Engine piston with rolling element skirt
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsEDWARD P. BECKER, Emerson J. Adams, Anil K. Sachdev
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Abstract
The present invention utilizes rolling elements, such as balls or rollers acting as bearings carried in openings in the skirt or equivalent portion of a piston, to engage the cylinder walls and replace the sliding bearings of the skirt with the roller elements in the skirt. The rolling elements then absorb all or some of the thrust loads conventionally absorbed by the skirt walls sliding along surfaces of an associated cylinder and thereby reduce the friction forces developed by the reciprocating action of the piston skirt.
Claims13
A piston for an internal combustion engine comprising:
- a head for withstanding compression and combustion forces and a skirt depending from the head and including opposite thrust and anti-thrust sides;
- at least one rolling thrust element rotatably received in at least a thrust side of the skirt and protruding through an opening in an outer surface of the skirt for engagement of the rolling element with an associated cylinder;
- and
- retainer means in the piston and supporting at least one rolling element for rotation in the opening upon reciprocation of the piston in the cylinder, the retainer positioned to absorb side thrust forces acting on the rolling element from engagement with the cylinder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.