Appeal No. 2002-1853 Page 3
Application No. 09/340,339
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to
the appellants’ specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellants and the examiner. As a consequence
of our review, we make the determinations which follow.
The objective of the appellants’ invention is to place the fuel injector in a fuel
injection type internal combustion engine in a location where the fuel is not directed at
the spark plug, so that spark plug wetting and fouling is prevented (specification, pages
1 and 2). Claim 1, the sole independent claim, sets forth the invention in the following
manner:
1. A cylinder head arrangement for an internal combustion engine and
combustion chamber configuration therefore, said arrangement
comprising a cylinder head, cylinder block assembly comprised of a
cylinder bore closed at one end by a dome shaped continuous
surface of said cylinder head to define a combustion chamber
along with a piston that reciprocates in said cylinder bore, at least a
pair of intake valve seats formed in said cylinder head combustion
chamber dome shaped continuous surface on one side of a plane
containing the axis of said cylinder bore, at least a pair of exhaust
valve seats are formed in said cylinder head combustion chamber
dome shaped continuous surface on the other side of said plane, a
spark plug and a fuel injector mounted in said cylinder head and
projecting through said combustion chamber dome shaped
continuous surface and in open communication with said
combustion chamber, said spark plug being positioned in a location
so that its spark gap is disposed vertically above a discharge
nozzle of said fuel injector and away from the path of fuel injected
therefrom for insuring that fuel sprayed from said fuel injector will
be directed away rather than toward said spark plug gap.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007