DESC:FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to an improved Front End Accessory Drive (FEAD) for Internal Combustion (IC) engines. In particular, the present invention relates to an improved beltless FEAD for IC engines. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved FEAD for tractor engine running without a belt-drive and coolant by-pass system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Generally, internal combustion engines, such as tractor engines include Front End Accessory Drive (FEAD) system or Accessory Belt Drive System (ABDS) as an important sub-system thereof. These FEAD systems are driven by means of a poly v-belt, preferably 1le/poly V-belt. Normally, this v-belt transmits power from the crankshaft pulley to drive the alternator and water pump with a fan belt. Sometimes, the air-conditioner compressors and air compressors are also driven by FEAD running on belts. Similarly, water pumps, fans and alternators are predominantly driven by belts.

However, these engine accessories are prone to failure due to deterioration in fan belt condition and the actual belt-life is substantially shorter than the theoretical service life expected therefrom.

DISADVANTAGES WITH THE PRIOR ART

The main disadvantages with the existing FEAD systems running on belts, e.g. to drive a water pump, fan and alternator for tractor engines are discussed below:

• Belts often break and cause interruption of coolant supply to engines.

• Belts elongation over time also leads to loosening thereof.

• Loosening of belts causes failure of accessories like water pump driven by such belts.
Therefore, there is an existing need to eliminate failure-prone driving means, such as belts in the coolant supply systems. There is also an urgent need to develop coolant systems for engines, preferably tractor engines, which can be operated by electrical power, e.g. electric water pump.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

Some of the objects of the present invention - satisfied by at least one embodiment of the present invention - are as follows:

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved FEAD system for tractor engines.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a low-cost FEAD system for tractor engines.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a compact and belt-less FEAD system for tractor engines.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a FEAD system for tractor engines running without any coolant by-pass system.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a FEAD system for tractor engines which is directly driven by gear-drive and alternator of adjustable capacity.

A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a FEAD system for tractor engines, in which water pump and fan is driven at different speeds to meet varying operational requirements.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description, when read with the accompanying figures of drawing, which are however not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a compact, beltless, directly driven FEAD system for engines, the FEAD system comprising:

• an alternator directly driven by front end gear drive;

• a battery power pack connected to the alternator;

• a radiator with inlet hose thereof connected to a housing via a coolant temperature sensor and outlet hose thereof connected to an electric water pump, and a surge tank bidirectionally connected to the radiator;

• a cooling fan and the water pump operated by at least one electric motor provided on the tractor engine cooling system;

• the electric water pump cooling circuit connected to the crankcase gallery for cooling the cylinder sleeve, cylinder head gasket and cylinder head of the engine connected to the housing;

wherein a microcontroller is connected between the coolant temperature sensor and the electric motor for controlling the operation of the e-cooling fan and the e-water pump at respective required rotational speed thereof as a function of the coolant temperature detected by the coolant temperature sensor.

Typically, the microcontroller is configured for controlling the speed/flow of the e-cooling fan and/or e-water pump at the respective required rotational speed thereof as a function of the coolant temperature detected by the coolant temperature sensor.

Typically, the microcontroller is configured as an open/close looped microcontroller system.

Typically, the e-cooling fan and/or e-water pump is/are simultaneously operated by the same electric motor.

Typically, the electric motor is charged by the alternator for driving the e-cooling fan and e-water pump.

Typically, the e-cooling fan is operated by means of the microcontroller on the coolant/water temperature on exceeding a predefined temperature, preferably 850C.

Typically, the e-cooling fan water pump and e-water pump are operated by two different electric motors actuated by a corresponding signal therefor issued by the microcontroller.

Typically, the cooling fan water pump is operated by the electric motor actuated by signal issued by the microcontroller driven at predefined rotational speed/s based on coolant temperature to meet operational requirements.

Typically, the e-water pump is operated by the electric motor actuated by a corresponding signal issued by the microcontroller driven at predefined rotational speed/s based on coolant temperature to meet operational requirements.

Typically, the e-cooling fan and/or e-water pump is operated for additional cooling the coolant/water after cooling by natural convection over and above thermosiphon effect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The present invention will be briefly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 shows a front view of a conventional FEAD system driven by FEAD belt and fitted at the front side of the engine.

