CN116572733A - Fuel tank with embedded accessories and process manufacturing method of fuel tank - Google Patents

Abstract

The application discloses a fuel tank with an embedded accessory and a process manufacturing method of the fuel tank, wherein the embedded accessory comprises a joint main body and a disc-shaped part formed at the tail part of the joint main body, an attachment part is formed on a rear disc surface of the disc-shaped part, the attachment part gradually expands in the axial direction of the rear disc surface, so that a first embedding area for embedding thermoplastic materials is defined between the attachment part and the rear disc surface, and after the thermoplastic materials are embedded and cooled, the embedded accessory is combined with the fuel tank body. The attachment part is constructed on the disc-shaped part of the embedded accessory, so that the embedded accessory can be combined with the oil tank body at the outer side of the oil tank body.

Description

Fuel tank with embedded accessories and process manufacturing method of fuel tank

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of fuel tank manufacturing, in particular to a fuel tank and a process manufacturing method of the fuel tank.

Background

Conventional fuel tanks are formed by stamping metal plates, which results in the formed fuel tank having the disadvantages of excessive weight and excessive manufacturing cost.

Currently, fuel tanks with low strength requirements are formed from non-metallic plastic materials, for example, plastic materials, and there are two molding processes in the prior art.

An injection molding process comprises the following steps: a mold is used for defining a cavity for forming the wall of the fuel tank, liquid thermoplastic material is injected into the cavity, two half shells of the fuel tank are formed after the material is cooled, and then the two half shells are fused together by a hot melting process. The disadvantages of this molding process are: the thickness of the wall of the manufactured fuel tank is large, the strength of the wall is low, shrinkage porosity, shrinkage cavity defects and the like are easy to occur on the wall, and if shrinkage porosity and shrinkage cavity occur, the fuel tank is scrapped. The molding process has the advantages that: it is convenient to combine pre-buried accessories such as fittings made of metal material with the fuel tank body, for example, when injection molding, part of the structure of the pre-buried accessories is combined with liquid thermoplastic material.

And (3) film blowing process: two plate-shaped thermoplastic parts are clamped between two molds, the two molds enclose a cavity which is consistent with the shape of a fuel tank, then, blowing air is carried out between the two thermoplastic parts by using a blowing needle so as to force the two parts to deform and expand, and then, the two parts are extruded on the inner wall of the mold by air, so that the fuel tank is formed. The fuel tank manufactured by the molding process has thinner wall and higher strength, and does not have the defects of shrinkage porosity, shrinkage cavity and the like. The disadvantages of this molding process are: the pre-buried accessory is not easy to combine with the fuel tank.

When manufacturing a fuel tank by a film blowing process, the prior art generally combines pre-buried accessories with the fuel tank in the following manner:

the method comprises the steps of blowing air between two plate-shaped thermoplastic components by using a blowing needle, enabling the two thermoplastic components to deform once, forming a certain accommodating space between the two thermoplastic components at the moment, opening the two dies, arranging the embedded accessory to be combined in the accommodating space, enabling the head of the embedded accessory to penetrate through the thermoplastic components, closing the dies again, and performing secondary air blowing between the two thermoplastic components by using the blowing needle, so that the fuel tank is finally molded, combining the embedded accessory with the fuel tank in the molding process, and forming a joint of the embedded accessory outside the fuel tank. From the above, it is known that in order to combine the pre-buried accessory with the fuel tank, on the one hand, the mold needs to be opened during the film blowing process, and on the other hand, the pre-buried accessory needs to be disposed between two thermoplastic members and needs to pass through the thermoplastic members. Therefore, the combination mode has the defect of complex manufacturing process, and the defect of easy air leakage between the accessory part and the thermoplastic part in the secondary air blowing process, and the positioning of the embedded accessory is inaccurate.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the technical problems in the prior art, the embodiment of the application provides a fuel tank and a process manufacturing method of the fuel tank.

