Vent control valve for a fuel tank
AssigneesNifco Inc., Yachiyo Industry Co., Ltd.
InventorsToru Matsuzaki, Takatsugu Hirose, Motoharu Takai, Itsuo Honda
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a vent control valve for a fuel tank, a housing receiving a float assembly therein is provided with a communication hole passed across a wall of the housing, and an opening of the communication hole facing an interior of the housing is directly exposed to an interior of the housing when the float assembly is in a low position and overlaps with a peripheral wall of the float assembly when the float assembly is in a high position. By suitably selecting the size of the communication hole and/or the number thereof, a desired delay in the dropping of the liquid fuel level in the housing following the filling up of the fuel tank can be achieved. Thereby, overfilling of the fuel tank can be avoided.
Claims8
A vent control valve for a fuel tank, comprising:
- a cylindrical housing extending vertically, and configured to be attached to an upper wall of the fuel tank, the housing having an open lower end and a closed upper end defining a port communicating an interior of the housing with an external part of the fuel tank;
- a float assembly received in the housing and guided for a vertical movement therein, defining a prescribed gap between an outer profile of the float assembly and an inner circumferential wall of the housing;
- and
- a valve member provided in an upper part of the float assembly to close the port of the cylindrical housing when the float assembly has floated to a prescribed height;
- wherein the cylindrical housing is provided with a communication hole passed across a wall of the housing, an opening of the communication hole facing an interior of the housing being directly exposed to an interior of the housing when the float assembly is in a low position and overlapping with a peripheral wall of the float assembly when the float assembly is in a high position, wherein a plurality of vertically extending ribs are provided on an inner circumferential surface of the housing to guide the float assembly for a vertical movement, and wherein at least one of the ribs is provided with a laterally enlarged portion, the communication hole being passed across a thickness of the lateral enlarged portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.