Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Delphi Technologies, Inc.

Gary Ray Minnis

Tom Cheuk-In Wong

Albert Cheuk-Yin Wong

Johnny M Paris

John L Stiles

A vane pump includes a cylindrical rotor rotatable inside of an oval-shaped rotor chamber defined by a cam ring around the rotor. A thrust plate and a pressure plate on opposite sides of the cam ring cover the rotor chamber and are squeezed together by a pressure force attributable to fluid in a discharge chamber of the vane pump at a discharge pressure thereof. A first thrust face of the thrust plate is pressed against an end wall of a cavity of a pump housing in which the components are installed. Fluid at the discharge pressure is ported to one or more balance chambers between the thrust plate and the end wall of the housing. The balance chambers are defined by a gasket received in a groove of the first thrust face. Fluid at the discharge pressure within the balance chamber balances a fraction of the pressure force on the thrust plate on an opposite second thrust face thereof attributable to fluid discharged from a rotor chamber in which the rotor operates, in order to place the thrust plate in axial static equilibrium.

Vane pump

A flow control valve has a slidable valve member and a variable orifice structure. The valve member slides in response to a pressure differential, created by fluid flow through the variable orifice, to bypass fluid in a positive displacement pump. The variable orifice is a self-contained unit including a longitudinally movable pin having a variable cross section disposed in an aperture. The pin position in the aperture controls the size of the orifice and thereore imposes a flow restriction which creates the pressure differential. The flow control valve is useful with power steering hydraulic pumps and systems where it is desirable to reduce the amount of hydraulic fluid which is delivered to the steering mechanism when the pump input speed exceeds a predetermined value.

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Saginaw, MI, United States of America

Gary Ray Minnis