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US 6,203,286 B1Granted
Electric fuel pump which is self-filling at low fuel levels in a fuel tank
AssigneePierburg GmbH
InventorsGunter Moll, Stefan Wolters, Stefan Kluth
Life of this patent
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AssigneePierburg GmbH
InventorsGunter Moll, Stefan Wolters, Stefan Kluth
Estimating the term…
An electric fuel pump mountable in a fuel tank for pumping fuel to an internal combustion engine. A casing of the fuel pump is mountable at a bottom wall of the fuel tank and has a fuel inlet at a lower end and a fuel outlet at an upper end so that the fuel is pumped upwardly through the casing. A vent valve is disposed at the top of the casing and is closed when the fuel pump is operating and opened when the fuel pump is deactivated. A conduit has one end connected to the vent valve and an opposite end which is open and located at a level in proximity to the bottom of the fuel tank so that when the fuel pump is deactivated the conduit serves as a suction passage to fill the casing when the fuel level in the fuel tank drops below the top of the casing to enable restarting of the engine without delay.
An electric fuel pump mountable in a fuel tank for pumping fuel to an internal combustion engine, said fuel pump comprising a casing mountable at a bottom wall of the fuel tank, said casing having a fuel inlet at a bottom thereof and a fuel outlet at a top thereof so that the fuel pump can pump fuel upwardly through the casing from said inlet to said outlet, a vent valve at the top of the casing which is closed when the fuel pump is operating to pump fuel and is opened when the fuel pump is deactivated, and a conduit defining a passage having one end connected to said vent valve and an opposite end which is open at a level in proximity to the bottom of the fuel tank so that when the fuel pump is deactivated fuel will be suctioned in said passage to said casing of the pump to facilitate pumping of the fuel when the pump is reactivated.
A method of preventing emptying of fuel in a fuel pump when the fuel pump is deactivated and a vent valve is opened, the fuel pump being mounted at the bottom of a fuel tank and pumping fuel upwardly from a fuel inlet at the bottom of the fuel pump to an outlet at the top of the fuel pump, the vent valve being located at the top of the fuel pump and being opened when the fuel pump is deactivated, said method comprising providing a suction passage connecting the vent valve to an outlet opening at an end of the suction passage which is located in proximity to said bottom of the fuel tank so that when the fuel pump is deactivated and the vent valve is opened, fuel is suctioned from the fuel tank through said passage into the fuel pump to facilitate pumping of fuel when the fuel pump is reactivated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.