Patent Grant
9739181
The present application is a U.S. National Phase of PCT/JP2014/082520 filed on Dec. 9, 2014. The disclosure of the PCT Application is hereby incorporated by reference into the present Application.
This invention relates to a hydraulic lash adjuster.
An internal combustion engine like an automobile is provided with a camshaft driven by the engine in synchronism therewith, a cam fixedly secured to the camshaft, and a rocker arm disposed between the cam and a valve stein of an intake (or exhaust) valve rockably about a fulcrum provided by a hydraulic lash adjuster. In this case, a driving force of the camshaft is transmitted to the valve stem via the cam and the rocker arm to displace the valve stein to thereby close/open the intake/exhaust valve. The hydraulic lash adjuster is adapted to automatically regulate a valve clearance between the cam and the rocker arm in response to an (extension/retraction) operation of the lash adjuster.
Provided in such a hydraulic lash adjuster as described above is a hollow plunger slidably fitted in a bottomed cylindrical body with a plunger's head portion extending from an open end of the body, as disclosed in Patent Document 1. The plunger is provided in its hollow section with a low-pressure chamber for storing oil, a communication hole formed in the plunger's head portion for communication of the low-pressure chamber with its exterior, and a high-pressure chamber to be charged with oil and located between the bottom of the body and the bottom of the plunger in the body. Each of the peripheral walls of the plunger and the body has an oil supply hole constituting an oil supply passage to supply oil to the low-pressure chamber. A valve mechanism is provided at the bottom of the plunger adapted to open a valve by a restoring force of a biasing means disposed between the bottom of the body and the bottom of the plunger to thereby allow for a flow of oil from the low-pressure chamber to the high-pressure chamber when the plunger is push-moved by the biasing means.
Use of this hydraulic lash adjuster in a valve operating mechanism of an internal combustion engine makes it possible to rockably support the rocker arm on the plunger's head portion and generate a damping force when an input load from the rocker arm is received by a hydraulic pressure of the high-pressure chamber and the plunger is retracted. On the other hand, in a case where a valve clearance takes place, the plunger is extended (in the direction of extension) to annihilate the valve clearance.
It is noted that in such a hydraulic lash adjuster as stated above, oil pumped by an oil pump from an oil pan is supplied to the high-pressure chamber via an oil passage and the low-pressure chamber during operation of the engine. Meanwhile, air bubbles are sometimes taken into the oil on the way to the high-pressure chamber. If the air bubbles remain in the high-pressure chamber, they can be easily compressed by the retracting plunger, resulting in easy contraction of the plunger which impedes a basic function of the plunger to generate a damping force.
For this reason, in recent years in order to prevent air bubble from infusing into the high-pressure chamber, a proposition has been made to provide in the plunger a guide cylinder for guiding the oil that flows from the oil supply passage into the plunger to the plunger's head portion via a space between the outer periphery of the guide cylinder and the inner periphery of the plunger, as disclosed in Patent Document 2. Specifically the guide cylinder is formed with a portion having at its leading end a smaller outer diameter than that of a base section of the guide cylinder. The leading end of the guide cylinder is oriented towards the plunger's head portion and the outer periphery of the base section of the guide cylinder is engaged with an inner periphery portion of the plunger nearer to the plunger bottom than to the oil supply passage, thereby forming an annular space between the inner periphery of the plunger and the outer periphery of the guide cylinder at a position nearer to the plunger's head portion than to the oil supply passage. Thus, during operation of the engine, the oil supplied from the oil supply passage is first guided towards the plunger's head portion through the annular space, where air bubbles are gradually separated from the oil (growth of air bubbles). While the oil itself flows back to the high-pressure chamber via the guide cylinder when the valve is opened by the valve mechanism, the separated air is discharged out of the plunger from the communication hole of the plunger's head portion together with surplus oil.
Patent Document 1 JPA 2013-189926.
Patent Document 2 JP 4259605
In the above mentioned hydraulic adjuster, however, in order to suppress infusion of air into its high-pressure chamber, it is necessary to provide a new guide cylinder in the plunger to form the annular space saving as an oil guide passage between the outer periphery of the guide cylinder and the inner periphery of the plunger, which inevitably requires an additional number of parts for the lash adjuster.
In view of such problems pertinent to the prior art hydraulic lash adjuster, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hydraulic lash adjuster that has a reduced number of parts, yet capable of suppressing infusion of air into the high-pressure chamber.
