Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
  • F02N—STARTING OF COMBUSTION ENGINES; STARTING AIDS FOR SUCH ENGINES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F02N15/00—Other power-operated starting apparatus; Component parts, details, or accessories, not provided for in, or of interest apart from groups F02N5/00 - F02N13/00
  • F02N15/02—Gearing between starting-engines and started engines; Engagement or disengagement thereof
  • F02N15/04—Gearing between starting-engines and started engines; Engagement or disengagement thereof the gearing including disengaging toothed gears
  • F02N15/043—Gearing between starting-engines and started engines; Engagement or disengagement thereof the gearing including disengaging toothed gears the gearing including a speed reducer
  • F02N15/046—Gearing between starting-engines and started engines; Engagement or disengagement thereof the gearing including disengaging toothed gears the gearing including a speed reducer of the planetary type
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
  • F02N—STARTING OF COMBUSTION ENGINES; STARTING AIDS FOR SUCH ENGINES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F02N11/00—Starting of engines by means of electric motors
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
  • F02N—STARTING OF COMBUSTION ENGINES; STARTING AIDS FOR SUCH ENGINES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F02N11/00—Starting of engines by means of electric motors
  • F02N11/04—Starting of engines by means of electric motors the motors being associated with current generators
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
  • F02N—STARTING OF COMBUSTION ENGINES; STARTING AIDS FOR SUCH ENGINES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F02N5/00—Starting apparatus having mechanical power storage
  • F02N5/04—Starting apparatus having mechanical power storage of inertia type

Definitions

• This invention relates to an electric machine which may act as a (flywheel)-starter-motor, and/or a generator for internal-combustion-engines (called i.e. engines or engines hereafter).
• a planetary gear/brake/clutch arrangement offers two gear- speeds and a freewheel. Thanks to the freewheel -mode, the machine may be permanently connected to the i.c.engine and is therefore perfectly suited for turbo-compounding, offering a fast shaft to combine a exhaust-turbine with a, preferably, non-turbo compressor.
• the invention moreover relates to the various practical forms, matching control-devices and auxiliaries which enable the machine to be used in a number of different applications.
• the electric configuration of the machines used may differ, depending on the application.
• flywheels for starting must be considered as public domain, in W.W.II (hand-driven) flywheels where used for starting aeroplane-engines.
• PCT/NL88/00044 of this author, has many of the features claimed in this patent in common.
• PCT/NL88/00044 describes a double-rotating electrical machine of which the outer-rotor and the inner-rotor are interconnected by the members of a planetary gear.
• the machine acts as an Electric Differential Torque Converter (called E.D.T.C. hereafter) and the patent describes a number of applications for this machine among which a starter/generator for cars.
• E.D.T.C. Electric Differential Torque Converter
• the E.D.T.C's main-function in PCT/NL88/00044 is to provide a fast turbo-shaft at more or less constant speed to compensate for the constantly alternating speed of car-engines.
• the fast shaft in the current patent application offers no constant speed and is therefore better suited for non-turbo compressors.
• the machine described here is no torque converter, and as a starter/generator much more straight-forward and more flexible.
• this invention is therefore much better suited, as the E.D.T.C. is unnecessary heavy, complicated and expensive.
• the E.D.T.C. involves an extra set of heavy bearings, a complicated commutation system, a double tacho-system, an inverter and a microprocessor.
• the outer-rotor blocked the E.D.T.C may start as a conventional starter, the system is inefficient as a flywheel starter.
• the E.D.T.C. Because of its construction, with the planetary gear integrated in the electrical machine, the E.D.T.C. has no possibility of a freewheeling flywheel. Instead, to spin up the flywheel/outer-rotor, the inner-rotor has to rotate in the opposite direction. As the speed of the inner-rotor will be at least 3 times that of the flywheel, the inner-rotor and the sun-wheel quickly reach their upper speed-limit, severely limiting the maximum speed of the flywheel. Therefore said flywheel must be bulky to compensate for its low speed.
