Patent ID: 8720405

Claim:
A piston comprising: a crown; a skirt extending generally axially away from said crown, said skirt including a pair of opposed skirt panel portions and a closed loop band spaced away from said crown and extending generally around a perimeter of said piston; a pair of pin towers coupled to said crown, each pin tower having an opening therein, said openings being configured to receive a pin therethrough; and a pair of strut assemblies, each strut assembly including a pair of struts which converge in a radially outward direction in a radial plane that intersects said pin tower openings, wherein each strut in said pair of strut assemblies engages said skirt at a distal, radially outer end thereof and terminates at or adjacent to one of said panel portions, and wherein said strut assemblies are configured such that a line drawn through each strut in each associated strut assembly intersect at an intersection position, and wherein a distance from each intersection position to an associated panel portion is less than about ½ an average radius of said piston, and wherein at least one strut in each strut assembly forms an angle of less than 35 degrees with respect to a radius of said piston extending between each strut in an associated strut assembly.