Heating systems – Heat and power plants – Vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-31
2001-12-04
Leung, Philip H. (Department: 3742)
Heating systems
Heat and power plants
Vehicle
C219S631000, C219S628000, C219S635000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06325298
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to internal combustion engines and more specifically to a heat generator for the reduction of emissions from an internal combustion engine.
As a consequence of successively improved efficiency, modern internal combustion engines generate relatively less heat than older types of internal combustion engines. This implies an undesired extension of the time required for the engine, when started, to reach a suitable working temperature, at which the emissions of the engine normally are reduced to a minimum. Consequently, the prolonged heating-up period of the engine leads to an undesired increase of the emissions of the internal combustion engine. The colder the climate in which the vehicle driven by the internal combustion engine is used, of course the longer the prolongation of the heating-up period and the greater the total increase of the emissions.
2. Description of the Background Art
A water-cooled heat generator for the coupe of a vehicle is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,049. This heat generator comprises a shaft which is driven by the vehicle engine and which is the same for the rotor in an alternator and a rotor in the actual heat generator. Alternating current drawn from the stator winding of the alternator is rectified and transferred as magnetising current to the rotor in the heat generator. Moreover, the heat generator has a laminated stator with armature rods which are connected between two short circuiting rings and which, as is the case with the short circuiting rings, are hollow. The armature rods, in which the rotor of the heat generator generates induction currents when rotating, as well as the short circuiting rings, are cooled by means of water that is circulated through the same. The water thus heated is in turn used for heating the vehicle coupé.
This heat generator is bulky, complicated and in addition it has low efficiency and consequently it is of little value as a heat generator for the reduction of emissions from an internal combustion engine.
Another heat generator for motor vehicles is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,184, in which a viscous liquid is heated by means of a rotor driven by the vehicle engine and in its turn heats the cooling liquid of the engine. Also this heat generator based on frictional heat has unsatisfactory efficiency and is necessarily relatively bulky.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Consequently, an object of the present invention is to provide a heat generator, which permits a more efficient reduction of the emissions from an internal combustion engine by reducing its heating-up period to a desired working temperature.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by means of a heat generator for a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine. The liquid-cooled internal combustion engine includes at least a rotor, a stator and a chamber.
According to the invention, a heat generator is thus provided, which comprises a rotor driven by the internal combustion engine and a stator, in which the rotor when rotating induces electric currents which generate heat for heating the cooling liquid of the engine. More specifically, the heat generator is characterised in that the rotor consists of a soft magnetic material and supports a plurality of permanent magnets, which generate the magnetising field of the rotor, that the stator comprises a ring of electrically conductive, preferably non-magnetic material, which ring is arranged along the periphery of the rotor such that the magnetising field of the rotor passes through the same, and that a chamber, which likewise extends along the periphery of the rotor and of which the stator is at least part, permits the circulation of the cooling liquid of the internal combustion engine for absorbing the heat which is generated in the stator ring, when the rotor is rotated.
In a preferred embodiment, the rotor comprises a shaft and two discs of soft magnetic material which are fixedly mounted on the same and axially spaced. Each one of the permanent magnets is fixedly connected to one of the opposing surfaces of the discs, so that the permanent magnets are uniformly distributed both between the surfaces and on each one of them. Finally, the stator ring is arranged between the two rotor discs and their permanent magnets.
Furthermore, the permanent magnets on each rotor disc are suitably arranged to generate axial magnetic fields (seen immediately adjacent to the permanent magnets) in opposite directions when moving from one permanent magnet to the next in the circumferential direction around the rotor.
The stator ring can consist of two annular, axially spaced discs of electrically conductive and preferably non-magnetic material, which are fixedly interconnected and which between themselves form the chamber for the circulation of the cooling liquid of the internal combustion engine.
A housing encloses the rotor, and the stator ring is fixedly mounted in this housing, for instance, by the two discs of the stator ring being clamped between two axially spaced parts of the housing. Thus the emissions from a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine can be reduced by heating the cooling liquid of the internal combustion engine with the aid of a heat generator driven by the internal combustion engine as long as the working temperature of the internal combustion engine is below a predetermined value.
The cooling liquid is then passed through the heat generator and preferably the driving of the internal combustion engine is activated or deactivated depending on whether the working temperature of the engine is below the predetermined value or not.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Below, an embodiment of a heat generator according to the invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
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patent: 5012060 (1991-04-01), Gerard et al.
patent: 5573184 (1996-11-01), Martin
patent: 5914065 (1999-06-01), Alavi
patent: 6144020 (2000-11-01), Usui et al.
patent: A1087727 (1983-09-01), None
AB Konstruktions-Bakelit
Leung Philip H.
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