Patents Examined by Marguerite McMahon
  • Patent number: 10662836
    Abstract: An integrated heater and pressure sensor assembly for a positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) system for a vehicle internal combustion engine includes a heater assembly configured to fluidly couple a PCV/makeup air (MUA) line and a vehicle air induction system line, the heater assembly configured to heat fluid passing into and out of the PCV/MUA line, and a pressure sensor assembly integrated directly into the heater assembly, the pressure sensor assembly configured to sense pressure pulsations in the PCV/MUA line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Assignee: FCA US LLC
    Inventors: Pierre Mitambo, Colton Wyatt
  • Patent number: 10280944
    Abstract: A fan guard and method of use thereof. The fan guard includes a guard housing, the guard housing including a housing opening, one or more lattices, wherein the one or more lattices are pivotably connected to a portion of the guard housing, a linkage arm, wherein the one or more lattices are operably connected to the linkage arm, and a wedge portion operably connected to the linkage arm, wherein the wedge portion comprises a wedge portion face, and wherein the linkage arm is configured to move along a length of the guard housing and the linkage arm is configured to pivot the one or more lattices from a first position to a second position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kenneth Arenella, Levi A. Campbell, Christopher R. Ciraulo, Robert K. Mullady, Budy D. Notohardjono, Arkadiy O. Tsfasman, John S. Werner
  • Patent number: 10273902
    Abstract: A galleryless steel piston designed to improve thermal efficiency, fuel consumption, and performance of an engine is provided. The piston includes a steel body portion and a thermal barrier layer applied to an upper combustion surface and/or a ring belt to reduce the amount of heat transferred from a combustion chamber to the body portion. The thermal barrier layer has a thermal conductivity which is lower than a thermal conductivity of the steel body portion. The thermal barrier layer typically includes a ceramic material, for example ceria, ceria stabilized zirconia, and/or a mixture of ceria stabilized zirconia and yttria stabilized zirconia in an amount of 90 to 100 wt. %, based on the total weight of the ceramic material. The thermal barrier layer can also have a gradient structure which gradually transitions from 100 wt. % of a metal bond material to 100 wt. % of the ceramic material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignee: Tenneco Inc.
    Inventor: Norbert G. Schneider
  • Patent number: 10267242
    Abstract: A combination control assembly of dual fuel internal combustion engine comprises a dial (2) that can be rotated to manipulate operation of a dual fuel internal combustion engine; a turntable (3) includes a disk body (301) and a shift lever (302), characterized in that the shift lever (302) is settled on the disk body (301); a first rotating part (4) that can be rotated by cooperating with the shift lever (302); a second rotating part (9) that can be rotated by cooperating with the shift lever (302); a first fuel valve (6) opened by the first rotating part (4), a second fuel valve (11) opened by the second rotating part (9). The combination control assembly controls the first fuel valve (6) and the second fuel valve (11), simplifying the manual operation and keeping the engine runs stable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2019
    Assignee: HANGZHOU POWER YOUNG TECHNOLOGY CO. LTD.
    Inventors: Longxin Tang, Jie Li
  • Patent number: 10260423
    Abstract: A towershaft support may comprise a mount support, and a mounting ring coupled to an aft portion of the mount support radially inward of the mount support, wherein the mounting ring and the mount support create a perimeter around a central void. The mounting ring may comprise a mounting flange on an outer diameter of the mounting ring and a fluid passageway on an inner diameter of the mounting ring fixedly coupled to the mounting flange, wherein the fluid passageway comprises an outer wall enclosing an internal passage configured to pass fluid therethrough.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Todd M. Gaulin, Dwayne E. Messerschmidt
  • Patent number: 10260453
    Abstract: The disclosure provides a two-cycle engine and an engine work machine. When a piston is located on the side of a bottom dead center, at a part corresponding to a notch part in the piston, an inner surface of the crank case protrudes toward an interior side to form a crank case first protruding part penetrating through the notch part toward the interior side. Meanwhile, the crank case at a part corresponding to a part without the notch part in the piston is not in a shape protruding toward the interior side. By assembling the piston and the crank case in such shapes, the piston is able to reciprocally move up and down without interfering with the crank case. In this case, by disposing the crank case first protruding part, the volume in the crank case is able to be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: Koki Holdings Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yosuke Yoshizaki, Naoto Ichihashi
  • Patent number: 10260411
    Abstract: A piston arrangement comprising a cylinder, a piston head movable along a piston axis within the cylinder, a con rod, and a track having a path; wherein the con rod has a first end which is coupled to the piston head and a second end which is coupled to the track; wherein the track is adapted to be moved relative to the cylinder and is shaped such that, as the track moves relative to the cylinder, the piston head moves in reciprocating motion along the piston axis in accordance with the path of the track; wherein the path of the track is shaped such that piston head displacement is non simple harmonic with respect to displacement of the track relative to the cylinder. Also an internal combustion engine including the piston arrangement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: NEWLENOIR LIMITED
    Inventor: Ryan Bowen
  • Patent number: 10260413
