Engine Starting Diagnosis via Temperature-Correlated Time Tendency

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Solution Overview

Problem

Internal combustion engines in vehicles, especially those under heavy use, face starting failures due to battery exhaustion and mechanical wear, making it difficult to diagnose and prevent these issues in a timely manner, resulting in significant time and financial losses.

Innovation Solution

A diagnostic method that continuously monitors the engine starting time and its tendency, correlating it with temperature, to identify potential wear in components involved in engine starting, and provides alerts to drivers or maintenance personnel through vehicle control units or remote diagnostic tools, focusing on physical and mechanical quantities like starter motoring speed and battery voltage to determine the cause of increased starting time.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If continuous monitoring of starting time and tendency calculation is implemented, then early detection of potential failures is enabled, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveearly detection capabilityVSAvoidmonitoring system complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary monitoring and tendency calculation to detect potential failures before they occur. By continuously tracking starting time and calculating tendencies, the system identifies degradation patterns early, enabling preventive maintenance before actual failures happen, thus resolving the contradiction between early detection capability and system complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The diagnostic system uses the vehicle's existing control unit and available sensors to perform self-diagnosis. The control unit monitors starting time, calculates tendencies, and generates alerts using already-present hardware and software resources, avoiding the need for additional complex monitoring equipment while enabling early failure detection.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Productivity

If continuous monitoring and tendency calculation are performed, then maintenance timing can be optimized, but loss of time for data processing increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemaintenance efficiencyVSAvoiddata processing time
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs tendency calculations periodically based on accumulated starting time data rather than continuously processing every data point. By evaluating tendencies at regular intervals and comparing them against thresholds, the system optimizes maintenance timing while minimizing unnecessary data processing time, resolving the contradiction between maintenance efficiency and processing time loss.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #19Periodic action

3Ease of repair

If the system provides detailed diagnostic information to maintenance personnel, then ease of repair is improved, but loss of information privacy increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvediagnostic information qualityVSAvoidvehicle data privacy
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of repairVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system provides diagnostic information with appropriate granularity - delivering detailed technical data about starting system components to maintenance personnel while maintaining privacy for other vehicle operational data. The alert system selectively shares only the specific diagnostic information needed for repair (starting time deviations, tendency values) without exposing unrelated vehicle information, thus resolving the contradiction between diagnostic quality and information privacy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP2746558B1System for diagnosing the starting of an internal combustion engine
Publication Date: 2019.10.23 IVECO SPA
  • EP2746558B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2746558B1 patent drawingFigure 2

AI summary

A system for diagnosing the starting of an internal combustion engine is described, comprising internal components of the engine and components for managing the engine functionalities, vehicle batteries to supply power to a starter, a fuel injection system; the method comprising a step of detecting and storing (i) the starting time of the internal combustion engine as a discrete function of a temperature, in order to identify homogeneous time between each other with respect to the temperature, and to calculate (ii) a first tendency on said homogeneous time.