Patent ID: 7603969

Claim:
Apparatus for conveying coolant around a cooling circuit of an automotive engine, characterised by the combination of the following features: the cooling circuit includes a pump impeller, which is driven in rotation, for circulating coolant, and includes a radiator; the cooling circuit includes a bypass-circuit for conveying a bypass-flow of coolant, being a flow that bypasses the radiator, and which passes through a bypass-port; the apparatus includes a bypass-port-blocker, which is movable between:- (a) an open position in which the bypass-port is open and the bypass flow circulates around the engine, and (b) a closed position in which the bypass-port-blocker blocks the bypass-port, thereby blocking circulation of coolant around the bypass circuit; the apparatus includes a thermal-sensor, in operative association with a movable thermal-actuator; the operative association is such that, when the thermal-sensor detects changes in temperature of the coolant, the thermal-actuator undergoes physical movement proportionally responsively to the said temperature changes; the thermal-actuator is capable of moving between the following positions, corresponding to temperatures detected by the thermal-sensor, namely: a cold position, a warm position, and a hot position; the apparatus includes a set of flow-modulating vanes, which is capable of modulating the radiator-flow, the vanes being arranged in a housing for movement between a flow-reducing orientation of the vanes and a flow-boosting orientation; the thermal-actuator, in moving from the warm position to the hot position, moves the vanes from their flow-reducing orientation to their flow-boosting orientation; in the cold position of the thermal-actuator, the bypass-port-blocker lies in an open position, enabling flow through the bypass port; and the thermal-actuator, in moving from the cold position to the hot position, moves the bypass-port-blocker to close the bypass port.