    Abstract: A five-spindle engine system having a stable center of gravity that operates without oil lubrication, an opposed-piston four-cylinder, two-stroke combustion engine, a double-acting opposed-piston pressure-gradient drive, a multi-rotor/multi-stator/multi-phase disk generator/disk motor including windings printed on printed circuit boards, and/or a heat pump may be integrated in the system and housed in a common sealed housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Inventor: Ralf Muckenhirn
  • Patent number: 10260992
    Abstract: An object is to carry out an abnormality diagnosis for a variable compression ratio mechanism without adding any special hardware configuration for estimating a compression ratio. An abnormality diagnostic device for a variable compression ratio mechanism adapted to be applied to an internal combustion engine comprises a controller configured to calculate a predetermined rotational speed difference which is a rotational speed difference, between an engine rotational speed at a predetermined crank angle before or after compression top dead center and an engine rotational speed in the vicinity of the compression top dead center for a predetermined cylinder at the time of carrying out fuel cut processing, set a reference range of the predetermined rotational speed difference, and make a diagnosis that abnormality has occurred in the variable compression ratio mechanism when the predetermined rotational speed difference is out of the reference range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Noriyasu Adachi, Tomoya Ota, Hiroshi Watanabe, Yoshio Ueno, Takayoshi Kawai, Aya Yamada
  • Patent number: 10253754
    Abstract: Described herein is an apparatus for wind energy production and air purification. The apparatus includes a vertically mounted center shaft, a plurality of branches connected horizontally to the center shaft along a length of the center shaft to faun different levels of branches, a plurality of blades rotatably connected to each branch of the plurality of branches, at least one of the blades being configured to hold one or more air filters, and a micro-turbine rotatably connected to each blade of the plurality of blades, wherein each blade of the plurality of blades is configured to rotate in response to air received at the plurality of blades thereby producing electric energy via rotation of the respective micro-turbines and the one or more air filters, the one or more air filters being configured to filter the air blowing at the plurality of blades.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University
    Inventors: Omer Aga, Ismail Anil
  • Patent number: 10253689
    Abstract: An engine trigger wheel is disclosed having a central annular portion and a cylindrical rim portion defining a number of trigger teeth, wherein the central annular and cylindrical rim portions are pressed from a single piece of metal. A number of balance apertures are formed in the central annular portion to move a center of mass of the trigger wheel away from an axis of rotation. The engine trigger wheel when fastened to one end of a crankshaft of an engine provides both an indication of the angular position of the crankshaft and a counterweight function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Duncan Scholtes
  • Patent number: 10247129
    Abstract: A cylinder liner for an engine block that includes an inter-bore saw cut includes a first engine block bonding surface, and a second engine block bonding surface that has a lower level of bonding between the cylinder liner and an engine block than the first engine block bonding surface. The second engine block bonding surface extending from an axial end portion of the liner a distance greater than a depth of the saw cut in inter-bore section of the engine block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Garrold A DeGrace, Maurice G Meyer, Paul Boone, Gregory T Naismith
  • Patent number: 10247091
    Abstract: An air, entering into the cylinder of the piston internal combustion engine (PICE) via intake valve (or coming both: through intake valve and through intake ports in the sleeve), flows out through the exhaust ports in the sleeve at the end of the intake stroke and/or at the beginning of the compression stroke. Thus increase (compared with the conventional—“PICE”) scavenging through the cylinder at full engine loads. In idle running, at low loads and in starting the backflow of exhaust gases into the cylinder is performed. Due to this, the starting is better.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Inventor: Alexandra Leonidovna Zhmudyak
  • Patent number: 10247114
    Abstract: In the exhaust gas control system, the electronic control unit is configured to execute first air-fuel ratio control for controlling an air-fuel ratio of an air-fuel mixture in a part of cylinders to a lean air-fuel ratio and controlling an air-fuel ratio of an air-fuel mixture in the other part of the cylinders to a rich air-fuel ratio is executed. The electronic control unit is configured to execute second air-fuel ratio control to perform malfunction diagnosis. The electronic control unit is configured to execute second air-fuel ratio control when the execution of the first air-fuel ratio control is interrupted after the temperature of the three-way catalyst becomes equal to or higher than the diagnosis temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takashi Nakamura, Keiichi Myojo, Yoshiyuki Shogenji, Noriyasu Kobashi, Yuki Nose, Eiji Ikuta
  • Patent number: 10240511
    Abstract: An engine assembly and method of distributing coolant in an engine assembly. A cylinder block includes one or more pairs of cylinder block openings disposed therein. Each pair of cylinder block openings include two cylinder block openings, each configured to house a piston. A cylinder head in fluid communication with the one or more pairs of cylinder block openings. A coolant manifold includes coolant flow passages, each in fluid communication with a coolant flow inlet disposed in the cylinder block between the two cylinder block openings in each pair of cylinder block openings. Fluid from each coolant flow inlet diverges into two coolant flow passages, each extending about a peripheral portion of a respective cylinder block opening. Each coolant flow passage extends from the peripheral portion of the respective cylinder block opening into one or more outlets from the engine block and into the cylinder head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2019
    Assignee: Cummins Inc.
