[0001] The invention relates to a fluid injector, in particular a fluid injector for metering
fuel to a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine. Fuel injectors are
in widespread use, in particular for internal combustion engines where they may be
arranged in order to dose the fluid into the intake manifold of the internal combustion
engine or directly into the combustion chamber of a cylinder of the internal combustion
engine. The invention further relates to a method for manufacturing a fluid injector.
[0002] In order to meet stringent regulations concerning exhaust emissions of internal combustion
engines, fluid injectors need to be designed such that they are adapted to dose fluid
very precisely. In this respect, more and more fluid injectors are equipped with piezoelectric
actuators.
[0003] In order to enhance the combustion process in view of the creation of unwanted emissions,
the respective fluid injector may be suited to dose fluid under very high pressure.
The pressure may be, in the case of a gasoline engine, for example, in the range of
up to 200 bar and in case of a Diesel engine, in the range of up to 2000 bar.
[0004] According to a first aspect of the invention, it is the object to create a fluid
injector, which enables to be manufactured in a simple way. According to a further
aspect of the invention, it is the object to create a method for manufacturing a fluid
injector which is simple.
[0005] The object is achieved by the features of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments
of the invention are given in the sub-claims.
[0006] The invention is distinguished according to a first aspect by a fluid injector with
a housing comprising a housing recess and a fluid duct both extending from one axial
end of the housing into the housing. The fluid injector further comprises an actuator
unit taken in the housing recess, a thermal compensator unit taken in the housing
recess, and an inlet fitting. The inlet fitting comprises a fluid supply connecting
part for connecting the fluid injector to a fluid supply. In that way it communicates
with the fluid duct. The inlet fitting is designed and fixed to the housing such that
it sealingly closes the housing at the one axial end of the housing. The fluid injector
enables to be manufactured by only a few separate parts. The inlet fitting serves
a double function of enabling a connection to a fluid supply and also forming a closing
for the housing recess protecting the thermal compensator and the actuator from the
environment of the fluid injector. In that way, it enables a cost effective manufacturing
of the fluid injector.
[0007] According to an advantageous embodiment of the first aspect, the inlet fitting comprises
a cup shaped part being fixed to the housing for closing the housing recess at the
one axial end of the housing. This enables a reliable fixation of the inlet fitting
to the housing even with very high fluid pressures being applied to the inlet fitting
and the fluid duct.
[0008] According to a further preferred embodiment of the first aspect, the thermal compensator
unit is mechanically coupled to an internal ring body arranged in the housing recess
and influencing depending on its axial position in the housing recess a characteristic
of the thermal compensator unit.
[0009] An external ring body is arranged on the outside of the housing and is mechanically
coupled to the internal ring body in such a way that the respective axial positions
of the internal and external ring body correlate to each other. This enables to influence
the characteristic after mounting the thermal compensator unit in the housing without
needing access for a tool directly in the side of the recess. In that way, a simple
and precise calibration of the fluid injector is enabled. This further enables the
precise calibration and at the same time to use the inlet fitting for sealingly closing
the housing recess at the one axial end of the housing. It is to be noted, however,
that this aspect of the invention and its further preferred embodiments may also be
incorporated in a further type of fluid injector with an inlet fitting not being designed
for fixing the housing such that it sealingly closes the housing recess. Instead a
closing part for closing the housing recess may then be provided. The inlet fitting
then is designed for communicating with the fluid duct.
[0010] According to a further preferred embodiment of the first aspect, the thermal compensator
unit comprises a piston with a rod. The rod is movable relative to the housing and
comprises a first spring seat. The thermal compensator unit further comprises a thermal
compensator spring, resting with one free end on the first spring seat. The internal
ring body forms a second spring seat for the thermal compensator spring. This may
ensure a simple and robust fluid injector.
[0011] According to a further preferred embodiment of the first aspect, the internal ring
body is mechanically coupled to the external ring body by a calibration pin radially
extending through a housing radial recess in the housing. This enables a simple to
manufacture fluid injector, with a precise calibration being possible.
[0012] In this respect, it is advantageous if the calibration pin is coupled to the internal
ring and/or the external ring by a press fit connection. This is simple to manufacture
and therefore may result in low cost but enables a robust connection.
[0013] According to a second aspect, the invention is distinguished by a method for manufacturing
the fluid injector according to the first aspect of the invention. The method comprises
assembling the actuator unit and the thermal compensator unit and the internal ring
in the housing recess. Further, it comprises assembling the inlet fitting on the housing,
covering the housing recess and the fluid duct at the one axial end of the housing.
