Abstract: The atomizer is a cap-shaped shroud that contains a flat stamped metal insert. When assembled onto the nozzle of a fuel injector, the atomizer causes the insert to be axially sandwiched between the shroud's end wall and the exterior end of the nozzle. In the zone of sandwiching, the insert has circumferential discontinuities that in cooperation with the nozzle end and the shroud's end wall define air assist openings for the assist air to flow radially inwardly toward the injected fuel that has just been injected from the nozzle.

Abstract: The fuel injector has several swirl passages in a fuel swirl and needle guide member that direct swirl fuel onto the frusto-conical surface of a valve seat member that is disposed at the injector's nozzle end. The needle lift is such that with the needle unseated to open the injector to flow, the swirl fuel is throttled as it passes between the rounded tip end of the open needle and the frusto-conical surface of the seat member. The throttling tends to spread the swirl flow so that it is more uniform in the circumferential sense. If the injector is closed before equilibrium flow occurs, a toroidal shaped fuel cloud is created; if the injector is closed after equilibrium flow occurs, an ellipsoidal shaped fuel cloud is created.

Abstract: A fuel rail for a side- or bottom- fed injector wherein the rail contains conductors, and the injectors are connected to the conductors simultaneously with the insertion of the injectors into through-holes in the rail. The fuel rail is made by extruding material to a desired transverse shape, cutting the material and machinery transverse through holes in the extruded material.

Abstract: When the key-operated ignition switch is turned on, the electronic activation device, which contains a solid state deceleration sensor and crash data processing and diagnostic electronics, is energized so that it is on alert to give a deployment signal to the firing squib when a crash for which the airbag should be deployed is detected by the electronic activation device. When the ignition switch is turned off, the electronic activation device is disconnected from the battery so that it does not drain the battery, but the squib can still be fired by an associated electromechanical crash sensor. There are two circuits which employ these general principles in particular ways.

Abstract: A hydraulic engine valve actuator utilizes a highly thermally expandable material in the damping piston to control the damping of the piston when the engine valve is closing. The expandable material is retained in the upper piston and as the temperature of the hydraulic fluid increases, the material expands to extend a plunger into a passageway to restrict the flow of hydraulic fluid from one chamber to the other. In the preferred embodiment the thermally expandable material is paraffin wax. The extent of the extension of the plunger is approximately 4.0 mm.

Abstract: A plastic fuel rail that serves fuel injectors of an internal combustion engine has integral hose barbs that provide for the push-on connection of corresponding cross-over tubes. The hose barbs are protected against lateral impacts by integral guard walls extending from the fuel rail parallel to and spaced from the hose barbs. Several guard wall embodiments are disclosed.

Abstract: The fuel pressure regulator has a new and unique means for integrating the filter screen and axially capturing one of two O-rings seals. A crimp and a shoulder on the outlet tube unite the outlet tube, the housing, and a washer that in one embodiment performs both the function of sandwiching the filter screen between itself and the wall of the housing through which the outlet tube passes and the function of cooperating with the housing in defining the groove which captures one of the two O-ring seals. The invention offers meaningful improvements in both manufacturing and cost.

Abstract: Method for producing a low stress silicon oxynitride microstructure on a semiconductor substrate at temperatures not higher than 500.degree. C. The method is particularly adapted for forming integrated silicon sensors where the oxynitride microstructure is fabricated on a substrate under conditions which do not harm the integrated circuit electronics.

Abstract: The device has a generally cylindrical chamber with a fluid inlet in an end wall and a fluid outlet in the sidewall. Fluid introduced into the device via the inlet passes through a venturi before being discharged into the interior of the chamber. A curved baffle confronts the venturi's outlet and directs fluid along an arc toward the device's outlet.

Abstract: A multiple-runner intake manifold is constructed of upper and lower parts that fit together at a joint. The upper manifold is molded thermoplastic, and the lower part is molded phenolic. The lower part contains an integral fuel rail. The lower part contains a portion of each runner. Those portions are formed as separate through-passages during molding of the lower part in the cavity of a multi-part mold. The fuel passages are molded as through-holes some ends of which are subsequently plugged by closures and other ends of which receive fittings.

Abstract: A Helmholtz resonator is disposed interiorly of a gas-carrying conduit to attenuate noise passing through the conduit. The Helmholtz resonator encloses a volume that is communicated to the gas flow by a through hole in the wall of the enclosure. The conduit comprises two parts that telescopically snap together to capture the Helmholtz resonator.

