user in entering of the measurements for the selected vehicle driveline configuration.

15. The method of claim 12, further including the step of printing results from the determination of one of the torsional acceleration and the inertia for the vehicle driveline configuration.

16. The method of claim J2, further including the step of saving results from the determination of one of the torsional acceleration and the inertia for the vehicle driveline configuration as an image file.