Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Ford Motor Company Limited

Visteon Global Technolgoies, Inc.

Robert J Forbes

Christopher Snow

John G Kilby

Edward William Peters

George Louis Reno, Iv

Narendra Desai

James Richard Rauch

Matthew Jon Edwards

Mark Tuneff

John Fiorini

Systems are disclosed to restrain movement of engine components in the event of a collision. A system may comprise an upper intake manifold; a cam cover; a shear catch located between the upper intake manifold and the cam cover; an upper component of the shear catch is arranged on the upper intake manifold; a lower component of the shear catch is arranged on the cam cover; and the upper component and the lower component are arranged opposite each other such that they engage when the upper intake manifold is subjected to shear forces. Variations to the size, arrangement, and shape of a shear catch are disclosed herein.

Component catch for crash robustness

A throttle body (11) has a through-bore (18), a circular throttle blade (20) of nominal uniform thickness is disposed within the through-bore and on a cylindrical shaft (22). The through-bore has two generally semi-circular ledges (56, 58) spaced upstream and downstream respectively from an imaginary flat plane that contains the shaft axis, each at a distance substantially equal to one-half the blade thickness. One ledge occupies essentially one semi-circumference of the through-bore for sealing with one of the opposite semi-circular perimeters of the throttle blade when the blade is closed, and the other occupies essentially an opposite semi-circumference of the through-bore for sealing with the other semi-circular perimeter of the blade when the blade is closed. The downstream ledge has an upstream facing surface that is flat and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, and the upstream ledge has a downstream facing surface that departs slightly from a planar one that is flat and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis so as to conform the upstream ledge to a like slight departure in shape of the corresponding semi-circular perimeter of the blade due to engine intake vacuum when the blade is closed.

Throttle body module having improved blade to ledge sealing

A combustion engine throttle valve includes a multipiece clamshell throttle body which is divided along an axis of rotation of a throttling member subassembly, which may be placed within the throttle body as one component. The throttle body further includes a face sealing ledge within the throttle body's air conduit, with the ledge being positioned so that the throttle plate will be in contact with the ledge when the plate is in the closed position, and such that the plate pivots perpendicularly off the ledge when opening. The clamshell design permits greater use of lighter plastics in place of metallic components and minimizes the number of parts through incorporation of plastic injection molding techniques.

Clamshell throttle valve assembly

Growing community of inventors

Whitmore Lake, MI, United States of America

Robert J Forbes