Photo: Ford
Ford has been granted a new patent and it appeared online before the company had a chance to explain it. The patent application is for a system that will generate an artificial engine noise and Ford might use it to make the driver of a car with a downsized engine believe that it has more cylinders.
Furthermore, the system would then be employed to favor early shifting so that each user would choose a more economical driving style.
Unlike existing artificial engine sound systems, Ford’s latest patent speaks of a device and a method to generate engine noise between “two directly successive ignition events.”
This would create a sound in between two cylinders fired for each combustion cycle, thus duping the human ear into believing that the engine has more cylinders.
From what we can understand from Ford’s patent, the system will be operated electronically and will play a “superimposed noise” in the passenger cabin.
It will be adjusted to amplitude and frequency depending on what the actual internal combustion unit is doing. From this point of view, this system is not much different from what current fake engine sound devices provide.
The novelty of Ford’s idea is that the system would only generate sound between actual engine combustion. As some of you know, V8 engines have their particular soundtrack because of the way combustion cycles follow each other, as the file posted on Freeolinepatents explains.
In theory, Ford’s solution could make your ears believe that you have a V6 engine under the hood instead of an inline-three cylinder unit, as is the case with their 1.0-liter EcoBoost unit. At this point, we must note that all automakers patent ideas which might not make it into production. So the American automaker’s latest artificial sound system may be installed into a production car in a few years’ time, but there is also a possibility that the automaker will never use it.
As Ford previously disclosed, they trademark thousands of ideas, parts, and concepts every year, but they do not employ all of them in actual projects. In the case of this particular patent, we expect the company to launch it in production in the coming years.
Unlike existing artificial engine sound systems, Ford’s latest patent speaks of a device and a method to generate engine noise between “two directly successive ignition events.”
This would create a sound in between two cylinders fired for each combustion cycle, thus duping the human ear into believing that the engine has more cylinders.
From what we can understand from Ford’s patent, the system will be operated electronically and will play a “superimposed noise” in the passenger cabin.
It will be adjusted to amplitude and frequency depending on what the actual internal combustion unit is doing. From this point of view, this system is not much different from what current fake engine sound devices provide.
The novelty of Ford’s idea is that the system would only generate sound between actual engine combustion. As some of you know, V8 engines have their particular soundtrack because of the way combustion cycles follow each other, as the file posted on Freeolinepatents explains.
In theory, Ford’s solution could make your ears believe that you have a V6 engine under the hood instead of an inline-three cylinder unit, as is the case with their 1.0-liter EcoBoost unit. At this point, we must note that all automakers patent ideas which might not make it into production. So the American automaker’s latest artificial sound system may be installed into a production car in a few years’ time, but there is also a possibility that the automaker will never use it.
As Ford previously disclosed, they trademark thousands of ideas, parts, and concepts every year, but they do not employ all of them in actual projects. In the case of this particular patent, we expect the company to launch it in production in the coming years.
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