Borgwarner Inc.

Paul Freemantle

Keith B Cobb

Seongdo Hong

Dale N Smith

Joseph P Goodsell

Glenn E Swanson

Robert G Williamson

Adam C Hunt

Nicholas D Andrus

A hydraulic tensioner having a piston sliding around an outside surface of a pin or rod, so that the high pressure chamber for chain control is created by the area between the piston internal diameter and the rod outside diameter. A spring around the outside of the rod presses against the bottom of the piston, biasing the piston outward during low oil pressure conditions. Preferably, the piston is steel and the rod is aluminum, the reverse of prior art designs, which means that as temperature increases, the piston to bore clearance reduces. This can offset the oil viscosity reduction and maintain the same performance over operating temperatures.

Hydraulic tensioner

Hydraulic tensioner with external pin and ratchet mechanism

A hydraulic tensioner for an internal combustion engine for tensioning a span of a chain or a belt has a piston with an internal reservoir connected to a high pressure chamber through a check valve assembly. The check valve assembly has a disk seat formed by an internal bulge within the piston; a check valve retainer within the piston, and a moveable disk that is received between the disk seat formed by the internal bulge and the check valve retainer and is moveable between a first position and a second position, and a check valve spring that is received between the check valve disk and the check valve retainer.

Tensioner with piston containing an internal check valve

A clip lock for securing an expandable clip of a chain tensioner includes an elongated member having a first surface configured to engage an exterior surface of the chain tensioner and a second surface, spaced apart from the first surface, that is configured to engage the expandable clip and maintain the expandable clip in contact with an annular groove of a chain tensioner component preventing radially-outward expansion and axial movement of the expandable clip with respect to the chain tensioner component while the first surface engages that exterior surface of the hydraulic tensioner and the second surface engages the expandable clip.

Hydraulic tensioner expandable clip lock

A hydraulic tensioner () and method of manufacture can include a housing (), a piston () moveable from a retracted position toward an extended position with respect to the housing () in response to fluid pressure, and a tensioner spring () biasing the piston () toward the extended position. The hydraulic tensioner () can include a modular sleeve () supported by the housing () and defining an aperture () for slidably receiving the piston () and defining an expandable fluid chamber (). The housing () can provide a fluid passage () for fluid communication between the expandable fluid chamber () and a source of pressurized fluid. The housing () can have a seat () in fluid communication with the aperture (). An end () of the modular sleeve () can be seated with respect to a seat () of the housing () to seal the fluid passage ().

Weight and cost optimized carrier for modular hydraulic tensioner

A tensioner moves the flow restriction controlling the tensioner tuning to the nose of the piston through a hole ranging in cross sectional area from 0.01 mmto 1.1 mm. It also eliminates a component from the design of the tensioner. The piston hole geometry is one or a plurality of holes.

Growing community of inventors

Lansing, NY, United States of America

Paul Freemantle