Abstract: A testing fixture for use on a thruster machine for the purposes of testing ball and tube supplemental inflatable sensors for use in air bag applications for motor vehicles. The fixture is fabricated from light weight materials and has clamp 30 fabricated from resilient materials so as to locate and holding the sensors in place. Pneumatic tightening provides a torquing limit on the clamp to ensure that the desired clamping force is maintained regardless of the wear of the clamp 30.

Abstract: Tabs and slots are provided on a fuel injector and a fuel rail respectively to provide for the injector to be installed in a transverse through-hole in the fuel rail by circumferentially registering the tabs with the slots, inserting the injector into the through-hole to a predetermined depth, and then twisting the injector about its own axis to remove the tabs from their insertion registry with the slots and cause the injector to become axially captured in the through-hole by the tabs being axially captured within circumferential extensions of the slots that are cooperatively axially defined by a shoulder in the through-hole and an overhang.

Abstract: An absorber is position on the back or opposite side of a solenoid to receive the kinetic energy of the armature. The energization of the solenoid attracts the armature to the solenoid core and upon striking the core, the kinetic energy of the armature is transferred through the core and to the absorber. The absorber is launched into flight for the purposes of dissipating the kinetic energy and returns to rest on the core without effecting the movement of the armature. The absorber dissipates the kinetic energy by transferring it to a spring means and also may dissipate the energy by means of viscous damping or the flow of fluid from one side of the absorber to the opposite side.

Abstract: A multi-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: The fuel supply system of an internal combustion engine delivers liquid fuel to electrically operated fuel injectors by means of an electric pump whose output pressure is regulated by control electronics which receives as feedback from a pressure sensor connected into a fuel delivery passage serving the injectors a signal representing the pressure differential between manifold absolute pressure (MAP) and absolute pumped fuel pressure. The pressure sensor has a movable wall that divides its interior into an intake manifold pressure sensing chamber space communicated to the engine intake manifold and a fuel pressure sensing chamber space communicated to the fuel delivery line to the injectors. A magnet is mounted on a central region of the movable wall to transmit a signal to a Hall-effect sensor mounted within the intake manifold pressure sensing chamber space. The feedback pressure signal is derived from the Hall-effect sensor sensing the position of the magnet, and hence that of the movable wall.

Abstract: An electrical connector for connecting electric wiring to a mating connector of a fuel-rail-mounted electric-operated fuel injector. The connector and the fuel rail have integral formations that serve to assure circumferential orientation of the injector in a socket of the fuel rail and to axially capture the injector in the socket. A snap-catch mechanism releasably locks the connector to the injector and is provided by further integral formations on the wiring connector and the injector connector. In this way, extra attaching parts are not required. The fuel rail assembly has a lower profile which is advantageous from the standpoint of engine compartment packaging in an automotive vehicle.

Abstract: A number of electrically-operated fuel injectors are mounted in a fuel rail assembly, and electrical circuit connections to the injectors are provided by an electrical connector which contains a flexible strip onto a lengthwise edge of which are disposed electrical outlet terminals for making connection of individual conductor paths on the strip to the individual injectors. Electrical inlet terminals are also disposed on the strip to provide for connection to a source of signals for operating the injectors.

Abstract: Bayonet lugs and bayonet slots are provided on a fuel injector and a fuel rail respectively to provide for the injector to be installed in a transverse through-hole in the fuel rail by circumferentially registering the lugs with the slots, inserting the injector into the through-hole to a predetermined depth established by an abutment stop which is sufficient to allow the lugs to pass through the slots, and then twisting the injector about its own axis to remove the lugs from their insertion registry with the slots and cause the injector to become axially captured and correctly indexed in the through-hole.

Abstract: A pulse width modulated solenoid-actuated valve and a vacuum-actuated valve for cooperatively associated such that the purge system possesses both accurate control at low purge flows and the capacity for handling much higher flows. The two valves are in parallel paths between the canister and the manifold. Below a certain duty cycle of the solenoid-actuated valve, only its path is open. At higher duty cycles, both flow paths are open. An orifice is provided in the flow path containing the solenoid-actuated valve so that as this valve increasingly opens, a vacuum signal at a tap between the orifice and the solenoid-actuated valve also increases. This vacuum signal is applied to a control port of the vacuum-actuated valve to cause the latter to open upon attainment of a certain flow through the solenoid-actuated valve.