Figure 2 shows a perspective view of the conventional FEAD system of Fig. 1 equipped with a cooling fan.
Figure 3 shows a conventional coolant flow circuit of the tractor engine.

Figure 4 shows a front view of the improved FEAD system configured in accordance with the present invention and fitted at the front side of the engine.

Figure 5 shows a perspective view of a first embodiment of the improved FEAD system of Figure 4 and equipped with an electric water pump integrated with fan which is driven by battery or alternator.

Figure 6 shows a typical coolant flow circuit of FEAD system of Fig. 5.

Figure 7a shows a second embodiment of the FEAD system of Fig. 4, equipped with electric fan directly mounted on front cover and electric water pump mounted on the suction/delivery side of engine coolant circuit separately.

Figure 7b shows another view of the e-water pump 144 of the improved FEAD system of Fig. 7a.

Figure 8 shows the coolant flow circuit of the FEAD system of Figure 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

In the following, the improved FEAD system configured in accordance with the present invention will be described in more details with reference to the accompanying drawings, without limiting the scope and ambit of the present invention in any way.

Figure 1 shows a front view of a conventional FEAD system 50 driven by FEAD belt and fitted at the front side of the engine. The system 50 includes a FEAD belt 10 passing over a first pulley 20 fitted with an oil seal 22. The belt 10 also passes over a second pulley 30 to drive an alternator 32, a third pulley 40 to drive the cooling fan 42 (not shown) connected thereto and a water pump 44 provided with a coolant by-pass 45, coolant inlet 46 and coolant outlet 48 (not shown).

Figure 2 shows a perspective view of conventional FEAD system 50 of Fig. 1 equipped with a cooling fan. The system 50 includes FEAD belt 10, the pulley 20 with oil seal 22, a crank shaft 24 to power FEAD 50. FEAD belt 10 also drives pulley 30 to drive the alternator 32 and pulley 40 connected to cooling fan 42 and water pump 44 with coolant by-pass 45, coolant inlet 46 and outlet 48 (not shown).

Figure 3 shows a conventional coolant flow circuit of the in a tractor engine. It includes a radiator 60 disposed facing the cooling fan 42 for drawing ambient air 70 towards the radiator 60. A pump 44 is connected to the cooling fan 42 with a spacer 66 placed therebetween. Here, water acts as a coolant for cooling the crankcase gallery 26, cylinder sleeves 80, cylinder head gasket 82, cylinder head 84 and then water reaches the thermostat housing 52, a thermostat cover 56 and a thermostat 54 which in turn bypasses water to radiator 60, if the temperature goes beyond the maximum acceptable range, otherwise the water goes to water pump 44 for recirculation in crankcase gallery 26, all sequentially connected downstream the water pump 44. The inlet hose 58 of the radiator 60 is connected to the thermostat cover 56 and the outlet hose 62 of the radiator is connected to the water pump 44, which is also connected at other end thereof to FEAD system 50. The radiator 60 also has a two-way connection to a surge tank 64. However, mounting of cooling fan 42 and water pump 44 on the same shaft with spacer 66 requires continuous running of both and thus leads to higher fuel consumption irrespective of the coolant temperature.

Figure 4 shows a front view of the improved FEAD system 150 configured in accordance with the present invention fitted at the front side of the engine. Here, the conventional FEAD belt drive 10 is eliminated and alternator 132 is directly driven by front end gear drive 190 (Fig. 5), while the coolant (water) pump 144 is driven by an electric motor 168 (not shown) and cooling fan 142 is mounted on this electrically driven water pump 144 (Fig. 6).

Figure 5 shows a perspective view of an improved FEAD system 150 of Fig. 4 and which is equipped with an electric water pump 144 integrated with cooling fan 142 driven by battery B or alternator 132. The e-water pump 144 is connected to an impeller 145 driven by an electric motor (not visible) and includes a coolant inlet 146 and a coolant outlet 148 (Fig. 7b). E-water pump 144 also includes e-cooling fan 142 integrated thereto. Since both e-water pump 142 and e-cooling fan 144 are run on electric battery B or by alternator 132 via gear 192, there is substantially reduced fuel consumption.

