Supercharger system for combustion engine

Claim 1

A supercharger system for a vehicle having an internal combustion engine comprising: a shaft carrying a gas turbine rotor at one axial end and a centrifugal air compressor rotor at the other axial end; a pair of bearings mounting the shaft for rotation in a housing adapted to be attached to the vehicle; the housing having at one axial end a turbine nozzle ring and a turbine exhaust ring cooperable with the turbine rotor, and having at the other axial end an axially located compressor inlet member and a radially located compressor outlet member cooperable with the compressor rotor; the turbine nozzle ring adapted to be connected to the exhaust manifold of the engine and the compressor outlet member adapted to be connected to the intake manifold of the engine thereby supercharging the same; an electrical generator integrally incorporated into the housing for generating electrical power when the shaft is rotating, the generator comprising a generator rotor mounted on the shaft between the bearings, and a generator stator mounted in the housing in cooperative relationship with the generator rotor; and an auxiliary combustion chamber whose output is selectively connectable to the turbine nozzle ring for furnishing combustion gases to the turbine rotor when the engine is idle, an intake valve for selectively connecting the output of the compressor to either the inlet of the combustion chamber when the engine is idle or to the intake manifold of the engine when the latter is running, and an auxiliary compressor for supplying start-up compressed air to the inlet of the combustion chamber until the main compressor produces a sufficient quantity of air to sustain operation of the turbine.