VANE PUMP APPARATUS

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a vane pump apparatus. The disclosed vane pump apparatus comprises a housing having an outlet channel; a reservoir tank which stores working oil and which is coupled to the housing; and a vane pump installed inside the reservoir tank to discharge the compressed working oil to the outlet channel.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a vane pump apparatus and, more particularly, to a vane pump apparatus which includes a vane pump disposed inside a reservoir tank, thereby preventing an increase in manufacturing costs of the vane pump.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, vehicles and other apparatuses using hydraulic pressure are provided with a vane pump to supply hydraulic pressure.

A body of the vane pump is provided with a cam ring, a vane, and a rotor, which is coupled to a shaft rotated by a drive unit and is thereby rotated by the shaft.

When the rotor and the vane are rotated, hydraulic oil is suctioned into and compressed by the vane pump and is then supplied to a hydraulic line.

A reservoir tank for supplying the hydraulic oil to the vane pump is disposed independent of the vane pump and is connected thereto via a connection pipe. Alternatively, the reservoir tank may be directly mounted on the vane pump.

It should be noted that the above description is provided for understanding of the background art and is not a description of a well-known conventional technique.

DISCLOSURE

Technical Problem

Since a conventional vane pump is entirely or partially exposed to an atmosphere, a rubber sealing member is provided to the vane pump to prevent leakage of oil from the vane pump and it is necessary to overhaul the sealing member to prevent oil leakage from the vane pump, thereby increasing manufacturing costs of the vane pump. Therefore, there is a need for an improved vane pump which does not suffer from such problems.

The present disclosure is directed to solving such problems of the related art and an aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a vane pump apparatus that can prevent an increase in manufacturing costs relating to installation of a sealing member for preventing oil leakage from a vane pump, an increase in the difficulty of assembly resulting from the installation of the sealing member, and additional overhaul relating to oil leakage.

Technical Solution

In accordance with one aspect, a vane pump apparatus includes: a housing having an outlet channel; a reservoir tank coupled to the housing and receiving hydraulic oil; and a vane pump disposed inside the reservoir tank and discharging the compressed hydraulic oil to the outlet channel.

The housing may be a sidewall body or a motor housing.

The vane pump apparatus may further include a sealing ring between the housing and the reservoir tank to prevent leakage of the oil.

The vane pump may be formed at a front side thereof with a suction port, through which the hydraulic oil is suctioned into the vane pump, and a discharge port communicating with the outlet channel.

The vane pump may further include a suction connecting channel defined around the suction port and separated from the housing.

The vane pump apparatus may further include a valve housing, which is integrally formed with the vane pump and on which a relief valve is mounted.

Advantageous Effects

In the vane pump apparatus according to embodiments of the present disclosure, since a vane pump is disposed inside a reservoir tank, which accommodates hydraulic oil, in order to cope with any possible problem related to oil leakage from the vane pump, the vane pump may eliminate a sealing member, thereby reducing manufacturing costs through a decrease in the number of overhaul operations and components of the vane pump apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a vane pump apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a suction port and a discharge port of a vane pump of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an assembled perspective view of the vane pump apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side-sectional view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line A-A in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a side-sectional view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line B-B in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line C-C in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a front view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line D-D in FIG. 4, showing a front body of the vane pump apparatus; and

FIG. 8 is a front view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line E-E in FIG. 4, showing a side plate of the vane pump apparatus.

BEST MODE

Exemplary embodiments will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. For convenience of description, a vane pump apparatus designed to compress hydraulic oil though rotation of vanes will be illustrated herein. It should be noted that the drawings are not to precise scale and may be exaggerated in thickness of lines or sizes of components for descriptive convenience and clarity. Furthermore, the terms as used herein are defined by taking functions of the present disclosure into account and can be changed according to the custom or intention of users or operators. Therefore, definition of the terms should be made according to the overall disclosure set forth herein.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a vane pump apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment, FIG. 2 shows a suction port and a discharge port of a vane pump of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is an assembled perspective view of the vane pump apparatus of FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a side-sectional view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line A-A in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a side-sectional view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line B-B in FIG. 3, FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line C-C in FIG. 4, FIG. 7 is a front view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line D-D in FIG. 4, showing a front body of the vane pump apparatus, and FIG. 8 is a front view of the vane pump apparatus taken along line E-E in FIG. 4, showing a side plate of the vane pump apparatus.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the vane pump apparatus according to one embodiment includes a housing 70 defining an outlet channel 74 therein, a reservoir tank 1 coupled to the housing 70 and receiving hydraulic oil 90, and a vane pump 10 disposed inside the reservoir tank 1 and discharging the hydraulic oil 90 to the outside through the outlet channel 74 after compressing the hydraulic oil 90.

In one embodiment, the housing 70 may be a sidewall or a motor housing, which remains stationary. Here, it should be understood that any member may be used as the housing 70 so long as the member can be coupled to the reservoir tank 1 and store the hydraulic oil 90.

