Cleaner Nozzle Structure for Piston Alignment and Stroke Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing cleaner nozzle design faces issues with the piston deviating from its original position and posture due to non-uniform elastic restoring force from the coil spring, leading to misalignment of the ejection port with the sensor, and requires adjustable stroke lengths for different vehicle types, making it time-consuming to design nozzles of varying specifications.
Innovation Solution
The cleaner nozzle incorporates prevention portions on the piston and cylinder to prevent axial displacement and a guide portion to restrict coil spring movement, ensuring accurate alignment and easy mounting on various vehicles by using a cover portion with a guide that extends towards the coil spring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a coil spring is provided inside the cylinder to return the piston to an original position, then the piston can be returned to the original position, but the coil spring may deviate in the radial direction and cannot uniformly apply elastic restoring force, causing the piston to not return to the original position and the discharge position to deviate
Solution Approach 1:
A guide portion is introduced as an intermediary component between the coil spring and the cylinder. This guide portion extends in the axial direction and comes into contact with the coil spring, serving as a mediator that constrains the spring's radial movement while allowing axial compression and expansion. The guide portion effectively transfers the constraint function from the cylinder wall to a dedicated guiding structure, preventing the coil spring from deviating radially and ensuring uniform application of elastic restoring force to the piston.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide portion is positioned locally at a specific location within the cylinder to provide radial constraint only where needed for the coil spring. This localized guiding structure allows the rest of the system to maintain its original design characteristics while addressing the specific problem of spring radial deviation. The guide portion creates a localized constraint zone that ensures uniform force distribution without affecting other functional areas of the cleaner nozzle.
2Reliability
If the stroke amount of the piston is adjusted for each vehicle type to reliably apply cleaning liquid, then the cleaning application reliability is improved, but it takes time and effort to design cleaner nozzles of different specifications
Solution Approach 1:
The guide portion serves multiple functions: it guides the coil spring axially, prevents radial deviation of the spring, and simultaneously acts as a stroke limiter for the piston. By integrating these multiple functions into a single component, the design achieves versatility that allows the same basic cleaner nozzle structure to be adapted to different vehicle types simply by modifying the guide portion's dimensions, particularly its length in the axial direction, rather than redesigning the entire nozzle system.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention enables adjustment of the piston stroke amount by changing the dimensional parameters of the guide portion, specifically its axial length. This parameter change approach allows for easy adaptation to different vehicle types and mounting positions. By simply varying the guide portion's length, the effective stroke of the piston is controlled, enabling the same cleaner nozzle design to be customized for different applications without requiring complete redesigns.
3Manufacturing precision
If prevention portions are provided on the piston and cylinder to prevent relative displacement about the axis, then the ejection port alignment accuracy is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The guide portion is merged with either the piston or the cylinder structure, combining the functions of stroke limitation, spring guidance, and rotational prevention into a single integrated component. This merging approach achieves the alignment precision function without adding separate independent parts. The prevention portions are formed as integral features of the existing components rather than as separate attachments, thereby preventing relative displacement and maintaining ejection port alignment while minimizing the increase in overall device complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design prevents ejection port deviation from the object being cleaned, maintains accurate posture, and allows for easy adaptation to different vehicle types without the need for extensive redesign, ensuring reliable and efficient cleaning.
Implementation Method 1
a coil spring that moves the piston away from the cover portion is provided inside the cylinder
Data Source
AI summary
A cleaner nozzle includes: a cylinder extending in an axial direction; and a piston having an ejection port and being displaceable in the axial direction in the cylinder. The piston and the cylinder are provided with respective prevention portions that prevent relative displacement of the cylinder and the piston about an axis by coming into contact with each other.