Abstract: An electromagnetic valve for fuel injection into the suction pipe of combustion motors. The valve features a tilt-armature of very low mass. The valve is mounted in a plastic housing and can therefore be inexpensively manufactured. The valve can also be adapted to be a three-way valve. In addition, the valve can be equipped with a mono-stable polarized magnetic circuit.

Abstract: A metal end cap for a high pressure fuel injector prevents leakage of fuel as a result of high pressures within the injector. The terminals for the solenoid are insulated from the cap by means a plurality of insulating spacers on either side of a high pressure O-ring seal. The metal end cap is sealed by means of a high press O-ring seal from the body of the injector.

Abstract: A solenoid valve that is to be used to control flow of a liquid medium is tested in a test fixture which applies a leak test, a flow test, and a response test using a gas as a test medium. The test results are compared with a test specification that has been previously derived from an established correlation of tests using gas as a test medium versus liquid as a test medium. The invention enables the valves to be tested with gas instead of liquid.

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.

Abstract: A metal tube, such as an inlet, outlet, return, or cross-over tube, is connected to a non-metallic fuel rail by means of a tubular sleeve that has one axial end embedded in the fuel rail coaxial with the hole with which the tube is in communication and its other axial end non-embedded. Non-metallic fuel rail material lines the interior of the sleeve from the innermost point of its embedded end to a point that stops short of the outermost point of its non-embedded end. The tube is sealed to this liner, and is prevented from coming out by a retainer, such as a crimp, retention ring or snap ring, that extends radially from the sleeve to overlap a flange that extends around the outside of the tube. The sleeve constitutes an insert onto which the fuel rail is molded during the process of fabricating the fuel rail. A plug of the mold closes off the outer end of the sleeve during molding.

Abstract: The flow restrictor is a unitary one-piece element that can be fabricated from either metal or plastic by casting or molding. In use, it is press fitted into a bore in a solenoid valve body to provide a certain restrictive effect. It has a circular cylindrical central core that has a series of flanges that are axially spaced by gaps. Each flange has a circular outer edge that is interrupted by at least one axially extending through-notch. These notches are arranged to provide a tortuous path for the fluid flow, and sized to create a desired restriction. The restrictor provides two parallel flow paths, one, the tortuous path just described, and two, a through-hole through the core of the restrictor.

Abstract: The throttle blade is made to have a resilient outer margin whose outside diameter is circular and essentially equal to the diameter of the throttle bore within which the blade is disposed. The blade can maintain control even at engine idle. Several embodiments of throttle blade are disclosed. In one, an elastomeric seal is insert-molded onto the main blade body; in another, the seal is a multitude of short bristles; in still another, it is a stamped polytetrafluoroethylene part. There is also a special construction for assembling the shaft.

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 method of making an electric motor which eliminates the need for a separate endplay adjustment wherein permanent magnets act on the armature laminations to urge the motor shaft in one direction so that the entire endplay appears at only one end of the shaft.

Abstract: Fuel rail assemblies for supplying fuel to injectors of internal combustion engines include mounting structure to integrally mount a fuel pressure regulator. An annular chamber, in fluid communication with the fuel passageway of the fuel rail, is defined between a mounting section of the fuel rail and a lower housing portion of the regulator. Apertures in the lower fuel rail housing portion thus allow fuel to flow into the regulating chamber of the fuel regulator from the defined annular chamber. In some preferred embodiments, the integral mounting structure includes a mounting cup having an upper cup section and a lower tail section for receiving a fuel pressure regulating and thus regulate upstream fuel pressure within the fuel rails. Fluid communication is established between the fuel rail and the cup section of the mounting cup while fluid isolation between the cup and tail sections of the mounting cup is established by suitable seal structures.

Abstract: EGR is controlled by a valve whose actuator is a moving electromagnetic coil through which control current representing the desired degree of valve opening is conducted. The coil is disposed in an air gap of a magnetic circuit such that the magnetic flux passes radially through the coil. A coil spring biases the valve closed when there is no current flow through the coil. When control current is conducted through the coil, there is an interaction with the magnetic flux causing the exertion of an electromagnetic force on the coil against the spring force. Relative pressure acting on opposite sides of the valve will assist the coil motion. As a result the coil moves in a direction to increasingly compress the spring until the spring force balances the electromagnetic force. Consequently the valve is opened in an amount proportional to the control current. The motion of the coil is also electromagnetically damped, and a position sensor provides a feedback signal of the valve position.