It further comprises sealingly fixing the inlet fitting to the housing such that it
sealingly closes the housing at the one axial end of the housing. The advantages of
the method for manufacturing the fluid injector correspond to the advantages of the
first aspect of the invention and its preferred embodiments.
[0014] According to a preferred embodiment of the method for manufacturing the fluid injector,
it comprises sealingly fixing the inlet fitting to the housing by laser welding. This
has the advantage of enabling a very localized but extremely well sealing fixation
of the inlet fitting.
[0015] According to a further preferred embodiment of the method, it comprises after assembling
the actuator and the thermal compensator unit and the internal ring in the housing
recess steps of:
- assembling the external ring body to the housing on the outside of the housing,
- mechanically coupling the external ring body to the internal ring body in such a way
that the respective axial positions of the internal and external ring body correlate
to each other,
- varying the axial position of the external ring body for calibrating the fluid injector
in view of a given characteristic of the thermal compensator unit, and
- fixing the external ring to the housing, preventing further axial movement of the
external ring after the calibration has been finished.
[0016] Exemplary embodiments of the invention are explained in the following with the aid
of schematic drawings. Exemplary embodiments of the invention are explained in the
following with the aid of schematic drawings. These are as follows:
- FIG. 1
- a fluid injector and
- FIG. 2
- a flowchart for manufacturing the fluid injector.
[0017] Elements of the same design and function that occur in different illustrations are
identified by the same reference character.
[0018] A fluid injector may be embodied as a fuel injector, that is suitable for injecting
fuel into a gasoline engine or that may be suitable for injecting fuel in a Diesel
engine. The fluid injector comprises a housing 1 and a valve body 3. The valve body
3 comprises a cartridge 5 with a cartridge recess 7 and a needle 9, that is inserted
into the cartridge recess 7 and is guided in an area of a guide formed in the cartridge
recess 7. The needle 9 is of an outward opening type but it may also be of an inward
opening type. The needle is pushed in its closing position by a return spring 11 if
no further forces act on the needle. The return spring 11 exerts a force on the needle
9 in the closing direction of the needle 9.
[0019] The fuel injector is preferably located in a cylinder head of an internal combustion
engine and provides the combustion chamber with fluid.
[0020] The housing 1 comprises a fluid duct 2, which may preferably be manufactured as a
borehole. It further comprises a housing recess 4. The housing recess 4 and the fluid
duct 2 both extend from one axial end of the housing into the housing. The one axial
end of the housing 1 is the one facing away from the nozzle 15. The fluid duct 2 extends
through the housing 1 and communicates with the nozzle 15. An actuator unit 13 is
arranged in the housing recess 4 and is coupled to the needle 9. Preferably, the actuator
unit 13 is a piezoelectric actuator unit. Then, it comprises a stack of piezoelectric
elements, which are pretensioned by a tube spring and held in-between a first and
a second end cap.
[0021] A thermal compensator unit 17 is arranged in the housing recess 4 on a side respective
to the actuator unit 13 facing away from the nozzle 15. In an alternative embodiment,
the thermal compensator unit 17 may, however, also be arranged on the side facing
towards the nozzle 15.
[0022] In the embodiment according to FIG. 1, the thermal compensator unit 17 comprises
a thermal compensator housing part 19, which is fixed to the housing 1 by welding,
which is indicated by a small circle. The thermal compensator unit 17 further comprises
a piston 21 with a rod 23 protruding towards the actuator unit 13. A first spring
seat 25 is fixed to the rod 23 and serves as a seat for a thermal compensator spring
27 at one of its axial ends.
[0023] An internal ring body 29 is arranged in the housing recess 4 and forms a second spring
seat 30 at the respective other axial end of the thermal compensator spring 27. The
piston 21 is movable relative to the housing 1. The thermal compensator unit is designed
to compensate different thermal expansion coefficients of the actuator unit 13 and
the housing 1. It preferably comprises chambers filled with a hydraulic fluid which
enable in combination with the piston 21 and dependent on the spring load applied
to the thermal compensator spring 27 a compensation of these changes whereas it is
designed such, that it behaves as a stiff body, if the actuator unit is controlled
to expand. In this respect, it is to be noted, that the duration of the expansion
of the actuator unit 13, correlating to an injection event of the fluid injector,
is always for a very short duration of time. Therefore, an appropriately dimensioned
throttle may be provided between respective chambers of a thermal compensator unit
taking into consideration the time duration for the injection event and at the same
time providing on a larger time scale a force pressure balance between respective
chambers of the thermal compensator unit 7 and thereby setting the axial position
of the piston 21 relative to the housing, in particular the location of the housing
1 where the thermal compensator housing part 19 is fixed to the housing.
