Machine with reduced cylinder friction
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorIan Graham Pegg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A machine having a cylinder, the configuration of the machine being such that a body portion of a piston of the machine periodically engages an inner surface of the cylinder during operation of the machine, this engagement defining a contact zone between the body portion of the piston and the inner surface of the cylinder, the inner surface of the cylinder having an enhanced bearing region comprising one or more recesses indented into the inner surface, the enhanced bearing region being smaller than the inner surface of the cylinder and being substantially centered on the contact zone.
Claims20
A machine having a cylinder, wherein a grade point of a body portion of a piston of the machine periodically engages an inner surface of the cylinder during operation of the machine, the engagement defining a grade point contact zone between the body portion of the piston and the inner surface of the cylinder when the body portion of the piston rotates about an axis of a piston pin, the inner surface of the cylinder having a bearing region comprising one or more recesses indented into the inner surface of the cylinder, the bearing region being smaller than the inner surface of the cylinder, and wherein a center point of the bearing region is located in an axial plane of the piston that is perpendicular to and coincident with a midpoint of a rotational axis of the piston pin.
A method of forming a machine having one or more cylinders, wherein a grade point of a body portion of a piston of the machine periodically engages an inner surface of the cylinder during operation of the machine, the engagement defining a grade point contact zone between the inner surface of the cylinder and the body portion of the piston when the body portion of the piston rotates about an axis of a piston pin, the inner surface of the cylinder having an enhanced bearing region comprising one or more recesses indented into the inner surface of the cylinder, the enhanced bearing region being smaller than the inner surface of the cylinder, the method comprising:
- determining a location of the grade point contact zone;
- and
- providing the enhanced bearing region in a region of the inner surface of the cylinder, wherein a center point of the enhanced bearing region is located in an axial plane of the piston that is perpendicular to and coincident with a midpoint of a rotational axis of the piston pin.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.