• the E.D.T.C. has no two-speed provision, neither in motor- nor in generator-mode. Also, no practical solution is presented in PCT/NL88/00044 for establishing the need for a flywheel-start on the basis of engine-temperature and/or battery-condition. As for turbine/compressor operation: Lacking a freewheeling flywheel, the E.D.T.C. is unable to effectively preserve kinetic energy for the compressor to close the so called "turbine-gap" at low engine-speeds.
• the current machine can feed high amounts of surplus turbine power back directly to the crankshaft, independent of powering of the inverter or the electrical machine.
• inverter-power and the power of the electrical machine will be considerably higher than necessary for starting alone, like in this patent, as it has to be proportional to the turbine-power handled.
• Fig 1 shows the basic arrangement of the machine 101 where one side of the rotor is connected to sun-wheel 104 of a planetary gear 105 and the other side of said rotor is connected to flywheel 102.
• the ringwheel 109 of said planetary gear is connected to a brake, preferably of the tape and drum type in which case said ringwheel preferably is encased in a oilcooled drum 112 around which the braketape 110 is positioned.
• a servomotor, spindlemotor, or solenoid 111 acts upon said braketape.
• the free running mode permits the accumulation of kinetic energy in said flywheel, while in brake mode said energy may be released, more or less gradually, to start the engine c.q. permitting a conventional direct start when totally blocked.
• the outgoing shaft of said planetary gear is connected to planetcarrier 106 and the other side of said shaft is connected to the engine, be it directly or using the usual "Bendix" starter-construction of a splined sheath 1 13 and solenoid 1 14 arrangement, moving gear 107 into contact with engine- fly wheel 108.
• Fig. 2 shows a construction for the manual operation of the flywheel -starter.
• Ringwheel-brake 201 is operated using spring 202 and lever 203 whether or not using a bowden-cable.
• Spring 202 is situated around rod 205 and may, in rest, permanently engage or disengage said brake, depending on the application.
• Handle 209. acting on lever 203 has a switch 207 connected to it, to activate the starter and eventual glowplugs.
• Springloaded securing-pin 206, keeping handle 209 in place once pulled may be either manually operated or by a solenoid, activated by a centrifugal-switch at max. r.p.m.
• the device As a flywheel-starter-motor the device is very well suited for use with Diesel-engines. Especially at low ambient temperatures these engines demand very heavy starter-motors and big batteries in order to compensate for the combined effects of reduced battery-capacity, low engine-temperature and lower compression-end-temperatures associated with freezing conditions. By storing kinetic energy, discharging the battery with relative low current over a longer period, the device is able to start the i.c.engine immediately.
• Installed battery-capacity may be minimal and is applied much more favourably, while peak-currents are reduced. The latter is especially important with semi-conductor controlled machines i.e. permanent-magnet machines.
• Fig. 3A shows a simple electric circuit for Diesel-engines with traditional manually activated glowplugs.
• (Dashboard-)switch 301 activates solenoid/startrelays 302 which in turn activates startermotor 303.
• contact 305 of relays 304 connects said starter in series with glowplugs 306 with may have a parallel or a series-parallel arrangement and act as current limitter for said starter in order to prevent a to rapid spin-up.
• Fig. 3B shows a electronic circuit with a more refined automatic startmode-selector.
• Fig. 3C shows a circuit where engine temperature is measured directly, using thermistor 350 and temperature meter 352, already in place in most vehicle-dashboards. Again the circuit is shown in spinup mode. As condenser 353 is only charged via 355 when dashboardswitch 351 is closed, the starter always spins up before starting. The timing before a direct start takes place, now depends on the value of condenser 353 and the actual, temperature based, value of thermistor 350.
