Walbro Corporation

Shawn Dill

Ronald H Roche

Peter P Kuperus

Tomoko Takano

A fuel pump module constructed to be disposed exteriorly of a vehicle fuel tank carries, as a single unit, an electric motor fuel pump and a pressure control device which controls the pressure of fuel delivered to an internal combustion engine from the fuel pump. Fuel supplied from the fuel tank to the module is drawn into the fuel pump which increases the pressure of the fuel and then discharges the fuel under pressure from an outlet of the fuel pump which communicates with the pressure control device carried by the module and an outlet of the module which in turn, communicates with the engine. The pressure control device may be either a pressure relief valve, which functions to limit the maximum pressure of the fuel delivered to the engine, or a fuel pressure regulator, such as a bypass pressure regulator, which bypasses to a point upstream of the fuel pump inlet fuel delivered from the fuel pump in excess of the engine's fuel demand. Mounting the pressure control device and fuel pump in a common module reduces the number of fuel lines in the fuel system and avoids the problems associated with return fuel systems which return heated, excess fuel from a hot fuel rail. Desirably, a fuel filter is provided at the fuel pump inlet and a foam shell is also disposed in the fuel pump module to reduce sloshing of the fuel and vibrations in the module and to permit a module to securely carry fuel pumps of different size. Thus, the fuel pump module according to this invention is versatile, compact and readily assembled into a wide variety of fuel systems.

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New Carlisle, OH, United States of America

Shawn Dill