Sumitomo Riko Company Limited

Makoto Shimojo

Atsuo Miyajima

Kazuki Hatanaka

Tomoyuki Fukuyasu

Kazushige Sakazaki

Takayuki Kobayashi

Eunjin Park

The disclosure provides a refueling port capable of simplifying a structure for restricting rotation of a nozzle guide with respect to a refueling port body. One of the refueling port body and the nozzle guide includes guide ribs formed between an inner peripheral surface of a body cylinder portion and an outer peripheral surface of a guide cylinder portion to sandwich a reflux port in the circumferential direction, and guiding fuel vapor flowing in from the reflux port in a direction toward a filler pipe connection port. The other one of the refueling port body and the nozzle guide includes a locking portion formed between the inner peripheral surface of the body cylinder portion and the outer peripheral surface of the guide cylinder portion, and locked in both directions in the circumferential direction to the guide ribs to restrict relative rotation between the refueling port body and the nozzle guide.

Refueling port

A manufacturing process for filler tube includes: a workpiece arrangement step of arranging a workpiece onto an outer peripheral mold not only to axially lock a to-be-locked portion with respect to a locking portion but also so as to make the outer peripheral mold, which is set at a predetermined temperature, support a cylinder-shaped body of the workpiece on the outer peripheral face; and a flare-molding step of flare molding a flange by inserting an inner peripheral mold, which is set at a higher temperature than the predetermined temperature of the outer peripheral mold, into a to-be-molded portion on the inner peripheral side, and by relatively moving the outer peripheral mold and the inner peripheral mold in the axial direction to make a counter-welding-face forming portion and a welding-face forming portion clamp the to-be-molded portion between them in the axial direction.

Manufacturing process for filler tube

The resinous filler port includes: a filler-port body including a nozzle insertion port through which a filler nozzle is insertable, a fuel supply port supplying a fuel supplied from the filler nozzle to a fuel tank by way of a filler tube, and a vapor inlet port letting flow in vapors arising from the fuel and passing through a breather tube from a side of the fuel tank; a joint formed to penetrate through from one of opposite ends thereof to another one of the opposite ends, fitted undetachably into and around the vapor inlet port at the one of the opposite ends, and connected with the breather tube at the other one of the opposite ends; and a flow control valve accommodated inside the joint, and controlling a flow volume of the vapors flowing into the filler-port body from the breather tube.

Resinous filler port

A filler tube, which is capable of satisfying required functions suitably in compliance with the bellows and non-bellows cylindrical base while securing weld strength and fuel-permeation resistance property in the weld face, is provided. A filler tube includes a non-bellows cylindrical base with a total thickness of from 2 to 4 mm, a bellows with a total thickness of from 0.5 to 3 mm, and a flange having a total thickness of from 3.5 to 5 mm, and including an end face to be welded to a fuel tank. The non-bellows cylindrical base, the bellows, and the flange include inner layers formed so as to have a thickness accounting for from 40 to 60% of the total thicknesses, and formed of high-density polyethylene (or HDPE) serving as the major constituent, intermediate layers exhibiting fuel-permeation resistance property, and outer layers protecting the intermediate layers.

Growing community of inventors

Komaki, Japan

Makoto Shimojo