The present invention relates generally to fuel injectors that cycle between high and low pressure states, and more particularly to an auxiliary valve member in such a fuel injector to improve a performance parameter, such as an increased mean injection pressure or an increased nozzle valve opening pressure.
In one class of fuel injector, a plunger is driven downward within the injector to pressurize fuel for each injection event. Between injection events, the plunger retracts and the fuel injector returns to a relatively low pressure state. The plunger can be driven to move in any of a number of ways including via a rotating cam or possibly even via hydraulic fluid pressure from a common rail. In many instances, the plunger and the nozzle portion of the fuel injector are housed in a common injector body. In other instance, these two functions are separated with each nozzle assembly having a dedicated unit pump. In any event, those skilled in the art have generally come to recognize that higher injection pressure levels can generally be exploited to reduce undesirable engine emissions, including but not limited to NOx. unburned hydrocarbons and soot. Most of these fuel injectors include a nozzle valve member that moves between positions that either open or close the nozzle outlets to facilitate spray of fuel into an engine cylinder. These nozzle valve members are usually biased toward their closed position by a compressed biasing spring, but other biasing strategies are available such as by using hydraulic fluid pressure to bias the nozzle valve member toward its closed position. By carefully choosing a pre-load on the biasing spring and adjusting surface areas on the nozzle valve member, along with the possible use of a shim, a valve opening pressure for the nozzle valve member can be reliably and consistently set among a group of fuel injectors. However, there are often urges to increase the valve opening pressure of the nozzle valve member, but doing so by increasing the pre-load on the biasing spring can be problematic. Simply increasing the pre-load on the biasing spring can undermine the fuel injector's ability to inject relatively small amounts of fuel, especially when the engine is operating at a low speed and load condition.
Since the nozzle valve member biasing springs of the prior art inherently bias the nozzle valve member to the same magnitude across the engine operating range, there is also inherently some compromise in choosing a valve opening pressure for the nozzle valve member via a biasing spring pre-load. Those skilled in the art recognize that optimizing the biasing spring pre-load for low speed and low load operating conditions can be entirely different than optimizing the spring pre-load for high speed and load operating conditions. On one hand, excessively low injection pressures can lead to increased production of undesirable engine emissions, while on the other hand, elevated injection pressures can introduce variability issues among fuel injectors via a difficulty in making injectors behave consistently. Thus, there is often a conflict between maintaining acceptable controllability and minimizing variability among fuel injectors verses a motivation to increase mean injection pressure levels and/or the nozzle valve member's valve opening pressure.
The present invention is directed to one or more of the problems set forth above.
In one aspect, a fuel injector includes an injector body with a needle control chamber and a high pressure space that includes a fuel pressurization chamber. A nozzle valve member has a first closing hydraulic surface exposed to fluid pressure in the needle control chamber. An auxiliary valve member is positioned in the injector body, and is moveable between an open position in which the high pressure space is fluidly connected to the needle control chamber, and a closed position in which the high pressure space is blocked to the needle control chamber. The auxiliary valve member includes a second closing hydraulic surface exposed to fluid pressure in the high pressure space. A biasing spring is operably coupled to bias the auxiliary valve member toward its open position.
In another aspect, a method of increasing nozzle valve opening pressure in a fuel injector includes a step of setting a base valve opening pressure at least in part by biasing a nozzle valve member toward a closed position with a biasing spring. Fuel pressure is increased in a high pressure space of the fuel injector for an injection event. A fluid connection between a high pressure space and a needle control chamber is closed at least in part by exposing a closing hydraulic surface of an auxiliary valve member to fluid pressure in the high pressure space. A closing hydraulic surface of a nozzle valve member is exposed to fluid pressure in the needle control chamber. Finally, a nozzle valve opening pressure is increased above the base valve opening pressure at least in part by biasing the auxiliary valve member to open a fluid connection between the high pressure space and the needle control chamber during the increasing fuel pressure step.
