The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 22, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 19, 2001
Gopichandra Surnilla, West Bloomfield, MI (US);
David George Farmer, Plymouth, MI (US);
Ford Global Technologies, Inc., Dearborn, MI (US);
Abstract
An exhaust gas treatment system for an internal combustion engine includes a pair of upstream emission control devices which respectively receive the exhaust gas generated by a respective group of cylinders, and a single, shared downstream emission control device receiving catalyzed exhaust gas from each of the upstream emission control devices. After the downstream device stores a selected constituent gas generated when each cylinder group is operating “lean,” the downstream device is purged by operating the first cylinder group with a stoichiometric air-fuel mixture while operating the second cylinder group with a rich air-fuel mixture, such that the combined catalyzed exhaust gas flowing through the downstream device during the purge event has an air-fuel ratio slightly rich of stoichiometry. As a result, the invention improves overall vehicle fuel economy because only one of the upstream devices is purged of stored oxygen when purging the downstream device of previously-stored constituent gas.