To achieve the object above, there is provided, a hydraulic lash adjuster comprising:
Since an impingement area of the inner periphery of the plunger subjected to impingement of oil ejected from an oil supply hole is inclined such that a portion of the impingement area nearer to the plunger's head portion is more inclined to fall in the direction of the ejected oil, the direction of the flow of oil ejected from the oil supply hole into the low-pressure chamber is changed upon impingement on the impingement area, and the flow is mostly re-directed towards the plunger's head portion away from the high-pressure chamber, but not to the high-pressure chamber. Consequently, the air bubbles, if contained in the oil, are led to the plunger's head portion, where oil pressure (static pressure) around the air bubbles is reduced and aggregation and unification of air bubbles are promoted on the inner periphery of the plunger's head portion, so that volumes of air bubbles increase (and so do buoyant forces) and migration of the air bubbles from the plunger's head portion to the bottom of the plunger is suppressed. The bubbles in the plunger's head portion are discharged therefrom to the exterior of the plunger together with surplus oil through the communication hole. As a consequence, in the inventive hydraulic lash adjuster, it is possible to easily suppress infusion of air into the high-pressure chamber without using any guide cylinder in the plunger and utilizing a reduced number of parts.
Furthermore, since the oil ejected from the oil supply hole into the low-pressure chamber impinges on the impingement area of the inner periphery of the plunger, air bubbles in the oil are prompted to integrate to still larger bubbles (as assisted by increased buoyant forces acting on their larger volumes), which facilitates aggregation of air bubbles in the plunger's head portion.
The plunger is provided on its inner periphery with a pair of inclined areas opposing each other across an inner diameter of the plunger;
Further, since the pair of inclined areas are inclined to come closer to each other as they extend away from the plunger's head portion in the axial direction of the plunger, and since the oil supply hole formed in one of the paired inclined areas is oriented to the other inclined area, the distance for the oil ejected from the oil supply hole to reach the other inclined area can be shortened as compared with a case where such paired inclined areas are not formed, so that the oil ejected from the oil supply hole can impinge on the other inclined area at a high ejection speed. As a result, the oil retains its high speed even after the impingement, and flows towards the plunger's head portion, thereby causing most of the oil to be delivered to the plunger's head portion and facilitating aggregation and integration of air bubbles in the plunger's head portion and promoting discharge of air bubbles. Consequently, infusion of air into the high-pressure chamber can be well suppressed.
Since the oil supply hole is provided in a region, most proximal to the bottom of the plunger, of said one inclined area, the distance for the oil ejected from the oil supply hole to reach the other inclined area is minimized, thereby it is possible to cause the oil ejected from the oil supply hole to impinge on the other inner inclined peripheral portion at a maximum ejection speed, and allow most of the ejected oil to reach the plunger's head portion after the impingement at that high ejection speed. On the other hand, since the pair of inclined areas are arranged at an axial position of the plunger closer to the bottom of the plunger than to the plunger's head portion, the distance from the pair of the inclined areas to the plunger's head portion can be increased to enhance chances of aggregation and integration of air bubbles in that relatively long passage. Consequently, due to the fact that chances of aggregation and integration of air bubbles are increased in the passage to the plunger's head portion, air bubbles can be collected in the plunger's head portion in aggregated and integrated conditions, thereby further facilitating suppression of air infusion into the high-pressure chamber.
The plunger is provided on the inner periphery thereof with a pair of inclined areas that oppose each other across an inner diameter of the plunger;
Further, since the oil supply hole oriented to the planar area is formed on one inclined area, the axis of the oil supply hole can be directed in an orientation close to a thick-wall direction of the bulge portion of said one inclined area, so that the oil supply hole can be easily fabricated in the plunger and durability of fabrication tools is improved.
The plunger is provided entirely along an inner circumference of its peripheral wall with a bulge portion that bulges radially inwardly in the plunger;
In addition, since the inclined periphery region is formed utilizing the bulge portion, the inclined periphery region can be formed easily in a process of roll forming a plunger.
The invention will no be described in detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As is well known, the valve 2 has an integral valve stem 6, which is slidably inserted in a through-hole 9 communicated with the intake/exhaust port 8 formed in an cylinder head 7 of an engine. A compression coil spring 10 is loosely mounted on the periphery of the valve stem 6 and between the cylinder head 7 and a retainer 11 securely fixed at an upper position of the valve stem 6, urging the valve 2 so as to open/close the intake (exhaust) port 8.
The cam 3 is firmly secured on the camshaft 12, which is synchronously driven by the engine, so that the cam 3 is also rotatably driven by the rotating camshaft 12.