In order to solve the technical problems, the technical scheme adopted by the embodiment of the application is as follows:

a fuel tank with pre-buried accessories, comprising:

a tank body obtained by blowing two plate-like thermoplastic members to be deformed by expansion;

the embedded accessory comprises a connector main body and a disc-shaped part formed at the tail part of the connector main body, wherein an attachment part is formed on the rear disc surface of the disc-shaped part, and the attachment part gradually expands in the axial direction of the rear disc surface so as to define a first embedded area between the attachment part and the rear disc surface; wherein:

the embedded accessory is positioned at a preset position outside one of the thermoplastic parts;

during expansion of the thermoplastic component, thermoplastic material outside the thermoplastic component is embedded into the first embedded region such that the pre-embedded attachment is bonded to the tank body outside the tank body.

Preferably, the attachment portion includes a plurality of tapered posts arranged circumferentially along a center of the disc portion.

Preferably, the attachment portion includes an annular rib rounded at the center of the disk portion, the annular rib having a dovetail-shaped cross section.

The application also discloses a process manufacturing method of the fuel tank,

the fuel tank includes: the oil tank comprises an oil tank body and an embedded accessory, wherein the embedded accessory comprises a joint main body and a disc-shaped part formed at the tail part of the joint main body, an attachment part is formed on a rear disc surface of the disc-shaped part, and the attachment part gradually expands in the axial direction of the rear disc surface so as to limit a first embedded area between the attachment part and the rear disc surface; the inner hole of the joint main body is provided with an expanding part;

the process manufacturing method of the fuel tank comprises the following steps:

s10: keeping the two dies in an open die state, and loading the embedded accessory into the entity of one of the dies, wherein the rear disc surface of the disc-shaped part of the embedded accessory faces towards the cavity formed by buckling the two dies;

s20: preheating the pre-buried accessory and the surrounding area thereof;

s30: clamping the two molds and clamping the edges of the two thermoplastic parts between the two molds;

s40, extending a top column from the outside of the die to an inner hole of the embedded accessory through the guide hole, wherein the head of the top column extends into the expanding part;

s50: blowing air between the two thermoplastic parts by using a blowing needle to expand the two thermoplastic parts and finally extruding the inner wall of the die; in the expansion process, the thermoplastic material in the area corresponding to the embedded accessory is hot melted and enters the first embedded area; thermoplastic materials in the area of the thermoplastic part corresponding to the inner hole of the embedded accessory expand towards the inner hole of the embedded accessory to expand to the head of the top column to form an inner expansion part;

s60: cooling the mold to cool the expanded thermoplastic component;

s70: the top column is withdrawn from the guide hole, a tubular cutter is extended into the guide hole, the cutter cuts an inner expanding part positioned in the expanding part, and a flanging which is attached to the step surface of the expanding part through expansion is reserved;

and S80, opening the two dies so that the oil tank body and the embedded accessory obtained by film blowing are separated from the dies.

S90: and screwing the pressing sleeve and the sealing gasket into the expanding part of the embedded accessory, so that the head part of the pressing sleeve is extruded and turned over through the sealing gasket.

Preferably, the edge of the disc-shaped part forms a concave annular curved surface; wherein:

the disc-shaped part of the embedded accessory protrudes out of the inner wall of the die so that the annular curved surface and the inner wall of the die form a second embedded area;

during expansion of the two thermoplastic parts, the thermoplastic material of the region of the thermoplastic part corresponding to the edge of the disc is hot melted into said second embedded region.

Compared with the prior art, the fuel tank with the embedded accessory and the process manufacturing method of the fuel tank have the beneficial effects that:

1. the attachment part is constructed on the disc-shaped part of the embedded accessory, so that the embedded accessory can be combined with the oil tank body at the outer side of the oil tank body.

2. The method provided by the application can avoid the die opening of the die in the film blowing process.

3. The embedded accessory is positioned on the die in the film blowing process, so that the embedded accessory and the oil tank body are accurately positioned after being combined.