Figure 6 shows a first embodiment of the modified coolant flow circuit of FEAD system 150 of Fig. 5. Here, e-cooling fan 142 and e-water pump 144 are disposed on either side of the electric motor 168 and e-cooling fan 142 facing radiator 160 drawing ambient air 170 thereto. This radiator 160, e-cooling fan 142, electric motor 168 and e-water pump 144 are all disposed along the direction of ambient air 170 flow. A surge tank 164 is bidirectionally connected to the radiator 160 with inlet hose 158 thereof connected to coolant pump sensor 172 and the outlet hose 162 thereof connected to e-water pump 144. The coolant temperature sensor 172 connected between housing 152 and radiator 160 is also connected to electric motor 168 via ECU/microcontroller 196. The rest of the circuit is similar to the conventional coolant flow circuit of Fig. 3 and includes cooling of crankcase gallery 126, cylinder sleeve 180, cylinder head gasket 182 and cylinder head 184. However, less power is required to run accessories of this arrangement as compared to the conventional FEAD system which needs to be run continuously and is later operated on battery power, depending on the specific accessory to be driven. In contrast with the conventional FEAD system 50 of Fig. 1, in which alternator is continuously driven by the FEAD belt drive, the present invention detaches alternator 132 from directly driving e-cooling fan 142 and e-water pump 144. In this improved coolant circuit (Figure 6), the conventional thermostat housing 52, thermostat 54 and thermostat cover 56 (Figure 3) are completely eliminated, thus making the system compact and more efficient. Further, the alternator 132 is directly connected to the drive gears. The alternator 132 is now used for recharging the battery power, which is subsequently also used for driving e-cooling fan 142 and e-water pump 144, as and when required. For example, cooling of coolant/water is normally required only when temperature thereof exceeds 850C, which may pose substantial risk of gasket/oil-seal melting or damage. So, the present invention facilitates in running e-cooling fan 142 only when the coolant temperature exceeds 850C. This is achieved by the appropriate configuration of ECU/microcontroller 196.

Figure 7a shows a first embodiment of the improved FEAD system 150 of Fig.4 and an e-cooling fan 142 directly mounted on front cover and e-water pump 144 separately mounted on the suction/delivery side of engine coolant circuit and which are required to be directly run together or to be run independently at separate speeds to control coolant flow or radiator cooling by means of ECU/Microcontroller 196 (Fig. 8).

Figure 7b shows a second embodiment of the improved FEAD system of Figure 4 and depicting the impeller 145 fitted on the e-water pump 144 having a coolant inlet 146 and a coolant outlet 148.

Figure 8 shows the coolant flow circuit of the FEAD system of Fig. 7. The only difference of this coolant circuit is the introduction of two different motors 166 and 168 for respectively operating e-cooling fan 142 and e-water pump 144. Here, e-water pump 144 and e-fan 142 can be individually controlled by ECU/microcontroller 196 by different signals Sg1 and Sg2 respectively. Now, e-cooling fan 142 and e-water pump 144 can be controlled individually by means of respective motors 168, 166, which are operable at different rotational speeds based on temperature to meet the varying operational requirements. This e-water pump 144 delivers about 100 lit/min in 0.8 BP. So, the use of battery power can further be optimized by running e-cooling fan 142 and e-water pump 144. The present invention also makes use of thermosiphon effect, whereby coolant/water is initially circulated by natural convection, which although a slow process, requires no mechanical pump and thus offers substantial power savings. Whenever required, e-cooling fan 142 and e-water pump 144 can also be operated for additional cooling of coolant/water.

TECHNICAL ADVANTAGES AND ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE

The improved FEAD system configured in accordance with the present invention has the following technical and economic advantages:
• Crankshaft pulley not required

• Crankshaft pulley hub eliminated, front (dynamic) oil seal eliminated.

• Hardware, like key, spacers and bolts eliminated.

• Belt, brace and bolts eliminated.

• Water pump pulley and hardware, such as pulley bolt eliminated.

• Alternator heat shield eliminated.

• Engine coolant by-pass system eliminated.

• Thermostat, Thermostat cover and sealing eliminated.

• e-water pump motor 166 operable at different rotational speed than e-Fan motor according to the operational requirement.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments.

It is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation. The exemplary embodiments described in this specification are intended merely to provide an understanding of various manners in which this embodiment may be used and to further enable the skilled person in the relevant art to practice this invention.

