Patent GB-405863-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to internal combustion engine-electric power units for vehicles
IPC: H02P9/00
Filed: 1933-06-07
Abstract: 405,863. Systems for transmitting mechanical power. SULZER FRERES SOC. ANON., Winterthur, Switzerland. June 7, 1933, No. 16386. Convention date, June 24, 1932. [Class 38 (iv).] In a power unit for vehicles comprising an internal-combustion engine driving an electric generator, the output. of the generator is automatically determined in accordance with one or more of the following conditions, namely barometric pressure atmospheric temperature, moisture-content of the atmosphere, or temperature of the exhaust gases. Fig. 1 shows a power unit in which an engine 1 drives a generator 23 supplying motors 24 for driving the vehicle. The engine also drives an auxiliary generator 21 for supplying current to the field winding 22 of the generator 23, the amount of this current being varied by a rheostat 18 which is adjusted by a servomotor 16 controlled by a valve 26 connected to an aneroid 25. Variations and atmospheric pressure, due for example to different altitudes, causes actuation of the servomotor to vary the resistance 18 and thereby the load on the generator. Variations in speed of the engine, which are caused by alterations in the load on the generator, are also made to actuate the servomotor by means of a governor G connected to a valve 14 working within the valve 26. In place of the aneroid device 25, or in addition thereto, the control may be effected according to the moisture-content of the atmosphere by means of a cord 28, Fig. 13, or according to atmospheric temperature by the expansion of a rod 31. In Fig. 13, the three controls 25, 28, and 31 are shown acting on valves 55 controlling supply of fluid to a servomotor piston, which has an outlet controlled by a valve 58 and is connected to the control rod 30. In another form, the three controls are connected to plungers projecting into the top of a cylinder containing liquid pressing on a piston working in the cylinder and connected to the control rod 30. Or the three controls may act directly through a cord passing over pulleys on each of the controls, and connected at one end to a fixed point and at the other end to the rod 30. One or all the controls may act through an electric, instead of a fluid, relay. Fig. 8 shows an electric relay controlled according to atmospheric temperature by a mercury thermometer 41 having electrodes connected to a resistance 42 so as to come into action successively and vary the current flowing through a circuit 34 of a relay 35, the armature of which is connected by a rod 36 and lever 27 to the control rod 30. The lever 27 is also acted on by a spring 38, the point of engagement 37 of which may be varied by a cam 39. In another form, the thermometer or other control may operate several electric relays which come into action successively and have a step-by-step action on the control rod 30. Fig. 10 shows such an arrangement controlled by the temperature of the exhaust, which acts upon bimetallic thermostats 48 arranged in the exhaust conduits 47 and constructed to move fingers 49 to the right or left and so control the circuits of three relays 43, 44, 45, which have a step-by-step action on a rod 46 connected to the rod 30. In another form, a single thermostat is placed along the exhaust manifold and connected directly to the rod 30.