Fuel injector nozzle
AssigneeInternational Engine Intellectual Property Company, LLC
InventorsAbhijit P. Upadhye, Josef Morell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fuel injector includes a needle moveable along a central axis to initiate and terminate an injection event, and a nozzle body that receives the needle. The nozzle body includes a needle seat, a nozzle sac, and a passageway between the needle seat and the nozzle sac. The passageway defines a passageway inner surface. The nozzle sac has a curved, non-spherical profile and defines a sac inner surface that extends away from a distal end of the passageway inner surface.
Claims15
A fuel injector comprising:
- a needle moveable along a central axis to initiate and terminate an injection event;
- and,
- a nozzle body that receives the needle, the nozzle body including a needle seat, a nozzle sac, and a passageway between the needle seat and the nozzle sac, the passageway defining a passageway inner surface, and the nozzle sac having a curved, non-spherical profile and defining a sac inner surface that extends away from a distal end of the passageway inner surface.
The fuel injector of claim 4, wherein each spray orifice defines an orifice axis, and each orifice axis intersects the central axis at a respective apex point, and wherein for an axial shift of the apex point of one of the orifice axes away from a nominal apex point location by an amount equal to about 65% of a spray orifice diameter (D), a variability of a length (L) of the respective spray orifice is less than about 4%.
A fuel injection system comprising:
- a source of fuel;
- a pump operable to pump fuel from the source of fuel;
- a fuel rail receiving fuel from the pump;
- and
- a fuel injector receiving fuel from the fuel rail, the fuel injector including
- a needle moveable along a central axis to initiate and terminate an injection event;
- and,
- a nozzle body that receives the needle, the nozzle body including a needle seat, a nozzle sac, and a plurality of spray orifices, each spray orifice having a first end that opens into the nozzle sac, and a second end that opens through an outer surface of the nozzle body, the nozzle sac having a curved, non-spherical profile when viewed in a cross section taken along the central axis.
A method of injecting fuel from a fuel injector, the method comprising:
- raising a needle away from a needle seat and thereby allowing high pressure fuel to flow between the needle and the needle seat and into a substantially cylindrical passageway;
- filling a nozzle sac having a curved, non-spherical profile with high pressure fuel;
- guiding high pressure fuel from the nozzle sac through a plurality of spray orifices;
- and
- injecting fuel from the spray orifices into one of an intake manifold and a combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.