Patents Examined by Brandon D Lee
  • Patent number: 11821358
    Abstract: A variable geometry turbocharger according to an embodiment includes a rotational shaft; a turbine wheel disposed on one end side of the rotational shaft; a compressor wheel disposed on another end side of the rotational shaft; a bearing housing for housing a bearing part for rotatably supporting the rotational shaft; a variable nozzle structure for controlling a flow rate of an exhaust gas flowing into the turbine wheel, the variable nozzle structure including a nozzle plate and nozzle mount that define an exhaust gas flow passage for allowing the exhaust gas to flow into the turbine wheel, a nozzle vane disposed rotatably about a support shaft in the exhaust gas flow passage, and a drive part for rotating the nozzle vane, the drive part being disposed in an internal space defined between the bearing housing and the nozzle mount; and a cooling gas passage for extracting compressed gas compressed by the compressor wheel and introducing the compressed gas into the internal space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES ENGINE & TURBOCHARGER, LTD.
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Kitamura, Hokuto Isoda, Yosuke Dammoto
  • Patent number: 11815044
    Abstract: Systems and methods for diagnosing an exhaust aftertreatment system are provided. A controller determines, for each sensor of a plurality of sensors, one or more performance parameters based on measurement data obtained from the sensor that is indicative of a performance of the sensor or a component of the exhaust aftertreatment system. The controller determines, for each performance parameter, a corresponding degradation level indicator indicative of a performance degradation of the corresponding sensor or the corresponding component of the exhaust aftertreatment system. The controller can determine, for each degradation level indicator, a corresponding diagnosis threshold value for detecting an operational state of the corresponding sensor or the corresponding component of the exhaust aftertreatment system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Rutika Kaustubh Gokhale, Adrian Adolfo Jarrin, Arun Shori Sundaravel Damotharan
  • Patent number: 11808191
    Abstract: A device for the aftertreatment of exhaust gases from an internal combustion engine has a tubular first flow section, a deflecting region and a annular second flow section, the second flow section being arranged between an inner wall delimiting the first flow section and an outer wall delimiting the second flow section. At least one annular honeycomb body is arranged in the second flow section, and at least one annular heating disk is arranged in the second flow section, the heating disk being electrically contactable by at least two electrical feedthroughs, which are arranged on the outer wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: VITESCO TECHNOLOGIES GMBH
    Inventors: Sebastian Dung, Peter Hirth
  • Patent number: 11808209
    Abstract: A turbine engine assembly includes a condenser that is at least partially disposed within the core flow path where water is extracted from the exhaust gas flow, an evaporator system that is at least partially disposed within the core flow path that is upstream of the condenser where thermal energy from the exhaust gas flow is utilized to generate a steam flow. An aftercooler provides a cooling flow that is selectively injected into the core flow path upstream of at least the condenser for cooling the exhaust gas flow in response to a parameter that is indicative of an engine operating parameter that exceeds a predefined condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2023
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: RTX CORPORATION
    Inventor: Jon Erik Sobanski
  • Patent number: 11802503
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method for optimizing the state of a catalytic converter in a vehicle with a diesel engine when parking the vehicle, the method comprising establishing that a switch-off process for switching off the diesel engine has been initiated, increasing an NH3 feed rate to a first value in order to store a surplus of NH3 in the catalytic converter, stopping the NH3 feed when the speed of the diesel engine falls below a speed threshold or a measured NH3 emission exceeds an emission threshold, and completing the switch-off process. The disclosure also relates to an engine controller and to a computer program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: VitescoTechnologies GmbH
    Inventor: Hong Zhang
  • Patent number: 11795965
    Abstract: An air-sending device includes a propeller fan to rotate about a rotational axis, and a ducted bell mouth surrounding an outboard area of the propeller fan. The propeller fan includes a plurality of blades. Each of the blades includes, in its outboard portion, a reflexed part bent upstream of an airflow that is generated in the direction of the rotational axis by rotation of the propeller fan. In the propeller fan, within an area that is closer to the trailing edge than is the near mid-chord area, the propeller fan is inclined downstream of the airflow from the inboard edge to the reflexed part. In at least a portion of an area where the cylindrical part of the bell mouth and the outboard edge of each blade face each, the reflexed part has a reflex angle of greater than or equal to 90 degrees.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoya Fukui, Toshikatsu Arai, Hitoshi Kikuchi
  • Patent number: 11795852
    Abstract: A heating device for an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine and having: a tubular body, which contains a combustion chamber and is delimited by a first base wall and by a second base wall; a fuel injector, which is mounted through the first base wall; at least one inlet opening, which can be connected to a fan so as to receive an air flow; a feeding channel, which receives air from the inlet opening, surrounds an end portion of the fuel injector and ends with a nozzle arranged around an injection point of the fuel injector; a spark plug, which is mounted through a side wall of the tubular body; and a flame holder body, which is at least partially arranged inside the feeding channel in the area of the nozzle, is coaxial to the feeding channel and to the fuel injector and is in front of the injection point of the fuel injector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: MARELLI EUROPE S.P.A.
