Inventions free: antiaquaplanning, jet brakes, may be more

[Adam_23]

System Moses
by Adam Kleiner

This is an invention I want to give free to the whole world.

The problem I hope to solve is aquaplaning. The solution is to deliver compressed air with nozzles onto the road just in front of each tire (=tyre). Let me name this "system Moses" ("Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided.", Exodus 14:21-22).

The following versions of this solution are possible:
1. The air is delivered continuously (provided the driver has enabled the system Moses).
2. The air is delivered when either the brake is used or the steering wheel is turned; the angle threshold of the steering wheel should depend on current speed (provided the driver has enabled the system Moses).
3. Like in options 1 or 2 above, but provided some automatic detector finds out that there is a layer of water on the road (I have no idea how to make such a detector).
4. The system Moses should automatically enable when the windscreen (=windshield) wipers are turned on. A voice suggestion could be said to disable Moses if the driver does not want it work (if he did, and later he increases the frequency of wipers, Moses should enable again). The same suggestion should be said periodically, if we have not a water detector. Moses should not automatically disable when the wipers are set off, as after the end of rain the streets can still be covered with water.

The nozzles should be automatically moved up when the car moves at a low speed, to avoid destroying them in off-road circumstances or riding onto a kerbside. Of course this should temporarily disable delivery of air. The driver should be warned in the instructions manual, that if it happens to get on a tall obstacle with a high speed, the nozzles should be inspected by a serviceman to determine whether they were damaged.

The compressor should be connected to the main engine with an electromagnetic clutch, which would disjoin when the compressed air container has a satisfactory pressure. Thus the system would not require a superfluous amount of the fuel.

If I will not receive info (preferably a reply on this forum) that somebody is producing such devices, I will assume this invention should be considered mine. In this case I am granting to everybody a free license to use this invention, provided I will be informed about that (my address: Adam Kleiner, ul. Jaworowa 3, 30-327 Krakow, Poland). Since the time this post appeared, I believe nobody can patent the same invention. If one does, I believe the patent will be invalid in the sense that the patent owner will not be authorized to demand money for using this invention.

Adam Kleiner
e-mail: [e-mail]
or [e-mail]

ul. Jaworowa 3
30-327 Kraków (Cracow)
Poland

P.S. If other inventors would like to give their inventions free to the whole world, please put them in this thread. If this idea gets popular, the forum maintainers could create a chapter of the forum for this purpose.

[Adam_23]

Jet brakes
by Adam Kleiner

To ensure good emergency braking of a car I propose four jet engines with nozzles oriented skew: up and forward. The force oriented down will improve friction between wheels and the road (this force should split evenly amongst all wheels), thus helping braking (with classic brakes) and steering.

The engines should be located at both sides of the rear window and at the lower corners of the front window.

The engines should either use the car fuel and some oxidizer (the surrounding air will not do) or a solid fuel with oxidizer. In the latter case, the fuel with oxidizer should be divided into portions burning in e.g. 1/4 second intervals, each portion launched by the board computer until the car stops or until a crash happens, whichever comes earlier. A radar can detect a crash even before it happens. This can be a non-directional radar - this is enough to find out, that an object is in a small distance and the distance decreases rapidly. At this moment the computer assumes the crash must happen and stops launching portions of the jet solid fuel (or stops delivering liquid fuel and oxidizer). Thus we avoid danger of explosion of the fuel which might leave off the tank (of our car or another) upon the crash. I think 1/4 second is a period so small, that the vapour of the fuel leaving the tank will not reach the nozzles neighborhood. The probability of explosion still is > 0, but I think the advantage overrides the risk. Belts and airbags also in rare cases cause danger, but in most cases they save lives. Car itself is also an invention that causes danger, but we don't give up with using cars.

There is still a danger of burning a tree, whose branches are low above the car roof, but this is acceptable to burn a part of a tree to avoid killing passengers of our car or the other one. Besides, the fire zone moves fast, so probably only leaves would be burnt, not the branches.

This is discussable, when to launch the engines. The first idea is to do so when the brake pedal is depressed deep enough. But if there were another way of launching, the system could improve steering in the case we do not want to brake. However this is a rare case that we just want to improve steering, without previous braking. And the driver should not be keen on using such a "steering boost": once jet engines were used,
a) they must be replaced with new ones (in the case of solid fuel engines), or
b) the oxidizer container must be refilled (in the case of liquid fuel engines).
This should not be considered a disadvantage of the system: we have airbags, which must be replaced if used; also this is recommended to replace seat belts after a crash, even they seem intact.

The force oriented downwards should be of approximately twice the heaviness of the car. Thus the car suspension should be projected so that it could handle such force and not let the tires (=tyres) touch the wheel housings. The brakes and the suspension should also do well with the increased braking force.

Such vertical force (twice the heaviness of the car) could be obtained if each of the engines would generate 9 kN. I hope this is possible for small size engines; for comparison: the engine of F16 generates 130 kN; V2 rocket (of Hitler army) had 245 kN.

If I will not receive info (preferably a reply on this forum) that somebody is producing such devices, I will assume this invention should be considered mine. In this case I am granting to everybody a free license to use this invention, provided I will be informed about that (my address: Adam Kleiner, ul. Jaworowa 3, 30-327 Krakow, Poland). Since the time this post appeared, I believe nobody can patent the same invention. If one does, I believe the patent will be invalid in the sense that the patent owner will not be authorized to demand money for using this invention.

Adam Kleiner
e-mail: [e-mail]
or [e-mail]

ul. Jaworowa 3
30-327 Kraków (Cracow)
Poland

[Adam_23]

Kawasicki said:

How much air and at what pressure will it need to be delivered to clear sufficient water from in front of the tyres? I'd imagine the power requirements for your safety system will be pretty massive.

Well, I am not an engineer and I cannot calculate the pressure and the amount of air. But aquaplanning is very dangerous, so the prevention would be worth a massive power consumption. Perhaps the simplest option (continuous activity) is not reasonable, but other options should be worth.

[Adam_23]

mmm-five said:

For all we know, there may be a patent for a similar system already, but you'd have carry out an international patent search.

You were right, the pattent application PCT/EG2007/000041 was found for "jet brakes". Thank you for providing a link to patentscope, I didn't know about it.

[Adam_23]

Mr2Mike said:

A powerful air jet directed downwards would provide additional lift at precisely the moment you don't want it...

Well, you are right. My friend performed a calculation for me - the air stream should impose a force of about 645 N per a wheel if the car is driving at 20 m/s (=72 km/h) through a 1 cm deep water. This times four wheels gives the force 2580 N what is about 1/4 of the car weigth. But I think the upward jet force of this value reduces the friction by a less percent than the aquaplanning.