    Inventors: Mathew Clark, Nathaniel P. Hassall, John Jerl Purcell, III
  • Patent number: 10240558
    Abstract: A piston for a two-stroke engine operating with advanced scavenging has a piston base and a piston skirt. The piston has a piston pocket which has a smallest distance (e) from a top side of the piston base. The piston has a section plane perpendicularly to the longitudinal center axis of the piston, the distance of which section plane from the top side of the piston base is greater than the smallest distance (e). A middle plane of the piston intersects the piston skirt at a location. In the circumferential direction between the pocket and this location, a thickened area is arranged in the section plane, the greatest wall thickness of which area is at least 1.1 times the wall thickness at the location. The piston has an edge at a recess at which the piston skirt has a reduced height. A chamfer is arranged on the radially outer side of the piston.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2019
    Assignee: Andreas Stihl AG & Co. KG
    Inventors: Birger Loew, Jonas Lank
  • Patent number: 10233822
    Abstract: An expansion tank, while maintaining gas-liquid separation performance of coolant circulating through an engine cooling apparatus, can absorb pressure variations occurring with volume change of the coolant even when an excessive amount of coolant is supplied. A bulkhead 42 partitions an expansion tank 30 into separate chambers R1 to R6 that communicate with each other via a first communication hole 44 positioned lower than a FULL line. The separate chambers R4 to R6 that constitute a separate chamber group X communicate with each other via a third communication hole 45a positioned higher than the FULL line. The separate chambers R1 to R3 that constitute a separate chamber group Y communicate with each other via a fourth communication hole 45b positioned higher than the FULL line. The separate chamber R1 and the separate chamber R4 communicate with each other via a second communication hole 45c disposed at the height of the FULL line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2019
    Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hitoshi Nishiguchi, Tomoyuki Saito
  • Patent number: 10233871
    Abstract: A method for introducing a gaseous fuel into a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine includes forming a non-ignitable mixture of the gaseous fuel and a gas including oxygen in a predefined mixture mass ratio within a predetermined range of tolerance having a pressure suitable for directly introducing the non-ignitable mixture into the combustion chamber during at least the compression stroke; and introducing the non-ignitable mixture directly into the combustion chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2019
    Assignee: WESTPORT POWER INC.
    Inventors: Jian Huang, Philip G. Hill, Sandeep Munshi, Gordon P. McTaggart-Cowan
  • Patent number: 10233792
    Abstract: An engine comprising a camshaft, the engine coupleable to an auxiliary device driven from the camshaft, the camshaft comprising: a plurality of valve cams each configured to actuate a respective intake valve or exhaust valve of the engine, an angular orientation of the valve cams about the rotational axis of the camshaft defined by the operational requirements of the valves; and an auxiliary device cam configured to actuate a drive element of the auxiliary device via one or more cam lobes, the auxiliary device cam having an angular orientation about the rotational axis of the camshaft, and the drive element having an angular orientation about the rotational axis of the camshaft, wherein the angular orientation of the drive element of the auxiliary device is selected respective to the angular orientation of the valve cams such that each actuation event of the auxiliary device occurs between two successive valve actuation events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2019
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Phil John Whiston, Neil Haynes, Richard Dukes
  • Patent number: 10227956
    Abstract: A fuel heater and vaporizing system comprising an engine; a source of fuel coupled to the engine through a fuel supply line; multiple stages of thermal sources thermally coupled to the fuel supply line between the source of fuel and the engine, wherein the multiple stages of thermal sources are configured to heat the fuel; at least one catalyst system configured to supply a source of ions and H2 coupled to the fuel supply, and a sustainable water injection sub-system coupled to the engine, the sustainable water injection sub-system configured to inject water vapor into the engine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2019
    Assignee: Diesel Solutions, LLC
    Inventor: Gerald W Rowley