Patents by Inventor Maura Dintino

Maura Dintino has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9261036
    Abstract: A method to minimize common rail pressure irregularities due to aliasing effect on battery voltage monitoring in a digital electronic control unit that is capable of PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) regulations of a metering valve unit in a diesel common-rail power-train system. At least an engine rotary speed signal is detected and at least a battery voltage signal is monitored, the method includes, but is not limited to calculating the aliasing frequency on said battery voltage signal as a function of said engine rotary speed signal, filtering the battery voltage signal before it is input to said controller module with at least one digital non-linear notch filter, the at least one digital non-linear notch filter centered about the first harmonic of the aliasing frequency, and input the filtered battery voltage signal, at least with the engine rotary speed signal, to the controller module for PWM regulating the metering valve unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2016
    Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Stefano Nieddu, Maura Dintino
  • Patent number: 8433498
    Abstract: Methods, a fuel supply system, and a computer readable medium embodying a computer program product are provided for controlling rail pressure in a fuel supply system comprising a fuel pump, an injector and a rail connecting the injector to the pump. At least one of the methods includes, but is not limited to establishing a relationship between said rail pressure and a leak rate of the injector, estimating a fuel drain rate from said rail based on a fuel injection rate, the rail pressure and said rail pressure/leak rate relationship, estimating a desired intake flow rate of said pump based on said fuel drain rate, and controlling the pump to operate at said desired intake flow rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2013
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Maura Dintino, Vincenzo Rampino, Eugenio Pisoni
  • Publication number: 20120253720
    Abstract: A method is provided to minimize common rail pressure irregularities due to aliasing effect on battery voltage monitoring in a digital electronic control unit that is capable of PWM regulations of a metering valve unit in a diesel common-rail power-train system. At least an engine rotary speed signal is detected and at least a battery voltage signal is monitored, the method includes, but is not limited to calculating the aliasing frequency on said battery voltage signal as a function of said engine rotary speed signal, filtering the battery voltage signal before it is input to said controller module with at least one digital non-linear notch filter, the at least one digital non-linear notch filter substantially centered on the first harmonic of the aliasing frequency, and input the filtered battery voltage signal, at least with the engine rotary speed signal, to the controller module for PWM regulating the metering valve unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Stefano NIEDDU, Maura DINTINO
  • Patent number: 8239118
    Abstract: In a fuel injection system of an internal combustion engine, including, but not limited to a high pressure pump adapted to deliver a fuel mass conveyed from a fuel tank to a high pressure region to which a plurality of injectors is connected, including a fuel metering device for adjusting the fuel quantity to be delivered to the high pressure region, a pressure sensor for measuring fuel pressure in the high pressure region; and an electronic control unit arranged for driving the fuel metering device through an energizing signal (Inom; Iact) as a function of the measured fuel pressure and the engine operating mode, where the electronic control unit is arranged for determining the energizing signal (Inom; Iact) for driving the fuel metering device according to a nominal characteristic curve (A) of the high pressure pump representative of a predetermined relationship between the energizing signal and the fuel mass delivered by the pump, the operating pressure is controlled by driving the fuel metering device wit
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Maura Dintino, Paolo Zamboni
  • Publication number: 20110106407
    Abstract: Methods, a fuel supply system, and a computer readable medium embodying a computer program product are provided for controlling rail pressure in a fuel supply system comprising a fuel pump, an injector and a rail connecting the injector to the pump. At least one of the methods includes, but is not limited to establishing a relationship between said rail pressure and a leak rate of the injector, estimating a fuel drain rate from said rail based on a fuel injection rate, the rail pressure and said rail pressure/leak rate relationship, estimating a desired intake flow rate of said pump based on said fuel drain rate, and controlling the pump to operate at said desired intake flow rate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2010