As shown in FIG. 4, the housing 70 is formed with the outlet channel 74 connected to a discharge port 84 of the vane pump 10 to receive the compressed hydraulic oil 90 and a hydraulic supply hole 72 connected to the outlet channel 74 to supply the hydraulic oil 90 to a hydraulic line.

In FIG. 1, the surface of the housing 70 coupled to the vane pump 10 is formed with fastening holes 77, to which fastening bolts 18 of the vane pump 10 are coupled, and the outlet channel 74 connected to the discharge port 84 of the vane pump 10.

Further, the housing 70 is provided with a shaft connecting hole 76 into which a shaft 80 of the vane pump 10 to be coupled to the housing 70 is inserted. The shaft 80 may be operated by a motor secured to a sidewall through the shaft connecting hole 76 or may be directly connected to the motor to be operated by the motor.

Alternatively, the shaft 80 may be connected to other power sources instead of the motor and may receive rotating power therefrom.

The reservoir tank 1 is coupled to the housing 70 to define a space in which the hydraulic oil 90 is stored, and may have a variety of shapes including a cylindrical shape.

The reservoir tank 1 is provided at one side thereof with a connection pipe 3, which defines a channel for receiving hydraulic oil 90 from outside.

A sealing ring 79 is disposed between the housing 70 and the reservoir tank 1 to prevent oil leakage. Advantageously, a mounting groove is formed on an outer surface of the housing 70 adjoining a side surface of the reservoir tank 1 such that the sealing ring 79 made of a resilient material is mounted on the mounting groove.

Interfaces between the housing 70 and the reservoir tank 1 may be formed with threads for fastening the housing 70 and the reservoir tank 1 to each other. The housing 70 and the reservoir tank 1 may be coupled to each other in a variety of other ways.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 6, the vane pump 10 includes a cam ring 50 having an inner surface of a major arc portion and an inner surface of a minor arc portion, a rotor 14 mounted inside the cam ring 50 and having guide grooves radially formed on the rotor 14, and a plurality of vanes 34 inserted into the guide grooves and moving along the inner surfaces of the cam ring 50.

The vane pump 10 is divided into a front body 60 and a rear cover 12 which are coupled to each other by the fastening bolts 18 and define an outer appearance of the vane pump 10.

Since the vane pump 10 is disposed in the hydraulic oil 90, a separate sealing member is not provided between the front body 60 and the rear cover 12.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the cam ring 50 accommodating the rotor 14 therein is mounted on an upper side of the front body 60, and a side plate 40, a leaf spring 32 and the rear cover 12 are sequentially mounted on the upper side of the cam ring 50 and the rotor 14.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the front body 60 constituting a front side of the vane pump 10 is formed with suction ports 82, through which the hydraulic oil 90 is suctioned into the vane pump 10, and the discharge port 84 which communicates with the outlet channel 74 to discharge the compressed hydraulic oil 90 to the outside.

A step is formed around the discharge port 84 and secured to the housing 70 while adjoining the housing 70 to allow the compressed hydraulic oil 90 to be supplied through the discharge port 84 which communicates with the outlet channel 74.

In the vane pump 10, since a step or protrusion is not formed around the suction ports 82 such that the suction ports 82 are separated from the housing 70 to thereby form a suction connecting channel 88, the hydraulic oil 90 in the reservoir tank 1 is easily introduced into the suction ports 82 of the vane pump 10 through the suction connecting channel 88.

The shaft 80 is rotated by a power source and is coaxially connected to the rotor 14, so that the rotor 14 and the vanes 34 are rotated when the shaft 80 is rotated.

As shown in FIG. 6, the cam ring 50 is formed in a ring shape and an inner surface thereof has an elliptic cylindrical shape, which has two major arcs and two minor arcs residing on orthogonal axes, respectively.

An inner surface of the cam ring 50 defining the minor arcs has a smaller diameter than an inn surface of the cam ring 50 defining the major arcs.

The cam ring 50 is formed with suction communication holes 52 communicating with the respective suction ports 82 of the front body 60 and with a discharge communication hole 54 communicating with the discharge port 84 of the front body 60.

A discharge path 86 is disposed between the cam ring 50 and the rear cover 12 to define a path through which a fluid flows from a pressure compartment 30 towards the discharge port 84.

As shown in FIG. 7, an inner surface of the front body 60 facing the rotor 14 is formed with two first discharge grooves 65, 65′ such that the discharge port 84 is connected to the first discharge groove 65′ located at one side of the inner surface of the front body 60.

The front body 60 is also formed on the inner surface thereof with two first suction grooves 66, 66′, which are respectively connected to the suction ports 82, to guide the hydraulic oil 90 into the vane pump 10.

As shown in FIG. 8, one side of the side plate 40 facing the rotor 14 is formed with second discharge grooves 42, 42′ and second suction grooves 43, 43′.

