Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F01—MACHINES OR ENGINES IN GENERAL; ENGINE PLANTS IN GENERAL; STEAM ENGINES
  • F01L—CYCLICALLY OPERATING VALVES FOR MACHINES OR ENGINES
  • F01L7/00—Rotary or oscillatory slide valve-gear or valve arrangements
  • F01L7/06—Rotary or oscillatory slide valve-gear or valve arrangements with disc type valves
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F01—MACHINES OR ENGINES IN GENERAL; ENGINE PLANTS IN GENERAL; STEAM ENGINES
  • F01L—CYCLICALLY OPERATING VALVES FOR MACHINES OR ENGINES
  • F01L9/00—Valve-gear or valve arrangements actuated non-mechanically
  • F01L9/20—Valve-gear or valve arrangements actuated non-mechanically by electric means
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F01—MACHINES OR ENGINES IN GENERAL; ENGINE PLANTS IN GENERAL; STEAM ENGINES
  • F01L—CYCLICALLY OPERATING VALVES FOR MACHINES OR ENGINES
  • F01L9/00—Valve-gear or valve arrangements actuated non-mechanically
  • F01L9/20—Valve-gear or valve arrangements actuated non-mechanically by electric means
  • F01L9/22—Valve-gear or valve arrangements actuated non-mechanically by electric means actuated by rotary motors

Definitions

• This invention relates to a rotating valve device for internal combustion engines and, in particular refers to a device comprising a disc-shaped valve which is Dositively rotated to permit the opening and closing of fresh gas admitting ports or burned gas exhausting ports into and out of, respectively, the cylinder of an internal combustion engine.
• Conventional devices based on reciprocating poppet valves are known to have several drawbacks, the main one being the inertia and the delays proper to mechanical actuators, which may eventually cause damages in an internal combustion engine when it is running at a combaratively high number, of revolutions.
• valves and the piston while moving bad and forth, alternately fill the same soace, that is when the piston is rising it will fill the space previously tilled bv the valves when they were down. Since this principle of operation is based on precisely synchronized motions of the valves and the piston, and synchronization is mureasingly lost as the engine number of revolutions increases, at the time rotation exceeds a given speed, the amount of mechanical delay will be such that the piston will knock against the valve head and cause it to break thus seriously damaging vital parts in the engine.
• One further drawback is the functional rigidity of mechanical drive means normally employed to give motion to conventional valves, which is reflected in rigid engine performance characteristics, that is such characteristics cannot be changed in real time. Attempts have been made to overcome those drawbacks by developing improved valves and valve control devices in which the valve return time was shortened by using specially designed springs and devices that forced the valve to return to the closed position.
• the main object of this invention is, therefore, to provide a. rotating valve device for internal combustion engines allowing the rotating valve to be moved to the desired position in a very short time, which is negligible as compared with the time needed to move the other engine mechanical parts, the valve to be kept in that position for as long as desired, and then the valve be moved in either direction to reach a new working position, and so on.
• Another object of this invention is to provide a rotating valve device requiring negligible power to move.
• One further object of this invention is to provide a rotating valve device having a simplified and low-cost structure suitable for mass production.
• a rotating valve device for internal combustion engines is characterized in that at least one rotating valve, provided with ports for passage of gas, is controlled by a stepper motor responding to commands received from a central processing unit and is at each step moved to one of several positions where it will either open or close ports through which fresh gas is admitted into the cylinder or either open or close burned gas exhaust ports.
• the main object of this invention is, therefore, to provide a rotating valve device for internal combustion engines allowing the rotating valve to be moved to the desired position in a very short time, which is negligible as compared with the time needed to move the other engine mechanical parts, the valve to be kept in that position for as long as desired, and then the valve be moved in either direction to reach a new working position, and so on.
