Lucas Industries Public Limited Company

John H Francis

Alan P Ogburn

Clive I Perkins

Nigel A Deller

Francis R Draper

A fuel pumping apparatus for supplying fuel to an engine includes a pumping plunger reciprocable in a cylinder by a cam having cam lobes. Fuel is displaced during inward movement of the plunger during forward rotation of the engine by the leading flanks of the lobes. A valve can be closed during the inward movement of the plunger to allow fuel flow through an outlet to an engine. The valve is electrically controlled by a control system which receives plunger position signals. These signals are arranged to occur substantially half way along the trailing flanks of the lobes instead of as is more usual at the top dead center positions of the plunger, whereby if the engine is rotating in reverse the valve will be open while the plunger is moved inwardly by the trailing flanks of the lobes.

Fuel pumping apparatus

An engine position transducer device includes first and second discs adapted to be coupled to a rotary part of an engine. The first disc has a plurality of vanes equal in number to the number of engine cylinders. The leading edges of the vanes are equi-angularly spaced about the axis of the disc but the trailing edges are arranged so that each vane has a different length. The disc has a larger number of equally spaced marks 14. Transducers are associated with the discs and a signal processing device is provided which counts the number of marks on the second disc which pass the associated transducer while a vane on the first disc is passing the associated disc. The processing device contains stored information and can compare the count values with the stored information to provide a recognition signal. In addition the processing device is able to determine whether or not the engine is rotating in the correct direction.

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Cheltenham, United Kingdom

John H Francis