Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Hiroshi Nishi

Hiroaki Kito

Masayuki Nakagawa

Kenichiro Kaneko

Tomohide Aoki

Yoshihiro Nagino

Joji Kasugai

Tomohiro Sugizaki

Shoji Horiba

Masahiro Ando

Hideo Watanabe

Hiroyuki Hagano

Naoki Mori

Keiji Miyoshi

Shoji Uhara

Yasuhiro Hasegawa

In a fuel cutoff valve, a casingincluding a valve chestis fastened to a cover memberthermally welded to an upper tank wall FTa of a fuel tank FT. A floatis located in the valve chestof the casing. The casinghas bottomed recessesformed as concaves in an outer circumferential wall of the valve chest, and vent holesprovided at respective bottom areas of the bottomed recesses. Each of the vent holesis a through hole of a small diameter, which is determined to be sufficient for ventilation of the fuel vapor in the valve chest. The vent holehas a short dimension by the depth of the bottomed recess

Fuel cutoff valve

A fuel shut-off valve includes a casing, an ascendable and descendible float, and an upper valve element, which is actuated by the float to open and close connector passage that communicates the inside of fuel tank with the outside, and which includes a valve body and a ring-shaped seat member. The ring-shaped seat member makes a connector bore, which communicates with the connector passage, therein, and includes a base, a holding portion, a seating portion, a lip-shaped portion, and a thin-film-shaped portion. The seating portion opens and closes the connector passage, and defines an opening of the connector bore. The lip-shaped portion seats on and separates away from the float, and defines the other opening of the connector bore. The thin-film-shaped portion is disposed between the base and the lip-shaped portion, and is deformable elastically upon being pressed by the float when the float seats on the lip-shaped portion.

Fuel shut-off valve

The fuel tank venting device is furnished with a full fuel control valve and a rollover valve that are installed on a fuel tank, and a fuel tank valve unit having a pressure valve that is situated between a canister and the two valves. The pressure valve is furnished with a casing that has a valve chamber, a valve body housed within the valve chamber, and a spring. The valve body has a disk-shaped valve part and a side wall that projects with tubular contours from the outside perimeter of the valve part, and has a cup shape defining a spring chamber that is bounded by the valve part and the side wall. The valve part is perforated by an orifice of smaller planar dimensions than the valve aperture.

Venting device for fuel tank

A fuel cutoff valve is provided with a casing that forms a valve chamber that is connected to a connection conduit, a float mechanism that is housed so as to be able to rise and fall in the valve chamber, and a spring that supports the float mechanism. The float mechanism is structured through an assembly of a first float body and a second float body, where the first float body is provided with a valve portion that opens and closes the connection conduit and provided with a storage chamber that is open on the bottom, where the second float body is housed in the storage chamber to be assembled into the first float body.

The fuel cutoff valve comprises a valve support on the upper part of the float, and the seat member is mounted on the valve support. The valve support has the bending space that has an inner diameter larger than the outer diameter of the seal part. The seat member is formed from a rubber material, has a side wall formed in a cylindrical shape from the outer periphery of the seat part and a stopper on the side wall, forming the mounting space by being formed in an almost a rectangle shape cross section, and being supported on the valve support by fitting the valve support on the mounting space. The seat part is elastically deformed in the bending space direction when set on the seal part and closes the connection path.

A flow control valve includes a housing, a valve element, a valve-element urger, a first valve, and a second valve. The first valve closes the communication between inlet and outlet openings of the housing gradually when the valve-element urger moves the valve element away from the inlet opening. The second valve opens the communication between the inlet and outlet openings when the valve-element urger moves the valve element away from the inlet opening. The first valve is opened, and the second valve is closed when a differential pressure between a pressure of the fluid on an inlet-opening side and a pressure of the fluid on an outlet-opening side is a predetermined value or less. The second valve opens the communication between the inlet and outlet openings instantaneously when the differential pressure is more than a predetermined value.

Flow control valve

A welding jointfor a fuel tank reduces the amount of fuel vapor in the fuel tank that escapes into the atmosphere. The fuel tank welding jointa joint main bodyand a barrier layer laminated on the surface of the joint main body. The joint main bodyis formed of a first resin material weldable to the wall of the fuel tank FT, and the barrier layeris formed of a second resin material that is adhesively and chemically reactive with the first resin material and that is more fuel-impermeable than the first resin material. An end portionformed so as to be exposed to the outside at the end of a tube portionis formed on the barrier layer. When the barrier layeris injection molded on the surface of the joint main body, the end portionis formed by the flow of the second resin material through the end of the tube portionto increase the adhesive strength of the end face where the parts are joined.

