SELECTIVE CLOSING OF AT LEAST ONE VEHICLE OPENING AT A FRONT PORTION OF A VEHICLE
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Mechanisms are described for selectively closing grille and/or bumper openings. These mechanisms may be operated in response to one or more vehicle parameters. Closure mechanism control signals may be delivered to such mechanisms along a vehicle databus. In addition, vehicle parameters used in determining the control of such mechanisms may be sensed and provided along the databus to a controller which then processes the parameter information for determining whether to open or close the vehicle grille closing mechanism and/or the vehicle bumper opening closing mechanism.
89 Citations
49 Claims
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1-29. -29. (canceled)
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30. A method of controlling the flow of air through at least one vehicle opening, the said at least one vehicle opening comprising at least one of a grille opening and a bumper opening, the method comprising:
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sensing at least one vehicle operating parameter; providing at least one parameter representing signal on a data bus representing the said at least one vehicle operating parameter; determining from said at least one parameter representing signal whether an adjustment in the extent to which the at least one opening is open to the air flow is to be made in response to the said at least one signal; providing a control signal on the data bus to cause the adjustment of the extent to which the at least one opening is open in the event the act of determining indicates that an adjustment is to be made. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A method of controlling the air flow through at least one opening located at a front portion of a vehicle comprising:
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sensing at least the speed of the vehicle; sensing at least one other environmental condition or vehicle operating condition; and restricting the flow of air through the air flow opening in the event the speed is at least at a first value greater than a first threshold unless the at least one vehicle operating condition or environmental condition is at a value indicating that the flow of air through the air flow opening is not to be restricted. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43)
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44. An apparatus for controlling the air flow through at least one opening located at a front portion of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
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an air flow restricting member mounted to the vehicle and movable between at least one first open position and a second closed position, wherein when in the second closed position, air flow through the at least one opening is the most restricted; an actuator coupled to the air flow restricting member and to the vehicle, the actuator being adapted to shift the closure member between first and second positions; detectors adapted to detect at least one vehicle operating condition and at least one environmental condition in which the vehicle is being operated, the detectors providing detector output signals corresponding to the detected conditions; a data bus coupled to the at least one detector for receiving the detector output signals; a controller coupled to the data bus and adapted to selectively provide a close actuator control signal in the event the detector output signals indicate of a condition for which the flow of air through the at least one opening should be interrupted; the actuator being coupled to the data bus and being responsive to the close actuator control signal to shift the air flow restricting member to the second position in response to the close actuator control signal. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. An apparatus for controlling the flow of air through at least one opening at the front of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
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means for sensing plural vehicle operating parameters; means for determining from the plural vehicle parameters whether air flow through the opening is to be restricted; air flow restrictor means for selectively restricting the flow of air through the air flow opening; actuator means for adjusting the position of the air flow restrictor means between open and closed positions; said means for determining comprising controller means for controlling the actuator means to adjust the position of the air flow restrictor means in response to the determination from the plural vehicle operating parameters by the means for determining.
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Specification