An overview of various implementations or examples of the technology described in this disclosure is not a comprehensive disclosure of the full scope or all of the features of the technology disclosed.

Drawings

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. The same reference numerals with letter suffixes or different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments by way of example in general and not by way of limitation, and together with the description and claims serve to explain the inventive embodiments. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. Such embodiments are illustrative and not intended to be exhaustive or exclusive of the present apparatus or method.

Fig. 1 is a front cross-sectional view of a fuel tank provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of a portion a of fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a front cross-sectional view of an embedded accessory according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a left side view of an embedment attachment provided by an embodiment of the application (showing an attachment portion of one construction).

Fig. 5 is a left side view of an embedment attachment provided by an embodiment of the present application (showing an attachment portion of another construction).

Fig. 6 is a view showing a state before the two molds are buckled.

Fig. 7 is a view showing a state after the two molds are clamped.

Fig. 8 is a view showing a state after film blowing molding of two thermoplastic members.

Fig. 9 is an enlarged view of part B of fig. 8 (the inner bulge has not been cut by the cutter).

Fig. 10 is an enlarged view of part B of fig. 8 (the inner bulge has been cut by the cutter).

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of a process method for manufacturing a fuel tank according to an embodiment of the present application.

Reference numerals:

10-an oil tank body; 11-a first thermoplastic part; 111-thickening; 112-flanging; 12-a second thermoplastic component; 20-embedding accessories; 21-a disk; 211-attachment; 2111-taper; 2112-annular rib; 212-an annular curved surface; 213-rear panel; 22-a joint body; 221-an inner hole; 222-a spreading section; 223-step surface; 23-compacting the sleeve; 24-sealing gasket; 101-a first mold; 102-a second mold; 103-a cavity; 104-blowing a needle; 105-a heater; 106-jacking columns; 107-cutting knife.

Detailed Description

Unless defined otherwise, technical or scientific terms used herein should be given the ordinary meaning as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. The terms "first," "second," and the like, as used herein, do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used to distinguish one element from another. The word "comprising" or "comprises", and the like, means that elements or items preceding the word are included in the element or item listed after the word and equivalents thereof, but does not exclude other elements or items. The terms "connected" or "connected," and the like, are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, whether direct or indirect. "upper", "lower", "left", "right", etc. are used merely to indicate relative positional relationships, which may also be changed when the absolute position of the object to be described is changed.

In order to keep the following description of the embodiments of the present application clear and concise, the detailed description of known functions and known components thereof have been omitted.

As shown in fig. 1 to 11, the present application discloses a fuel tank and a process manufacturing method of the fuel tank, and as shown in fig. 1 to 5, the fuel tank includes a tank body 10 and an embedded accessory 20 combined with the tank body 10 at an outer side of the tank body 10.

As shown in fig. 11, the process manufacturing method of the fuel tank includes:

s10: as shown in fig. 6, the two molds are kept in the opened state, the insert 20 is put into the solid body of one of the molds, and the rear plate surface 213 of the plate-shaped portion 21 of the insert 20 faces the cavity 103 formed by the engagement of the two molds.

Specifically, the two molds include a first mold 101 and a second mold 102, the inner sides of the first mold 101 and the second mold both form a concave area, and the first mold 101 and the second mold 102 are buckled to form a cavity 103.

The pre-buried accessory 20 is formed by stamping, casting or cutting a metal material, the pre-buried accessory 20 is used for being combined with the fuel tank body 10, and the pre-buried accessory 20 can be used as an oil inlet, an oil outlet or a detection port of the fuel tank when the fuel tank is manufactured, formed and used.

The pre-buried accessory 20 comprises a connector main body 22 and a disc-shaped part 21 formed at the tail part of the connector main body, wherein an attachment part 211 is processed on a rear disc surface 213 of the disc-shaped part 21, and the attachment part 211 is configured to: gradually expanding in the axial direction toward which the rear disk surface 213 faces.

