Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Stephan Daren Carroll

Don Andreas Josephine Kees

Andy Scarisbrick

John McCulloch

Geoff Dearden

Tom Shenton

Steve Keen

Robert Dodd

Roy Clissold

An internal combustion enginehas a cylinder headslideably supporting one or more poppet valves. At least one of the poppet valvesin each combustion chamber of the enginehas a primary electrodeconnected thereto so as to be electrically insulated from the cylinder head. The primary electrodeforms in combination with one or more secondary electrodesone or more electrode pairs between each of which an electrical discharge is selectively caused to flow so as to initiate combustion in the respective combustion chamber.

Poppet valve for an internal combustion engine

An internal combustion enginehas a cylinder headslideably supporting one or more poppet valves. At least a portion of one of the poppet valvesin each combustion chamber of the engineforms in combination with one or more secondary electrodesa number of electrode pairs between each of which an electrical discharge is selectively caused to flow so as to initiate combustion in the respective combustion chamber. The electrode pairs may be formed at differing locations within each combustion chamber so as to improve combustion efficiency.

Internal combustion engine

A distributor is described for a multi-cylinder laser ignited internal combustion engine. The distributor includes a shaft rotatable by the engine and a plurality of flat reflective surfaces on the shaft. The surfaces lie in planes normal to the axis of rotation of the shaft and are axially staggered from one another along the length of the shaft. An optical transmitter directs light from a laser source to impinge at an angle sequentially on the reflective surfaces as the shaft rotates, and a plurality of optical receivers spaced from one another each receive the light reflected from a respective one of the mirror surfaces and direct the reflected light to a respective one of the engine cylinders.

Distributor for engine with laser ignition

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Wadhurst, United Kingdom

Stephan Daren Carroll