Internal-combustion engines – Intake manifold – Manifold material or composition
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-08
2001-11-27
Kamen, Noah P. (Department: 3747)
Internal-combustion engines
Intake manifold
Manifold material or composition
C123S184570
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321708
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inlet manifold for internal combustion engines functioning on the principle of Otto-engine or diesel-engine.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is known that internal combustion engines feature, on the intake side, inlet manifolds for transportation and distribution of air and fuel mixtures. Depending on the arrangement of the component and the preparation of the fuel-air mixture, the inlet manifolds may be intake manifolds, collector tanks, intake passages, intake pipes, collector intake pipes, collectors and individual intake runners, oscillatory intake passages, intake runners, resonance chambers and resonance intake pipes, variable-configuration intake manifolds and systems with variable-tract intake manifolds etc.
Known inlet manifolds such as the intake channel of a variable-configuration intake manifold according to DE-A 195 04 256 are made of polyamides. Generally known are also inlet manifolds of cast metal. In general, inlet manifolds are made by sand casting metal or are made of plastic, in each case using the lost-wax core principle. These parts and the methods of manufacture exhibit disadvantages. Sand casting results in components with widely varying wall thickness e.g. with thickness limits of 2.5 to 4.5 mm. Consequently, castings are heavy and the surfaces are rough. Rough inner surfaces impair the flow behaviour of the fluids passing through the component, rough outer surfaces are detrimental to the appearance and haptic of the part. Also, residual amounts of the shape-forming core may remain in the component, and the component may have to be worked further by chipforming processes. Some of these disadvantages may be overcome by using plastics. However, because of the ever increasing thermal load on engine components it is necessary to employ suitably heat-resistant plastics. These heat-resistant plastics are expensive and e.g. polyamides which are particularly suitable are difficult to recycle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide an inlet manifold which can be manufactured simply and in a cost-favourable manner, is light, exhibits a smooth inner surface and is easy to recycle.
That objective is achieved by way of an inlet manifold according to the invention which is made up of two or more dish-shaped parts which are permanently joined together, and the dish-shaped parts are shaped sheet parts, castings and/or extruded sections of metal.
The inlet manifold may advantageously be made up of two dish-shaped parts. It is also possible to manufacture e.g. more complex inlet manifolds from two or more dish-shaped parts e.g. from three, four, five or six dish-shaped parts.
A weld seam or adhesively bonded seam may be provided between the individual dish-shaped parts at the points of contact between them. The dish-shaped parts may exhibit shoulders with shoulder areas that run around the whole of the outer edge of the parts in question. On fitting the dish-shaped parts together to form an inlet manifold the dish-shaped parts touch at the shoulders. The shoulders may be omitted at openings such as e.g. the intake and outlet openings or recesses for devices for regulating and measuring purposes.
The shoulder regions may be joined by weld seams or adhesively bonded seams in order to provide a permanent joint there. One of the dish-shaped parts may also feature a grooved section running round the edge or a recess in the shoulder, while the other dish-shaped part features a peripheral connecting projection or rib. On fitting the dish-shaped parts together, the rib engages in the grooved section or fits onto the shoulder recess. The connecting rib and the grooved section or the recess in the shoulder may form a weld joint region. Accordingly, a weld seam may be created at that place in question. Joining with adhesive to make an adhesive connection join is likewise possible. The connecting rib and the grooved section or shoulder recess may be designed as a self-locking clip joint.
The dish-shaped parts are of metal. Suitable metals are aluminium and its alloys or magnesium and its alloys. Examples thereof are alloys of the AlSi, AlSiMg or AlSiCu type. Preferred are alloys of the AlSi and AlSiCu type.
The dish-shaped parts are made e.g. by pressing or stamping or by stamping and pressing sheet material. Complicated shapes—in particular the inner contours of dish-shaped parts can also be made by laying pre-shaped parts in the press-forming die. Other manufacturing processes for making the dish-shaped parts are deformation processes employing high internal pressure, with or without the influence of heat, superplastic forming, deep drawing, stretch drawing, impact extrusion etc. The sheets may be of the same or different thickness or exhibit a stepwise difference in thickness viz., so called tailored blanks. Further, the dish-shaped parts may be manufactured by casting. For example, they may be made by pressure diecasting or by casting blanks with thixotropic properties. The methods used lead to the desired smooth surfaces on the stamped, press-formed or cast shaped parts. Subsequent chip-forming treatment of the part can generally be omitted.
The prepared dish-shaped parts are then permanently joined to each other. For that purpose, the two or more dish-shaped parts are assembled to form an inlet manifold. For example one dish-shaped part forms a lower dish and a second dish-shaped part forms an upper dish. In another version the inlet manifold may exhibit a lower dish made of one single part or two such parts and an upper dish of one or two parts. Both the upper and the lower dish may exhibit shoulders with shoulder areas at the edge of the dish. In some cases the shoulders are interrupted by openings that are necessary for technical reasons e.g. openings for intake or outlet of gases, and openings to allow parts of measuring and control devices to be inserted. The shoulder areas making contact with each other are joined together by means of a weld seam or adhesively bonded seam. Instead of, or in addition to the welding or adhesive bonding, the parts may be joined by clipping them together, by riveting, screwing, clamping or flanging them together. In the latter cases a seal or sealing mass is usefully provided along the shoulder areas. Further possibilities for joining these shoulder regions together is to employ a combination of adhesive bonding and welding e.g. spot weld-bonding, or a combination of adhesive bonding and riveting and penetration bonding such a rivet-bonding, or folding and adhesive bonding to form a folded seam that is also adhesively bonded.
The weld seam may be made by arc welding under inert gas such as TIG or MIG welding, using plasma welding, electron beam welding, laser welding such as ruby, YAG, neodinium or CO
2
laser welding, friction welding etc. The dish-shaped parts are preferably joined together by weld seams made by laser welding or friction.
The adhesively bonded seam may be created using an adhesive. Examples of adhesives are—apart from the physically bonding adhesives—the particularly suitable chemically bonding adhesives which include reaction-type adhesives such as the two-component adhesives with epoxy resins and acidic anhydrides, epoxy resins and polyamines, poly-isocyanates and polyols or single component adhesives cyanacrylates or methacrylates, two-component adhesives of unsaturated polyesters and styrene or methacrylates, single component adhesives of pheno-plastics and polyvinylacetates or nitril-caoutchoucs, two-component adhesives of pyro-mellite-acidic-anhydride and 4.4 diamino-diphenyl-ether forming polyimides, or of polybenzimide-azoles. Plastics that form duroplastic or elastic compounds are to be given preference.
The surfaces of the inlet manifold may be smooth, matt or embossed. It is also possible to provide functional or decorative shapes in the dish-shaped parts. Inlet manifolds may be given optically attractive shapes and/or created with writing, logos or patterns—this in addition to their
Löschmann Klaus
Sterzl Wolfgang
Wehner Frank
Widrig Jakob
Alusuisse Technology & Management Ltd.
Cohen & Pontani, Lieberman & Pavane
Huynh Hai
Kamen Noah P.
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