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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7665558 | Engine misfire detection apparatus, hybrid vehicle equipped with the same, and engine misfire detection method Engine misfire is detected by using threshold values that vary depending on whether damping control is executed. First threshold values are adopted at the setting of a gearshift position to a drive position or a park position where damping control is performed to re... | 02/23/2010 |
| 7406944 | Ignition control system A device for ignition control in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine includes an ignition coil which has a connected primary winding and a secondary winding, which is connected to a spark plug. The device also includes an ignition control unit, which connect... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7321820 | Model-based inlet air dynamics state characterization An engine control system that having an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve includes a first module that determines an EGR error and a second module that calculates a fuel injection timing based on the EGR error. Operation of an engine is regulated based on the fu... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7251571 | Methods of diagnosing open-secondary winding of an ignition coil using the ionization current signal In a first embodiment, the present invention is a method of detecting an open secondary winding, including the steps of enabling an integrator, resetting the integrator, detecting an ionization current, integrating the ionization current over a spark window, compari... | 07/31/2007 |
| 7213573 | System and method of controlling engine dilution rate using combustion stability measurer derived from the ionization signal This feature of the present invention comprises a system and method of controlling exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) based on a measure combustion stability measure. The combustion stability measure is obtained by determining the integration duration of the engine ion... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7181339 | Real-time spectral analysis of internal combustion engine knock A system for, and a method of, obtaining, for analysis, from a subject internal combustion engine, real-time engine knock data involving assessing, as a positive indication of engine knock behavior, whether the energy-content value represented in at least one select... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7140351 | Method and device for operating an internal combustion engine A method and a device for operating an internal combustion engine allow an optimal restriction of the ignition angle. In this context, a limit value for an ignition angle is specified as a function of an operating point of the internal combustion engine. The limit v... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7121250 | Diesel engine oil dilution managing device A diesel engine oil dilution managing device is configured to act as an oil dilution detecting device to determine if a premature combustion occurred before fuel injection by an injector based on an engine parameter that correlates with an occurrence of the prematur... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7104228 | Engine with variable cam timing and control advantageously using humidity sensor A system and method for utilizing a humidity sensor with an internal combustion engine of a vehicle is described. Specifically, information from the humidity sensor is used to adjust a desired air-fuel ratio to reduce engine misfire while improving vehicle fuel econ... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7086391 | Method of estimating the fuel/air ratio in a cylinder of an internal-combustion engine The present invention relates to a method of estimating the fuel/air ratio in each cylinder of a multicylinder internal-combustion engine comprising an exhaust circuit in which a single detector measures the fuel/air ratio of the exhaust gas. The estimator comprises... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7073488 | Cylinder cutout strategy for engine stability A method for controlling operation of an engine having a plurality of cylinders. The method includes monitoring a parameter associated with engine operation, determining a range of fluctuation of the parameter from a desired parameter value, and selectively disablin... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7021287 | Closed-loop individual cylinder A/F ratio balancing The individual cylinder air to fuel ratio of an internal combustion engine varies due to the fact that the intake manifold cannot distribute airflow into the individual cylinders evenly. This feature of the present invention utilizes minimum timing for best torque M... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7013871 | Closed loop MBT timing control using ionization feedback This feature of the present invention comprises a closed loop which uses estimated MBT timing criteria and ignition diagnostics (knock, partial-burn, and misfire) to control engine ignition. When the engine is not knock limited, it operates at its MBT timing. When t... | 03/21/2006 |
| 7007547 | Optical sensor or emitter used for monitoring combustion processes An optical sensor or emitter (1) used for monitoring combustion processes in a combustion chamber is provided with an optical element (2) on a side facing the combustion chamber and an optical fiber or fiber bundle (3) on a side opposite the com... | 03/07/2006 |
| 6951201 | Method for reducing pin count of an integrated coil with driver and ionization detection circuit by multiplexing ionization and coil charge current feedback signals In a first preferred embodiment, the present feature of the invention multiplexes both the ionization and driver current feedback signals into one signal, thus reducing cost and making coil packaging easier. The multiplexed signal first outputs the ionization detect... | 10/04/2005 |
| 6935310 | Method and apparatus for detecting abnormal combustion conditions in reciprocating engines having high exhaust gas recirculation An apparatus and method to detect abnormal combustion conditions for use as a feedback control of an EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) controlled reciprocating engine using ionization signals is presented. The system receives a succession of ionization signals for suc... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6931836 | Method for NOx reduction of externally-ignited, explosion, internal combustion engines In a method for reducing NOx in the exhaust gas of an externally ignited, explosion-type internal combustion engine that is operated at a lean fuel/air ratio of λ>1 and has a motor control device for controlling λ, the λ value is slidingly controlled a... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6925374 | Misfire detection apparatus of internal combustion engine A misfire detection apparatus of an internal combustion engine for detecting combustion or a misfire of an air fuel mixture in the internal combustion engine based on an ion current generated at the combustion time of the air fuel mixture. The misfire detection appa... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6918362 | Engine with variable cam timing and control advantageously using humidity sensor A system and method for utilizing a humidity sensor with an internal combustion engine of a vehicle is described. Specifically, information from the humidity sensor is used to adjust a desired air-fuel ratio to reduce engine misfire while improving vehicle fuel econ... | 07/19/2005 |
