Kariya City, Japan—DENSO keeps moving toward continuous improvement by developing new products and improving existing products. Here are some of the products they’ve developed recently.

Front-end module for Mitsubishi’s light vehicle
DENSO has developed a new lighter and less-expensive front-end module (FEM) together with Mitsubishi for the Mitsubishi “i” light vehicle.

The FEM includes the carrier, radiator, air conditioning condenser, washer tank, electric fan, motor and duct. This design is approximately 30 percent smaller in volume and 20 percent lighter, and costs less than conventional components when not combined into an FEM.

For the carrier, DENSO engineers used a polypropylene material with a lower density than that used in a previous model, and modified the shape of the carrier to reach further weight and cost reductions while maintaining sufficient strength.

They also designed a new configuration that can hold the headlamp securely in place between the carrier and the fender even without a headlamp bracket, making the carrier more compact.

DENSO optimized the structure of the FEM, which increased the efficiency of the heat exchanger, and minimized the space between the radiator, air conditioning condenser and electric fan. This reduced the size and weight of the entire module.

Shine a light on safety
DENSO engineers have made a new electronic control unit (ECU) for adaptive front lighting systems (AFS) that is 70 percent smaller in volume than our conventional ECU. How did they do it? By:

• Shifting the motor drive circuits, which control headlamp direction, to the motors.
• Reducing the size of ECU input and output connectors by adopting Controller Area Network communications.
• Reducing the size of the microcomputers and IC chips.

Depending on road conditions and vehicle speed, the new ECU provides more detailed light distribution, leading to better visibility.

DENSO’s AFS ECU contains an auto leveling function that controls the headlamps in a perpendicular direction. Because our ECU costs less, automakers can use it for both adaptive front lighting systems and auto leveling systems, or only for the auto leveling system.

DC-DC converter
For its new DC-DC converter, DENSO developed a unique voltage converter circuit that reduces energy loss by half compared to a conventional DC-DC converter, improving fuel consumption, and decreasing the amount of heat generated during voltage conversion. This means the converter can be cooled by air instead of the conventional method of ooling by water. And that allows more flexibility in installation.

Battery monitoring unit
Conventional battery-monitoring units place only low voltage elements on both sides of the circuit board. DENSO’s new atterymonitoring unit places not only low-voltage elements but also high-voltage elements on both sides of the circuit board. This, along with a reduction in the number of elements, helped DENSO reduce the size of the unit by 65 percent and the weight by 50 percent (compared to a conventional product).

System main relay
DENSO’s newly developed system main relay reduces operation noise by approximately 10 dB without slowing the time it takes to shut off the car’s high electrical voltage in collisions. It does this by using a structure that lessens the impact when a movable part comes into contact with a fixed part. DENSO also reduced the number of components in the system main relay, making it easier to assemble.

New double-pipe internal
heat exchanger is cool
One of DENSO’s newest products is a double-pipe internal heat exchanger for front car air conditioning systems that increases cooling performance by up to 12 percent. DENSO is the first company to develop a double-pipe heat exchanger for a front air conditioning system. The system was introduced in North America on the Lexus GX470 and in the Middle and Near East on the Toyota Prado.

Here’s how it works: The double-pipe heat exchanger integrates
two pipes, which are usually separated in conventional refrigeration cycles, into one pipe with inner and outer tubes. The inner tube wall has spiral grooves that face the outer tube. In the refrigeration cycle, low-temperature gaseous refrigerant flows in the inner tube, and exchanges heat with the high-temperature liquid refrigerant flowing in the gap between the inner and outer tubes. The spiral grooves on the inner tube enhance heat exchange, which allows the internal heat exchanger to achieve a higher cooling performance with a shorter pipe length.

In traditional double-pipe internal heat exchangers, the gap between the inner and outer tubes is likely to be crushed when the pipes are bent to fit in the engine compartment. But DENSO’s inner pipe spiral grooves help prevent the tubes from being crushed when they are bent, and our heat exchanger can be installed in the same space as a conventional front air conditioning system.