Air assisted fuel atomizer

Claim 1

A delivery system for providing an atomized air/fuel mixture to the intake manifold of an internal combustion engine comprising: a throttle body connected to the intake manifold having a primary air passageway therethrough providing an air flow path from an external source to the intake manifold; throttle valve means disposed in said throttle body for controlling the air flow through said primary air passageway in response to operator commands; means for generating signals having a value indicative of the engine's fuel requirement; fuel delivery means for delivering a quantity of fuel in response to said signals, said fuel delivery means including at least one fuel control valve having an input port receiving fuel under pressure from an external source and an output port outputting said quantity of fuel; atomizer means disposed in said air passageway downstream of said throttle valve means, said means comprising an air chamber having a cylindrical inner surface, a secondary air passageway conducting air from said primary air passageway upstream of said throttle valve means to said air chamber tangential to said cylindrical surface, an orifice concentric with said air chamber restricting the air flow through the said air chamber, a generally circular fuel swirl chamber disposed adjacent to said orifice, connecting means connecting the output port of said fuel control valve with said fuel swirl chamber for injecting said quantity of fuel into said fuel swirl chamber tangential to the inner surface of said fuel swirl chamber to form a fuel ring therein, and an exit port conducting the air received by said air chamber and the fuel injected into said fuel swirl chamber back into said air passageway downstream of said atomizer means.