In still another aspect, a method of increasing mean injection pressure for a fuel injection event includes a step of opening a fluid connection between a high pressure space and a needle control chamber while fuel pressure is increasing in a fuel injector for an injection event. A closing hydraulic surface of a nozzle valve member is exposed to fluid pressure in the needle control chamber. The fluid connection between the high pressure space and the needle control chamber is closed before the nozzle valve member moves from a closed position toward an open position, at least in part by exposing a closing hydraulic surface of an auxiliary valve member to fluid pressure in the high pressure space.
a–f are graphs of control valve position, injector pressure, auxiliary valve position, needle control chamber pressure, nozzle valve member position and injection mass flow rate, respectively, verses engine crank angle for a sample fuel injection event according to the prior art and the present invention; and
a–f are graphs of control valve position, injector pressure, auxiliary valve member position, needle control chamber pressure, nozzle valve member position and injection flow rate verses engine crank angle for another example injection event according to another aspect of the present invention.
Referring to
During an injection event when plunger 14 is being driven downward, a high pressure space 22 is created within injector body 18 that includes fuel pressurization chamber 29 and nozzle supply passage 28. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that as used in this patent document, the term injector body can include a combination of a nozzle body a unit pump body and the conduit connecting the two. When fuel pressure in the high pressure space exceeds a valve opening pressure acting on opening hydraulic surface 26, nozzle valve member 24 will lift upward toward its open position to fluidly connect nozzle outlets 20 to nozzle supply passage 28 to commence spray of fuel into a combustion space. A lift spacer 31 determines the maximum lift of nozzle valve member 24. Nozzle valve member 24 is normally biased downward toward its closed position, as shown, by a biasing spring 32, which is chosen to have a predetermined pre-load that is trimmed via a VOP spacer 33. Biasing spring 32 is positioned in a needle control chamber 30 within which a closing hydraulic surface 25 of nozzle valve member 24 is exposed to fluid pressure. Needle control chamber 30 is fluidly connected to fuel pressurization chamber 29 via a pressure communication passage 42. Needle control chamber 30 may be a closed chamber except for the pressure communication passage 42, or may in an alternative embodiment be vented to a low pressure space via a restricted passage as more thoroughly discussed in relation to the embodiment of
Fuel injector 10 also includes an auxiliary valve member 40 that is positioned in injector body 18 to open and close pressure communication passage 42 to fuel pressurization chamber 29. Auxiliary valve member 40 is normally biased upward so that valve surface 46 is out of contact with valve seat via a biasing spring 44 that is positioned in a spring chamber 43. Spring chamber 43 is preferably vented via a vent passage (not shown). When fuel pressure in fuel pressurization chamber 29 acting on closing hydraulic surface 41 exceeds a valve closing pressure, auxiliary valve member 40 will move downward to close valve seat 47 and isolate needle control chamber 30 from the high pressure space 22, which includes fuel pressurization chamber 29. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the valve closing pressure for auxiliary valve member 40 can be set by choosing an appropriate pre-load on biasing spring 44 relative to the area of closing hydraulic surface 41. Preferably, the valve closing pressure for auxiliary valve member 40 can be set to produce a variety of performance improvements in fuel injector 10. The auxiliary valve member 40 also inherently includes a valve opening pressure that can be set to create certain desirable effects, such as at the end of an injection event. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the valve opening pressure and the valve closing pressure for auxiliary valve member 40 are likely relatively close in magnitude, but need not necessarily be.
As an example, the valve closing pressure for nozzle valve member 40 could be set to be lower than the base valve opening pressure (spring alone) for nozzle valve member 24. In such a way, auxiliary valve member 40 would move downward and close valve seat 47 before nozzle valve member 24 lifted for an injection event. This would allow pressurized fuel to be trapped in needle control chamber 30, which would elevate the closing force acting on nozzle valve member 24, thus raising its valve opening pressure and delaying a start of injection over the like fuel injector not equipped with an auxiliary valve member according to the present invention. The valve opening pressure for the auxiliary valve member 40 could also be set to be below the base valve closing pressure for nozzle valve member 24. In this way, to affect end of injection characteristics, including the possibility of hastening the closure rate of nozzle valve member 24 as discussed more thoroughly infra.
