Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – Including valve means in flow line – Reciprocating
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-08
2001-08-14
Scherbel, David A. (Department: 3752)
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
Including valve means in flow line
Reciprocating
C239S494000, C239S496000, C239S533120, C239S596000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06273349
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is based on a fuel injection valve.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
German Patent No. 39 43 005 describes an electromagnetically actuated fuel injection valve, in which a plurality of disk-shaped elements are arranged in the seat area. When the magnetic circuit is excited, a flat valve plate used as a flat armature is lifted from an opposite valve seat plate interacting with it, the valve plate and the valve seat plate jointly forming a valve plate part. A swirl element that sets the fuel flowing to the valve seat in a circular swirling motion is arranged upstream from the valve seat plate. A stop plate limits the axial path of the valve plate on the side opposite the valve seat plate. The valve plate is surrounded by the swirl element with a certain amount of clearance between them; thus the swirl element guides the valve plate to a certain degree. The bottom face of the swirl element is provided with a plurality of tangential grooves, which extend from the outer periphery to a central swirl chamber. Due to the fact that the bottom face of the swirl element rests on the valve seat plate, the grooves have the form of swirl channels.
World Patent 96/11335 describes a fuel injection valve, which has a multidisk pre-swirl atomizer projection on its downstream end. This atomizer projection is provided downstream from a disk-shaped guide element built into a valve seat carrier and a valve seat that is also located on the valve seat carrier, an additional support element holding the atomizer projection in a well-defined position. The atomizer projection is made of two disks or four disks, the individual disks being made of stainless steel or silicon. Therefore, conventional machining operations maybe used in the production of the opening geometries in the disks, such as erosion, punching, and etching. Each individual disk of the atomizer projection is manufactured separately, after which all the disks of the same size are stacked in the desired number to form the full atomizer projection. The atomizer projection extends perpendicularly to the longitudinal valve axis, i.e., it is horizontal, so that injection takes place along the longitudinal valve axis.
German Patent Application No. 196 07 288 describes a multilayer electroplating process for manufacturing perforated plates, which are particularly suitable for use in fuel injection valves. This principle of disk manufacturing by multiple metal electrodeposition of different metallic structures one on top of the other so that a single-piece disk is obtained should be expressly considered part of the disclosure content of the present invention. Microelectroplating in a plurality of levels, layers, or strata is therefore utilized in the manufacture of the swirl disks used here and installed according to the present invention.
SUMMARY
The fuel injection valve according to the present invention has the advantage that it allows a very high quality of atomization of a fuel to be injected and a highly variable jet or spray formation, which is adapted to the individual requirements such as installation conditions, engine configuration, cylinder shape, or spark plug position, to be achieved. As a result, exhaust gas emissions and fuel consumption can be reduced by the use of atomizer disks installed obliquely in the fuel injection valve.
Oblique installation of the atomizer disk allows specific, for example, engine-specific, jet patterns and spray shapes to be produced, which can be particularly advantageous when the fuel injection valve is used for direct injection into a cylinder of an internal combustion engine. The production of a spray or jet inclined with respect to the longitudinal valve axis at an angle &ggr; (hollow or solid cone, high or low degree of twist over the periphery, uniform or non-uniform distribution over the periphery, non-rotationally symmetrical (flat) jet patterns with adjustable twist components) in a simple manner represents an advantage of the fuel injection valve according to the present invention.
It is advantageous to design the atomizer disk in the form of a swirl disk. The swirl disk is manufactured in a particularly advantageous manner by multilayer electroplating. Due to their metallic construction, the swirl disks are unbreakable and easy to install. The use of multilayer electroplating provides considerable freedom of design, since the contours of the opening areas (inlet area, swirl channels, swirl chamber, outlet opening) can be freely selected in the swirl disk. In particular, compared to silicon disks, where the contours are strictly predefined due to the crystal axes (truncated pyramid), this flexible shaping is very advantageous.
Metal deposition has the advantage, in particular compared to the manufacture of silicon disks, of a great variety of materials being available. The most diverse metals with their different magnetic properties and hardnesses can be used in the micro-electroplating process for the manufacture of swirl disks. The different hardnesses of the various metals can be used in a particularly advantageous manner by creating a sealing metal area.
It is of particular advantage to construct the swirl disk from three layers in that three electroplating steps are performed for metal deposition. The upstream layer represents a cover element, which fully covers the swirl chamber of a central swirl-producing layer. The swirl-producing layer is made of one or more material regions, which, due to their outlines and geometric position with respect to one another, predefine the outlines of the swirl chamber and the swirl channels. The individual layers are arranged one on top of the other without gaps or joints using an electroplating process so that they represent a completely homogeneous material. In this context, the term “layer” is used only to facilitate understanding.
Two, three, four, or six swirl channels are advantageously provided in the swirl disk. The material regions can have different shapes depending on the desired outline of the swirl channels; they may be stepped or spiral-shaped, for example. Also the outlines of the swirl chamber, the cover layer, and the outlet opening can be configured in a flexible manner.
The static amount of flow is set using the swirl disk by selecting certain opening geometries, while the angle of the actual jet or spray is set using a support element, and spray angle &ggr; with respect to the longitudinal valve axis to obtain oblique spraying is set by the oblique installation of the swirl disk.
In engine operation, when gasoline is injected, there is usually the problem that the downstream tip of the injection valve projecting into the combustion chamber becomes coked by gasoline deposits. Therefore, in the conventional injection valves projecting into the combustion chamber, there is the danger of a negative effect on the spray parameters (static flow amount, jet angle), which may even result in injection valve failure. By using a multilayer electroplated atomizer disk at the downstream end of the fuel injection valve made of nickel or nickel-cobalt, coking in this region is effectively prevented. Suitable materials also include cobalt and nickel oxides and oxides of alloys of these metals. By constructing the atomizer disk of such materials, full combustion of the soot particles is catalyzed and deposition of carbon particles is prevented. Also precious metals such as Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, and Pt and alloys of these metals with each other or with other metals exhibit a catalytic effect.
Oblique installation is particularly well suited for atomizer disks made of a plurality of metal sheets, in particular for swirl disks.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4974565 (1990-12-01), Hashimoto et al.
patent: 5241858 (1993-09-01), Wieczorek et al.
patent: 5570841 (1996-11-01), Pace et al.
patent: 5766441 (1998-06-01), Arndt et al.
patent: 39 43 005 (1990-05-01), None
patent: 42 21 185 (1994-01-01), None
patent: 196 07 288 (1996-10-01), None
patent: WO 96/11335 (1996-04-01), None
Bitter Michael
Dantes Gunter
Fischbach Dirk
Heyse Jorg
Klaski Michael
Ganey Steven J.
Kenyon & Kenyon
Robert & Bosch GmbH
Scherbel David A.
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