150results about "Fuel injection with piezoelectric/magnetostrictive elements" patented technology

A fuel injection system has a pressure step-up unit, disposed between a pressure storage chamber and a nozzle chamber, whose pressure chamber communicates with the nozzle chamber via a pressure line. A bypass line connected to the pressure storage chamber is also provided. The bypass line communicates directly with the pressure line. The bypass line can be used for pressure injection and is disposed parallel to the pressure chamber, so that the bypass line is open regardless of the motion and position of a displaceable piston element in the pressure step-up unit. This enhances the flexibility of injection.

A fuel injector for an internal combustion engine, the fuel injector comprising an injector body, a fuel supply passage defined in the injector body, the fuel supply passage containing fuel under high pressure in use of the injector, a pressure sensor for measuring the pressure of fuel in the passage in use, wherein the pressure sensor is situated within the injector body and is separated from fuel in the passage in use, and a method of fuel injection, comprising constructing an hydraulic behaviour profile by fuel pressure measurement, using the hydraulic behaviour profile to predict fuel pressure that will prevail in a fuel injector during an injection event, and supplying a control signal to the fuel injector to control the amount of fuel injected during the injection event in accordance with the predicted fuel pressure. By predicting the fuel pressure that will prevail during an injection event, the fuel delivered during the injection event can be accurately controlled.

A drive system composed of an engine and a transmission is controlled in accordance with a desired wheel toque corresponding to a position of an accelerator, and a present vehicle speed in such a way that a speed ratio of the transmission is determined in consideration with torque factors such as an air-fuel ratio on the engine side, thereby it possible to optimize the control in order to reduce the emission of exhaust substance such as NOx and to enhance the acceleration performance and the fuel economy.

A fuel injector, in particular a fuel injector for fuel-injection systems of internal combustion engines, including a piezoelectric or magnetostrictive actuator, actuates a valve-closure member formed on a valve needle via a hydraulic coupler, the valve-closure member cooperating with a valve-seat surface to form a valve-sealing seat. The coupler includes a master piston and a slave piston which are connected to a pressure chamber, and at least one coupler-spring element which in each instance produces a prestressing force on the master piston, counter to a working direction, and on the slave piston, in a working direction. The pressure chamber of the coupler is connected to a fuel inflow in the flow-through direction to the pressure chamber via an inflow bore and a check valve.

A method of identifying an individual short circuit fuel injector, within an injector bank of an engine comprising a plurality of fuel injectors. Each fuel injector has a piezoelectric actuator and an associated injector select switch forming part of an injector drive circuit. The method comprises: (i) charging all of the piezoelectric actuators of the plurality of fuel injectors within the injector bank during a charge phase; (ii) at the end of the charge phase waiting for a delay period; and (iii) subsequently closing an injector select switch of a fuel injector to select said fuel injector. The method further comprises: (iv) determining a stack voltage present on terminals of the piezoelectric actuator of the selected fuel injector and storing the stack voltage in a data store. The stack voltage is indicative of an amount of charge present on the selected injector at the end of the delay period. The method further comprises (v) repeating steps (i) to (iv) for each fuel injector in the injector bank in turn; and (vi) identifying the individual short circuit fuel injector as being the injector which has discharged beyond a predetermined voltage drop limit during the delay period. The method also comprises generating a short circuit fault signal for the identified fuel injector.

A fuel injector for an internal combustion engine is provided which has a fuel supply path and a nozzle chamber. The fuel supply path extends a spray hole. The nozzle chamber is defined in the fuel supply path. A nozzle is disposed within the nozzle chamber to establish or block a fluid communication between the fuel supply path and the spray hole. A fuel pressure sensor is installed in the fuel injector so as to be exposed to the fuel in the nozzle chamber. Specifically, the fuel pressure sensor is located closer to the spray hole than a prior art structure in which the fuel pressure sensor is installed in a fuel supply pipe, thus resulting in increased accuracy in measuring a change in pressure of the fuel arising from the spraying of the fuel from the spray hole.

