MOTORCYCLE ENGINE COOLING SYSTEM

Abstract

A cooling system of an internal combustion engine of a motorcycle, which has a suction side guard (4), enables a high ratio between the open surface of the guard and its overall surface, ensuring an improved penetration of the air through the radiator and thus avoiding oversizing of the suction fan, wherein: said guard (4), having a lower edge (6), an upper edge (7), a front edge (8) and a rear edge (9) with respect to a running direction (F) of the vehicle, has a grate mesh structure extending on a plane whereby a deviation space (12) of motion of the air sucked by the fan is defined behind the guard (4); said grate mesh structure being surrounded by a rib (13) having, at the front edge (8), a lower height than that at the rear edge (9).

Claims

1. A cooling system of an internal combustion engine of a motorcycle, the cooling system comprising: a guard, arranged on a side of the motorcycle and receiving a substantially tangential air flow, deriving from a forward motion of the motorcycle, sucked by a fan, said guard comprising a lower edge, an upper edge, a front edge and a rear edge with respect to a forward running direction of the motorcycle, said guard further comprising a grate mesh structure extending on a plane to determine, behind the guard, a deviation space in which the tangential air flow sucked by the fan through the guard is deviated, said grate mesh structure of the guard being surrounded by a rib, the rib having a height at the front edge that is lower than a height thereof at the rear edge, said height being measured with respect to the plane of a grate.

2. A cooling system according to claim 1, wherein grate meshes are formed in a grate provided in a single piece, with bars of the grate having a uniform cross section, with an outer face rounded, said bars having a determined thickness, whereby a radiator view from tilted angles is obstructed.

3. A cooling system according to claim 2, wherein said grate mesh structure is a honeycomb-like structure.

4. A cooling system according to claim 3, wherein said honeycomb-like structure has a ratio between a total surface thereof and a perforated surface thereof, the ratio being from 1.8 mm to 1.2 mm, and the honeycomb-like structure has a thickness greater than or equal to 1.5 mm.

5. A cooling system according to claim 4, wherein the honeycomb-like structure comprises a regular hexagon pattern, with opposite vertices facing downward and upward, and parallel sides arranged to right and left of each hexagon, which completely fill a grate surface.

6. A cooling system according to claim 1, wherein said determined thickness is greater than 2.0 mm.

7. A cooling system according to claim 1, wherein a ratio between a grate total surface and a grate perforated surface thereof is from 1.65 mm to 1.4 mm.

8. A cooling system according to claim 1, wherein said guard extends on a tilted plane such a way that the front edge is lowered with respect to the rear edge.

9. A cooling system according to claim 1, wherein the cooling system is operated with water circulating in a radiator interposed between the guard and the fan on a plane parallel to development of the radiator, the deviation space being formed between the guard and the radiator.

10. A cooling system (1) according to claim 9, wherein the deviation space is delimited by walls protruding internally from the guard and the walls are connected with the radiator, whereby the space deviation is thereby closed, and the air is forced to pass through the radiator.

11. A cooling system according to claim 8, wherein the deviation space is delimited by walls protruding internally from the guard and the walls are connected with a radiator, whereby the space deviation is thereby closed, and the air is forced to pass through the radiator, wherein the height of the rib at the front edge stands out of a plane on which the guard extends.

12. A cooling system according to claim 9, wherein the radiator has a top manifold provided with a cap, the guard having a top covering portion which overlaps the top manifold and the cap, hiding the top manifold and the cap completely.

13. A cooling system according to claim 1, wherein the fan is enclosed in a casing having a central opening that corresponds to an opposite face of the radiator with respect to the guard.

14. A cooling system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fan is directly keyed on an extension of a motor shaft.

15. A motorcycle, comprising: a drive unit disposed beneath a saddle, inside a chassis extending from at least one front wheel, steered by a handlebar to at least one rear wheel defining a forward motion direction which corresponds to the forward motion of the vehicle; and a cooling system comprising a guard arranged on a side of the motorcycle and the guard receiving a substantially tangential air flow, resulting from the forward motion of the motorcycle, sucked by a fan, said guard having a lower edge, an upper edge, a front edge and a rear edge with respect to the forward motion direction of the motorcycle, the guard comprising a grate mesh structure extending on a plane to determine, behind the guard, a deviation space in which the air flow sucked by the fan through the guard is deviated, the grate mesh structure of the guard being surrounded by a rib having a lower height at the front edge than a height thereof at the rear edge, the height being measured with respect to the plane of a grate.

16. A motorcycle according to claim 15, wherein grate meshes are formed in a grate provided in a single piece, with bars of the grate having a uniform cross section, with an outer face rounded, said bars having a determined thickness, whereby a radiator view from tilted angles is obstructed.

17. A motorcycle according to claim 16, wherein said grate mesh structure is a honeycomb-like structure.

18. A motorcycle according to claim 17, wherein said honeycomb-like structure has a ratio between a total surface thereof and a perforated surface thereof, the ratio being from 1.2 mm to 1.8 mm, and the honeycomb-like structure has a thickness greater than or equal to 1.5 mm.