The rocker arm 4, set in a rocking motion by the rotating cam 3 by rotational driving power of the cam 3, transmits the driving power to the valve stem 6, thereby putting the valve stem 6 in reciprocal motion in the through-hole 9 in response to rocking motions of the rocker arm 4. The valve 2 in turn opens/closes the intake (exhaust) port 8 in response to the reciprocal motion of the valve stem 6.
The hydraulic lash adjuster 5 has a plunger 14 slidably fitted in a bottomed body 13, as shown in
The body 13 has a shape of a bottomed cylinder secured in a circular recess 15 formed in an upper end of the cylinder head 7, with its opening held upward. The body 13 is formed on its upper periphery with a diametrically small portion 13a having a smaller outer diameter than the rest thereof. Mounted on the diametrically small portion 13a is an annular retainer cap 16 for preventing the plunger 14 from coming off the body 13. A recess 17 is formed in the inner periphery of a bottom portion 13b of the body 13, and formed in between an inner periphery of the recess 17 and an inner periphery of the peripheral wall 13c of the body 13 (closer to the opening than to the bottom portion 13b) is an annular step 18.
The plunger 14 is a generally hollow rod member. This plunger 14 has at one end thereof a coaxial head portion 19, a bottom portion 20 at the other end, and a peripheral wall 21 spanning the head portion 19 and the bottom portion 20. The head portion 19 of the plunger 14 extends out of the opening of the body 13 with its body-side portion adjacent the bottom 20 is slidably fitted in the body 13.
In this embodiment, the plunger 14 has a two-piece structure, consisting of a bottom-side plunger portion 22 and a head-side plunger portion 23, as shown in
The bottom-side plunger portion 22 constitutes a bottom-side portion of the plunger 14 and has a shape of a generally hollow bottomed cylinder placed in the body 13, wherein the bottom of the bottom-side plunger portion 22 serves as the bottom 20 of the plunger 14 facing the bottom portion 13b of the body 13, with an open end of the bottom-side plunger portion 22 oriented towards the opening of the body 13.
The head-side plunger portion 23 has a shape of a generally bottomed cylinder and constitutes a head-side portion of the plunger 14 closer to the head portion of the plunger 14 than the bottom-side plunger portion 22. The head-side plunger portion 23 has a bottom (of the bottomed cylinder) which serves as the head portion 19 of the plunger 14 and is oriented (upward) towards the opening of the body 13, while an open end of the head-side plunger portion 23 is placed on the open end of the bottom-side plunger portion 22 within the body 13. Thus, the inner spaces of the bottom-side plunger portion 22 and the head-side plunger portion 23 cooperate to constitute a reservoir 24, saving as a law-pressure chamber, for storing oil therein.
The head portion 19 of the plunger 14 (the head-side plunger portion 23) is configured in a shape of bulging semi-sphere, as shown in
The bottom portion 20 of the plunger 14 defines a high-pressure chamber 28 in the body 13, as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
In this embodiment, an annular bulge portion 50 is formed to form an annular groove 39 of the plunger 14 by allowing the peripheral wall 21 (head-side plunger portion 23) of the plunger 14 to bulge in the radially inward direction of the plunger 14 as shown in
Consequently as the oil pumped from an oil pan (not shown) by an oil pump is supplied to the wide annular grooves 36 formed in the outer periphery of the peripheral wall 13c via an oil pass (not shown) of the cylinder head 7, the oil is supplied to the annular groove 37 via, the oil supply hole 38 during operation of the engine. The oil supplied to the annular groove 37 is supplied further to the annular groove 39 formed in the outer periphery of the peripheral wall 21 of the plunger 14 and then to the reservoir 24 via the oil supply hole 40 formed in the peripheral wall 21 of the plunger. In this way the reservoir 24 is charged with oil during operation of the engine, and its surplus oil supplied thereinto is ejected out of the reservoir 24 from the communication hole 25 of the plunger's head portion 19. Meanwhile, the ejected oil provides lubrication to the rocker arm 4 for example.
As shown in
The first inclined periphery region 51 is configured to have a contracting inner diameter that decreases as it extends away from the plunger's head portion 19 in the direction of the axis OP of the plunger 14, while the second inclined periphery region 52 is configured such that the inner diameter of the plunger 14 increases as the inclined periphery region 52 extends continuously from the first inclined periphery region 51 and away from the plunger's head portion 19. The first inclined periphery region 51 rises radially inwardly at a gentle inclination angle than the second inclined periphery region 52. Accordingly, the first inclined periphery region 51 is longer in the direction of the axis OP of the plunger 14 than the second inclined periphery region 52.
