Patent 7418934 was granted and assigned to Denso on September, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A valve timing controller is provided with a first rotary element that rotates in response to a crankshaft, a second rotary element that rotates in response to a camshaft. Multiple link mechanisms are arranged adjacently in the rotational direction of the first rotary element to change a relative rotation phase between the first and second rotary elements. The link mechanism in each group is constituted by combining the first link linked to the first rotary element by a revolute pair with the second link linked to the second rotary element and the first link. The second link of the link mechanism in each group retains the first link of each of the link mechanisms in the same group and the other group in the rotational axis direction of the first rotary element between the second link and the first rotary element.