19. A motorcycle according to claim 18, wherein the honeycomb-like structure comprises a regular hexagon pattern, with opposite vertices facing downward and upward, and parallel sides arranged to right and left of each hexagon, which completely fill a grate surface.

20. A motorcycle according to claim 15, wherein said determined thickness is greater than 2.0 mm.

Description

[0025] The present invention will be described hereinafter according to a preferred embodiment thereof, provided for exemplifying and not limiting purposes with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

[0026] FIG. 1 shows a side view of a propulsion unit of a motorcycle, limited to the engine cooling system thereof, according to the present invention;

[0027] FIG. 2 shows a section view of the assembly guard-radiator-fan box, according to the vertical plane A-A of FIG. 1;

[0028] FIG. 3 shows a section view of the assembly guard-radiator-fan box, according to the horizontal plane B-B of FIG. 1;

[0029] FIG. 4 shows a side view of a motorcycle, in particular a scooter, incorporating the propulsion unit of FIG. 1 with the guard of the preceding figures; and

[0030] FIGS. 4A and 4B show frontally two different embodiments of the guard of the cooling system according to the invention, with a respective magnification of their mesh pattern.

[0031] With reference to FIG. 4, a motorcycle, and in particular a scooter, is indicated in its entirety with 100. The invention relates to the field of saddle-vehicles in general, with two, three or four wheels, with particular reference to the scooter having a propulsion unit disposed under a saddle 101, inside a chassis 102 which is here laterally shown, extending from a front wheel 103 steered by a handlebar 104 to a driving rear wheel 105.

[0032] The propulsion unit 106 is of the type having one or more cylinders arranged in an inclined position roughly in the median plane of the vehicle which corresponds to the plane of rotation of the two wheels during straight forward motion. In the figures is shown a forward direction F of the vehicle 100 corresponding to the forward motion thereof.

[0033] The propulsion unit motor has a single engine block which, in this embodiment, accommodates a cylinder and a relative piston.

[0034] The piston acting in said cylinder is connected to an engine crankshaft positioned transversely and perpendicular to said median plane. On one side not shown of the scooter 100, there are provided motion transmission devices from the crankshaft to the rear wheel shaft 105.

[0035] On the shown side, the scooter 100 has a cooling system, indicated as a whole with 1 (FIG. 1) of the propulsion unit which in turn includes the internal combustion engine which may be of the air-cooled or water-cooled type, water-cooled in the present embodiment, wherein a cooling fan is driven by the crankshaft facing a radiator protected by a guard arranged on one side of the motorcycle and receiving a substantially tangential air flow from the motorcycle forward motion.

[0036] In the present example of cooling system, a cooling fan (not shown) is directly keyed to the crankshaft, facing a radiator 3 which is protected by a guard 4 which receives a substantially tangential air flow deriving from the forward motion of the motorcycle.

[0037] The direct keying of fan produce a particular case of fan which is driven in rotation by the crankshaft, with a regime not independent from the engine rotation speed itself.

[0038] In particular, in the present embodiment, on said crankshaft both the fan, providing to draw air through the radiator 3, and an electric motor-generator (not shown), providing the charging of an electric battery, switching on the internal combustion engine and, where appropriate, to deliver driving power when the motorcycle is of the type with so-called hybrid propulsion.

[0039] Electric motor, fan, radiator and relative guard are then arranged at one end of the crankshaft, at the same side of the engine; the opposite end of the motor shaft is therefore connected to the members of the previously mentioned transmission.

[0040] The radiator 3 has a box-like structure between two parallel planes and the median plane of the vehicle, and the fan is also lying and rotating on a plane substantially parallel thereto, so that the intake air stream must be deviated by about 90 compared to the tangential flow that the vehicle produces as a result of the forward motion thereof.

[0041] The fan is encased in a casing 5, which is arranged between the radiator 3 and the electric motor: this casing has a large central opening corresponding to the radiator face 3 opposite to that facing towards the guard 4 (FIG. 1). It also comprises side walls that define a suction channel which is interrupted at a gap having a plurality of fins 20 and which realizes the output of radial air discharge, being the fan of centrifugal kind.

[0042] It should be noted that what outlined above may be related to both a scooter with a front steering wheel and an unmovable rear wheel as well as a three-wheel scooter with a pair of tilting front wheels and an unmovable rear wheel. However, in the motorcycle it may also be provided a double rear wheel in a solution that is not described here but which may include the cooling system described herein.

[0043] Focusing on the cooling system, said guard 4 has a lower retaining edge 6, a top fastening edge 7, a front fixing edge 8 and a fastening rear edge 9; they have respective fixing holes 10 intended to be engaged by screws. The above mentioned edges are bent to form, with the exposed face of the guard, an open container which is assembled at the radiator 3, to which the concavity of the guard 4 is oriented.