Manufacturing method of fuel tank welding joint

A fuel cutoff valve of the invention includes a casing body having a valve chamber and a holder element, a float having a seat member on its top, a movable valve element that is fitted in the holder element in a vertically movable manner, and a first connection conduit and a second connection conduit that connect inside of the valve chamber with outside. When the fuel level in a fuel tank rises to a preset first fluid level, the float moves up to shut off the first connection conduit. When the fuel level further rises to a preset second fluid level, the float further moves up to press the movable valve element up and shut off the second connection conduit. The fuel cutoff valve of this simple structure effectively prevents a blowing back flow of fuel in the course of fuel supply without requiring any subtle setting of a spring load.

A fuel cutoff valve has a casing main body, a first float having a smaller specific gravity than a fuel, a second float having a greater specific gravity than the fuel, and a spring. The first float has a float main body and a buoyancy body of a foamed resin. The first float's specific gravity therefore is smaller than the fuel's specific gravity. The first float rises by buoyancy to close a first connection conduit, when a liquid level in a fuel tank exceeds a first liquid level. The second float rises by buoyancy and pressing of the spring to close a second connection conduit, when the liquid level exceeds a second liquid level, higher than the first liquid level. The second float lowers to open the second connection conduit, when the liquid level becomes lower than the second liquid level but is still higher than the first liquid level.

In the fuel tank, a tank wall providing a tank chamber is formed by blow molding. A tank partition is disposed in the tank chamber. The tank partition is positioned in a direction substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the tank wall, and is clamped between the opposite inner surfaces of the tank wall. A functional component is attached to the tank partition.

Fuel tank and manufacturing method thereof

Disclosed is a valve being attached to a fuel tank, the valve permitting a vaporized fuel to flow out and inhibiting a liquid fuel from flowing out. The valve includes a cover and a case. For example, the cover is bonded to an upper portion of a fuel tank, is independent of the fuel tank, and includes a connecting surface to be connected to the fuel tank and a flow-out passage in which a vaporized fuel flows out. The connecting surface has a connector portion formed of a resin exhibiting a good bondability to the fuel tank. The case is screwed to the cover, and includes an evaporator opening and a floating valve. The evaporator opening communicates with the flow-out passage. The floating valve opens or closes the evaporator opening.

Valve attached to fuel tank

A fuel cutoff valve comprises a casing, a cover having a cover supporting part for supporting an upper part of the casing, an O-ring disposed on an outer periphery of the casing, and a seal holding member. The seal holding part is constituted by a member made of a material having a high degree of shape stability, such as a polyamide, into which glass fibers are added. Further, the seal holding part is thermally welded to a welding end of a cover inner layer made of a modified polyamide.

A fuel cutoff valve includes a full fuel control valve and an overfill prevention valve inside a casing. The overfill prevention valve is equipped with first and second floats. The second float is disposed in the storage chamber inside the first float of the full fuel control valve while being allowed to move up and down. The second float is configured such that a second connection conduit is closed by a second valve element as a result of a rising movement when the fuel level exceeds a second liquid level located above a first liquid level, and the second valve element is connected to a first connection conduit through a second connection conduit to reduce the force with which the first valve element of the first float is pressed against a first seat as a result of the fact that the fuel level has dropped below the second liquid level but is still above the first liquid level.

A fuel cutoff valve is mounted on an upper wall of a fuel tank to open and close a connection conduit, so as to connect and disconnect the fuel tank with and from outside. The fuel cutoff valve of the present invention includes a casing, a cup-shaped float, a bottom plate, and a cover. Both the cover and the casing swell in the liquid fuel. The cover is made of a first resin material, which has the greater fuel swelling property than a second resin material that is applied for the casing. The cover is accordingly expanded to a greater degree than the casing. A holder unit disposed on the casing increases the supporting force against a support member of the cover with the swell of the cover. The casing is thus securely held by the cover via the holder unit and is not movable against the cover under the swelling condition of the cover. The fuel cutoff valve of the present invention accordingly attains the stable valve opening and closing properties without any possible troubles due to the unsteady joint, for example, a lowered mechanical strength against shocks or a variation in opening and closing liquid levels of the fuel cutoff valve.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi-ken, Japan

Hiroshi Nishi