JP2007162520A - Retention structure for intake manifold - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a retention structure for an intake manifold compatibly establishing workability and protection of a connector provided on a surge tank and introducing intake negative pressure. <P>SOLUTION: This structure is provided with the surge tank 28 arranged at a side surface center of an engine 10, a negative pressure connector 30 provided on the surge tank and taking out intake negative pressure generated with accompanying air intake, an intake manifold 20 connecting each cylinder of the engine 10 and the surge tank 28 and capable of being divided into an upstream part 21 and a downstream part 22, and flange parts 23-25 connecting the downstream part 22 and the upstream part 21 of the intake manifold 20 and integrating the intake manifold 20 of each cylinder. The flange parts 23-25 are arranged outside of the negative pressure connector 30 with surrounding the surge tank 28. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an intake manifold holding structure.

  An intake manifold that supplies intake air to the engine can be supercharged due to inertial effects by increasing its length, and output can be improved. At this time, in order to reduce the size of the engine, a structure of an intake manifold is proposed in which a surge tank is arranged at the center of the engine side surface and curved from the lower part of the surge tank so as to surround the engine and connected to each cylinder. Yes.

  Such an intake manifold is difficult to manufacture due to a large bending angle. Therefore, a configuration in which a flange portion for attachment is provided at a joint portion has been proposed as a configuration in which the upstream portion and the downstream portion of the intake manifold can be divided. With this configuration, the manufacture becomes easy, and it is possible to manufacture by injection molding of a thermoplastic synthetic resin.

In addition, since a multi-cylinder engine has a plurality of branch pipes in the intake manifold, the mounting flange portion has a bridge portion that bridges between the branch pipes in order to regulate the position of each branch pipe and suppress vibrations. Has been proposed. For example, in an in-line four-cylinder engine, a structure having a bridging portion between the first and second ports and the third and fourth ports has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2000-161157 A

  On the other hand, a device for assisting a driving operation using intake negative pressure has been proposed. For example, a brake assisting device for assisting a brake operation is representative. Therefore, the surge tank is provided with a negative pressure connector for connecting a hose for guiding intake negative pressure to such an operation assisting device. This negative pressure connector needs to ensure workability with the hose even after the engine is mounted on the vehicle, and it is desirable to dispose the negative pressure connector on the outside of the intake manifold.

  However, in a vehicle equipped with an intake manifold having a structure having a bridging portion as described above, if the negative pressure connector is disposed outside the engine, there is a possibility that it interferes with vehicle body parts during the engine mounting operation. Moreover, since the negative pressure connector is an important safety part related to the operation of the brake, it is necessary to protect against external impacts. In addition, when the negative pressure connector cannot be arranged outside the engine due to the structure of the engine room or the like, there is a problem that maintenance work cannot be performed without adding piping parts.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to such conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an intake manifold holding structure that secures connection workability with a hose while protecting a negative pressure connector. .

  The present invention solves the above problems by the following means. In addition, in order to make an understanding easy, although the code | symbol corresponding to embodiment of this invention is attached | subjected, it is not limited to this.

  The present invention is a holding structure for an intake manifold (20) that guides intake air to each cylinder of a multi-cylinder engine (10), and is arranged at the center of the side surface of the engine (10) to temporarily store intake air (28 ), A negative pressure connector (30) that is provided in the surge tank (28) and extracts an intake negative pressure generated by intake, and the surge tank (28) and each cylinder of the engine (10) are connected to each other An intake manifold (20) that can be divided into an upstream portion (21) and a downstream portion (22), and an upstream portion (21) and a downstream portion (22) of the intake manifold (20), and And a flange portion (23-25) for integrating the intake manifold (20) of the cylinder. The flange portion (23-25) surrounds the surge tank (28) and the negative pressure connector ( It characterized in that it is located outside the 0).

