Abstract: A fuel injector having an arrangement to stabilize the temperature of its components within an engine cylinder in a direct injection application. The fuel injector includes a body, an armature, a needle, a swirl generator, and a seat. The body has an inlet portion, an outlet portion, a body passage, extending from the inlet portion to the outlet portion along a longitudinal axis of the fuel injector. The armature is located proximate the inlet portion of the body, and is operatively connected to the needle. The needle is provided with a substantially uniform cross-sectional area, and the body is selected to surround the needle and form a body passage that has an average cross-sectional area less than two times the substantially uniform cross-sectional area of the needle.

Abstract: A fuel injector having an arrangement to stabilize the temperature of its components within an engine cylinder in a direct injection application. The fuel injector includes a body, an armature, a needle, a swirl generator, and a seat. The body has an inlet portion, an outlet portion, a body passage, extending from the inlet portion to the outlet portion along a longitudinal axis of the fuel injector. The armature is located proximate the inlet portion of the body, and is operatively connected to the needle. The needle is provided with a substantially uniform cross-sectional area, and the body is selected to surround the needle and form a body passage that has an average cross-sectional area less than two times the substantially uniform cross-sectional area of the needle.

Abstract: A metering assembly for a fuel injector having multiple orifice plates is disclosed. The metering assembly includes a valve body, a seat, a needle and a multi-layer orifice plate assembly. The valve body has an inlet, an outlet and a longitudinal axis extending therethrough. The seat is disposed proximate the outlet and includes a passage having a sealing surface and an orifice. The needle is reciprocally located within the housing along the longitudinal axis between a first position wherein the needle is displaced from the seat, allowing fuel flow past the needle, and a second position wherein the needle is biased against the seat, precluding fuel flow past the needle. The multi-layer orifice plate assembly is located at the housing outlet and includes a first orifice plate having a plurality of first openings extending therethrough. The orifice plate assembly further includes a second orifice plate having a plurality of second openings extending therethrough.

Abstract: The present invention provides a valve assembly including a housing, an armature, an armature bias spring, a needle, and a seat. The valve assembly housing has an inlet, an outlet, and an axially extending passageway from the inlet to the outlet along a longitudinal axis. The armature is disposed within the passageway. The armature has an armature passage including a first portion and a second portion. The first portion has a first cross-sectional area. The second portion has a second cross-sectional area. The first cross-sectional area of the first portion is greater than the second cross-sectional area of the second portion. The armature bias spring is disposed within the first portion of the armature passage. The needle is disposed within the second portion of the armature passage. The seat is located proximate the outlet. The flow restrictor is disposed between the first portion and the second portion of the armature passage of the armature.

Abstract: A fuel injector has a swirl plate about a valve assembly, including a valve seat with an orifice and a valve pin. When the valve is opened, the fuel is swirled by the swirl plate for passage through the orifice. The orifice has a portion which is angled relative to the axis of the injector to provide a conical swirling spray pattern having a conical spray axis angularly related to the axis of the injector. In another form, the orifice is on-axis with the injector and receives a bent tube having an upstream on-axis portion and a downstream angled portion to direct the swirling conical spray at an included obtuse angle relative to the axis of the injector.

Abstract: A compact injector armature valve assembly for a fuel injector allowing the O-ring to O-ring spacing to be reduced. The armature valve assembly is a cylindrical hollow magnetic piece, with a narrow necked down portion to act as the receiving end for a ball, which is directly attached to the necked down portion. The attachment of the necked down portion by means of crimping or chemical bonding above the mid-point of the ball allows the strengths of a pivot style guidance scheme to be used.

Abstract: An engine fuel injection system includes a conventional fuel rail with a top feed fuel injector connected thereto. The overall length of the injector is able to be shortened by the application of compact fuel inlet filter mountings in which a well (deep cup) shaped filter element is positioned to overlap one or both of (1) an adjusting tube within the injector body and (2) a space between the end of the injector fuel inlet tube and the interior of the associated fuel rail. The filter may be fixed within the injector to the adjusting tube or the inlet tube or may be fixed externally of the injector to the fuel rail. Various exemplary embodiments are shown and described.

Abstract: A low cost method for manufacturing and aligning the upper and lower guide members in a fuel injector reduces manufacturing cost and improves durability. The method teaches the use of an alignment tool to axially align both guide members before the guide members are rigidly secured to the valve body of the injector. The dimensional tolerances on the guide members are loose with the sole exception of the alignment aperture which is closely held.

