Vaporizing Carburetor

This new system for the carburetion of spark ignition internal combustion engines yields completely and perfectly distributed vaporized fuel in the airstream entering the engine. It is the optimum process for carburetion to produce the best fuel economy at any speed, but particularly at low speeds where conventional systems produce high fuel consumption. Moreover, our system provides a homogeneous fuel/air mixture to each cylinder in a multi-cylinder engine, reduces the crankcase combustibles, eliminates flooding of the engine, improves startability, and reduces exhaust pollutants.

In the present invention, the vacuum created by the engine intake causes an air stream to pass through a chamber containing gasoline fuel, where the air causes evaporation of the fuel. The air/fuel mixture then passes through several mixing baffles to obtain uniformity of the mixture. Adjustment of the fuel-to-air ratio to the chemically correct ratio is accomplished by throttling valves in two tubes, one supplying fresh air and the other supplying the fuel/air mixture from the mixing baffles. Due to the turbulence that may occur in the evaporation chamber, it is difficult to control the fuel level directly, hence, a fuel-level-control system is introduced to maintain a constant level fuel in the chamber. This control system includes a small tank which supplies the chamber with fuel when the level of fuel in the chamber drops below the level in the tank and the level of fuel in the tank is controlled by a valve and a float. The pressures on the fuel in the vessel and the tank are equalized by communicating the space above the fuel in the tank with the space above the fuel in the chamber by a small pipe.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent to those persons having ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains, from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary elevational view of the present invention showing the position of the throttling mechanism;

FIG. 2 is a front sectional view taken along 2--2 in FIG. 1 and showing the interior of the system with the evaporating element and the fuel-level-control system;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged detailed drawing of the throttling mechanism of the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an evaporating element of the present invention.

As shown in the various figures, a preferred embodiment of the invention generally indicated at 10 includes evaporating and mixing elements 12, throttling and mixing passageways 14, and a fuel-level-control system 16.

A flow of air is induced by the engine suction and enters the system through intake passageway 13 after flowing through an air filter or the like. Depending on the setting of an air bypass valve 17, the flow of air may then be divided with a small portion of the air passing through a bypass tube 18 and the remainder passes through an intake tube 20, which extends from the top of an evaporation chamber 22 to the bottom of the chamber. The lower end of the air intake tube 20 is closed and the wall of the tube adjacent the lower end is perforated with a large number of small holes 24 as best shown in FIG. 4. The total area of these holes is equal to the cross-section area of the intake tube 20. A cylindrical sieve 26 is formed of copper wire screen and has a diameter twice that of the intake tube 20. The sieve 26 surrounds a lower part of the intake tube 20 and is supported in a concentric position by support arms 28 fixed at their outer ends to the sieve 26 and fixed at their inner end to a support ring 30 which frictionally fits over the intake tube 20. The sieve 26 and the holes 24 are positioned below the surface 32 of the fuel as shown in FIG. 2. Sieve 26 and holes 24 are immersed in the liquid fuel contained in vessel 22.

The air flows through the holes 24 of the intake tube 20 with a high velocity and bubbles through the liquid fuel to vaporize some of the fuel. The sieve 26 causes the air streams from the holes 24 to separate into smaller bubbles so that each bubble will become saturated with vaporized fuel. The fuel/air mixture leaving the surface 32 of the fuel in the chamber 22 passes through a multi-layer mixing system which includes perforated plates spaced logarithmically along the intake tube 20. The lower plates 34 are perforated with small holes over the entire area while the upper plates 36 are perforated over half of their area as indicated in FIG. 2. Adjacent upper plates are rotated 180 degrees with respect to adjacent plates as indicated in FIG. 2 thereby providing a tortuous path for the fuel/air mixture as it flows out of the evaporation chamber. An outlet tube 38 at the top of the chamber has a throttle valve 40 pivotally mounted therein to control the flow of fuel/air mixture from the chamber. The air flows through the bypass tube 18 and combines with the fuel/air mixture from the outlet tube 38 in mixing region 42 which consists of a three perforated plates 44 similar to upper plates 36. Finally, the mixture of air and vaporized fuel flows through to an engine manifold inlet tube 45 where it is drawn into the engine manifold. A throttling mechanism 46 is shown in detail in FIG. 3. The purpose of this mechanism is to permit the engine speed to increase while the fuel-to-air ratio is kept constant at any running speed. It is well-known that vaporized fuel/air ratios greater than 0.11 will prevent combustion in the cylinders. Hence, if the system was used with the air bypass throttle valve 17 closed, the engine will not start. Therefore, the opening of the air valve 17 at the idling speed is selected to produce the chemically correct ratio of fuel-to-air. Actual running tests showed that the system idling speed went down to about 2/3 of those of conventional systems; the operation was steady, smooth and vibrationless; and reduction in the pollutants occurred in the exhaust area.

The fact that vaporization decreases at high air velocities when the liquid level remains constant necessitates either (i) increasing the fuel level in the chamber 22 or (ii) introducing the perforated plates 34, which will carry thin layers of fuel and thus promote evaporation. In the second case, the bypass air valve 17 in tube 18 should be closed completely while the throttle valve 40 in outlet tube 38 should continue to open as speed increases which is accomplished with a compression spring element 47 which couples the two valves as shown in FIG. 3. Initially, the air bypass valve 17 is open for idling conditions while the throttle valve 40 is partially open. When the speed increases, the throttling mechanism causes the throttle valve 40 to open more and causes the bypass valve 17 to close gradually. When the valve 17 is completely closed, the accelerator acting through an accelerator link 48 begins to act against a spring 50, thus opening the throttle valve 40 gradually with bypass valve 17 fully closed.

The fuel-level-control system includes a small tank 52 connected to the chamber 22 by a vent pipe 54 and fuel pipe 56. The fuel pipe 56 supplies the chamber with fuel. The vent pipe 54 equalizes the pressure over the fuel in the tank 52 and the chamber 22 so that the level of the fuel will not be affected by any turbulence which may occur in the liquid fuel in the chamber. The fuel supply to the tank 52 is controlled by a float 58 and associated valve which determines the fuel level.

It is to be understood that numerous modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the subject invention will undoubtedly occur to those of skill in the art and the spirit and scope of the invention is limited solely in light of the appended claims.