A fuel injection device is provided which can inject fuel by very high injection pressure and can realize favorable combustion and exhaust characteristics, and moreover, enables performance of fuel injection with arbitrary fuel injection patterns. In the fuel injection device 30, the protrusion 61 is provided at a distal end portion of the piston control valve 60 which is provided at the pressure intensifier 54, can change a practical opening area of the fuel flow path 57 to the cylinder 56 in accordance with movement of the piston control valve 60, and can control inflow amounts of liquid fuel that is flowed into the cylinder 56 by the piston control valve 60 (does orifice control). Thus, control of injection rates and injection pressures of fuel that is injected from the fuel injection nozzle 34 is enabled, and fuel injection patterns can be realized with an extremely high degree of freedom.

A fuel injector for use in an internal combustion engine, comprising a nozzle body being provided with a nozzle bore and at least one set of one or more outlets for fluid, an outer valve member received within the nozzle bore and being engageable with a first seating region of the nozzle body to control the flow of a first fluid from a first delivery chamber, the outer valve member being provided with an outer valve bore, and an inner valve member received within the outer valve bore and being engageable with a second seating region of the nozzle body to control the flow of a second fluid from a second delivery chamber. In various embodiments, the fuel injector can be arranged to allow the first and second fluids to be injected separately and/or together. In one embodiment, the first and second fluids can be mixed within the injector before injection.

A fuel injection valve for internal combustion engines, having a housing (1) in which an outer valve needle (20) and an inner valve needle (22) guided in it are disposed in a bore (16). The outer valve needle (20), by a longitudinal motion, controls an outer row (130) of injection openings, and the inner valve needle (22), likewise by means of a longitudinal motion, controls an inner row (230) of injection openings, to which rows (130; 230) of injection openings fuel is delivered at an injection pressure through a high-pressure conduit (10) embodied in the housing (1). A control pressure chamber (52) is embodied in the housing (1); it can be made to communicate with the high-pressure conduit (10), and by means of its pressure, a closing force is exerted at least indirectly on the inner valve needle (22). The high-pressure conduit (10) communicates with a control chamber (50), by whose pressure a closing force is exerted at least indirectly on the outer valve needle (20), and the control chamber (50) communicates with the control pressure chamber (52). A control valve (58) is disposed in a housing (1), and by means of the control valve, the control chamber (50) can be made to communicate with a leak fuel chamber (78) (<cross-reference target="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</CROSS-REFERENCE>).

A piezoelectric actuator, for instance for actuating a mechanical component, is proposed that has a multilayer structure of piezoelectric layers and disposed between them inner electrodes (2, 3) and an alternate-side lateral contacting of the inner electrodes (2, 3) via outer electrodes (4, 5). The outer electrodes (4, 5) are applied in network- or fabric-like fashion, each distributed over one side face, and are contacted at least at some points to the respective inner electrodes (2, 3). The outer electrodes (4, 5) are lengthened past the multilayer structure of piezoelectric layers in such a way that the delivery of the electrical voltage takes place at the extensions (8, 9).

A fuel injection valve has a valve body and a valve member axially movable within the valve body. The opening stroke of the valve member is limited by a stroke stop face provided on a control piston which surrounds the valve member. A control chamber, which may be filled with fuel, is located at one end of the control piston. At a certain pressure in the control chamber, the control piston moves from a first to a second stroke position to limit the opening stroke motion of the valve member. Part of the control piston is embodied as a piezoelectric actuator which, when supplied with electric current, changes its axial length to further vary the stroke of the valve member.

A fuel injector for use in an internal combustion engine comprises a first valve member and a second valve member, an injection control chamber for fuel, and a set of nozzle outlets; wherein actuation of the second valve member controls the fuel pressure within the injection control chamber, and actuation of the first valve member is regulated by the fuel pressure within the injection control chamber; and wherein the fuel injector is arranged such that actuation of the second valve member establishes a fuel flow path between the injection control chamber and the set of nozzle outlets. The first valve member may be provided with a first valve bore within which the second valve member is received. An injection nozzle and a method of operating a fuel injector are also described.

A fuel injection system for internal combustion engines includes an injector supplied from a high-pressure fuel source and with a pressure booster device, in which the closing piston can be acted upon by fuel pressure to attain a force exerted on the closing piston in the closing direction, and in which the closing pressure chamber and the return chamber of the pressure booster device are formed by a common closing pressure return chamber, and all the portions of the closing pressure return chamber communicate with one another permanently for exchanging fuel, so that despite a low pressure boost by the pressure booster device, a relatively low injection opening pressure is attainable.

