Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Timothy Michael Beadnell

Thomas Charles Meiller

Charles H Covert

Robert Augustine Zaso

Gordon R Paddock

Gordon Richard Paddock

Charles Henry Covert

A fuel vapor storage canister including a mass of carbon granules in a carbon bed chamber of the canister, a liquid trap having a polygonal internal chamber between a vapor inlet port and the carbon bed chamber, and a purge duct traversing the polygonal chamber. The polygonal chamber includes a plurality of three sides which define the gravitational bottom of the chamber in respective ones of a plurality of three orientations of the vapor storage canister. A pick-up tube in the polygonal internal chamber has an outboard end at the convergence of the aforesaid plurality of three sides and an inboard end surrounding an orifice in the vapor purge duct. The inboard end of the pick-up tube is vertically above the maximum level of liquid fuel in the polygonal internal chamber in each of the aforesaid plurality of three orientations of the vapor storage canister. A pressure gradient between the vapor purge duct and the polygonal internal chamber induces liquid fuel to flow through the pick-up tube and the metering orifice into the vapor purge duct.

Fuel vapor storage canister

A fuel vapor storage canister having a screen assembly between a mass of carbon granules in the storage canister and a purge port of the storage canister. The fuel vapor storage canister includes a cup-shaped plastic body defining a carbon bed chamber and a plenum in the canister body covered by the screen assembly. The screen assembly includes a pair of concentric cylindrical bosses around the plenum, a plastic foam screen over the plenum seated on a circular edge of each of the concentric cylindrical bosses, and a retainer having a plurality of flexible barbs and flexible reinforcements resiliently biased against opposite sides of the outermost one of the cylindrical bosses. Concentric circular segments of the plastic foam screen are compressed tightly between an annular planar side of the retainer and each of the circular edges of the concentric cylindrical bosses to positively prevent migration of carbon granules around the foam screen. The barbs prevent dislodgment of the retainer from the outermost one of the cylindrical bosses. The reinforcements protect the integrity of the retention of the barbs by preventing creep of the outermost one of the cylindrical bosses attributable to the forces exerted thereon by the barbs.

Vapor storage canister with foam screen retainer

A fuel vapor storage canister having a screen module between carbon granules in the canister and a purge port of the canister. The screen module includes a module body defining a plenum, a flat plastic foam screen seated on an uninterrupted edge of a raised boss on the module body around the plenum, and a retainer clamped to the module body over the flat foam screen. A tubular stem on the module body plugs into a socket in the storage canister. An interference fit between the tubular stem and the socket prevents migration of carbon granules between the socket and the tubular stem. The foam screen is exposed to the carbon bed chamber through a window in a planar side of the retainer which planar side, in a seated position of the retainer on the module body, cooperates with the uninterrupted edge of the raised boss in compressing a segment of the foam screen to define a seal around the window. Hooks on the module body cooperate with resilient loops on the retainer in maintaining the integrity of the seal around the foam screen by preventing release of the retainer from its seated position on the module body.

Growing community of inventors

Avon, NY, United States of America

Timothy Michael Beadnell