Patents by Inventor Steven Wooldridge

Steven Wooldridge 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: 7318406
    Abstract: A piston in a direct injection spark ignition internal combustion engine is configured to reciprocate upward and downward within a combustion chamber along a reciprocating axis. The piston comprises an upper end which partly defines the combustion chamber; a bowl defined on the upper end of the piston, the bowl having an at least partially curved sidewall region extending upward from a bottom surface of the bowl, the bowl being configured so that fuel injected laterally into the bowl toward the curved sidewall region from an injection side of the bowl is directed along the curved sidewall region and upward toward a spark plug of the internal combustion engine, where the bowl has a converging contour in which a curvature of the converging contour is greater at a portion of the contour near the spark plug than a portion of the contour near the injection side of the bowl.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2008
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies LLC
    Inventors: Jianwen Yi, Zheng Xu, Steven Wooldridge
  • Publication number: 20070235004
    Abstract: A piston in a direct injection spark ignition internal combustion engine is configured to reciprocate upward and downward within a combustion chamber along a reciprocating axis. The piston comprises an upper end which partly defines the combustion chamber; a bowl defined on the upper end of the piston, the bowl having an at least partially curved sidewall region extending upward from a bottom surface of the bowl, the bowl being configured so that fuel injected laterally into the bowl toward the curved sidewall region from an injection side of the bowl is directed along the curved sidewall region and upward toward a spark plug of the internal combustion engine, where the bowl has a converging contour in which a curvature of the converging contour is greater at a portion of the contour near the spark plug than a portion of the contour near the injection side of the bowl.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 10, 2006
    Publication date: October 11, 2007
    Inventors: Jianwen Yi, Zheng Xu, Steven Wooldridge