One-piece steel piston
AssigneeKarl Schmidt Unisia, Inc.
InventorYuejun Huang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A one-piece steel piston that is made from a piston blank that includes a portion that configured and designed to be displaced to form a cooling gallery and ring belt. The piston blank can be formed by a casting or forging process. The portion that is designed and configured to be displaced is a flange that extends radially at the top of the piston blank. The flange is bent downward so that a peripheral edge of the flange contacts a top portion of the piston skirt. The peripheral edge of the flange and the top portion of the skirt can be welded together or provided with inter-engaging structures.
Claims23
A one-piece piston that comprises:
- a top;
- a pair of opposed pin bosses with pin bores formed therein;
- a skirt having a top portion;
- and
- a cooling gallery that is comprises an annular cavity formed in a side of the piston which annular cavity is closed by a flange that is continuous with the top of the piston and which flange has been displaced so that a peripheral terminal edge of the flange abuts the top portion of the skirt as to close the annular cavity and define a portion of the cooling gallery,
- said top, skirt and flange are all formed from a single blank.
A piston blank from which a piston can be fabricated, said piston blank comprising a top portion, a skirt, a pair of opposed pin bosses and a flange extending radially outward from the top portion, said flange being configured to be displaced downward to contact a top portion of the skirt.
A method of fabricating a one-piece piston which comprises:
- providing a piston blank having a top portion, a skirt, a pair of opposed pin bosses and a flange extending radially outward from the top portion;
- forming an annular cooling gallery under the flange;
- displacing the flange so that an outer peripheral edge of the flange contacts a top portion of the skirt and closes off the cooling gallery;
- and
- forming piston ring grooves in the flange.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.