A connection hole 44 is provided to the second discharge groove 42 of the side plate 40 so that a portion of the discharged fluid flows to the pressure compartment 30 therethrough.

The leaf spring 32 is disposed between the side plate 40 and the rear cover 12 to define a space in the pressure compartment 30 while causing the front body 60, cam ring 50 and side plate 40 to come into close contact with one another by elastic force of the leaf spring 32.

The rear cover 12 of the vane pump 10 is integrally formed with a pipe-shaped valve housing 16, in which a relief valve 20 is integrally formed.

The relief valve 20 communicates with the pressure compartment 30, to which the fluid compressed by the vanes 34 is supplied, to maintain a preset hydraulic pressure in the pressure compartment 30.

The relief valve 20 includes a valve sheet 22 which is press-fitted into a rear side of the rear cover 12, a ball member 24 which prevents the compressed fluid from escaping upon rotation of the vanes 34, a retainer 26 which holds the ball member 24, a valve spring 27 which compresses the ball member 24, and an adjustment screw 28 which adjusts a compression force of the valve spring 27.

The adjustment screw 28 is formed with an outlet opening, so that the fluid in the relief valve 20 is discharged through the outlet opening and mixed with the hydraulic oil 90 inside the reservoir tank 1.

Fastening bolts 19 are inserted into the front body 60 through the rear cover 12 and prevent the side plate 40 and the cam ring 50 from rotating.

As such, the cam ring 50, rotor 14 having the vanes 34 mounted thereon, side plate 40, leaf spring 32 and rear cover 12 are sequentially coupled to the front body 60 to constitute the vane pump 10 according to the embodiment. However, it should be understood that other devices may also be disposed inside the reservoir tank 1 to compress the hydraulic oil 90 and employed as the vane pump 10 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure.

Next, operation of the vane pump apparatus according to the embodiment will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The vane pump 10 is coupled to the housing 70 by coupling the fastening bolts 18 of the vane pump 10 to the fastening holes 77 of the housing 70.

Here, the discharge port 84 of the vane pump 10 is secured to the housing 70 so as to communicate with the outlet channel 74 of the housing 70 and the suction ports 82 of the vane pump 10 are separated from the housing 70 to thereby facilitate introduction of hydraulic oil 90 from the reservoir tank 1 into the suction ports 82.

When rotating force is transmitted to the shaft 80 through the shaft connecting hole 76, the rotor 14 is rotated inside the cam ring 50 by rotation of the shaft 80.

The hydraulic oil 90 stored inside the reservoir tank 1 flows into the suction ports 82 of the front body 60 through the suction connecting channel 88 and is then supplied to suction regions S of the rotor 14 through the second suction grooves 43, 43′ of the side plate 40 via the first suction grooves 66, 66′ of the front body 60 and the suction communication holes 52 of the cam ring 50.

As the rotor 14 is rotated in the counterclockwise direction (see FIG. 6), the hydraulic oil 90 flowing into the suction regions S is compressed therein and is then discharged through discharge regions D of the rotor 14.

Specifically, the compressed hydraulic oil 90 in the first discharge groove 65′ and the second discharge groove 42′ communicating with the discharge port 84 is directly discharged into the discharge port 84 through the discharge communication hole 54.

The hydraulic oil 90 in the first discharge groove 65 and the second discharge groove 42, which do not directly communicate with the discharge port 84, flows into the pressure compartment 30 through the connection hole 44 and is then supplied to the discharge port 84 though the discharge path 86 disposed between the cam ring 50 and the rear cover 12.

The hydraulic oil 90 flowing into the outlet channel 74 along the discharge port 84 is conveyed to a hydraulic line through the hydraulic supply hole 72.

In the embodiment with the structure described above, the vane pump 10 is disposed inside the reservoir tank 1 to eliminate a sealing member for preventing oil leakage from the vane pump 10, thereby enabling a reduction in size and weight of the vane pump 10.

Further, periodic inspection for oil leakage from the vane pump 10 according to the embodiment is not necessary, thereby improving operability and reducing manufacturing costs thereof through simplification of an overhaul process.

Although some embodiments have been provided to illustrate the present disclosure in conjunction with the drawings, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these embodiments are given by way of illustration only and that various modifications, changes, and alternations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure should be limited only by the accompanying claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A vane pump apparatus comprising:

a housing having an outlet channel;

a reservoir tank coupled to the housing and receiving hydraulic oil; and

a vane pump disposed inside the reservoir tank and discharging the compressed hydraulic oil to the outlet channel,

wherein the vane pump is formed at a front side thereof with a suction port, through which the hydraulic oil is suctioned into the vane pump, and a discharge port communicating with the outlet channel, and

wherein a portion around the suction port is separated from the housing to define a suction connecting channel.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the housing is a sidewall body or a motor housing.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a sealing ring is disposed between the housing and the reservoir tank to prevent oil leakage.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the vane pump is integrally formed with a valve housing on which a relief valve is mounted.