| 6907341 | Misfire detector A misfire detector is provided that is accurate even in the case of a disturbance due to causes such as driving on a rough road. The misfire detector is equipped with a crankshaft revolution detector to measure the time period required for the crankshaft of an inter... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6885932 | Misfire detection in an internal combustion engine A method and system for a misfire detection acquires (301) a series of acceleration data (302) representative of acceleration behavior of an engine. The data is sampled (304) to obtain acceleration data samples at a rate sufficient to obtain up ... | 04/26/2005 |
| 6827061 | Method in connection with engine control This invention relates to a method in connection with engine control, wherein a combustion feedback signal is derived by measuring one or more combustion related parameters during a chosen time period of a first combustion cycle, for control of a possible fault, whe... | 12/07/2004 |
| 6803765 | Misfire detection system for internal combustion engines In a system for detecting misfire for an internal combustion engine wherein ionization current that flows following the discharge current is detected and integrated during a period (gate) and occurrence of misfire of the engine is detected based on the integrated va... | 10/12/2004 |
| 6786200 | Method and apparatus for controlling combustion quality in lean burn reciprocating engines An apparatus and method to detect and control the combustion quality of a lean burn reciprocating engine using ionization signals is presented. The system receives a succession of ionization signals for successive cycles of a running engine and processes a plurality... | 09/07/2004 |
| 6763806 | Combustion control apparatus and combustion control method of internal combustion engine A combustion state during the initial stage after ignition is detected, and based on the detected combustion state, it is judged whether or not incomplete combustion has occurred, and when it is judged that incomplete combustion has occurred, an ignition signal is o... | 07/20/2004 |
| 6584955 | Method and device for phase recognition in a 4-stroke Otto engine with ion flow measurement A device and a method for detecting phase in four-stroke engines, in which an electronic control unit (ECU) detects a spark current as a measuring signal and determines whether ignition occurred for ascertaining the compression cycles of the cylinders, wh... | 07/01/2003 |
| 6530360 | Electronic control apparatus of internal combustion engine Electronic control apparatus including a V-type multi-cylinder internal combustion engine having right and left banks of cylinders 1a and 1b, a crank-angle detecting device 12 for a camshaft of one bank 1a and which outputs a rotational-angle signal, a cy... | 03/11/2003 |
| 6516780 | System and method for optimizing engine performance An engine control system and method include determining which engine cylinder is performing at a level differently than a majority of the other cylinders. Whenever a cylinder output is below that of the other cylinders, an engine performance variable, suc... | 02/11/2003 |
| 6336440 | Misfire detection method for a piston combustion engine with electromagnetic fuel charge valve A method of detecting combustion misfires in an internal-combustion engine, includes the following steps: variably actuating valve drives of the engine by an electronic engine control; performing a load-dependent control with the control system by a cylin... | 01/08/2002 |
| 6305352 | Method for detecting an abnormal disturbance of an internal combustion engine torque A method for detecting an abnormal disturbance of an internal combustion engine torque and for suspending the functioning of a system in which combustion misfiring has been diagnosed. The method operates by analysis of values of a quantity representing th... | 10/23/2001 |
| 6123057 | Arrangement and process for communication between an ignition module and control unit in a combustion engine's ignition system An arrangement and a process for communication between an ignition module (ICM) mounted on an engine and a control unit (ECM). The ignition module includes detection circuits and signal processing stages in order to determine at least one combustion relat... | 09/26/2000 |
| 6091244 | Method and arrangement for detecting combustion misfires of a internal combustion engine The invention is directed to a method of detecting combustion misfires of an internal combustion engine wherein an ion current is generated during the operation of the engine. The ion current signal is detected over a pregiven time interval starting with ... | 07/18/2000 |
| 6032648 | Method of controlling ignition in a multicylinder internal combustion engine A method for controlling ignition in a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine, such that the control variables are determined on the basis of the parameters sensed by sensors, and such that after output of the control variables, a misfire monitoring op... | 03/07/2000 |
| 5970952 | Combustion state detector apparatus for an internal combustion engine A combustion state detector apparatus for an internal combustion engine has a current detection device for detecting a current flowing between the ignition plug and a ground, and an ignition driving device for driving the ignition plug on the basis of an ... | 10/26/1999 |
| 5947077 | Control device for cylinder injection internal-combustion engine A control device for a cylinder injection internal-combustion engine detects the deterioration of the combustion efficiency of the engine. The control device is equipped with: a fuel injection valve for directly injecting fuel to each cylinder in the inte... | 09/07/1999 |
| 5945828 | Engine combustion condition detecting apparatus equipped with malfunction diagnosing apparatus A failure of a detecting circuit such as an ion current detecting circuit for detecting a combustion condition of an engine can be diagnosed at a stage for detecting a combustion condition by a combustion condition detecting apparatus equipped with a malf... | 08/31/1999 |
| 5778855 | Combustion stability control for lean burn engines A control system for determining combustion quality in a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine. For each combustion chamber, first and second sampling windows are generated and ionic currents sampled utilizing the spark plug as an electrode.... | 07/14/1998 |
| 5775298 | Internal combustion engine control Two stroke internal combustion engine control compensates for diagnosed cylinder misfire conditions characterized by improper combustion, during a cylinder combustion event, of an air/fuel mixture in an engine cylinder by learning a required number of cyl... | 07/07/1998 |
| 5670713 | Apparatus and method for recognizing misfire occurrence in multi-cylinder internal combustion engine Apparatus and method for recognizing an absence or presence of a misfire in each of cylinders of a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine without influences of a mechanical deviation in a crank angle sensor and of a combustion state deviation between e... | 09/23/1997 |
| 5606120 | Misfire-detecting system for internal combustion engines A misfire-detecting system for an internal combustion engine includes a temperature sensor for detecting a temperature of the engine, and an ECU which carries out detection of a misfire occurring in the engine when the detected temperature falls within a ... | 02/25/1997 |