Although, the embodiments presented in this disclosure have been described in terms of its preferred embodiments, the skilled person in the art would readily recognize that these embodiments can be applied with modifications possible within the spirit and scope of the present invention as described in this specification by making innumerable changes, variations, modifications, alterations and/or integrations in terms of materials and method used to configure, manufacture and assemble various constituents, components, subassemblies and assemblies, in terms of their size, shapes, orientations and interrelationships without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

The numerical values given of various physical parameters, dimensions and quantities are only approximate values and it is envisaged that the values higher or lower than the numerical value assigned to the physical parameters, dimensions and quantities fall within the scope of the disclosure unless there is a statement in the specification to the contrary.

Throughout this specification, the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, shall be understood to imply including a described element, integer or method step, or group of elements, integers or method steps, however, does not imply excluding any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or method steps.

The use of the expression “a”, “at least” or “at least one” shall imply using one or more elements or ingredients or quantities, as used in the embodiment of the disclosure in order to achieve one or more of the intended objects or results of the present invention.
The description of the exemplary embodiments is intended to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are to be considered part of the entire written description. In the description, relative terms such as “lower”, “upper”, “horizontal”, “vertical”, “above”, “below”, “up”, “down”, “top”, and “bottom” as well as derivatives thereof (e.g. “horizontally”, “downwardly”, “upwardly” etc.) should be construed to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown in the drawing under discussion. ,CLAIMS:We claim:

1. A compact, beltless, directly driven Front End Accessory Drive (FEAD) system (150) for engines, said FEAD system (150) comprising:

• an alternator (132) directly driven by front end gear drive (190);

• a battery power pack connected to said alternator (132);

• a radiator (160) with inlet hose (158) thereof connected to a housing (152) via a coolant temperature sensor (172) and outlet hose (162) thereof connected to an electric water pump (144), and a surge tank (164) bidirectionally connected to said radiator (160);

• a cooling fan (142) and said water pump (144) operated by at least one electric motor (168) provided on the tractor engine cooling system;

• said electric water pump (144) cooling circuit connected to the crankcase gallery (126) for cooling the cylinder sleeve (180), cylinder head gasket (182) and cylinder head (184) of said engine connected to said housing (152);

wherein a microcontroller (196) is connected between said coolant temperature sensor (172) and said electric motor (168) for controlling the operation of said e-cooling fan (142) and said e-water pump (144) at respective required rotational speed thereof as a function of the coolant temperature detected by said coolant temperature sensor (172).

2. FEAD system (150) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said microcontroller (196) is configured for controlling the speed/flow of said e-cooling fan (142) and/or e-water pump (144) at the respective required rotational speed thereof as a function of the coolant temperature detected by said coolant temperature sensor (172).

3. FEAD system (150) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said microcontroller (196) is configured as an open/close looped microcontroller system.

4. FEAD system (150) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said e-cooling fan (142) and/or e-water pump (144) is/are simultaneously operated by the same electric motor (168).

5. FEAD system (150) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said electric motor (168) is charged by said alternator (132) for driving said e-cooling fan (142) and e-water pump (144).

6. FEAD system (150) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said e-cooling fan (142) is operated by means of said microcontroller (196) on the coolant/water temperature on exceeding a predefined temperature, preferably 850C.

7. FEAD system (150) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said e-cooling fan water pump (142) and e-water pump (144) are operated by two different electric motors actuated by a corresponding signal therefor issued by said microcontroller (196).

8. FEAD system (150) as claimed in claim 7, wherein said cooling fan water pump (142) is operated by said electric motor (168) actuated by signal (Sg1) issued by said microcontroller (196) driven at predefined rotational speed/s based on coolant temperature to meet operational requirements.

9. FEAD system (150) as claimed in claim 7, wherein said e-water pump (144) are operated by said electric motor (166) actuated by a corresponding signal (Sg2) issued by said microcontroller (196) driven at predefined rotational speed/s based on coolant temperature to meet operational requirements.

10. FEAD system (150) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said e-cooling fan (142) and/or e-water pump (144) are operated for additional cooling the coolant/water after cooling by natural convection over and above thermosiphon effect.

Digitally Signed.

Dated: this 17th day of April 2018. (SANJAY KESHARWANI)
REGN. No. IN/P1-2043
APPLICANT’S PATENT AGENT.