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Applicant: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Maura DINTINO, Vincenzo RAMPINO, Eugenio PISONI
  • Patent number: 7891342
    Abstract: In a fuel injection system of an internal combustion engine that includes, but is not limited to injectors (I1-I4), each of which is adapted to deliver a predetermined amount of pressurized fuel to a combustion chamber of a respective cylinder (C1-C4) of the engine, a high-pressure accumulator volume common to the injectors (I1-I4) and arranged to maintain the fuel at high-pressure, a pressure sensor for measuring fuel pressure in the accumulator volume, a metering unit for adjusting the fuel pressure in the accumulator volume as a function of the measured pressure, so as to maintain a predetermined target injection pressure set-point dependent on the engine operating point by returning excess fuel to a fuel tank; and an electronic control unit arranged for controlling fuel injection timing and quantity by operating injectors control valves, the operating pressure is controlled by triggering retarded injections (INJpost) of a predetermined quantity of fuel to the combustion chamber of the cylinders (C1-C4) of
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2011
    Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
    Inventors: Maura Dintino, Roberto Vernassa, Paolo Zamboni
  • Publication number: 20090299606
    Abstract: In a fuel injection system of an internal combustion engine, including, but not limited to a high pressure pump adapted to deliver a fuel mass conveyed from a fuel tank to a high pressure region to which a plurality of injectors is connected, including a fuel metering device for adjusting the fuel quantity to be delivered to the high pressure region, a pressure sensor for measuring fuel pressure in the high pressure region; and an electronic control unit arranged for driving the fuel metering device through an energizing signal (Inom; Iact) as a function of the measured fuel pressure and the engine operating mode, where the electronic control unit is arranged for determining the energizing signal (Inom; Iact) for driving the fuel metering device according to a nominal characteristic curve (A) of the high pressure pump representative of a predetermined relationship between the energizing signal and the fuel mass delivered by the pump, the operating pressure is controlled by driving the fuel metering device wit
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2009
    Publication date: December 3, 2009
    Applicant: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Maura DINTINO, Paolo ZAMBONI
  • Publication number: 20090288638
    Abstract: In a fuel injection system of an internal combustion engine that includes, but is not limited to injectors (I1-I4), each of which is adapted to deliver a predetermined amount of pressurized fuel to a combustion chamber of a respective cylinder (C1-C4) of the engine, a high-pressure accumulator volume common to the injectors (I1-I4) and arranged to maintain the fuel at high-pressure, a pressure sensor for measuring fuel pressure in the accumulator volume, a metering unit for adjusting the fuel pressure in the accumulator volume as a function of the measured pressure, so as to maintain a predetermined target injection pressure set-point dependent on the engine operating point by returning excess fuel to a fuel tank; and an electronic control unit arranged for controlling fuel injection timing and quantity by operating injectors control valves, the operating pressure is controlled by triggering retarded injections (INJpost) of a predetermined quantity of fuel to the combustion chamber of the cylinders (C1-C4) of
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2009
    Publication date: November 26, 2009
    Applicant: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Maura DINTINO, Roberto VERNASSA, Paolo ZAMBONI
  • Publication number: 20090018784
    Abstract: A method is provided for estimating a pressure drop (?p) between two sections of an exhaust line of an engine, such as a diesel engine. The method includes, but is not limited to the steps of measuring a fresh air flow rate ({dot over (m)}a) into the engine, measuring a fuel flow rate ({dot over (m)}f) into the engine, calculating an exhaust gas flow rate ({dot over (M)}) from the fresh air and fuel flow rates ({dot over (m)}a, {dot over (m)}f), determining an estimated pressure drop (?p) as a function of the exhaust gas flow rate ({dot over (M)}), characterized in that the exhaust gas flow rate ({dot over (M)}) is calculated as a weighted sum of the fresh air and fuel flow rates ({dot over (m)}a, {dot over (m)}f) wherein a weighting factor (k) of the fuel flow rate ({dot over (m)}f) is higher than a weighting factor of the fresh air flow rate ({dot over (m)}a).
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2008
    Publication date: January 15, 2009
    Applicant: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Maura DINTINO, Tommaso DE FAZIO, Giovanni ROVATTI