    Inventors: Marco La Sana, Emanuele Milani, Mauro Brignone, Luigi Lubrano, Alessandro Mantovanelli
  • Patent number: 11788451
    Abstract: An internal combustion engine (1) has an electric heating catalyst (5) in an exhaust passage (2). When it is detected that a door has been opened, the electric heating catalyst (5) is preheated. If power of an engine controller (8) is lost during the preheating, information on an estimated temperature, which is stored in the engine controller (8), is lost. The engine controller (8) forbids energization of the electric heating catalyst (5) until a cooling period necessary for temperature of the electric heating catalyst (5) to fall elapses after recovery of the power of the engine controller (8). After the cooling period elapses, the preheating is started again.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kouichi Murakami, Jin Yokoyama, Akikazu Sakai, Hideaki Takahashi
  • Patent number: 11781527
    Abstract: A method is provided for monitoring an operational parameter of a wind turbine. The method comprising defining a peer limit, measuring the operational parameter during operation of the wind turbine; and comparing the measured operational parameter to the peer limit. The wind turbine is a member of a peer group of wind turbines, each wind turbine of the peer group comprising a common characteristic. The peer limit is defined using measurements of the operational parameter measured on the wind turbines of the peer group of wind turbines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Vestas Wind Systems A/S
    Inventor: Søren Dyøe Agger
  • Patent number: 11781473
    Abstract: A turbine includes: a housing including an accommodating portion accommodating a turbine impeller; a first turbine scroll flow path communicating with the accommodating portion; a second turbine scroll flow path communicating with the accommodating portion and having a volume larger than a volume of the first turbine scroll flow path; a valve seat having a first port and a second port, the first port communicating with the first turbine scroll flow path, the second port communicating with the second turbine scroll flow path and having an opening area smaller than an opening area of the first port; a valve configured to contact the valve seat; and a shaft holding the valve and arranged on a side opposite to the first port with respect to the second port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: IHI Corporation
    Inventors: Shun Okamoto, Tomohiro Inoue, Toshifumi Terui, Isao Morita
  • Patent number: 11781446
    Abstract: Device for distributing oil from a rolling bearing (8) for an aircraft turbine engine, comprising: —a rolling bearing (8), —a body (5) for distributing oil, which body is configured to be mounted on a turbine engine shaft (4), said body comprising: i) a first outer cylindrical surface (5a) for mounting the inner ring (12) of the bearing, ii) a ring-shaped scoop (11) for recovering oil, iii) a ring-shaped track (26) of a dynamic seal (22), iv) a circuit (7) for lubricating the bearing and cooling the track, said circuit being formed in the body, characterised in that the ring-shaped scoop is the first scoop (11a) which supplies a first portion (7x) of the circuit with a view to cooling the track, and in that the body comprises a second ring-shaped scoop (11b) for recovering oil, which scoop supplies a second portion (7y) of the circuit with a view to lubricating the bearing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: SAFRAN AIRCRAFT ENGINES
    Inventors: Christoph Marcel Lucien Perdrigeon, Regis Eugene Henri Servant, Guillaume Francois Jean Bazin
  • Patent number: 11773798
    Abstract: A machine includes an engine, a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) element fixedly connected to an output of the engine, and a controller. The controller is communicatively coupled to the engine and a sensor at an output of the SCR element. The controller is configured to calculate an estimated amount of emissions at a location of the SCR element, calculate an estimated amount of emissions from an output of the SCR element, measure, using the sensor, an actual amount of emissions from the output of the SCR element, and perform a comparison of the estimated amount of emissions and the actual amount of emissions. The controller is further configured to adjust, based on the comparison, the estimated amount of emissions at the location of the SCR element, and control operation of the engine based on the adjusted amount of emissions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: Caterpillar Inc.
    Inventors: Sylvain J. Charbonnel, Gavin Williams, Derek A. Tanis
  • Patent number: 11767778
    Abstract: A urea solution mixing chamber for a diesel vehicle that increases a purification rate of NOx by increasing a vaporization rate of a urea solution by use of a urea solution vaporization component, includes a flow guide configured to guide a flow of exhaust gas while collecting the flow of the exhaust gas toward a catalyst, a urea solution injector disposed rearward of the flow guide and configured to distribute and inject a urea solution, an impactor provided on an internal surface of the flow guide configured to collect the exhaust gas, the impactor being configured to atomize the urea solution injected from the urea solution injector, and vaporization fins configured to vaporize the atomized urea solution by bringing the atomized urea solution into contact with the vaporization fins and mix the vaporized urea solution with the exhaust gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2023
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation, Faurecia Korea, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoon Sung Choi, Jae Yeol Yun, In Kyun Na, Gyu Hwa Jeong
  • Patent number: 11761458
    Abstract: A compressor is provided with: an impeller a housing configured to rotatably house the impeller and having an intake passage for introducing a gas to the impeller from outside the housing, a scroll passage for guiding the gas having passed through the impeller to the outside, and a bypass passage connecting the intake passage and the scroll passage so as to bypass the impeller; and a bypass valve having a valve body disposed in the bypass passage and capable of opening and closing the bypass passage. The valve body is configured to, in a fully closed state, separate the bypass passage into an inlet-side passage having a communication port communicating with the scroll passage and an outlet-side passage communicating with the intake passage. An inlet-side passage wall surface which defines the inlet-side passage includes at least an upstream passage wall surface portion connected to an upstream end of the communication port in a cross-sectional view of the housing taken along an axis of the impeller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES ENGINE & TURBOCHARGER, LTD.