The present application provides two configurations of attachment portion 211:

in the first structure, as shown in fig. 3 and 4, the attachment portion 211 is a tapered column 2111, and the cross section of the tapered column 2111 becomes smaller as it approaches the rear disk surface 213. The attachment portion 211 includes a plurality of such tapered posts 2111, and the plurality of tapered posts 2111 are circumferentially uniformly distributed about the disk portion 21.

In the second structure, as shown in fig. 3 and 5, the attachment portion 211 is an annular rib 2112, the annular rib 2112 is centered on the center of the disk portion 21, and the cross section of the annular rib 2112 is dovetail-shaped.

As shown in fig. 3, an annular curved surface 212 is also formed at the edge of the disk portion 21.

As shown in fig. 8 and 9, the joint main body 22 has a circumferentially penetrating inner hole 221, and the inner hole 221 serves as an oil port or a detection port when the fuel tank is in use. The inner hole 221 is formed with a spreading portion 222, and an end of the spreading portion 222 has a stepped surface 223 adjacent to the rear disk surface 213.

The accessory part is fitted into a preset counterbore of the first mold 101 from the inside of the first mold 101 such that the rear disc face 213 of the disc-shaped portion 21 of the pre-buried accessory 20 faces the cavity 103 and such that the disc-shaped portion 21 protrudes slightly from the inner wall of the first mold 101.

As can be seen from the above, the attachment portion 211 and the rear disc face 213 of the disc portion 21 define a first embedded region, and the annular curved surface 212 at the edge of the disc portion 21 and the inner wall of the first mold 101 define a second embedded region.

S20: preheating the pre-buried accessory 20 and its surrounding area.

Specifically, a heater 105 is fitted around the pre-buried accessory 20 of the first mold 101, which serves to heat the pre-buried accessory 20 and its surrounding area for causing a certain hot melting of the thermoplastic material when it comes into contact with the pre-buried accessory 20, in particular with the disc-shaped portion 21 of the accessory part.

S30: as shown in fig. 7, the two molds are clamped, and the edges of the two thermoplastic parts are clamped between the two molds.

In particular, the thermoplastic parts are used as blanks for manufacturing the tank body 10, both thermoplastic parts being obtained by extrusion, cutting of thermoplastic material. The two thermoplastic parts comprise in particular a first thermoplastic part 11 and a second thermoplastic part 12, the first thermoplastic part 11 being intended to be combined with the above-mentioned pre-buried accessory 20 after expansion and deformation, as shown in fig. 6, the first thermoplastic part 11 and the second thermoplastic part 12 being in the region: the first thermoplastic part 11 has an annular thickening 111, which thickening 111 has the effect that, after expansion of the first thermoplastic part 11, the thickening 111 corresponds to the attachment 211 of the pre-buried fitting 20 in order to provide sufficient thermoplastic material to increase the strength of the pre-buried fitting 20 in the region of the junction with the tank body 10.

After the first mold 101 and the second mold 102 are closed, the first thermoplastic part 11 faces the concave region of the first mold 101 and the second thermoplastic part 12 faces the concave region of the second mold 102.

And S40, extending the top column 106 from the outside of the die to the inner hole 221 of the embedded accessory 20 through the guide hole, and extending the head of the top column 106 to the expanding part 222.

Specifically, the post 106 may be driven by an actuating mechanism (e.g., by a telescoping cylinder) such that the post 106 extends into the flared portion 222 of the inner bore 221 of the pre-buried accessory 20 through the guide bore of the first mold 101, and such that the post 106 is withdrawn from the guide bore of the first mold 101 by the actuating mechanism.

S50: as shown in fig. 8, the blowing needle 104 is used to blow air between the two thermoplastic parts so that the two thermoplastic parts expand and eventually press the inner wall of the mold; during expansion, the thermoplastic material of the region of the thermoplastic component corresponding to the embedded accessory 20 is hot melted into the first embedded region; the thermoplastic material of the area of the thermoplastic component corresponding to the interior bore 221 of the embedment attachment 20 expands toward the interior bore 221 of the embedment attachment 20 to expand to the head of the top post 106 to form an interior bulge.

