Abstract: An air assist fuel injector wherein a shroud member is snapped on the outside of the valve body to provide a path for assist air to atomize the fuel exiting the injector. Located on the bottom surface of the shroud is a belleville washer to preload air deflection disks against the bottom of the valve body. Snap-on connectors cooperate with the valve body to locate and retain the shroud to the valve body.

Abstract: A filter is disposed internally of the fuel injector between the inlet and the internal valve so that particulate material having an internal origin may also be prevented from reaching the injector's valve. The filter is an electroformed screen that is supported within the fuel injector's nozzle end and is sandwiched against an internal shoulder of the fuel injector.

Abstract: A composite valve body of a fuel injector comprises a dead air space for improving hot fuel handling performance. This space is cooperatively defined by a circumferential groove in the O.D. of a metal valve body and a nylon sleeve that is pressed onto the metal valve body to enclose the groove.

Abstract: A fuel injector has a thin disc orifice member through which fuel exits the injector for entrainment with combustion air. The thin disc orifice member has a centrally disposed dimple that contains the orifice pattern. The orifice pattern is asymmetrical about the axis of the dimple thereby enabling the injector to be tilted to a desired orientation for directing the stream from each orifice of the pattern toward a desired target zone. The ability to tilt a fuel injector in this manner enables a fuel injector to be disposed in the most favorable orientation with respect to the engine, for example reducing the protrusion height of the fuel injector above the engine.

Abstract: A fuel injector comprises a tip end containing a flat planar orifice member that is sandwiched between a seat member and a flow director member. The thin disc orifice member contains a pair of metering orifices that receive fuel that has been allowed to pass through the seat member by virtue of the unseating of the injector needle. The fuel is emitted from the metering orifices as two parallel streams that are parallel to the injector centerline. The flow director member contains a pair of holes having wall portions arranged to cause the flow streams to be emitted from the injector tip as two streams that diverge from the injector centerline without any additional influence on the metering.

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.