An opening of the oil supply hole 40 is provided in an inclined area 51a (one of inclined areas) which occupies a part of the first inclined periphery region 51 as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The plunger 14 is further provided, at the bottom portion 20 thereof adjacent the high-pressure chamber 28, with a valve mechanism 42 as shown in
In such a valve operating mechanism 42 shown above, an oil pump supplies oil from the oil pan to the reservoir 24 of the plunger 14 (hydraulic lash adjuster 5) via an oil passage (not shown) and the oil supply passage 35 following a start up of the engine, thereby charging the reservoir 24 with oil 29, while surplus oil is discharged out via the communication hole 25 of the plunger's head portion 19 and a communication path 27 of the rocker arm 4.
Meanwhile, when the rocker arm 4 is swung by the cam 3 in rotation lowering its action point, the valve stem 6 is displaced to open the valve 2, the rocker arm 4 tends to warp under a resilient force of the compressed coil spring 10, which in turn causes the plunger 14 to be pressed down by the rocker arm 4. Accordingly, the pressure of the oil 29 in the high-pressure chamber 28 is increased, rendering the oil 29 rigid and allowing the lash adjuster 24 to serve as a fulcrum of the rocker arm 4. Meanwhile, the plunger 14 gradually lowers itself while leaking oil by degrees into the minute space 30 between the plunger 14 and the body 13.
As the cam 3 is further rotated under this condition, the rocker arm 4 further displaces the valve stem 6 to open the valve 2, the valve 2 is opened to open the intake port (or exhaust port) 8, thereby communicating the intake port (or exhaust port) via the intake passage (or exhaust passage) 8.
On the other hand, as the cam 3 is further rotated after the intake (exhaust) port 8 is opened, the valve stem 6 is displaced by the resilient force of the compression coil spring 10 to close the valve 2, rendering the rocker arm 4 rocked to lift its action point so that the intake (exhaust) port 8 is closed by the valve 2.
As the cam 3 is rotated further, the reactive resilient force of the compression coil spring 10 disappears, leaving a gap between the rocker arm 4 and the cam 3. Consequently, the plunger 14 is allowed to extend upward by a distance that amounts to the gap under the biasing force of the return spring 41 provided in the hydraulic lash adjuster 5. Under this condition, a negative pressure is generated in the high-pressure chamber 28, so that the check ball 44 is pushed down against the biasing force of the spring 46, causing the oil to flow from the reservoir 24 into the high-pressure chamber 28 until the pressures in the high-pressure chamber 28 and the pressure in the reservoir 24 is balanced out, when the valve hole 43 is closed by the check ball 44 (standby condition).
In this way, in response to the rotation of the cam 3 driven by the engine, the rocker arm 4 is rocked about the fulcrum defined by the hydraulic lash adjuster 5 (plunger 14), and the valve stem 6 either descends or ascends in accord with the rocking motion of the rocker arm 4 to thereby open or close the intake (exhaust) port 8.
In view of the fact that the air in the high-pressure chamber 28 can be easily compressed by the retracting plunger 14 and impede the damping function of the plunger 14, it is noted that the hydraulic lash adjuster 5 of this valve operating mechanism 1 is configured to suppress infusion into the high-pressure chamber 28 of air (bubbles) contained in the oil supplied to the reservoir 24.
In other words, since the orientation of the oil supply hole 40 formed in the plunger 14 is directed to the inclined area 51b (of the first inclined periphery region 51) that lies in opposition to the oil supply hole 40, the oil jet ji, when ejected from the oil supply hole 40 into the low-pressure chamber 24, will impinge on the inclined area 51b of the first inclined periphery region 51, and owing to the impingement, most of the oil jet ji will change into a re-directed oil stream jr directed to the plunger's head portion 19, as shown in
Consequently, as the re-directed oil stream jr reaches the plunger's head portion 19, air hubbies in the stream jr aggregate and get integrated by a substantially semi-spherical inner surface of the plunger's head portion 19 and grow still larger, so that their movement from the plunger's head portion 19 to the bottom portion 20 of the plunger is suppressed by increased buoyant forces. On the other hand, these air bubbles in the plunger's head portion 19 are discharged out from the communication hole 25 of the plunger's head portion 19 together with its surplus oil as oil is supplied to the reservoir 24.