Abstract: In a molded intake manifold/fuel rail, a through-passage for the conveyance of combustion air is created by disposing two separably engaged core parts of the mold to occupy the entirety of the through-passage during the molding process. After molded material has solidified, the core parts are separated in generally opposite, but non-colinear directions. During the molding process, one core part occupies the entire length of the through-passage along a certain circumferential extent of the through-passage while along another circumferential extent, both core parts conjointly occupy the entire length of the through-passage.

Abstract: A damping mechanism for a lost motion hydraulic actuator utilizes a thin edge orifice in cooperation with a communication passageway between the upper and lower chambers controls the damping of the upper piston on closure. The upper piston is operatively connected to the engine valve of an internal combustion engine. A communication port from the upper chamber to the communication passageway is closed off as the upper piston returns to its normal position forcing the flow of the hydraulic fluid through the thin edge orifice. In this manner the viscosity of the hydraulic fluid does not control the damping of the actuator and the noise factor is substantially reduced.

Abstract: A throttle body has telescopically engaged parts that allows it to be telescopically contracted for insertion into the induction system at assembly and then telescopically expanded to secure its installation.

Abstract: An electromagnetically operated fuel injector (10, 10') has an adjustment mechanism (84) that is effective to selectively position the solenoid coil assembly (26) in relation to the working gap (51) between the stator (28) and the armature (30) for the purpose of performing dynamic flow calibration.

Abstract: A fuel pressure regulator has one or more fuel-injector-receiving sockets directly attached to the cylindrical sidewall of its housing such that pressurized fuel in the fuel chamber portion of the housing flows directly into the socket(s).

Abstract: A fuel pressure regulator is disposed in a socket in a fuel rail and retained therein by means of a one-piece metal retention clip which has a flat forked blade portion that is inserted through a slot in the socket sidewall to span the socket in overlying relation to a flange extending around the outside of the cylindrical body of the pressure regulator so as to capture the pressure regulator in the socket and which also has a resilient body-clasping portion in the form of a pair of opposing spring fingers that are cantilevered on and spaced axially of the flat forked blade portion by means of a joining portion of the clip and that come to resiliently embrace the body of the pressure regulator as the forked blade portion comes to span the socket.

Abstract: The tank/canister volume's integrity against unacceptable leakage is either confirmed or denied by a diagnostic test performed by an on-board diagnostic system which includes an electrically operated air pump and a pressure switch. At the beginning of a test, the engine management computer closes the canister purge solenoid valve and operates the pump to begin pressurization of the tank/canister volume. Failure to build to a predetermined pressure indicates a gross leak. Upon attainment of the predetermined pressure, the pump is shut off by the operation of the pressure switch from one state to another. The pressure switch has hysteresis so that if the pressure falls below the predetermined pressure by a certain amount during the predetermined duration of the test, the pressure switch returns to its one state thereby giving a signal denying the integrity. Integrity is confirmed by the pressure switch remaining in its another state during the test.

Abstract: The actuating mechanism of a normally closed solenoid valve has a push pin, or plunger, that is acted upon by the solenoid's armature to unseat a spring-biased spherical ball from a valve seat when the solenoid is operated from de-energized to energized. The pin is disposed in the flow path through the valve and executes reciprocating axial motion as the solenoid is energized and de-energized. The pin is guided by a portion of the wall describing the flow path. The pin has a slender cylindrical core that is surrounded by a plastic sleeve that has been over-molded onto the core. Because it is slender, the metal core does not interfere with the solenoid's magnetic circuit that operates the armature. The sleeve has a nominally circular O.D. that provides for the close guidance of the pin's axial reciprocation, and it contains slots that provides flow channels for the fluid passing along the pin when the valve is open.

Abstract: Unfired ceramic tape is fired to a ceramic substrate during the laminar fabrication of a thick film force sensing element to provide the fabricated sensing element with a force sensing zone which is effective in response to the application of force thereto to induce strain in the fired ceramic tape. A conductor and thick film resistor system is printed and fired to the tape during the fabrication process to provide the fabricated sensing element with an electrically detectable signal correlating with the induced strain. Accelerometer and pressure sensor embodiments are disclosed. The invention is well-suited for the commercial mass-production of sensing elements, such as for automotive vehicle usage, because it can practiced through the use of automated production processes.