[0044] In the present description, front, rear, bottom and top are terms that refer to the location of the edges with respect to the vehicle, i.e. with respect to said forward direction F.

[0045] In the cooling system according to the invention, the guard 4 comprises a grate mesh structure, regularly distributed according to a predetermined pattern. In the present embodiment, this pattern is of the honeycomb kind, which is composed of a pattern of regular hexagons, with opposite vertices facing downwards and upwards and parallel sides disposed to the right and to the left of each hexagon, which fully fill the guard surface.

[0046] It is understood that hexagons could be rotated by 90 rather than what is described, or they have yet another different inclination; they may be irregular or, in particular, flattened in the direction of height to decrease the height of each mesh.

[0047] In addition, hexagons could be replaced by several geometric shapes (squares, diamonds, etc.).

[0048] The aforementioned grate meshes are defined by a grate provided in a single piece, with bars 11 of the grate having a uniform cross section, with a rounded outer face.

[0049] These guard bars 11 have a determined thickness, having a determined thickness, whereby the radiator view from tilted angles is obstructed. In particular, the thickness is greater than 1.5 mm, preferably greater than 2 mm.

[0050] The honeycomb grate mesh structure also has a ratio between the total surface thereof and the perforated surface thereof is from 1.8 mm to 1.2 mm, preferably from 1.65 mm to 1.4 mm.

[0051] In addition, the distance between two opposite and facing sides of the hexagon is between 7 and 12 mm.

[0052] Referring to FIGS. 4A and 4B, two different versions of honeycomb grate are shown.

[0053] In the first version (FIG. 4A), each mesh has an overall surface X of 89.2 mm.sup.2, while the effective passage area Y is 54.8 mm.sup.2. This results in a ratio between the overall surface and perforated surface of the grate X/Y of 1.63. The key of each hexagon, i.e. the distance between two opposing sides of the hexagon is 8.0 mm.

[0054] The covering effect of this guard is also determined by its thickness which is, in this version, 2.25 mm.

[0055] In the second version (FIG. 4B), each mesh has a total area X of 156.6 mm.sup.2, while the actual air passage area Y is 109.4 mm.sup.2. This results in a ratio between the total surface and the perforated surface of the grate of 1.43. The key of each hexagon, i.e. the distance between two opposite and facing sides of the hexagon is 11.5 mm.

[0056] The covering effect of this guard is also determined by its thickness which is, as in the previous version, 2.25 mm.

[0057] The main advantage of the cooling system according to the present invention lies in allowing an effective shielding of the portion of propulsion unit covered by the guard itself, looking from its non-perpendicular directions, particularly from the top to the bottom.

[0058] The guard 4 extends on a tilted plane in such a way that the front edge 8 is lowered with respect to the rear edge 9, so as to determine between the grill and the radiator a deviation space 12 wherein the air flow sucked by the fan is deflected of about 90.

[0059] This deviation space is delimited by walls 16 projecting internally from the guard 4 and connected with the radiator 4, so that the deviation space 12 is closed by it and the air is thus forced to pass through the radiator 4.

[0060] In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the guard 4 is surrounded by a rib 13 having, at the front edge 8, a height H.sub.1 less than a height H.sub.2 in correspondence with the rear edge 9. The heights H.sub.1 and H.sub.2 are measured with respect to the grate plane. However, the height of the rib in correspondence of the front edge 8 exceeds the plane on which extends the guard 4. This rib 13 deflects dirt and impurities that may be raised by the front wheel of the motorcycle or by other vehicles that move in front of the motorcycle.

[0061] Note that the grate plan is defined by the guard mesh structure 4, structure which is then planar, parallel to the forward direction F, and those heights are measured with respect to the outer surface of this plan.

[0062] In particular, as best shown in FIG. 3, the rear edge creates an obstacle to air flow. The flow hits the rear edge higher and create a countercurrent flow, which generates a turbulence effect capable of increasing the intake of air that enters through the guard.

[0063] In this way, on the surface of the grate, a limited area of calm is created from which dirt and impurities are not present, from which air is sucked.

[0064] The radiator 3 has a lower manifold 41, which substantially corresponds to said lower clamping edge 6, and a top collector 42 provided with a plug 43.

[0065] In the present example, the guard 4 has a closed top portion 14 which overlaps the upper manifold 42 and the cap 43 of the radiator 3 hiding it completely.

[0066] This arrangement prevents accidental opening of the cap 43, as well as any break-in, and prevents that these parts, which are made of metal and they have a high operating temperature, scorch driver or passenger.

[0067] As noted above, the radiator 3 has a box shape having a surface exposed to the air flow directed through said guard 4, the surface being substantially vertical and inclined with respect to the forward direction F of the motorcycle.

[0068] To the above described cooling system a person skilled in the art, in order to satisfy further and contingent needs, may carry out several further modifications and variants, all however comprised within the scope of protection of the present invention, as defined by the appended claims.