Toyota's top suppliers prepare a tech blitz

TOKYO -- Lead-by-wire techniques. Grille shutters. More effective regenerative braking. Direct-change automated transmissions. Those are just a few of the innovative technologies Toyota Motor Corp.'s important providers are readying for the world's largest automaker. The techniques will begin arriving as early as next year, associated with Toyota's change into a new, commonized car system called Toyota New International Architecture. The sampling of technologies ONTAP, summarized through interviews with several Toyota Team providers, underscores the way the carmaker's leading components makers are innovating amid new competitive pressures. As Toyota rolls out the TNGA automobiles, beginning with all the coming of the redesigned Prius hybrid vehicle in 2013, sections increasingly will likely be produced to global requirements.
Aisin Seiki's Yasumori Ihara: Toyota's important providers "will
lose out to our opponents if we don't react to Toyota's aspirations."

Opening the door

That will open the doorway to more sourcing from competing international provider, including Germany's Robert Bosch GmbH. Today, about 60% of the components within an typical Toyota car are sourced from Toyota Team organizations, joined by interlocking shareholdings. Those keiretsu associations happen to be a source of discouragement for leading non-Japanese providers attempting to split break in to Toyota's provider positions. But that percent could drop quickly as Toyota searches afield for competitive providers."I believe we are going to lose out to our opponents if we don't react to Toyota's aspirations for TNGA," mentioned Yasumori Ihara, a former world-wide buying head at Toyota who recently took over as president of Aisin Seiki Co., Toyota's No. 2 provider. Among Aisin Seiki's in the pipeline merchandise pitches: a new automated transmission that uses locking tools to get a much more direct, efficient transport of energy through the drive-train, like a guide. It'll be installed in among the automaker's vehicles in 2016. Ihara declined to give information on the newest transmission. However, the technology might be related to the immediate-shift gearboxes deployed by Volkswagen A-G or the 8-speed direct-shift transmission in the Lexus RC-F, which utilizes clutch lock-up. Aisin is also creating grille shutters that shut just like a venetian blind at high rates to enhance aerodynamics. Such technologies now is identified on luxurious automobiles, pick pick-ups and automobiles that goal segment-leading fuel-economy. Aisin plans to to focus on its grille shutters at compact vehicles.

Ogiso: Cut price, foster efficiency

Regenerative brakes

Meanwhile, Toyota-affiliated brake manufacturer Advics Co. is gearing up for a new age of hybrid vehicles and autonomous driving methods. Advics makes the regenerative brakes for every Toyota petrol-electric hybrid vehicle. Those brakes convert the kinetic energy of braking into electricity that recharges the on-board battery. The aim, stated Advics President Satoshi Ogiso, would be to increase the efficiency of the regeneration and slice the the price. An essential challenge is enlarging the successful range of regeneration. Mild braking at slow speeds, for instance, can recoup just as much as 70-percent of the kinetic power. But tough braking at high rates can recoup as small as one-fifth. See for developments in Toyota's next generation hybrid vehicle powertrain system starting its rollout using the renewed Prius. Advics additionally will pour r&d into controls and components for pre-crash car-stop methods. Toward that conclusion, Advics started a technology centre outside Nagoya for 500 engineers in August. "Such driver-assistance systems are growing step-by step. The demands are getting to be more stringent," Ogiso stated. "We must enhance the pc program velocity and brake response velocity."

Yamanaka: Hot and cool repairs

Heat, cool storage

At Toyota's largest provider, Denso Corp., technologists are building new warmth and cold-storage methods to enhance fuel economy. The heat storage method is an on-board heatsink that conserves squandered engine heat and then releases it fast to warm the engine's lubricating oil. Warmer oil helps decrease friction reduction when the engine begins from a chilly stop, enhancing efficiency. In another end of the spectrum, Denso is building cold-storage techniques which operate in tandem with stop-start methods. Cease-start techniques turn off the motor to conserve gas when the vehicle comes to a halt. However, the drawback is the fact that the Air-Conditioner compressor shuts down at once. Denso's resolve is a fan that blows air on a cool sink in-the-air conditioner's evaporator and to the cottage. That keeps the cottage cool with no dependence on the motor to keep working. Both systems are essential components of Denso's gas-economy product pipe-line through 20 25, r&d leader Yasushi Yamanaka stated.

Lead-by-cable was utilized in the Infiniti Q50 sedan.

Lead-by-wire

JTEKT Corp., the world's biggest provider of steering techniques, also h-AS huge plans for Toyota, its best consumer and investor. It'll will build up lead-by-wire technologies to function with autonomous driving apparatus, President Tetsuo Agata stated. Lead-by-wire, nevertheless a nascent technologies but one that previously is utilized in such automobiles as the Infiniti Q50 sedan, breaks the mechanical link between the motorist as well as the wheels. Rather, it converts controls actions into digital signals that manage electrical motors to move the wheels. "We're operating with lead-by-wire as it's needed and practically required to attain autonomous driving techniques," Agata mentioned, although he declined to provide a time line. "The rate of embracing autonomous driving techniques is quickening. If we are able to remove the mechanical linkage, we can have significantly more independence in automotive style. As time goes by, lead-by-wire is important."

It's possible for you to reach Hans Greimel at [email protected]. -- Follow Hans on

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30.08.2015
ID:2751

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