Marine drives and methods of clearing debris from a cooling water intake on marine drives
AssigneeBrunswick Corporation
InventorsBrett Bielefeld, David A. Kobilic, Kyle C. Hiner, Theodore J. Hanes, David J. Waldvogel
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Abstract
A marine drive is for propelling a marine vessel in a body of water, the marine drive having a housing configured to support a propulsor for generating a thrust force in the body of water, and a cooling water intake configured to intake cooling water from the body of water to the housing, wherein the housing is configured to route a backflow of water received from the body of water to clear debris from the cooling water intake.
Claims20
A marine drive for propelling a marine vessel in a body of water, the marine drive comprising:
- a housing configured to support a propulsor for generating a thrust force in the body of water, the housing comprising an outlet passage configured to discharge air, exhaust, and/or other gas(es) to the body of water at least during forward operation of the marine drive and to receive a backflow of water from the body of water at least during reverse operation of the marine drive;
- and
- a cooling water intake configured to intake cooling water from the body of water to the housing,
- wherein the housing is further configured so that the backflow of water clears debris from the cooling water intake.
A marine drive for propelling a marine vessel in a body of water, the marine drive comprising:
- a housing configured to support a propulsor for generating a thrust force in the body of water, the housing comprising an outlet passage configured to discharge air, exhaust, and/or other gas(es) to the body of water at least during forward operation of the marine drive and to receive a backflow of water from body of water at least during reverse operation of the marine drive;
- a cooling water intake configured to intake cooling water from the body of water to the housing;
- and
- a valve which in a closed position prevents the backflow of water from clearing debris from the cooling water intake and in an open position permits the backflow of water to clear the debris from the cooling water intake, wherein the valve is configured to be forced into the open position by ram pressure of the backflow of water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.