Internal-combustion engines – Charge forming device – Fuel injection system
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-13
2002-07-16
Moulis, Thomas N. (Department: 3747)
Internal-combustion engines
Charge forming device
Fuel injection system
C123S456000, C123S470000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06418911
DESCRIPTION:
Referring to FIG. 1 , a high-pressure fuel injector 10 is connected to a fluid rail 40 . For the sake of illustration simplicity, only one injector 10 is shown. Of course, more than one injector 10 can be mounted on an engine cylinder head (not shown) and connected to the fluid rail 40 . The injector 10 has an inlet port 20 and the fluid rail 40 has an outlet port 50 . The fluid rail 40 is connected to the injector 10 inlet port 20 by a connector tube 30 that provides fluid communication between the rail 40 and the injector 10 .
Referring also to FIG. 2 , the connector tube 30 , which extends along an axis A—A, is hollow to allow a fluid 31 to communicate between the outlet port 50 and the injector inlet port 20 . Preferably, the fluid 31 can be a substantially incompressible hydraulic fluid. An exterior surface of the connector tube 30 includes projections 34 at each end. The projections 34 define a shoulder 34 a that extends substantially transversely with respect to the axis A—A to a peak 34 b . The diameter of the peaks 34 b are slightly smaller than the respective inlet port 20 and outlet port 50 . According to a first embodiment, the projections taper inwardly toward one another such that the projections 34 have a generally triangular cross-section. An axial intermediate portion 30 a , i.e., between the projections 34 , of the connector tube 30 can have a greater wall thickness than the axial end portions 30 b of the connector tube 30 .
Disposed around the connector tube 30 and abutting each of the shoulders 34 a is a respective O-rings 22 . One or both of the O-rings 22 can also be disposed in an annular groove (not shown) formed in the axial end portion 30 b of the connector tube 30 .
The inlet port 20 and the outlet port 50 can have respective conical portions 25 and 55 to facilitate assembly of the connector tube 30 with the injector 10 and the fluid rail 40 . The outer diameters of the axial end portions 34 b are smaller than the inner diameters of the inlet port 20 and the outlet port 50 in order to allow canting of the connector tube 30 with respect to the injector 10 and the fluid rail 40 . That is to say, if the central axes of the inlet port 20 and the outlet port 50 , which are ideally aligned collinearly, become laterally displaced with respect to one another, the canting of the connector tube 30 accommodates this misalignment. The relative difference in the diameters and the length of the axial end portions 34 b determine the amount of misalignment that the connector tube 30 can accommodate.
The axial length of the connector tube 30 is less than the distance between the bottoms of the inlet port 20 and the outlet port 50 . This relative difference enables the connector tube 30 to be displaced axially with respect to the inlet port 20 and the outlet port 50 . The axial position of the connector tube 30 with respect to the injector 10 and the fluid rail 40 can be fixed if the diameters of the inlet port 20 and the outlet port 50 are substantially equal. That is to say, there will be a pressure balance that tends to maintain the axial position of the connector tube 30 if the portions of the inlet port 20 and the outlet port 50 that receive the projections 34 and the O-rings 22 have the same inner diameters.
Thus, the connector tube 30 is floatingly mounted with respect to both the fluid rail 40 and injector 10 by virtue of the features that allow the connector tube 30 to move axially and angularly within the inlet port 20 and the outlet port 50 , and by virtue of the features that establish a pressure balance.
During engine assembly, the injector 10 is fixed to the engine cylinder head (not shown) and a first end of the connector tube 30 is telescopically inserted into inlet port 20 of the injector 10 . Of course, if there are multiple injectors, e.g., for a multi-cylinder engine, each injector receives a respective connector tube 30 . Next, the outlet port 50 of the fluid rail 40 telescopically receives a second end of the connector tube 30 and the fluid rail 40 is mounted with respect to the engin
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McGuireWoods LLP
Moulis Thomas N.
Siemens Diesel Systems Technology
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