Top cowl for outboard motor and mold for forming top cowl
AssigneeYamaha Marine Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorDaisuke Nakamura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An outboard motor has a top cowl and a bottom cowl. A elongate thickened portion protrudes inwardly from an inner surface of the top cowl into an engine compartment. A bottom opening edge of the top cowl mates with the bottom cowl. The elongate thickened portion extends along the length of top cowl from the forward end of the opening edge to a rearward end of the opening edge. A mold for forming the top cowl has an entrance sprue that is located in a position corresponding to the position of one end of an opening edge of the top cowl. An exit sprue of the mold is located in a position corresponding to the position of an opposing end of the opening edge of the top cowl. The mold defines a top cavity and side cavities that are used to mold the top cowl.
Claims19
An outboard motor having a cowling comprising a bottom cowl and a top cowl configured to couple to the bottom cowl, the top cowl comprising a top cowl body that surrounds at least a portion of an engine of the outboard motor, the top cowl configured to couple with the bottom cowl, and the top cowl comprising an elongate thickened portion that extends along the top cowl body in a fore to aft direction between a front end and a rear end of the top cowl body.
A mold for forming a top cowl of nonferrous metal for an outboard motor, the mold comprising first and second mold portions that define a mold cavity shaped to form a top cowl having a top portion and side wall portions that depend from the top portion and define a bottom edge of the top cowl, an entrance sprue disposed at a front end of the mold cavity, an exit sprue disposed at a rear end of the mold cavity, a top cavity of the mold cavity configured to accommodate flow of molten metal from the entrance sprue to the exit sprue so as to form the top portion of the top cowl, side cavities of the mold cavity, the side cavities configured to accommodate flow of molten metal from the entrance sprue to the exit sprue so as to form the side wall portions of the top cowl, and a bottom edge of the mold cavity corresponding to the bottom edge of the top cowl, wherein the entrance and exit sprues are positioned at or adjacent the bottom edge of the mold cavity, and the top cavity and side cavities are configured so that molten metal flows faster through the top cavity than through the side cavities.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.