  According to the present invention, by disposing the negative pressure connector inside the flange portion, the flange portion can mitigate impact from the outside and protect the negative pressure connector. For example, when the negative pressure connector is connected to a brake auxiliary device that assists the operating force of the brake operation, the negative pressure connector is particularly effective because it becomes an important safety part related to the operation of the brake. Further, since the negative pressure connector is disposed inside the bridge portion, it is possible to prevent interference with the vehicle body parts when the vehicle is mounted.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a multi-cylinder engine 10 having an intake manifold structure according to the present invention. 2 is a view of the engine 10 shown in FIG. 1 as viewed from above and from the front, FIG. 2 (A) is a plan view, and FIG. 2 (B) is a front view. In FIG. 2, the hose 31 connected to the negative pressure connector 30 is not shown.

  The engine 10 is an in-line four-cylinder engine in which four cylinders are arranged in series. Each cylinder of the engine 10 is formed with an intake port for sucking outside air. The intake port of each cylinder is connected to the intake manifold 20. The surge tank 28 temporarily stores the intake air to suppress the intake pulsation, and supplies it evenly to each cylinder. The surge tank 28 is connected to the throttle chamber 40 on the upstream side. As shown in FIG. 2A, the throttle chamber 40 has the engine 10 disposed at the top. The throttle chamber 40 includes a throttle valve 41 inside. The throttle valve 41 is opened and closed in conjunction with the accelerator operation to adjust the intake air amount. Further, the throttle chamber 40 is connected to an intake pipe that supplies air taken from outside via an air cleaner (not shown).

  In this embodiment, an inertia supercharged intake manifold is employed to improve engine output. Inertia supercharging is the use of the inertial force generated by the pulsation of air taken in by the engine to suck more air into the combustion chamber. Further, by optimizing the shape such as the diameter and length of the branch pipe of the intake manifold 20, the effect of inertia supercharging can be increased. For example, if the branch pipe is lengthened, the effect of inertia supercharging can be improved in a low rotation range, and if it is shortened, the effect of inertia supercharging can be improved.

  In the present embodiment, the intake manifold 20 is formed so that the effect of inertia supercharging is improved when the engine is in a low rotation range. Specifically, each branch pipe of the intake manifold 20 is disposed so as to surround the surge tank 28. By doing so, the engine can be reduced in size while ensuring the length of each branch pipe. Further, the intake pipes are curved by bending the branch pipes so that the intake air flowing through the branch pipes do not interfere with each other. Since these curves are bent outward as shown in FIG. 2A, the interval between the branch pipes connected to the second port and the third port is widened.

  In the present embodiment, the intake manifold 20 includes two sets of left and right upstream portions 21 and downstream portions 22. The upstream portion 21 and the downstream portion 22 have a structure that can be divided.

  As shown in FIG. 2B, the upstream portion 21 of the intake manifold 20 includes two branch pipes. The branch pipe of the upstream part 21 is connected to the lower part of the surge tank 28. The branch pipe of the upstream portion 21 is connected by the upstream flange portion 23. Further, the downstream portion 22 has four branch pipes connected by the downstream flange portion 24. Further, the downstream portion 22 is connected to each intake port of the engine 10 as shown in FIG. The branch pipes in the upstream portion 21 communicate with the corresponding branch pipes in the downstream portion 22. The upstream portion 21 and the downstream portion 22 are integrated by fastening the upstream flange portion 23 and the downstream flange portion 24 with a bolt 26. A range where the downstream flange portion 24 is not in contact with the left and right upstream flange portions 23 is referred to as a bridging portion 25. As shown in FIG. 2B, the bridging portion 25 is arranged such that the side surface of the engine 10 is parallel to the crankshaft.

  Even if the intake manifold 20 has such a complicated shape, the upstream portion 21 and the downstream portion 22 can be divided relatively easily as in the present embodiment.

  The vehicle according to the present embodiment includes a brake assist device that assists the brake operation force by using the intake negative pressure. The surge tank 28 includes a negative pressure connector 30 connected to a hose 31 that guides the intake negative pressure to a brake auxiliary device (not shown). The intake air from the outside is once stored in the surge tank 28 as described above, then passes through the intake manifold 20 and flows into each cylinder. At this time, the intake negative pressure generated downstream of the throttle valve 41 is guided from the negative pressure connector 30 to the brake assist device, and assists the brake operation force.

