Hmmm, strangely familiar...

[86rocco]

Google lets you search US patents and I was playing around with that a bit and came across

[Tony]

I always thought you could not patent something that was already in the public domain ???

It is not as though the flow bench principle was only discovered in 1998. What am I missing here ?

[86rocco]

That's what I thought to, I didn't see anything new or even innovative there.

[rusty105]

It was originally filled in 1996. What is the limitations on patents? I do not believe they last forever.

Anyway.... this critical flow venturi they talk of. Do other benches use it?? They also mention 'relative' flow, as in comparing one part to another, did they mention if you can calculate the absolute flow????

[1960flh]

[color=#000000]It is my understanding (had to do abstract research in engineering school) that if it is a patent for a new device it is good in the country of origin for a max of 17yrs then can be updated with validation (change or updates to) for an additional 7 years. If it is a modification to an existing patented item (I improve on Bruce

[1960flh]

[color=#000000]Update on this topic,

I met the father son team of Criswell at the Cincinnati V-Twin Expo this past weekend and spent about 45 minutes talking to them about there product and the Quote Venturi flow bench. They run a contract machine shop and won the patent over a design to measure gas flow through natural gas pipe line. They also own a company that manufactures commercial flow benches but for the life of me I can

[Tony]

If I was trying to think of a state of the art internal combustion engine, it would certainly not be a Harley.

[1960flh]

Tony;

What i like the most here is the methodology used in his comparison? Stock vs modified aftermarket ???? 9.9HP all for $3800.00 US at Dealer.

Rick

[bruce]

He lacks alot of details, for $3800 I'd wanna know alot more? What effect does the cylinder shrouding have on flow? Looking at the pics its maybe 10-20% of the valve flow is being shrouded? Isn't the idea to get the flow around the whole valve?

[Thomas Vaught]

Ed,

I saw the same patent about a week ago on a search for some flow bench info and said the same thing. "What is the deal with this?" The examinator obviously did not have a clue on what she was looking at.

JMO

Tom V.

[1960flh]

Bruce,

The funny part is that Harley's have many issues in their design but the worst is intake runner lenght about 6" when it need 14 to 17. His head design adds another 3-4 and uses as smaller intake runner to up the velocity. I have put a 2" spacer and a velocity stack on a stock bike and have seen the dyno numbers go up???? So who knows what he is selling.

Tom;

First I hope at some point you will get ot see this head up close as he claimed to be working with Ford on it. As for his patent he was all about the Venturi Flow bench Bla Bla BLa, that all the rest were inacurate. I came home and read the patent again and only can figure he is using a venturi to measure gas speed in a given tube size similar to a pitot, but still strugling to grasp it.

Have a nice week end guy's, gotta go cut fire wood to heat the shop.

Rick

[Thomas Vaught]

Rick,

While Ford Bench is also a venturi bench, (We had it a good while before he wrote his patent application), I think then venturi bench deal is just another way to "skin the cat" IMO.

Well if his deal shows up it will come eventually to Ford Research and I will see it.

Sad deal is that Jim Fueling patented a 3 valve head design some years ago that was originally INVENTED
by Mr Ricardo many years earlier but he still got the updated patent. 17 years is the rule.

Tom V.