The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 25, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 07, 2000
John D. Crofts, Edinburgh, IN (US);
C. Edward Morris, Columbus, IN (US);
Donald J. Benson, Columbus, IN (US);
Cummins Engine Company, Inc., Columbus, IN (US);
Abstract
A fuel injector including a floating sleeve control chamber is provided which effectively minimizes friction and wear, and thus prevents stiction, of a nozzle valve element by avoiding the need to align two bore guiding surfaces for the element. The floating sleeve control chamber includes a floating sleeve positioned on a control piston formed integrally with a nozzle valve element and positioned in a cavity. The floating sleeve is sized with an outer extent or diameter sufficiently less than the size of a surrounding cavity wall so as to permit lateral movement of the floating sleeve and thus movement of the control chamber. Only the nozzle valve element guiding bore surfaces control the alignment of the nozzle valve element relative to its seat while the floating sleeve effectively forms and seals a floating control chamber. The floating sleeve may be formed from one or more sleeve sections. In addition, the floating sleeve may include one or more swivel joints to accommodate perpendicularity errors between the components.