Referring now to
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the injector body segment 118 for the fuel injector 110 could be substituted into a like segment of the fuel injector 10 to produce a complete fuel injector according to the present invention. Fuel injector 110 includes an injector body 118 that has deposed therein a high pressure space 122 that includes a nozzle supply passage 128 and a fuel pressurization chamber 129. A nozzle valve member 124 is normally biased downward to close the nozzle outlets (not shown) via a biasing spring 132 that is positioned in needle control chamber 130. Like the previous embodiment, a valve lift spacer 131 control the maximum lift of nozzle valve member 124. Nozzle valve member 124 includes a closing hydraulic surface 125 exposed to fluid pressure in needle control chamber 130.
Auxiliary valve member 140 is normally biased downward so that valve surface 146 is out of contact with valve seat 147 via a biasing spring 144 that is positioned in spring chamber 143. Spring chamber 143 is vented to prevent possible hydraulic locking via a vent passage 145. Like the previous embodiment, auxiliary valve member 140 opens and closes the pressure communication passage 142 that fluidly connects needle control chamber 130 to high pressure space 122. When fuel pressure acting on closing hydraulic surface 41 exceeds a valve closing pressure for auxiliary valve member 140, it will move upward against spring 144 to close valve seat 147 and isolate needle control chamber 130 from the high pressure space 122. Like the previous embodiment, the valve opening and closing pressures for the auxiliary valve member 140 can be set to produce certain desirable effects, such as increasing mean injection pressure, increasing the nozzle valve member's valve opening pressure, and possibly even provide a means of assisting closure of the nozzle valve member 124 at the end of an injection event.
The present invention finds potential application in any fuel injector that cycles between high and low pressure during and between injection events. Such fuel injectors include cam actuated fuel injectors, hydraulically actuated fuel injectors and some common rail fuel injectors that are fluidly disconnected from the common rail between injection events. In addition, the present invention contemplates fuel injectors that consist of a nozzle connected to a unit pump, which combined are considered a fuel injector according to the present invention. However, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the present invention probably finds its best application in cam actuated fuel injectors of the type illustrated that include an electronically controlled spill valve. Although not illustrated, the present invention could also find potential application in fuel injectors that include direct control needle valves in which a second electrical actuator allows either high or low pressure to be applied to a closing hydraulic surface on the nozzle valve member, at will, when fuel pressure in the injector is high. Depending upon how the fuel injector is plumbed, such as the inclusion or not of a vent passage from the needle control chamber, a variety of improved performance effects can be achieved. Among these affects are the possibility of increasing a mean injection pressure for an injection event over a like fuel injector not equipped with an auxiliary valve member. In addition, another effect could be an increase in the valve opening pressure for the nozzle valve member. The present invention can also be exploited to provide a brief pressure pulse toward the end of an injection event to hasten the closure rate of the nozzle valve member. Finally, the present invention can also be exploited to increase the start of current-start of injection delay so as to provide more precise control over injection of small amounts of fuel. In other words, a fuel injector equipped with the present invention requires a spill control valve on time that is longer than a like injector not so equipped in order to inject a like amount of fuel.
Referring now to
Even without the necessity to integrate the area underneath the pressure curves of
Referring now to
While the performance improvements of the first embodiment appear greater than that of the second embodiment, there are reasons for why one might consider venting the needle control chamber 130. For instance, since one can precisely control the area of the flow restriction 151, one can possibly make the fuel injectors according to the embodiment of
Although the present invention has been illustrated in the context of a cam actuated spill controlled fuel injector, those skilled in the art will appreciate that some of the advantages of the present invention can be achieved in other pressure varying fuel injectors, including but not limited to hydraulically actuated fuel injectors, unit pump fuel injectors, and possibly even some common rail fuel injection systems. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the magnitude which advantages are exploited can be varied to some extent by setting the valve opening and closing pressures for the auxiliary valve member 140 to certain desired magnitudes, especially relative to the base valve opening and closing pressures associated with the nozzle valve member 24, 124.
It should be understood that the above description is intended for illustrative purposes only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way. Thus, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other aspects, objects, and advantages of the invention can be obtained from a study of the drawings, the disclosure and the appended claims.
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