• Another object of this invention is to provide a rotating valve device requiring negligible power to move. relevant data are processed by the central processing unit (CPU), in order to change the admission and exhaust ports opening times and modes, either in real time or according to predetermined operating modes, since the stepping time of a stepper motor is by all means a negligible fraction of the rotation period of an internal combustion engine.
• CPU central processing unit
• the rotating valve can be easily set to one position or a series of positions to obtain a so-called neutral operation of the cylinder, that is to say no explosive mixture will flow into the cylinder and no compression will occur; by this method, the engine will be running with one or more cylinders in idle mode which will result in lower fuel consumption and less air pollution.
• One more advantage of this device is that by using a rotating valve, turbulence areas are easily created. This will facilitate the distribution of fuel-air mixture and eventually speed up the diffusion of explosion in the mixture.
• figure 1 is a cross-section view of an internal combustion engine provided with a rotating valve device according to this invention
• figure 2 is a bottom cross-section view taken along line II-II of figure 1
• figure 3 is a partial cross-section view similar to figure 1 showing another embodiment of the rotating valve device according to this invention
• figure 4 is a bottom cross-section view taken along line IV-IV of figure 3.
• an internal combustion engine includes a cylinder 10, in which slides a piston 12 that actuates a cran. shaft 14 through a connecting rod 16.
• the engine can conventionally include several Cylinders in which as many pistons, phase-sh ⁇ fted by appropriate angles, will slide with alternate motion.
• Above cylinders 10 there is a head 13 in which a fuel-air mixture admission du ct 20 and a burned gas exhaust duct 22 have been machined.
• the fuel-air mixture is combined in a conventional carburetor 24, and exhaust duct 22 is terminated with conventional mufflers for exhausting the gas into the air.
• Rotating valve 28 is constrained to rotate integral with shaft 30 by means of transport teeth, however it is free to oscillate around it in order that its precisely levelled off top surface can adhere to surface 23 of head 18, to ensure tightness.
• a toothed pulley 32 On hollow shaft 30 is mounted a toothed pulley 32, secured to shaft 30 by means of key 34, while a backlash compensating spring 36, working between pulley 32 and a retaining washer 33 kept in place by a locking ring 40, serves to make hollow shaft 30 freely rotate, with no end play, within two guide bushings 42 and 44.
• An antifriction washer 46 separates pulley 32 from head 18.
• spark plug consisting of a dielectric or insulator 48 and an electrode 50, connected to the ignition electric power system through a leaf spring 52, attached to head 13 through an isolator 54,.
• An electric stepper motor 56 having the function of actuating the rotating valve 23, is provided with a toothed pulley 58 that in turn actuates toothed pulley 32 through a cogged belt 60.
• Stepper motor 56 is connected to a central processing unit (not shown) which contains appropriate sensors that constantly detect motor characteristic values such as the driving sha.ft position, the temperature of various parts, and the like.
• the CPU also contains one ar more microprocessors to process data and provide commands t ⁇ be sent to the actuators.
• the CPU is, therefore, able to control stepper motor 56 in order to move, as needed, rotating valve 23 at chosen optimal directions and speeds.
• the techniques required to implement the CPU are well known and are not described further.
• rotating valve 28 has three apertures 62 through which the gas is let in, while head 18 has on its surface 26 a total of six apertures or por ts for the passage of gas.
• three, 64 are connected with admis sion duct 20 and are used for admitting the fuel-air mi xture, and three, 66, connected with exhaust duct 20 , are used for burned gas exhaust.
• Apertures 62 are circul ar in shape and are located at the vertices of an equilateral triangle.
• Ports 64 and 66 are circular in shape too and are t hree- by-th ree located at the vertices of an equilateral triangle .
• the center s of ports 64 and 66 lie on a circle and are 40- and 80-degree a lternateIy spaced.
• valve 28 when, for instance, valve 28 is rotating c lockwise (as seen in figure 2), in 40-degree steps, it will first open admission ports 64, will then set to the position shown in figure 2, i.e. with both ports 6A and 66 closed, and finally, at the next step, it will open exhaust ports 66.
