Sorry, all giddy. Been rejected off and on for six years now, one finally went through (not even my best idea). Not a new idea either exactly, but an implementation that is extremely efficient (in a pass car).

Patent 6,796,134

And no, it isn't the same as Ford's supercool thingy - it's way better.

so how many more patents do ya need to tie dr. seal?? hehe

congrats

Well, I'm about ten years into my career - so I'd have to what, quintuple my output?

John,

What is the range of efficiency for such a device? I think there are several folks who have thought of this idea, I can't believe your the first to put a patent on it! Is there some reason why?

Furthermore... if this process works well enough for turbocharged engines, could it also be useful for N/A engines? Sure, intercoolers don't make a lick of sense on a car w/o boost, but if instead they use a cooled liquid supplied by an air conditioner it just might be useful.

Your thoughts?

-Chris

Chris,

As I said, it isn't a new idea in general. However, the implementation is efficient in a passenger car with air-conditioning already installed. This is due to the extreme inexpensiveness of AC evaporator cores and the transient nature of boost in passenger car. Effectively an intercooler is more of a heat sink than a heat exchanger (unless you race on the Mulsanne Straight), so vehicle inertia can be recovered to power the refrigerant compressor. A high thermal mass reservoir (glycol-water coolant) can be kept near ambient with very littler power draw - and there is where the efficiency comes in. The installation of a air-air heat exchanger reduces the effectiveness of the other heat exchangers behind it, and usually requires some high-loss ducts to route air to and from the engine. Benefits in a naturally aspirated engine (for drag racing your daily driver) would be there as air density increase is air density increase - if limited due to the refrigerant doesn't ever get below freezing (due the nature of the expansion valve), so delta improvement drops as ambient temperature drops.

Hope this answers your question.

Congrats man!! I actually applied for one last semester on coop with my boss on an idea we had for adhesive application using inkjet technology. Havent heard if we have been awarded it yet but I will keep my fingers crossed.

how much time / $$ did you have to put into getting that patent? I've heard a lot of times its not even worth it because of simply the cost of applying vs. the likelyhood you'll actualy be able to lisence that idea?

i'm not making a comment on your idea, just trying to gain insight into the process.

Congratulations
-Anton Maes
Purdue FSAE

hey there john -
I'm happy for you and your patent - and had a few questions - I'm thinking about patenting a suspension design of mine that I think hasn't been patented or thought of before - I did a search on the patent database and it didnt come up with anything. Did you have a lawyer help you with the application or did you do it yourself? how much did it cost?
thanks!
-Jon

Anton -

Fortunately I have a lawyer at work whose whole job is pursuing patents. I pitch the idea (with initial research), and he does research to see whether it is worth pursuing. The lawyer probably invested 20-40 hours on each patent, and typically the application and review process takes 1-2 years in dealing with the US Patent office. The costs of submission, granting and keeping a patent are outlined on the US Patent Office web page. The other thing to keep in mind is (at least in the automotive industry), most patents are a form of deterence. Ie don't sue us over our sliding passenger doors, and we wont sue you over cupholders (that one is actually true). Finally, just because you hold the patent doesn't mean you can make something without a license - because lots of pre-existing patents cover some part of your patent. I had to have an experienced patent lawyer explain all this to me.

Jon -

Be careful with your searches. I didn't find anything, but my lawyer found out all sorts of competing patents. The key if you want to pursue it is be able to answer 'no' to any question 'does my device do what is in the claim of the pre-existing patent'. Now that I've been through this process a half dozen times, I think I could do it myself. The first few were hairy though. I can post an application I made a few years back that was rejected (not because of being a bad idea, but rather too similar to an existing patent) if you are interested.