The invention relates to a controllable
coolant pump. The aim of the invention is to develop a controllable
coolant pump (having a
gate valve) driven by a belt
pulley, allowing significant reduction in both
pollutant emissions and frictional losses and fuel consumption over the entire
working range of the engine, and allowing reliable actuation of the
gate valve with very low drive power, even under unfavorable
thermal boundary conditions, such as in proximity of the
turbocharger, as well as under very limited installation space, and ensuring continued functioning of the
coolant pump (fail-safe) even if the controller fails, and characterized by a very simple, low-cost production and
assembly design ''standardized'' for different pump sizes, thereby ensuring continuously high
operational reliability at a high
volumetric efficiency, and requiring no air-free charging in the factory, and that can be simply and inexpensively integrated in the
engine management system. The controllable
coolant pump according to the invention, having a
gate valve and driven by a belt
pulley (3) and having a hydraulically actuated gate valve connected to a ring
piston (29) is characterized in that an
axial piston pump (61) disposed in the pump housing (1) is driven and ''operated'' by means of a
swashplate (32) having a suction groove (33) and disposed on the back side of the
flywheel (5), the ''pumped volume flow'' thereof being controlled in a defined manner by means of a
solenoid valve (13) such that precise displacement of the hydraulically actuated gate valve is ensured.