[0024] The internal ring body 29 is mechanically coupled to an external ring 37. The external
ring 37 is arranged on the outside of the housing 1 and is mechanically coupled to
the internal ring body 29 in such a way that the respective axial positions of the
internal ring body 29 and the external ring body 37 correlate to each other. It is
to be noted, that the internal ring body 29 does not need to have an exact ring shape.
It is just formed in a way, that it is slidably movable along an inner wall of the
housing recess 4 and that it forms the second spring seat 30. Also, the external ring
body 37 may have a shape deviating from an exact ring shape. It may, for example,
have a bushing form.
[0025] The internal ring body 29 is mechanically coupled to the external ring body 37 by
a calibration pin 33, which protrudes radially from the internal ring to the external
ring body 37. Further, the calibration pin 33 protrudes through a housing radial recess
35. The housing radial recess 35 preferably has an axial extension which is large
enough to move the calibration ring during the manufacturing process of the fluid
injector in an axial direction relative to the housing 1. Preferably, the calibration
pin 33 is arranged in an internal ring radial recess 31 of the internal ring body
29 in a press fit connection. Preferably, the calibration ring 33 is arranged in an
external ring recess 39 of the external ring body 37 also in a press fit connection.
The external ring body 37 is fixed to the housing 1, preferably by laser welding.
But it may also be fixed to the housing 1 by some other sort of connection known to
the person skilled in the art for this purpose.
[0026] An inlet fitting 45 comprises a cup shaped part 47 covering an axial end area of
the housing 1 at an axial end of the housing 1 facing away from the nozzle 15. The
cup shaped part 47 is sealingly connected to the housing 1, for example, by laser
welding also indicated by small circles. The inlet fitting 45 further comprises a
fluid supply connecting part 49.
[0027] In its arrangement in the internal combustion engine, the fluid injector is coupled
to a fluid supply, preferably being formed by a fuel rail via the fluid supply connecting
part 49. Therefore, the fluid supply connecting part 49 comprises an inlet fitting
recess 51, which extends through the fluid supply connecting part 49 in an axial direction.
The inlet fitting recess 51 and the fluid duct 2 communicate with each other. The
inlet fitting 45 closes the housing recess 4 and therefore protects the actuator unit
13 and also the thermal compensator unit 17 from influences from outside of the fluid
injector.
[0028] In FIG. 2, an example is given how the fluid injector may be manufactured. In a step
S1, the manufacturing process is started and the housing with the valve body 3 are
already provided in a preassembled state.
[0029] In a step S3, the actuator unit 13 is inserted into the housing recess 4 and the
thermal compensator unit 17 together with the internal ring body 29 are inserted into
the housing recess 4.
[0030] In a step S5, the inlet fitting is assembled on the housing covering the housing
recess at the one axial end of the housing 1. Therefore, the inlet fitting 45 is preferably
pushed with its cup shaped part 47 over the axial end area of the housing 1 facing
away from the nozzle 15. The cup shaped part 47 then covers the cross-section of the
housing recess 4 and also of the fluid duct 2. The inlet fitting is then sealingly
fixed to the housing 1. This is preferably accomplished by laser welding. It may,
however, also be accomplished by some other way of fixing it sealingly to the housing
1 known to the person skilled in the art taking into consideration that it must withstand
the forces acting on the fixation due to the pressure of the fluid to be dosed in
the pressure range the respective injection valve is designed to operate.
[0031] The manufacturing may then be finished in a step S7. It is preferred, however, that
in a subsequent step S9, the fluid injector is calibrated, in particular that the
thermal compensator is then calibrated. In order to make this calibration possible,
the housing preferably has the housing radial recess 35. The external ring body 37
is pushed onto the housing 1 in step S3. Whether this is done before the inlet fitting
45 is pushed onto the housing 1 or after that depends on whether a maximum outer diameter
of the inlet fitting 45 is larger than the outer diameter of the housing which is
relevant for pushing the external ring body 37 on the housing 1.
[0032] In the preferred embodiment, however, the external ring body 37 is pushed onto the
housing 1 prior to pushing the inlet fitting onto the housing 1. Preferably, also
the calibration ring is assembled with the internal ring body 29 and the external
ring body 37 prior to assembling the inlet fitting 45 and preferably even before the
thermal compensator housing part 19 and the piston 21 are assembled in the housing
recess 4. This enables to axially position the external ring body 37 precisely in
order to insert the calibration pin 33 into the internal ring radial recess 31. Preferably,
the calibration pin 33 is fixed in the internal ring radial recess 31 by a press fit
connection. It is also preferably fixed in the external ring recess 39 by a press
fit connection. It may, however, also be fixed in some other way known for being suitable
to a person skilled in the art. For example, it may be fixed by a screw connection.
