Control Valve Fastening via Segmented Collar Flange
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing control valve designs for internal combustion engines require new molds for each customer with different borehole patterns, leading to high manufacturing costs and complexity in assembly, while ensuring adequate tightness.
Innovation Solution
A control valve fastening arrangement using a collar flange with a screw hole pattern that matches the flow channel housing, allowing the same valve housing to be used across different connection hole patterns, with a light metal casting for the housing parts and a separately adjustable collar flange for easy assembly and secure sealing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the entire die-cast housing is adapted for each customer with different borehole patterns, then the control valve can be fastened to the flow channel housing with matching screw holes, but new molds are always required for each customer leading to high manufacturing costs
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is divided into two separate parts: a standardized die-cast base housing and a customer-specific collar flange with the required borehole pattern. The collar flange is attached to the base housing to form the complete control valve housing. This segmentation allows the expensive die-cast base housing to remain standardized while only the simpler collar flange needs customization for each customer.
Solution Approach 2:
The collar flange acts as an intermediary component between the standardized base housing and the flow channel housing. It provides the customer-specific borehole pattern interface while the base housing remains unchanged. This intermediary approach allows adaptation to different customers without modifying the main die-cast housing or requiring new molds.
2Adaptability or versatility
If new molds are required for each customer, then the borehole pattern can be customized, but the manufacturing process becomes complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the housing into a standardized base and a customizable collar flange, the manufacturing process is simplified. The base housing can be produced in large quantities using a single mold, while the collar flanges can be manufactured separately using simpler processes such as stamping, bending, or embossing, avoiding the need for complex custom molds for each customer.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of changing the mold geometry for each customer, only the collar flange parameters (borehole pattern, outer diameter) are changed. This can be achieved through different stamping dies, bending templates, or embossing tools, which are much simpler and more economical than creating entirely new die-cast molds.
3Ease of operation
If the collar flange is pushed over the base plate from the actuator housing part side, then assembly is simplified, but the collar flange must be designed with appropriate clearance and positioning features
Solution Approach 1:
The collar flange is designed with preliminary positioning features such as protrusions or keys that align with corresponding features on the base housing before the final screw fastening. This preliminary alignment simplifies the assembly process by ensuring correct positioning, while the design complexity is confined to the collar flange component itself.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
An arrangement for attaching a control valve to a flow channel housing of an internal combustion engine which includes an insertion housing part which projects into the flow channel housing. The arrangement includes an actuator housing, an actuator arranged in the actuator housing, a housing plate which rests on the flow channel housing, screws, and a collar flange which radially surrounds the housing plate. The insertion housing part extends on a first side of the housing plate and the actuator housing extends on a second opposite side of the housing plate. The collar flange comprises a screw hole pattern arranged thereon and through-holes arranged therein. The screw hole pattern corresponds to a connecting bore pattern of the flow channel housing. The control valve is attached to the flow channel housing via the screws being inserted through the through-holes of the collar flange.