Caterpillar Inc congratulates its employees, Jim Weber and Scott Leman, who were named National Inventors of the Year for 2004 by the Intellectual Property Owners Association. Weber and Leman were team members of the extended group of Cat employees who created the company's ACERT (Advanced Combustion Emissions Reduction Technology), which reduces Cat diesel engine emissions. The company has reduced on-highway diesel emissions in trucks and buses by nearly 90% since 1988 and will reduce those emissions another 90% by 2007 with ACERT.
Weber and Leman invented a new air management system combined with precise valve control to reduce emissions at the point of combustion rather than downstream in the exhaust. An advanced air system with series turbochargers and a variable-valve actuation device precisely provides the optimal quantity of cool, clean air into the combustion chamber at various engine speeds and loads, thereby enabling more complete combustion and superior fuel economy.