Specifically, after the first mold 101 and the second mold 102 are closed, an air-filling hole (not shown) is reserved between edges of the first thermoplastic part 11 and the second thermoplastic part 12, and the blowing needle 104 extends between the first plastic part and the second plastic part after passing through the air-filling hole. The blowing needle 104 blows air between the two plastic parts by means of the high-pressure air supplied by the high-pressure air pump, and the two plastic parts expand under the action of the high-pressure air and are finally attached to the inside of the two molds in a clinging manner to form a shape consistent with the cavity 103, namely, the oil tank body 10 is formed.

As shown in fig. 8 and 9, during the expansion of the first plastic part and the attachment of the inside of the first mold 101, the heater 105 heats the region of the first plastic part corresponding to the pre-buried accessory 20, processes the plastic material of this region into a shape close to a molten state (at this time, appropriately reduces the pressure of the blown air), and under the action of the air pressure, the thermoplastic material corresponding to the attachment portion of the pre-buried accessory 20 fills the first embedded region by flowing, and the plastic material corresponding to the edge of the disc-shaped portion 21 fills the second embedded region by flowing, so that, after cooling, the pre-buried accessory 20 is bonded to the outside of the tank body 10.

As shown in fig. 9, the thermoplastic material corresponding to the inner bore 221 of the embedment attachment 20 is also heated, and thus, also expands by plastic deformation into the inner bore 221 and into the section where the expansion 222 is located, forming an internal expansion, which is eventually stopped by the head of the top post 106, during which expansion the thermoplastic material expands radially at the stepped surface 223 forming the flange 112 attached to the stepped surface 223.

S60: the mold is cooled to cool the expanded thermoplastic component.

S70: as shown in fig. 10, the top column 106 is withdrawn from the guide hole, the tubular cutter 107 is inserted into the guide hole, and the cutter 107 cuts the inner bulge portion located in the expansion portion 222, leaving the flange 112 attached to the stepped surface 223 of the expansion portion 222 by expansion. The flange 112 allows this area to be joined to the embedment attachment 20.

And S80, opening the two molds so that the oil tank body 10 and the embedded accessory 20 obtained by film blowing are separated from the molds.

S90: the pressing sleeve 23 and the sealing gasket 24 are screwed into the expanding portion 222 of the embedded accessory 20, so that the head of the pressing sleeve 23 presses the flange 112 through the sealing gasket 24. In this step, the compression sleeve 23 and the sealing ring are configured such that the fuel tank body 10 is sealed with the pre-buried accessory 20 by the flange 112, so that leakage of fuel in this region can be avoided.

The manufacturing mode of the fuel tank disclosed by the application has the advantages that:

1. by constructing the attachment portion 211 on the disc-shaped portion 21 of the pre-buried attachment 20, the pre-buried attachment 20 is thereby coupled to the tank body 10 at the outside of the tank body 10.

2. The method provided by the application can avoid the die opening of the die in the film blowing process.

3. The pre-buried accessory 20 is positioned on the mold during the film blowing process, so that the pre-buried accessory 20 and the oil tank body 10 are positioned accurately after being combined.

Furthermore, although exemplary embodiments have been described in the present disclosure, the scope thereof includes any and all embodiments having equivalent elements, modifications, omissions, combinations (e.g., of the various embodiments across), adaptations or alterations as would be appreciated by those in the art. The elements in the claims are to be construed broadly based on the language employed in the claims and are not limited to examples described in the present specification or during the practice of the application, which examples are to be construed as non-exclusive. It is intended, therefore, that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims and their full scope of equivalents.

