US Patent Issued to Caterpillar on July 15 for "Extended-life prechamber sparkplug for engine system and engine system operating method" (Indiana, Texas, Washington Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,359,609, issued on July 15, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).

"Extended-life prechamber sparkplug for engine system and engine system operating method" was invented by James Jay Cress (West Lafayette, Ind.), Andrew G. Hockett (Austin, Texas) and Sean J. Moser (Bellingham, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A prechamber sparkplug includes a sparkplug housing forming a prechamber, and an electrode within the prechamber and defining a spark gap with the sparkplug housing. The prechamber sparkplug further includes a valvular element such as a check, a valve, or a tesla valve, structured to preferentially permit ejection of f...