INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
QCW's intellectual property portfolio includes
Patents
7,255,290 "Very high speed rate shaping fuel injector"
8,113,179 "Programmable diesel fuel injector"
8,418,676 "Programmable diesel fuel injector"
8,683,982 "Programmable diesel fuel injector"
- Pending: WIPO application PCT/US2011/47253 and Japanese Application 2013-524203 – “Programmable Diesel Fuel Injector”
9,385,300 "Magnetostrictive actuator"
"Diesel Fuel Pressure Detection by Fast Magnetostrictive Actuator" in Germany, Europe, and Great Britain
"Fuel Injection Rate Modulation by Magnetostrictive Actuator and Fluidomechanical Coupler" in Germany, Europe, and Great Britain
Patents Pending
US Application 63/364,580 Dated May 12, 2022, "Fast Non-Ringing Dynamic System Transient"
WO 2023/220669 Published 16 November 2023, "Fast Non-Ringing Dynamic System Transient"
Abstract: A method of control avoids inducing undesired oscillations, harmonics, and ringing during the energization or de-energization of a dynamic system. The same control method can deliberately induce desired oscillations, harmonics, or ringing during the energization or de-energization transients of a dynamic system. The control method accounts for energy inflows and outflows. The free response of the dynamic system is not affected but the forcing function that stimulates the dynamic system can be exactly tailored to suit the desired response throughout the entire duration fo each transient response. Continuous control over the forcing function yields continuous control over the transient response, where undesired dynamics are not stimulated instead of being suppressed.
Publications
SAE Paper 2024-01-5007: Control Law for Fast, Non-Ringing Transients for Direct Injector Needle Actuators and Other Dynamic Systems
Abstract: This paper discloses the simultaneous and interdependent development of an actuator and its novel control law. Magnetostrictive alloy terfenol-d offers high energy density. When packaged properly, quantum mechanics within terfenol-d maintains its performance. The novel control law tames and directs its untapped potential. Therefore, terfenol-d can provide lifetime direct operation of the needle in an injector for a compression-ignition engine, potentially improving emissions, efficiency, fuel flexibility, and combustion noise.
The novel control law yields a custom forcing function for desired boundary conditions such as either non-ringing or deliberately ringing transients for this actuator as well as other non-magnetostrictive dynamic systems. The two key characteristics that enable such a custom forcing function are to 1) use the Bright Principle of modeling all energy terms and 2) setting up a specific polynomial to solve for the desired boundary conditions for a particular dynamic system.
Test data from an actuator aided the development of this general and flexible control law. Implementing the control law, a computer predicts the necessary voltage with respect to time to achieve a set displacement within a defined transient time. A difference in frequency content appears between Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) spectra of non-ringing followed by deliberately ringing displacement data.