[0033] In the step S9, the inlet fitting is connected to a fluid supply and is supplied
with fluid of a given pressure or a given pressure variation for the calibration process.
The axial position of the external ring body 37 is then varied in order to obtain
a given characteristic of the thermal compensator. For that purpose, the temperature
of the fluid injector may also be varied during the calibration process and/or the
amount of fuel to be dosed and/or actually dosed may be varied.
[0034] By varying the axial position of the internal ring body 29, a characteristic of the
thermal compensator unit is influenced by setting the pretensioning force of the thermal
compensator spring 27. In that way, also a calibration for the fluid dosing characteristic
of the fluid injector may be set. The characteristic of the thermal compensator may
therefore be representative for the characteristic of the fluid injector in view of
fluid dosing.
[0035] After the calibration process has been finished, the external ring body 37 is kept
in the respective axial position obtained during the calibration process and is fixed
in this axial position by fixing it to the housing, e.g. by laser welding or some
other sort of connection technique known to the person skilled in the art for this
purpose in a step S11. After step S11, no further axial movement of the external ring
body 37 is possible.
1. Fluid injector with a housing (1) comprising a housing recess (4) and a fluid duct
(2) both extending from one axial end of the housing (1) into the housing (1),
- an actuator unit (13) taken in the housing recess (4),
- a thermal compensator unit (17) taken in the housing recess (4),
- an inlet fitting (45) comprising a fluid supply connecting part (49) for connecting
the fluid injector to a fluid supply, the inlet fitting (45) being designed and fixed
to the housing (1) such that it sealingly closes the housing at the one axial end
of the housing (1).
2. Fluid injector according to claim 1, with the inlet fitting (45) comprising a cup
shaped part (47) being fixed to the housing (1) for closing the housing recess (4)
at the one axial end of the housing (1).
3. Fluid injector according to one of the previous claims with the thermal compensator
unit (17) being mechanically coupled to an internal ring body (29) arranged in the
housing recess (4) and influencing depending on its axial position in the housing
recess (4) a characteristic of the thermal compensator unit (17), an external ring
body (37) being arranged on the outside of the housing (1) and being mechanically
coupled to the internal ring body (29) in such a way that the respective axial positions
of the internal and the external ring body (29, 37) correlate to each other.
4. Fluid injector according to claim 1, with a thermal compensator unit (17) comprising
a piston (21) with a rod (23), the rod (23) being movable relative to the housing
(1) and comprising a first spring seat (25), and the thermal compensator unit (17)
further comprising a thermal compensator spring (27), resting with one free end on
the first spring seat (25), and with the internal ring body (29) forming a second
spring seat (30) for the thermal compensator spring (27).
5. Fluid injector according to one of the claims 3 or 4, with the internal ring body
(29) being mechanically coupled to the external ring body (37) by a calibration pin
(33) radially extending through a housing radial recess (35) in the housing (1).
6. Fluid injector according to claim 5, with the calibration pin (33) being coupled to
the internal ring body (29) and/or the external ring body (37) by a press fit connection.
7. Method for manufacturing a fluid injector according to one of the previous claims
comprising:
- assembling the actuator unit (13) and the thermal compensator unit (17) and the
internal ring body (29) in the housing recess (4),
- assembling the inlet fitting (45) on the housing (1), covering the housing recess
(4) and the fluid duct (2) at the one axial end of the housing (1), and
- sealingly fixing the inlet fitting (45) to the housing (1) such that it sealingly
closes the housing at the one axial end of the housing (1).
8. Method according to claim 7, comprising sealingly fixing the inlet fitting (45) to
the housing (1) comprising laser welding.
9. Method according to one of the claims 7 or 8, comprising after assembling the actuator
unit (13) and the thermal compensator unit (17) and the internal ring body (29) in
the housing recess (4):
- assembling the external ring to the housing on the outside of the housing,
- mechanically coupling the external ring body (37) to the internal ring body (29)
in such a way that the respective axial positions of the internal and external ring
body (29, 37) correlate to each other,
- varying the axial position of the external ring body (37) for calibrating the fluid
injector in view of a given characteristic of the thermal compensator unit (17) and
- fixing the external ring body (37) to the housing (1) preventing further axial movement
of the external ring body (37) after the calibration has been finished.