US1485009A - Preheating piston for internal-combustion engines - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 26 1924. 1,485,009 v C. ALTENBURGER PREHEATING PISTON FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed June 17 1921 'llllunmHIH Patented Feb. 26, 1924.

CARL ALTENBUR-GER, 0E MOBRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY.

PREHEATING PISTON FOR INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINES.

Application filed June 17, 1921. Serial No. 478,224.

T 0 all whom it may concern Be it known that LCARL ALTENBURGER, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and a resident of the town of Morristown, in the county of Morris and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Preheating Pistons for Internal-Combustion Engines; and I do hereby declare the following specification to be a full, clear, and exact description of my said invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the ac companying drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this. specification.

My invention relates broadly to pistons for internal-combustion engines, in which a charge of gasified fuel is introducedinto a cylinder, compressed by a piston and then ignited into explosive combustion. More particularly considered, my invention relates to the pistoncrown in such an engine and to means associated therewith adapted to preheat the charges of said gaseous fuel prior to compression and explosion.

My invention has for its objects the provision of means, associated with the crown of the piston, in an internal combustion or explosion engine, adapted to absorb a part of the heat developed by the explosion of a charge of gaseous fuel and to radiate such heat so absorbed, and thereby to raise the temperature of succeeding charges of said fuel rior to their combustion and as introduced into the compression chamber of the cylinder in which said piston works. Further objects are the saving of fuel by a more filClIll3- conversion thereof into expanded gases; the increased capacity for the use of lower grade hydrocarbons and the capability of use of low grade fuels with beneficial results; and the production of increased power by acceleration of the combustion, ex-v plosion and'expansion of the charge and by a the more complete combustion of the fuel upon such explosion thereof.

With the foregoing objects and others to be hereinafter more particularly pointed out, my invention consists in increasing the heatabsorbing and radiating capacity of that part of the wall of the piston in contact with the fuel. The preferred physical embodiment of my invention shown and described consists in associating with the crown or upper and outer face of the piston a thickness of metal affording air or gas circulation passages around and about it, also through it and between it and the piston-crown, Whereby a maximum surface is attained for contact with the heated gases resultant from an initial explosive stroke andffor contact with j:

succeeding charges of gas to be heatedby radiation and convection therefrom,

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and in which like numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts throughout the several views, Figure l is a perspective view in elevation of a piston-head to which my gas pro-heating means is shown applied, part of the head and preheating means being broken away and the underlying configuration of the piston-head being indicated by dotted lines. Figure 2 is a plan-view on the line 22 of Figure 1, viewed in the direction indicated by the arrow, :1 part of, the gas-preheating means being broken away to show the webs and channels between it and the piston-face. Figure 3 is a plan-view, similar to Figure 2, of a modification of the gas-preheater, conwebs connecting a circular preheater plate to the piston face and of the channels for circulating the gas there'e'bout. Figure 4: is a sectional elevation on the line 4.-i of Figure 3, showing the preheater and a fragment of the piston-head.

Throughout these views, the numeral 1 indicates a piston-head, hollow and having the usual packing rings and trunnion bearings as indicated in dotted lines; 2' is the outer, bevelled edge thereof. In Figures 1 and 2,

sisting of an alternative arrangement of the 3 is an annular plate, having the central aperture 4, and attached to said crown by the webs 5 having airor gas-passages 6 therebetween. v

The preferred form of preheating means illustrated is in the form of an annulus of washer form, mounted upon the pistoncrown, spaced apart therefrom about oneeighth of an inch and itself of a thickness of about one-eighth of an inch, and having an outer diameter substantially three times that of the diameter of the circular central aperture therethrough, said aperture being about one and one-quarter inches in diameter, and said outer diameter of the annulus being about three and one-quarter inches for a piston-face having a diameter over-all of three and three-quarter inches. This annulus may be supported by webs connecting it to the wall of the piston-head and cast integrally therewith, said webs being preferably concentrically disposed about the central circular aperture, and affording a plurality of radially disposed passage-ways therebetween to permit the circulation of gases thereabout and about the annulus and over the piston-crown. Obviously, the form of the means of mounting the annulus may be varied and the mounting may be by other methods than by casting such means integrally, as by a similarly disposed interrupted flange depending from said annulus and welded to the piston-crown; or the preheating plate may be fixed thereto in any suitable manner of securing same, as by rivets and spacing washers thereon. Such webs or connections are preferably of small cross-section in order to minimize the loss of heat from the preheater plate by conduction to the piston-head.

In the modification illustrated, in Figures 3 and 4, the annulus is replaced by a central plate 7 having radial extensions 8 supported by webs 9 having channels 10 therebetween.

By the construction shown and described the herein first-recited objects are attained and by virtue of the high temperature of the preheater plate, the formation of carbon deposits thereon is prevented.

Having thus described my invention and the best means now known to me of practicing the same, but without desiring to be understood as limiting the scope of the appended claims to the particular constructions shown and described, which, as will be well understood by those skilled in. the art,

are susceptible of a wide range of variation and modification in many equivalent forms without departing from the principle of their operation or the spirit of my invention, I claim:

1. In a piston for an internal combustion engine, means supported from the crown of said piston adapted to increase the area of heat-radiating surface exposed directly to the explosive gas and comprising a metallic plate integral with said piston-crown and a chamber between said plate and said crown in communication with the cylinder above the piston.

2. In a piston for an internal combustion engine, means adapted to increase the heatraidiating surface of the piston-head exposed to the explosive gases and consisting of an annulus spaced from the crown of said piston-head and lying in a plane parallel thereto, and a plurality of webs connecting said annulus and said crown.

3. In a piston for an internal combustion engine, an annulus spaced from and mounted upon the piston-head in a plane parallel to the crown thereof, and a plurality of webs concentrically disposed about the central aperture of said annulus and connecting it to said piston-head.

4. In a piston for an internal combustion engine, an annulus spaced from and mounted upon the crown of the piston in a plane parallel thereto, a plurality of webs connecting said annulus to said piston and adapted to afford a plurality of passages for the ex plosive gases between said annulus and said crown.

CARL ALTENBURGER.

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