• FIGS 3 and 4 show the second embodiment of the device according to this invention.
• head 18 is provided with injectors 63 for fuel admission, and with conventional spark plugs 70 normally used with Otto cycle engines. In Diesel cycle engines, spark plugs 70 are replaced by heater plugs for starting the engine. In that case only air will flow through the admission duct.
• Rotating valve 72 in figures 3 and 4 has two gas ports 74, and head 76 has two admission ports 78 and two exhaust ports 80.
• Ports 74 are roughly trapezoidal in shape and are diametrically opposite with respect to valve 72 center of rotation.
• ports 78 and 80 are two-by-two diametrically opposite, have a roughly trapezoidal shape, and are 60- and 120-degree alternately spaced along a circle.
• the rotating valve After it has reached the latter position, the rotating valve will be moved, with leads or lags determined ⁇ y the CPU, to a position where ports 62 are in line with exhaust ports 66, and will be maintained in that position throughout the exhaust phase, until the piston reaches the top dead center thus allowing the burned gases to escape.
• the CPU will move rotating valve 28 to the position where ports 62 are in line with exhaust ports 66, and will maintain it in that position for as long as necessary to permit the cylinder to remain inactive. If, however, the cylinder should be required to work again for the engine to deliver more power, then the CPU will move rotating valve 28 as previously described, and the engine thermodynamic cycle will be resumed.
• the rotating valve device shown in figures 3 and 4 operates in the same way as that shown in figures 1 and 2, except that, as an additional feature, the cylinder can be made inactive by opening exhaust ports 80 during the compressi on phase , and admi ssi on ports 78 duri ng the expansi on phase, obviously with no fuel injected through injector 68; this will cause only air to circulate between the admission duct and the exhaust duct, with no fuel supply and no waste of energy as would be necessary to effect compression.
• the opening and/or closing lags and/or leads can of course be easily changed dynamically during the internal combustion engine operation so that the engine operating characteristics, especially the engine torque, may be such as to meet new engine power requirements in real time.
• each cylinder can be provided with more than one appropriately sized valve.
• both the number and shape of the ports on the head can be changed, and so can the shape and number of ports.
• the number of ports and apertures can be increased to form a grid of holes for passaqe of gas, which will be opened and closed by rotating the valve through just a few degroes.
• a rotating valve device for internal combustion engines in which at least one piston (12) reciprocates inside a cylinder (10), an admission duct (20) carries the gas to be admitted into the cylinders, and an exhaust duct (22) carries the exhaust gases pro- cuded by combustion inside the cylinder.
• This rotating valve device for internal combustion engines is characterized in that at least one rotating valve (28) provided with apertures for passage of gas, is moved by an electric stepper motor (56), responding to commands received from a central processing unit, and at once is moved to one of several positions where it will either open or close ports through which fresh gas is admitted into the cylinder and/or will either open or close burned gas exhaust ports.
• This invention relates to a rotating valve device for internal combustion engines and, in particular refers to a device comprising a disc-shaped valve which is Dositively rotated to permit the opening and closing of fresh gas admitting ports or burned gas exhausting ports into and out of, respectively, the cylinder of an internal combustion engine.
• Conventional devices based on reciprocating poppet valves are k nown to have several drawbacks, the main one being the inertia and the delays proper to mechanical actuators, which may eventually cause damages in an internal combustion engine when it is running at a combaratively high number, of revolutions.
• valves and the piston while moving bad and forth, alternately fill the same soace, that is when the piston is rising it will fill the space previously tilled bv the valves when they were down. Since this principle of operation is based on precisely synchronized motions of the valves and the piston, and synchronization is mureasingly lost as the engine number of revolutions increases, at the time rotation exceeds a given speed, the amount of mechanical delay will be such that the piston will knock against the valve head and cause it to break thus seriously damaging vital parts in the engine.