    Inventor: Yoshihiro Hayashi
  • Patent number: 11754093
    Abstract: A centrifugal compressor includes a compressor housing; a compressor impeller; a first throttling member and a second throttling member; a contacting portion provided on one end of a body of each of the first throttling member and the second throttling member; and an opposing portion provided on the other end of the body of each of the first throttling member and the second throttling member, the opposing portions being spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction and parts of the opposing portions facing each other in a rotational axis direction when both of the first throttling member and the second throttling member are in a protruding position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: IHI Corporation
    Inventors: Ryota Sakisaka, Takashi Fujiwara, Atsushi Yonemura, Takahiro Bamba
  • Patent number: 11746683
    Abstract: A heating member for a vehicle exhaust gas purification device comprises an electrically conductive peripheral frame having an inner edge, a central support arranged substantially at a geometric centre of the inner edge, and a perforated heating grid formed of a plurality of elongate heating elements each having first and second ends opposite one another. The first end is linked to the electrically conductive peripheral frame and the second end is linked to the central support. Each elongate heating element occupies a respective angular sector of the perforated heating grid, and is arranged in zigzag manner within that angular sector so as to form a succession of strands connected by nodes and being linked by the nodes to the elongate heating elements occupying neighbouring angular sectors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Inventors: Thomas Sommier, Matthieu Riverain, Nicolas Tur, Sébastien Hanauer, Vincent Lebourgeois
  • Patent number: 11739671
    Abstract: A method of providing a heating cycle for an after-treatment system is described. The method comprises initiating a pre-charge cycle of a DCDC converter and determining a temperature of the after-treatment system. In response to determining the temperature of the after-treatment system is below a threshold temperature and the pre-charge is complete, the method further comprises operating a solid-state switch to electrically connect a high voltage power source to a heating element to of the after-treatment system, and heating the after-treatment system with the heating element until the after-treatment system reaches the threshold temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: David Cox, David Hesketh, Themi Petridis
  • Patent number: 11739672
    Abstract: An exhaust gas heater for an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine includes a carrier arrangement and a heating conductor arrangement supported on the carrier arrangement. The heating conductor arrangement has at least one heating conductor wherethrough current flows. The at least one heating conductor is supported with respect to the carrier arrangement by at least one connecting element. At least one length compensation arrangement has a first length compensation element, which has a first supporting surface providing a wedge formation, and has a second length compensation element, which has a second supporting surface supported on the first supporting surface and provides a counter-wedge formation. The length compensation arrangement is provided in association with the at least one connecting element. The first length compensation element and the second length compensation element have materially different coefficients of thermal expansion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Purem GmbH
    Inventors: Jürgen Häberle, Amol Anil Karekar
  • Patent number: 11739673
    Abstract: A diesel-emissions reduction unit having an inlet adapted to receive an exhaust stream of the diesel engine; a diesel oxidation trap catalyst located adjacent the inlet; a dosing controller and an injection lance arranged to meter aqueous NH3 into the exhaust stream; a NOx concentration sensor and a NH3 concentration sensor with at least one oxidation catalyst panel arranged to isolate the NOx concentration sensor from NH3 in the exhaust stream; and an exhaust heater arranged to heat the exhaust stream of the diesel engine toward the inlet of the diesel emissions reduction unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignees: Catalytic Combustion Corporation, Knoxville Locomotive Works, Inc.
    Inventors: James M. Wurtz, Jr., Scott Gatewood, Michael Thomason, D. Todd Jacobs, Daniel R. Piche, Cody J. Molls, H. Peter Claussen, John W. Robinson, Jr.
  • Patent number: 11725561
    Abstract: A sampling assembly for an exhaust gas aftertreatment system includes a body layer, an outer bowl, a first sampler, and an inner bowl. The body layer defines a cylindrical passage. The outer bowl is coupled to the body layer. The first sampler extends circumferentially along the body layer to the outer bowl. The first sampler includes a first sampler channel and a first sampler aperture. The first sampler channel is configured to provide exhaust gas into the outer bowl. The first sampler aperture is configured to receive the exhaust gas from the cylindrical passage and provide the exhaust gas into the first sampler channel. The inner bowl is disposed at least partially within the outer bowl and configured to receive the exhaust gas from the outer bowl and provide the exhaust gas into the cylindrical passage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: Cummins Emission Solutions Inc.
    Inventors: John Ringstad, Peter Christianson