The above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. For example, other embodiments may be used by those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the above description. In addition, in the above detailed description, various features may be grouped together to streamline the application. This is not to be interpreted as an intention that the disclosed features not being claimed are essential to any claim. Rather, inventive subject matter may lie in less than all features of a particular disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description as examples or embodiments, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment, and it is contemplated that these embodiments may be combined with one another in various combinations or permutations. The scope of the application should be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

The above embodiments are only exemplary embodiments of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application, the scope of which is defined by the claims. Various modifications and equivalent arrangements of this application will occur to those skilled in the art, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope of the application.

Claims (5)

1. A fuel tank with pre-buried accessories, comprising:

a tank body obtained by blowing two plate-like thermoplastic members to be deformed by expansion;

the embedded accessory comprises a connector main body and a disc-shaped part formed at the tail part of the connector main body, wherein an attachment part is formed on the rear disc surface of the disc-shaped part, and the attachment part gradually expands in the axial direction of the rear disc surface so as to define a first embedded area between the attachment part and the rear disc surface; wherein:

the embedded accessory is positioned at a preset position outside one of the thermoplastic parts;

during expansion of the thermoplastic component, thermoplastic material outside the thermoplastic component is embedded into the first embedded region such that the pre-embedded attachment is bonded to the tank body outside the tank body.

2. The fuel tank with pre-buried attachment according to claim 1, wherein the attachment portion includes a plurality of tapered posts arranged circumferentially along a center of the disc-shaped portion.

3. A fuel tank with pre-buried attachment according to claim 1, wherein the attachment portion comprises an annular rib with a circular shape in the centre of the disc portion, the annular rib being dovetail-shaped in cross section.

4. A process manufacturing method of a fuel tank is characterized in that,

the fuel tank includes: the oil tank comprises an oil tank body and an embedded accessory, wherein the embedded accessory comprises a joint main body and a disc-shaped part formed at the tail part of the joint main body, an attachment part is formed on a rear disc surface of the disc-shaped part, and the attachment part gradually expands in the axial direction of the rear disc surface so as to limit a first embedded area between the attachment part and the rear disc surface; the inner hole of the joint main body is provided with an expanding part;

the process manufacturing method of the fuel tank comprises the following steps:

s10: keeping the two dies in an open die state, and loading the embedded accessory into the entity of one of the dies, wherein the rear disc surface of the disc-shaped part of the embedded accessory faces towards the cavity formed by buckling the two dies;

s20: preheating the pre-buried accessory and the surrounding area thereof;

s30: clamping the two molds and clamping the edges of the two thermoplastic parts between the two molds;

s40, extending a top column from the outside of the die to an inner hole of the embedded accessory through the guide hole, wherein the head of the top column extends into the expanding part;

s50: blowing air between the two thermoplastic parts by using a blowing needle to expand the two thermoplastic parts and finally extruding the inner wall of the die; in the expansion process, the thermoplastic material in the area corresponding to the embedded accessory is hot melted and enters the first embedded area; thermoplastic materials in the area of the thermoplastic part corresponding to the inner hole of the embedded accessory expand towards the inner hole of the embedded accessory to expand to the head of the top column to form an inner expansion part;

s60: cooling the mold to cool the expanded thermoplastic component;

s70: the top column is withdrawn from the guide hole, a tubular cutter is extended into the guide hole, the cutter cuts an inner expanding part positioned in the expanding part, and a flanging which is attached to the step surface of the expanding part through expansion is reserved;

and S80, opening the two dies so that the oil tank body and the embedded accessory obtained by film blowing are separated from the dies.

S90: and screwing the pressing sleeve and the sealing gasket into the expanding part of the embedded accessory, so that the head part of the pressing sleeve is extruded and turned over through the sealing gasket.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the edge of the disc forms a concave annular curved surface; wherein:

the disc-shaped part of the embedded accessory protrudes out of the inner wall of the die so that the annular curved surface and the inner wall of the die form a second embedded area;

during expansion of the two thermoplastic parts, the thermoplastic material of the region of the thermoplastic part corresponding to the edge of the disc is hot melted into said second embedded region.