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US 9,518,551 B2Granted
Laser ignition safety interlock system and method
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsDouglas Raymond Martin, Kenneth James Miller
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A safety interlock system and method is provided for a laser ignition system. The laser device can be disabled upon receiving an indication that the laser device has been removed from the cylinder. The removal can be inferred based on an estimated distance between the cylinder piston and the laser ignition device.
Claims20
An engine method, comprising:
- operating a laser ignition device of a cylinder in a low power mode to infer a distance between the laser ignition device and a piston of the cylinder;
- and
- adjusting a power output of laser pulses emitted by the laser ignition device into the cylinder based on the inferred distance relative to a threshold, the threshold based on a length of the cylinder, wherein adjusting the power output includes maintaining operation of the device in the low power mode when the inferred distance is within the threshold, and reducing the power output of the laser pulses when the inferred distance is outside the threshold.
An engine method, comprising:
- operating a cylinder laser ignition device to estimate a distance between the laser ignition device and a piston of a cylinder;
- and
- disabling the laser ignition device in response to the estimated distance being larger than a threshold distance.
A method for an engine, comprising:
- disabling a laser ignition device coupled to an engine cylinder in response to an indication of removal of the device from the cylinder, wherein the indication includes a measured distance between a piston of the cylinder and the laser ignition device being higher than a threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.