  Therefore, if the negative pressure connector 30 is disposed outside the engine 10, it is easy to connect the hose 31 that guides the intake negative pressure to the brake auxiliary device even after the engine 10 is mounted on the vehicle. However, on the other hand, there also arises a problem that the engine 10 easily interferes with vehicle body parts when mounted on the vehicle. Moreover, since the negative pressure connector 30 is an important safety part related to the operation of the brake, it is necessary to sufficiently protect it from an external impact.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 2 (A) and 2 (B), the negative pressure connector 30 is provided so as to be substantially parallel to the engine side surface and perpendicular to the bridging portion 25, and the tip projects upward from the bridging portion 25 in the figure. Let In this way, even after the engine is mounted on the vehicle, the hose 31 can be connected to the negative pressure connector 30 without requiring intermediate parts or the like. Moreover, since the space | interval of the branch pipe connected to the 2nd port and the 3rd port is large as mentioned above, the working space for connecting the hose 31 to the negative pressure connector 30 can fully be ensured. Furthermore, the negative pressure connector 30 can be protected against an impact from the engine side by disposing the negative pressure connector 30 inside the bridging portion 25.

  According to this embodiment, the negative pressure connector 30 can be protected against an impact from the side of the engine by disposing the negative pressure connector 30 inside the bridging portion 25. When the negative pressure connector 30 is connected to the brake operation assisting device as in this embodiment, the negative pressure connector 30 is an important safety part related to the operation of the brake, and thus is particularly effective.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, the negative pressure connector 30 is disposed so as to protrude upward while being close to the bridging portion 25, so that the connection workability between the negative pressure connector 30 and the hose 31 can be secured even after the vehicle is mounted. . Therefore, even after the negative pressure connector 30 mounts the engine 10 on the vehicle, the connection workability between the negative pressure connector 30 and the hose 31 for guiding the intake negative pressure can be ensured, and maintenance can be facilitated.

  Furthermore, according to this embodiment, since it is not necessary to add a special component to protect the negative pressure connector 30, it is possible to reduce the weight while suppressing an increase in cost.

  The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the technical idea, and it is obvious that these are equivalent to the present invention.

  For example, the connection destination of the negative pressure connector may be a clutch connection auxiliary device. Other than this, any mechanism that assists the driver's operation by using the intake negative pressure can be applied.

1 is a perspective view of an engine including an intake manifold structure according to the present invention. It is the elevation view and top view of an engine provided with the intake manifold structure by this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Engine 20 Intake manifold 21 Upstream part 22 Downstream part 23 Upstream flange part 24 Downstream flange part 25 Bridge part 28 Surge tank 30 Negative pressure connector 31 Hose 40 Throttle chamber 41 Throttle valve

Claims (4)

An intake manifold holding structure for guiding intake air to each cylinder of a multi-cylinder engine,
A surge tank that is disposed in the center of the side surface of the engine and temporarily stores intake air;
A negative pressure connector that is provided in the surge tank and takes out negative intake pressure generated with intake;
An intake manifold that connects the surge tank and each cylinder of the engine and can be divided into an upstream portion and a downstream portion;
A flange portion connecting the upstream portion and the downstream portion of the intake manifold, and integrating the intake manifold of each cylinder;
With
The flange portion is disposed outside the negative pressure connector so as to surround the surge tank.
An intake manifold holding structure characterized by that. The negative pressure connector is provided so as to be substantially parallel to a side surface of the engine, and the tip thereof is formed so as to protrude from the flange portion.
The intake manifold holding structure according to claim 1, wherein: The negative pressure connector is connected to a driving assistance device that assists a driving operation using the intake negative pressure.
The intake manifold holding structure according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the intake manifold holding structure is provided. The driving assist device is a brake assist device that assists the operating force of the brake operation.
The intake manifold holding structure according to claim 3.

Images