This accumulating fuel injection apparatus is provided with a needle valve 6 adapted to open and close an injection nozzle 11 having injection ports 14 in a lower end portion thereof, a balancing chamber 5 formed in a casing 2 so as to apply a fuel pressure to a head portion of the needle valve 6, a supply passage including a slit 10 and used for supplying a fuel from a fuel supply port 19 to the balancing chamber 5, a discharge passage 20 comprising an orifice for discharging the fuel from the balancing chamber 5, and a solenoid valve 22 adapted to open and close the discharge passage 20, the lift of a valve disc 26 of the solenoid valve 22 is controlled by a lift control means comprising a stopper 28 the position of which is controlled by a lift control mechanism 23. The opening area of the discharge passage 20 comprising an orifice increases and decreases in accordance with the lift of the valve disc 26, and the lift of the needle valve 6 is determined so that the opening area of the slit 10 facing the interior of the balancing chamber 5 increases and decreases correspondingly to the flow rate of the fuel passing through the discharge passage 20, the degree of opening of the injection nozzle 11 increasing and decreasing accordingly.

A control module (1) for an injector of an accumulator injection system is used to control and guide a valve body (8). The control module comprises a high pressure supply line (2) for supplying fuel, and a guiding device (3) for guiding the valve body (8). A control room (4), an inlet throttle (5) and an outlet throttle (6) are also provided. The inlet throttle (5) connects the high pressure supply line (2) to the control chamber (4) and the outlet throttle (6) connects the control chamber (4) to a control valve (15). A control piston (7) is arranged in the control chamber (4), the end of the control piston opposite the control chamber (4) being connected to a high pressure region (9) on the valve body (8).

A supplying unit supplies energy to an actuator so that the supplied energy is kept therein, making displacement the actuator. An interrupting unit interrupts the supply of energy to cause the actuator to discharge the kept energy, making displacement the actuator. A converting unit is adapted to convert the displacement of the actuator corresponding to the kept energy into hydraulic pressure applied to the valve member, moving the valve member to open the low pressure port and close the high pressure port. The convert unit converts the displacement of the actuator corresponding to the discharged energy into hydraulic pressure applied to the valve member, moving the valve member to open the high pressure port and close the low pressure port. Energy which the actuator requires to move the valve member so as to close the high pressure port is larger than energy which the actuator requires to move the valve member so as to open the low pressure port.

An injector for common rail Diesel injection systems of motor vehicles, having a multilayer piezoelectric actuator which has a multilayer actuator body. The actuator body is prestressed on a face end by a prestressing device and is seated inside a center longitudinal bore of an injector housing. The injector is characterized in that the prestressing device have at least one cup spring, which in a prestressing movement engages the face end of the actuator body opposite an injector valve (V), as well as a force transmission member seated in the injector housing and axially movable therein, the transmission member transmits the spring force of the at least one cup spring to the face end, toward the valve, of the actuator body.

The present invention is an injection system including an injection device. The injection device includes a pumping chamber and an electrically operated device associated with the pumping chamber which, when energized, is capable of providing a rapid increase in localized fluid pressure in said pumping chamber without reciprocating a piston in a cylinder bore. A discharge port associated with the pumping chamber permits discharging of fluid displaced by the localized pressure increase. The injection system includes a circuit providing an energizing voltage to the electrically operated device, and a control for changing at least one characteristic of the energizing voltage selected from the group consisting of: the peak energizing voltage, the rate at which said energizing voltage increases, the rate at which said energizing voltage decreases, the duration of energization, and the frequency of energization.

The present invention relates to a valve for controlling fluids, which includes a valve member (4) that is actuatable via a piezoelectric actuator (2) and a hydraulic booster (3). The valve further includes a holder (6), a valve piece (7), a shim (8), and a nozzle body (9). The valve piece (7), the shim (8), and the nozzle body (9) are joined together via at least two screws (13), and the screws (13) are disposed radially to a center axis (M-M) of the valve. This makes both a simple design of the valve and economical assembly possible.