Motor vehicles – Power – Electric
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-12
2004-03-23
Johnson, Brian L. (Department: 3618)
Motor vehicles
Power
Electric
C180S065310
Reexamination Certificate
active
06708789
ABSTRACT:
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention refers to an operating system for a hybrid vehicle, as well as to the hybrid system that is operated by the mentioned system. The present invention also deals with the device that integrates the mentioned system and that has as function to provide power supply and accumulation. More specifically, it refers to a hybrid system and a hybrid vehicle driven solely by an electric motor driven by means of a generator driven by an internal combustion engine.
The “Hybrid Vehicle” terminology is usually applied to vehicles using more than one power source for its displacement. Preferably, this name is being used for vehicles that use an internal combustion engine associated with equipment for the generation of electric power “on board”. The electric power, which, in turn, is used to drive a traction electric motor that can operate independently and/or associated to the internal combustion engine to drive the vehicle wheels. There is a very wide variety of set up and vehicle types that can be classified as “hybrid”.
The hybrid traction or driving systems are known as possessing a double power source. A specified type of hybrid system is the one using the electric power from an electric motor and equipped with an internal combustion engine, both of which are used to drive the vehicle. The vehicles inherent to such systems are known as hybrid vehicles using dual traction. Such is the system described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,719 published on May 7, 1996, that shows an internal combustion engine and an electric motor acting alternatively as vehicle traction source. The dual system to be applied needs a special driving or transmission system, which is the object of U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,719.
These systems would be proper for the use in smaller vehicles such as passenger cars for urban use in which the power requirement of the combustion engine would be considerably smaller.
In the case of use of this dual system for bigger vehicles, such as collective vehicles using, for instance, diesel fuel, the combustion engine would necessarily have considerably higher power, which would also give rise to much bigger dimensions.
In the same way, as electric motor in this system, evidently when used in a bigger vehicle, would require to be supplied solely and exclusively by the power supply element, such as battery which would logically require more charge and have a larger dimension in order to feed a larger size vehicle, fed by the electric system alone, when selected by the control system.
So, such a solution is not proper to be used in larger size vehicles, such as a collective vehicle.
Therefore, the first objective of the present invention is to provide a system to be used with any kind of vehicle, including collective vehicles with diesel fuel, that dispense with the need for specific transmissions and uses solely the electric motor as the driving engine. Thus, the adoption of the proposed system, would give rise, as first consequence, the elimination of the vehicle gearbox. Obviously, the vehicles using the hybrid system of this invention present these and other significant advantages as compared with vehicles moved by a conventional internal combustion or the vehicles using solely battery.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hybrid vehicle equipped with the hybrid system of the present invention, which is provided with an internal combustion engine that operates at a constant rotation and close to the rotation of the engine maximum torque, i.e., it can be set to work close to the optimum point of less fuel consumption and pollutant emission, that provides a significant reduction in the emission of gases to the atmosphere, that has been proven in practical measurements that indicate a significant reduction of the pollutants emission, achieving a decrease of up to 60%.
It is an additional objective of the present application, to provide device for power supply and accumulation which operates alternately feeding power to the electric motor or accumulating power into a battery bank thus working as a true energy lung.
In hybrid vehicles with dual traction or driving or in electric vehicles of the state of the art, when operated with electric motor as the driving engine, this power required to move them come from power accumulators, also called battery banks. Usually, these battery banks have the capacity to move the vehicle for a certain time, depending on the vehicle use conditions—speed, transported load, etc., until the electric charge is reduced and it is necessary to replace this battery bank or stop the vehicle during the time required to recharge the battery bank from an external source.
The proposed system presents several advantages related to the usual hybrid systems in the state of the art, which will be described later in this document. Similarly, the advantages obtained by the vehicle incorporating the proposed hybrid system, as well as the adoption of the Battery Bank, acting as a true energy lung, will be emphasized herein.
To give an example, but not to limit the scope, the description of the system and vehicle proposed, is based on their use in collective vehicles, such as a bus, moved by diesel as fuel. With the system proposed in the present invention, the diesel engine works always in a constant rotation and driving a power generator that supply the traction electric motor with electric power and the surplus of this electric power goes to charge the battery bank. Therefore, the diesel engine can be set to work at its optimum point for a less combustible consumption and a reduced pollutant emission. Practical measurements indicate that pollutant emissions are reduced in a significant way, and one can get up to 60% decrease. The fuel consumption is also very reduced, as the engine is not submitted to the successive acceleration and deceleration that characterize the operation in a traditional internal combustion vehicle.
The use of a battery bank, only as an “energetic lung” allows that this battery bank is small, with capacity much lower than one that would be necessary to operate a vehicle moved only by batteries. As a magnitude order, the capacity (and the weight) of the battery bank necessary for the operation of the hybrid vehicle described herein is about one tenth ({fraction (1/10)}) of the one that would be necessary to operate the same vehicle if it was moved only by batteries. In addition, the hybrid vehicle autonomy is almost unlimited (it depends only on the combustible tank), on the contrary of a battery vehicle, that presents a very restricted autonomy, due to the need for recharging or replacing the battery bank within times somewhat short (hours of operation). In addition, due to the fact that, in the hybrid vehicle, batteries never have deep discharge, its lifetime increases very much, as compared to the service life that they present in vehicles solely moved with battery, where, at the end of each cycle, they are completely discharged. In this way, the use of a battery bank operating as an energy lung, i.e. supplying the electric motor with electric power and being recharged by the power generated by the generator that is driven by the combustion engine every time the battery charge is reduced, allows, in addition to a greater autonomy to the vehicle, also that the mentioned hybrid system of the present invention, is, by means of a resizing of the dimensional design, be used in any type of vehicle, whether light or heavy vehicles; in this last case, it would be, for instance, a collective vehicle moved by diesel.
In addition, as the power “peaks” are supplied by the battery bank, the engine power, such as a diesel engine, (and the accompanying alternator) can be reduced in a remarkable way. In a traditional vehicle, the internal combustion engine needs to be dimensioned to supply the “peak” power (maximum power) required by the work conditions, even if, most of the times, it operates with very lower power.
In the hybrid traction system described herein, the combustion engine, like the diesel engine
Campbell Kelly E
Eletra Industrial Ltda.
Jacobson & Holman PLLC
Johnson Brian L.
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