Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
2003-03-14
2004-12-07
Wu, Daniel J. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S636150, C340S636190, C340S661000, C340S438000, C340S455000, C324S433000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06828914
ABSTRACT:
FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to automatically monitoring and determining the electrical condition of a combustion engine battery, and more particularly, to a method and device for in-use unambiguously determining and indicating the near-end-of-life (NEOL) state of a combustion engine battery. The present invention features means for in-use unambiguously distinguishing, and indicating, among different causes of the development or exhibition of low cranking strength of a combustion engine battery, with respect to the distinct differences between a bad state of health (SOH) and a bad state of charge (SOC) of the combustion engine battery.
Basic principles and details describing operation of a battery, a combustion engine, and the operative relationship of a battery as part of a combustion engine, needed for properly describing and understanding the present invention are provided herein. Complete theoretical descriptions, details, explanations, examples, and applications, of batteries, combustion engines, and the operative relationship of a battery as part of a combustion engine, are readily available in standard references, including patent literature, in the fields of electronics, mechanics, automotive technology, automotive mechanics, automotive electronics, battery technology, and combustion engine technology.
The present invention is directed to in-use monitoring (detecting, measuring, and analyzing) and determining the electrical condition of a battery of a ‘combustion engine’, being an engine powered by the burning or combusting of a fuel and includes a starting system or mechanism functioning for cranking a crankshaft for starting the combustion engine, and a charging system or mechanism which automatically recharges the battery of the combustion engine following starting of the combustion engine.
A combustion engine may be part of a vehicle, where a vehicle may be any mobile device powered by the combustion engine for carrying or transporting persons or objects of any kind, for example, an automobile, truck, farm vehicle such as a tractor or cotton combine, train, airplane, or boat. A combustion engine may also be part of a stand alone device, such as an electrical generator, a cement mixer, or a heavy duty power machine.
A battery is a principle component of the overall electrical system of any vehicle or device operable by a combustion engine, since so much depends upon its proper and reliable function. The important function of a battery in a combustion engine is most needed and appreciated at the time of starting the combustion engine. The starting operation of a combustion engine involves activation of a starter system or mechanism. A starter system or mechanism of a combustion engine typically features a multitude of electrical and mechanical devices, mechanisms, and components, including the battery as an initial source of electrical power, a starter motor for electro-mechanically meshing with and initiating turning or cranking of the crankshaft of the combustion engine motor, the combustion engine motor crankshaft, a coil for generating high voltage required for continuous operation of the combustion engine, and a myriad of related electrical and mechanical circuitry and operative connections among the various devices, mechanisms, and components, of the starter system or mechanism, as well as other devices, mechanisms, and components of the combustion engine. Accordingly, the starter system or mechanism of a combustion engine operates in relation to an electrically and mechanically varying load during engine starting, herein, also referred to as a ‘starting load’, where the overall starting load is due to operation of the above described combination of electrical and mechanical devices, mechanisms, and components required for starting the combustion engine.
Ordinarily, a combustion engine battery is characterized by a set of rated specifications and conditions of operation, such as ‘cold cranking power or strength’, typically indicated in terms of ‘CCA’ (cold cranking amperage), or ‘cranking capacity’, commonly indicated in terms of ‘AH’ (ampere hours), and ‘warranty lifetime’, typically indicated in terms of number of months, which are used for selecting a battery appropriate for a particular type of combustion engine and/or for performing a particular type of application.
Cranking strength of a combustion engine battery refers to the strength or ability of the battery to supply the necessary electrical energy, in the form of voltage and current, to the starter system or mechanism for effecting the initial cranking of the crankshaft of the combustion engine motor until the motor is started, and therefore, until the crankshaft continuously operates by energy supplied to the motor by a generator or alternator, without depending only upon the battery. Cranking of the combustion engine motor crankshaft during engine starting represents the most dominant or energy demanding component of the overall starting load.
During each use and operation of a combustion engine, immediately following starting of the combustion engine, at which time the battery is partly discharged due to the starting load, the charging system or mechanism of the combustion engine automatically recharges the battery, thereby replenishing the overall strength, in general, and the cranking strength, in particular, of the battery. At any time during the lifetime of a combustion engine battery, as a result of regular and/or irregular use and operation of the battery, if the cranking strength of the battery decreases, the strength or ability of the battery to ‘properly’ carry the overall starting load for energizing the starter system or mechanism likewise decreases. When the cranking strength of the battery decreases to below a particular threshold level, where the particular threshold level is determined according to specifications, characteristics, and operating behavior, of the starter system or mechanism of a particular type of combustion engine, whereby the battery exhibits low cranking strength, the battery is barely or no longer able to activate the starter system or mechanism for effecting the initial cranking of the crankshaft of the engine motor for starting the motor. Accordingly, low cranking strength of a combustion engine battery can be considered indicative that the strength or ability of the battery is no longer sufficient to regularly carry the overall starting load for starting the combustion engine motor, and therefore, no longer sufficient for regularly starting the combustion engine.
There are several different reasons why a combustion engine battery develops and eventually exhibits low cranking strength. These reasons are herein described in the context of the well known conditions or states, ‘state of health’ (SOH) and ‘state of charge’ (SOC), of a combustion engine battery.
The first reason a combustion engine battery develops or exhibits low cranking strength relates to a bad ‘state of health’ (SOH) of the battery. During normal lifetime of operation, use, and maintenance, of the combustion engine, in general, and of the combustion engine battery, in particular, as a consequence of the physical and electrochemical composition and behavior of a combustion engine battery, maximum attainable battery voltage gradually decreases with time. For example, during the normal lifetime of a lead acid type of (automotive) combustion engine battery, an electrolytic process, involving sulfating of the battery plates, continuously takes place inside the battery. Cumulative sulfating of the battery plates interferes with electrical functioning and operation of the battery, gradually decreasing the capacity of the battery for holding an appropriate charge needed for maintaining cranking strength at or above a desired threshold level.
A sufficient extent of sulfating of the battery plates leads to a deteriorating battery either developing or exhibiting low cranking strength, nearing the end of its functional life, and considered as having a ‘bad’ state of h
Lapidot Offer
Zur Amos
Battery Alert Ltd.
G.E. Ehrlich (1995) Ltd.
Huang Sihong
Wu Daniel J.
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