In this manner, it is possible to suppress infusion of air bubbles into the high-pressure chamber 28 by re-directing the oil jet ji ejected into the reservoir 24 to the plunger's head portion 19 located away from the high-pressure chamber 28 by means of the inclined area 51b of the first inclined periphery region 51. Thus, it is not necessary in the present invention to provide such a guide cylinder G as used in a conventional structure illustrated in
In addition, since the oil jet ji ejected from the oil supply hole 40 into the reservoir 24 impinges on the inclined area 51b of the inner periphery of the plunger 14, the collision facilitates air bubbles B in the oil jet ji and air bubbles B in the re-directed stream jr to collide with each other and get integrated to grow into still larger air bubbles (accompanying increased buoyant forces due to increase in volume). This helps air bubbles in oil to gather in the plunger's head portion 19.
It is noted in the embodiment shown herein that the inclined periphery region 54 is provided in a region of the inner periphery of the plunger 14 closer to the plunger's head portion 19 than to the base inner periphery portion 53, so that, after the oil jet ji is changed into the re-directed stream jr towards the plunger's head portion 19 by the inclined area 51b of the first periphery region 51, the stream is guided by the inclined periphery region 54 radially inwardly in the plunger 14. As a consequence, the re-directed stream jr basically flows towards the plunger's head portion 19 while flowing radially inwardly in the plunger 14, so that a major (or central) portion of the re-directed stream jr is separated away from the inner periphery of the plunger 14 as much as possible. This suppresses reversion in direction of the re-directed stream jr by the substantially semi-spherical inner surface (particularly its substantially semi-spherical portion) of the plunger's head portion 19 and streaming of the reversed stream to the bottom portion 20 of the plunger.
Furthermore, since both of the inclined area 51a having the oil supply hole 40 and the inclined area 51b serving as the oil impinging area for the oil jet ji from the oil supply hole 40 each occupy respective portions of the first inclined periphery region 51, and since the distance between the inclined areas 51a and 51b is shorter than the inner diameter of the base inner periphery portion 53, the oil jet ji ejected from the oil supply hole 40 impinges on the inclined area 51b at a high oil ejection speed. Consequently, the resultant re-directed oil stream jr also flows towards the plunger's head portion 19 at a high speed, allowing most of the re-directed oil stream jr to reach the plunger's head portion 19. As a result, much of the air bubbles in the stream aggregate and get integrated by the substantially semi-spherical inner surface of the head portion 19, and discharge of the air bubbles is promoted.
The second embodiment shown in
In addition, as compared with the first embodiment, a pair of inclined areas 51a and 51b of the second embodiment are disposed closer to the bottom portion 20 in the direction of the axis OP of the plunger 14 than to the plunger's head portion 19, so that the distance H from the paired inclined areas 51a and 51b to the plunger's head portion 19 is longer than that of the first embodiment. (See
Consequently, in the second embodiment, air bubbles has enhanced chances to aggregate and get integrated in a stream away from the high-pressure chamber 28 while streaming over a relatively long distance to the plunger's head portion 19.
Furthermore, since the oil supply hole 40 is formed in the inclined area 51a of the bulge portion 50 in such a way that its axis OF is oriented closely to a thick-wall direction (direction substantially normal to an inclined area), fabrication of the oil supply hole 40 in the plunger 14 can be easily performed and a machining burden on a cutting tool is reduced.
While the present invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments thereof, it should be noted that the present invention incorporates the following modes.
(1) A mode in which a unified plunger 14 consisting of a bottom-side plunger portion 22 integral with a head-side plunger portion 23 is used.
(2) A mode in which only the inclined areas (first inclined area 51a and second inclined area 51b) are allowed to be inclined and no first inclined periphery region 51 is formed anywhere on the entire inner circumferential periphery of the plunger 14.
(3) A mode in which a space formed between the rocker arm 4 (inner periphery of the recess 26) and the plunger's head portion 19 is utilized to discharge out oil from the communication hole 25 of the plunger's head portion 19. Accordingly, no communication hole 27 (as shown in
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2014/082520 | 12/9/2014 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2016/038753 | 3/17/2016 | WO | A |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8490590 | Kubota | Jul 2013 | B2 |
| 20160238044 | Xu | Aug 2016 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 103939162 | Jul 2014 | CN |
| 1993044411 | Feb 1993 | JP |
| 1994146821 | May 1994 | JP |
| 1994212917 | Aug 1994 | JP |
| 1994299810 | Oct 1994 | JP |
| 2006029423 | Feb 2006 | JP |
| 2000508401 | Jul 2007 | JP |
| 4159605 | Jul 2008 | JP |
| 2013189926 | Sep 2013 | JP |
| Entry |
|---|
| Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority mailed Mar. 17, 2015 in the corresponding application PCT/JP2014/082520. |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20170044937 A1 | Feb 2017 | US |