• One further drawback is the functional rigidity of mechanical drive means normally employed to give motion to conventional valves, which is reflected in rigid engine performance characteristics, that is such characteristics cannot be changed in real time.
• the main object of this invention is, therefore, to provide a rotating valve device for internal combustion engines allowing the rotating valve to be moved to the desired position in a very short time, which is negligible as compared with the time needed to move the other engine mechanical parts, the valve to be kept in that position for as long as desired, and then the valve be moved in either direction to reach a new working position, and so on.
• Another object of this invention is to provide a rotating valve device requiring negligible power to move.
• One further object of this invention is to provide a rotating valve device having a simplified and low-cost structure suitable for mass production.
• a rotating valve device for internal combustion engines is characterized in that at least one rotating valve, provided with ports for passage of gas, is controlled by a stepper motor responding to commands received from a central processing unit and is at each step moved to one of several positions where it will either open or close ports through which fresh gas is admitted into the cylinder or either open or close burned gas exhaust ports.
• the main one being that the pi ston and valves do not slide along the same path which prevents the val es from being broken because of delayed motion at an excessively high speed of engine rotation, and consequently the engine useable rotation speed can b e increased as required.
• a further advantage is that the engine characteristic curve can be easily modified because all relevant data are processed by the central processing unit (CPU), in order to change the admission and exhaust ports opening times and modes, either in real time or according to predetermined operating modes, since the stepping time of a stepper motor is by all means a negligible fraction of the rotation period of an internal combustion engine.
• CPU central processing unit
• the rotating valve can be easily set to one position or a series of positions to obtain a so-called neutral operation of the cylinder, that is to say no explosive mixture will flow into the cylinder and no compression will occur; by this method, the engine will be running with one or morecylinders in idle mode which will result in lower fuel consumption and less air pollution.
• One more advantage of this device is that by using a rotating valve, turbulence areas are easily created. This will facilitate the distribution of fuel-air mixture and eventually speed up the diffusion of explosion in the mixture .
• fi ⁇ ure 1 is a cross-section view of an internal combustion engine provided with a rotating valve device according to this invention
• figure 2 is a bottom cross-section view taken along line II-II of figure 1
• figure 3 is a partial cross-section view similar to figure 1 showing another embodiment of the rotating valve device according to this invention
• figure 4 is a bottom cross-section view taken along line IV-IV of figure 3.
• an internal combustion engine includes a cylinder 10, in which slides a piston 12 that actuates a cran. shaft 14 through a connecting rod 16.
• the engine can conventionally include several Cylinders in which as many pistons, phase-sh ⁇ fted by appropriate angles, will slide with alternate motion.
• Above cylinders 10 there is a head 13 in which a fuel-air mixture admission du ct 20 and a burned gas exhaust duct 22 have been machined.
• the fuel-air mixture is combined in a conventional carburetor 24, and exhaust duct 22 is terminated with conventional mufflers for exhausting the gas into the air.
• Rotating valve 28 is constrained to rotate integral with shaft 30 by means of transport teeth, however it is free to oscillate around it in order that its precisely levelled off top surface can adhere to surface 28 of head 18, to ensure tightness.
• a toothed pulley 32 On hollow shaft 30 is mounted a toothed pulley 32, secured to shaft 30 by means of key 34, while a backlash compensating spring 36, working between pulley 32 and a retaining washer 38 kept in place by a locking ring 40, serves to make hollow shaft 30 freely rotate, with no end play, within two guide bushings 42 and 44.
• An antifriction washer 46 separates pulley 32 from head 18.
• spark plug consisting of a dielectric ar insulator 43. and an electrode 50, connected to the ignition electric power system through a leaf spring 52, attached to head 18 through an isolator 54.
• An electric stepper motor 56 having the function of actuating the rotating valve 23, is provided with a toothed pulley 58 that in turn actuates toothed pulley
• Stepper motor 56 is connected to a central processing unit (not shown) which contains appropriate sensors that constantly detect motor characteristic values such as the driving shaft position, the temperature of various parts, and the like.