• centrifugal switch (not shown here except for 407 in fig.4) may switch off the machine when maximum flywheel-speed is reached. As at this point the battery-voltage very rapidly recovers, a direct start follows almost immediately. With conventional DC-series-motors its increasing impedance with rising r.p.m. (allowing battery-voltage to recover) may offer another reference. The machine may be switched to direct-mode once the (decreasing) voltage over the sparkplugs reach a given value. For manually operated ringwheel brakes a modification of figure 3b or 3c may be used.
• Fig. 4a shows shows the relevant part in common.
• the circuit is shown in the situation where relays 401 is deactivated because of low battery- voltage and its restcontact activates lamp 403. This is a signal to deactivate the ringwheelbrake thereby closing switch 405.
• buzzer 405 sounds as a signal to engage the ringwheelbrake.
• Fig. 4b shows a tacho-circuit to control the ringwheelbrake-tension.
• Tacho 420 may be placed to the teeth of the engine-flywheel and its output, rectified by 421, used to control amp. 422 feeding brake-solenoid 423, or a servo- or spindlemotor.
• the amplifier delivers full power to said solenoid until, with increasing engine-speed, the tacho-output exceeds the zener-threshold and reduces the power to the solenoid.
• the amplifier may feed a spindlemotor and'or the tacho may be placed on the starter.
• the spindle-motor overcomes a spring-load and pulse the tape with a tachoregulated force.
• said spindlemotor 501 is shown in a double-function. From its freewheel-middle-position it may act either for the ringwheel-brake or for a tacho-controlled locking device, locking the ringwheel and the planet-carrier of the planetary gear.
• the spindlemotor can pull a flanged pin 503 through hollow outputshaft 504 against spring 505. Secured to the other end of said pin, through slots in said outputshaft, is the actual locking device 506, fitting in a blank space in the flange of brakedrum 508 when pulled to the left.
• spring 505 pushes 506 back to the right decoupling said gears.
• the locking construction is very similar to those used for planetary bicycle gearings, and it may be clear that wellknown alternative constructions may be used as well, for example using plate-couplings, to achieve the same result.
• the resulting two-speed-plus-freewheel machine may be used as a starter/generator and directly coupled to the engine.
• the two-step gearing allows for high generator-output at all engine speeds and the machine may act as a temporary power booster for extra acceleration by going into motor-mode.
• Fig 6 shows a diagram for this, where machine 601 whether or not using extra step-up gears or a coupling 602 is connected to turbine 603 and a (preferably) non-turbo compressor 604.
• non-turbo compressor like Wankel, Roots- and Velox -blowers
• motor-efficiency may be increased by up to 1 % while the sustained compressor may increase specific power up to 35 % and more over the total bandwidth.
• a problem with direct coupled turbo's lies in the sudden big speed variations while shifting gears.
• a micro-controller not shown here, is fully able to coordinate the machines gearshifting and inverter-mode with turbo-, compressor- and engine-management whether or not in combination with servo-controlled compressor- put-restrictions and/or wastegates. Therefore, with sudden engine-speed variations the machine immediately goes into freewheel-mode during which the machines flywheel preserves power for the compressor, curing the dreaded turbo-gap by maintaining high compressor yield. In this freewheel-mode the machine may sustain or even increase compressor-speed by going into electric motor-mode. A very fast compressor-acceleration may further be achieved mechanically, by using the machine's first gear with the brake in slip-mode.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Connection Of Motors, Electrical Generators, Mechanical Devices, And The Like (AREA)
• Supercharger (AREA)
• Control Of Vehicle Engines Or Engines For Specific Uses (AREA)
• Control Of Eletrric Generators (AREA)
• Iron Core Of Rotating Electric Machines (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (2)

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• 1998
  • 1998-10-08 NL NL1010277A patent/NL1010277C1/nl not_active IP Right Cessation
• 1999
  • 1999-10-08 AT AT99954488T patent/ATE434127T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1999-10-08 EP EP99954488A patent/EP1173673B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-10-08 DE DE69941015T patent/DE69941015D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-10-08 WO PCT/NL1999/000626 patent/WO2000052329A2/fr not_active Ceased

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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