U.S. patents available from 1976 to present.
U.S. patent applications available from 2005 to present.

Icon_funbox Did You Know...

...In 1790, the cost to obtain a patent was between $4 and $5.

Newsletter  PatentStorm News

Make the Most of Our Site

See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.

Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.

Registered users: Manage your profile.

 

Class 123 - Internal-combustion engines

RSS Feeds for this Class: Rss Patents   Rss Applications   What is RSS?
1175 Subclasses


Subclasses list

Definition

This class contains inventions relating to prime movers or engines in which a combustible material is burned within an inc losed space or chamber and the heat energy thus developed converted into work by permitting the resulting products of combustion to act upon and through mechanical powers, the engine in question including suitable mechanism whereby the functions above enumerated are continually and automatically carried out, and such engine being designed to communicate power to some machine or device exterior to itself.

The space or combustion chamber above referred to is ordinarily the interior of the working cylinder of the engine, the products of combustion acting immediately upon a reciprocating, rotating, or oscillating piston moving within the same chamber in which combustion takes place or in an extension thereof. Some types of internal-combustion engines, however, besides fulfilling the conditions above mentioned, have a transfer valve operated by and in unison therewith located between the combustion chamber and the elements upon and through which the products of combustion act to thereby control the flow of said products, in which case the above mentioned transfer valve is operated to establish communication between the combustion chamber and the working cylinder at the instant of ignition or prior thereto, so that the piston is driven by burning products of combustion.

The working fluid is ordinarily such as results from combustion alone; but in some of the engines in this class a small quantity of water is supplied to the engine, generally by injecting it directly into the interior of the combustion-chamber during or after the combustion of the combustible material; but in all engines using water the amount used is comparatively small, so that the resulting steam is necessarily in a superheated condition.

This class also includes separate parts of engines coming within the above definition and also subordinate elements designed for use with such engines, and incapable of use in the manner contemplated with other devices or in other relations.

From the above it will be seen that devices go into this class because of a function performed by a given element or combination of elements rather than because of any particular structure of such elements, and therefore, given structural features forming a machine adapted for use as an internal-combustion engine, may be found in any other classes having machines of like general structure. Thus probably any given structure adapted for use as an internal-combustion engine could generally with slight modification be used as steam or other heat engine, and often as an air, gas, or water pump, a hydraulic motor, a meter, etc. This would not ordinarily be the case with the subordinate or auxiliary devices included in this class, as from what appears above such subordinate elements as the class contains are adapted for use in the manner contemplated only with or forming a part of an internal-combustion engine.

It therefore follows that a search for a given general mechanical structure adapted for use as an internal-combustion engine will generally need to be continued in the classes above indicated.

Further fields of search for the various subordinate elements designed for and adapted to be used only with internal-combustion engines, and therefore included in this class, are indicated in the definitions hereinafter appearing of those various subclasses.

Lines with other classes and within this class

A compilation of all types of motors will be found in the Notes to the class definition of Class 60.

The following examples of terminology have been considered to be a nominal inclusion of an internal combustion engine and if so claimed would not preclude classification in Class 417:

(a) a cam driven pump; (b) a "crank (shaft)" driven pump; (c) a "gear" driven pump; (d) a "chain" driven pump; (e) a "belt" driven pump; (f) a "fluid" driven pump; (g) an "electrically" driven pump; (h) a pump and an "outlet" "tube" and "injector".

The following pump control parameters are separately appropriate for Class 417. Control by both of these parameters is appropriate for Class 123;

(a) engine speed control; (b) manifold vacuum.

The following examples have been considered to be significant inclusion of an engine and if so claimed would cause classification in Class 123 if otherwise appropriate.

(a) timing of the pump relative to the engine; (b) engine temperature control of the pump.

(1) Note. When the pump-engine combination is claimed broadly, it is properly classified in Class 123. When the output of the pump is not delivered to the engine, classification is proper in Class 417.
 
Sign In Register
Username  
Password   
forgot password?