Abstract: A bottom feed engine fuel injector is provided with a valve spring calibration adjuster such as an adjusting tube, which permits fuel flow from the top of the injector during manufacturing calibration and run in. The upper end of the injector is capped in the last manufacturing step after calibration to prevent fuel passage through this opening in normal engine use where bottom fuel feed is used in conventional fashion. Several exemplary adjusters and top feed closing embodiments are illustrated and described. The modified injector structure and manufacturing process reduces costs by allowing both top and bottom feed injectors to be assembled and calibrated on the same manufacturing equipment.

Abstract: A non-ferromagnetic member is disposed between, and joined to, a ferromagnetic fuel inlet tube and a ferromagnetic valve body structure. The valve body structure is fitted to the non-ferromagnetic member by telescoping the upper axial end of the valve body structure over the O.D. of the lower end of the non-ferromagnetic member and by guiding the armature on a cylindrical guide surface in a bore of the valve body structure at a location that is axially below the axial location where the upper end of the valve body structure and the lower end of the non-ferromagnetic member telescopically engage. For given part tolerances and given tolerances in tooling that is used to assemble the parts, closer tolerance in parallelism of the impacting armature end surface to the impacted fuel inlet tube end surface is obtained.

Abstract: A non-metallic overmold covers the solenoid and an adjoining portion of a valve body shell, leaving another portion of the valve body shell exposed. This exposed portion contains a circumferential groove in its outside surface that is held by a portion of a mold that molds the cover. This prevents the inside surface of the valve body shell from having to be contacted.

Abstract: An electromagnetically operated fuel injector has a dynamic flow calibration mechanism in which a control rod that extends between and enters holes in both the stator and the armature is selectively positioned to divert some of the magnetic flux from the axial working gap between the stator and the armature such that the diverted magnetic flux passes through the control rod directly between the stator and the armature without passing through the working gap. A non-magnetic tube is disposed between the control rod and the stator and armature holes. The portion of that tube which is within the stator hole is joined to the stator while the portion which is within the armature hole provides guidance for the armature. In a bottom-feed version of fuel injector the tube also serves to prevent fuel within the injector from wetting the control rod.

Abstract: The collared sphere is a separate part that is assembled into the valve during the assembly process. A resilient spring disc acts through the collar on the sphere to hold the sphere in abutment with the tip end of the armature as the armature reciprocates to open and close the valve. The disc is also a separate part that is assembled into the valve during the assembly process. The outer margin of the disc is supported on a raised ledge without attachment thereto while the sphere fills slightly less than a central circular void in the disc whose diameter is less than that of the sphere. The valve seat is frustoconical, and the disc acts through the collar to maintain the sphere at least approximately concentric with the seat so that when the valve is operated closed any misalignment of the sphere to the seat is taken out by the camming action of the seat on the sphere as the valve closes.

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: The nozzle of a fuel injector is constructed to have a seat member and a single thin disc orifice member. A guide member affixed to the seat member guides the injector needle toward the seat in the seat member as the needle is reciprocated within the injector by pulsing the injector solenoid. Fuel is conveyed past the guide member by holes that are spaced radially outwardly from the central hole which guides the needle and that are skewed to the injector axis. As fuel passes through these skewed holes, it acquires angular momentum. The effect of this angular momentum is to increase the divergence of the column of fuel that is emitted by the single thin disc orifice member.

Abstract: An electromagnetic fuel injector has a raised seat with which the needle tip coacts to open and close the injector as the injector is operated. The raised seat has an annular transverse seating surface surrounding a hole through the seat member. The hole through the seat member has a frusto-conically shaped surface immediately contiguous the annular seating surface, and the tip of the injector needle is conically shaped. The cone angle of the needle tip is greater than the cone angle of the frusto-conically shaped hole in the seat member, and the needle tip and the annular transverse surface of the seat are almost parallel so that the needle tip seats on the annular transverse surface of the seat at the rim of the frusto-conically shaped hole when the injector closes. The seat is softer than the needle so that the seal is initially good and becomes better as the injector is operated.

Abstract: An electromagnetic fuel injector is calibrated for dynamic flow by creating a blind hole in a stationary pole piece passing through the solenoid coil. The blind hole can be created by drilling, or by partially filling a pre-existing hole.