Visteon Global Technolgoies, Inc.

Automotive Components Holdings, LLC

Joseph Grabowski

Dequan Yu

Stephen Thomas Kempfer

Paul Edward Fisher

Harold Lawrence Castle

Norman Nelson Krieger

A fuel pump is provided having improved efficiency by lowering the wet circle index of the pump while maintaining robust axial clearances to meet the demands of an automotive application. One embodiment includes a fuel pump for pressurizing fuel for delivery to an engine of a motor vehicle. The fuel pump generally comprises a housing, a motor, a single sided impeller, a cover and a body. The provision of a single sided impeller greatly reduces the wet circle index and improves the pump efficiency. The cover, impeller, and body are structured to axially balance the impeller which is free floating on the shaft of the motor.

Fuel pump having single sided impeller

A ring impeller includes a central hub with a first row of vanes extending from the hub and a second row of vanes extending from the hub adjacent to and staggered from the first row of vanes. The vanes in each row are grouped to form adjacent vane pairs and a partition wall is positioned between each of the vanes within the vane pairs. A rib extends radially from the hub in alignment with the partition wall and is positioned between each vane pair. The bottom thickness of the partition wall is the same thickness as the rib. The partition wall includes a reduced material area at its forward and rear edges. The vanes in the first row are unevenly spaced and the vanes in the second row are spaced equidistantly between the vanes in the first row. The spacing of the vanes in the first row may be about 70% to about 140% of a spacing equal to an equal spacing. Some of the vanes may have a height that is less than the height of other vanes.

Fuel pump impeller

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Grosse Ile, MI, United States of America

Joseph Grabowski