• the CPU also contains one or more microprocessors to process data and provide commands to be sent to the actuators.
• the CPU is, therefore, able to control stepper motor 56 in order to move, as needed, rotating valve 28 at chosen optimal directions and speeds.
• the techniques required to implement the CPU are well known and are not described further.
• rotating valve 28 has three apertures 62 through which the gas is let in, while head 18 has on its surface 26 a total of six apertures or por ts for the passage of gas.
• three, 64 are connected with admis sion duct 20 and are used for admitting the fuel-air mi xture, and three, 66, connected with exhaust duct 20 , are used for burned gas exhaust.
• Apertures 62 are circul ar in shape and are located at the vertices of an equilateral triangle.
• Ports 64 and 66 are circular in shape too and are t hree- by-th ree located at the vertices of an equilateral triangle .
• the center s of ports 64 and 66 lie on a circle and are 40- and 80-degree a lternateIy spaced.
• valve 28 when, for instance, valve 28 is rotating c lockwise (as seen in figure 2), in 40-degree steps, it will first open admission ports 64, will then set to the position shown in figure 2, i.e. with both ports 64 and 66 closed, and finally, at the next step, it will open exhaust ports 66.
• FIGS 3 and 4 show the second embodiment of the device according to this invention.
• head 18 is provided with injectors 68 for fuel admission, and with conventional spark plugs 70 normally used with Otto cycle engines. In Diesel cycle engines, spar! plugs 70 are replaced by heater plugs for starting the engine. In that case only air will flow through the admission duct.
• Porte 74 are roughly trapezoidal in shape and are diametrically opposite with respect to valve 72 center of rotation.
• S imilar y, ports 78 and 80 are two-by-two. diametrically oppcsite, have a roughly trapezoidal shape, and are 6 0 and 120-degree alternately spaced along a circle.
• communications wiII be established between the cylinder and the outside exactly as was previously described with reference to figur es 1 and 2.
• the CPU With the piston in that position, the CPU will move rotating valve 28 to the position shown in figure 2 where all ports in head 18 are closed, after choosing the proper leads or lags on the basis of sensor-supplied data.
• the rotating valve will be maintained in that position all along the compression, explosion and expansion phases, up to the next bottom dead center position of the piston.
• the rotating valve After it has reached the latter position, the rotating valve will be moved, with leads or lags determined b y the CPU, to a position where ports 62 are in line with ex haust ports 66 , and will be maintained in that posit ion throughout the exhaust phase, until the piston reaches the top dead center thus allowing the burred qases to escape.
• the rotating valve device shown in figures 3 and 4 operates in the same way as that shown in figures 1 and 2, except that, as an additional feature, the cylinder can be made inactive by opening exhaust ports 80 during the compression phase, and admission ports 78 during the expansion phase, obviously with no fuel injected through injector 68 : this will cause only air to circulate between the admission duct and the exhaust duct, with no fuel supply and no waste of energy as would be necessary to effect compression.
• the opening and/or closing lags and/or leads can of course be easily changed dynamically during the internal comb ustion engine operation so that the engine operating characteristics, especially the engine turque, may be s ⁇ ch as to meet new engine power requirements in real time.
• each cylinder can to provided with more than one appropriately sized valve.
• both the number and shape of the ports on the head can be changed, and so can the shape and number of ports.
• the number of ports and apertures can be increased to form a grid of holes for passage of gas, which will be opened and closed by rotating the valve through just a few degrees.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Output Control And Ontrol Of Special Type Engine (AREA)

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• 1985
  • 1985-07-17 IT IT48367/85A patent/IT1184288B/it active
• 1986
  • 1986-07-16 EP EP86904345A patent/EP0229147A1/en active Pending
  • 1986-07-16 WO PCT/IT1986/000054 patent/WO1987000574A1/en unknown

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