JPH0431612A - Lubrication engine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent condensed water from being mixed with oil in a tank so as to restrain early deterioration of circulation oil by raising the temperature of lubrication oil in an oil reservoir to a specified level in the initiation of engine start, vaporizing water content, and then forcibly circulating lubrication oil in a circulation circuit. CONSTITUTION:An oil reservoir 1 are communicated with an oil tank 2 with an oil passage 8 having an opening/closing valve such as an electromagnetic valve as well as an oil passage 7 having a circulation pump 5. At the oil reservoir 1, an oil upper limit sensor 10 and an oil lower limit sensor 11, and an oil temperature sensor 12 are provided. At a control part 13 opening/closing of the valve 6 as well as on-off operation of the pump 5 are controlled according to detection signals while the oil level in the reservoir 1 is maintained in a range between the upper and lower limits, and the oil temperature of circulation oil in the reservoir 1 is conditioned for lubrication of engine. Condensed water generated upon stoppage of engine is substantially vaporized at the stage of the reservoir 1 and thereafter circulation oil is circulated between the reservoir 1 and the tank 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field of the Invention) The present invention relates to a method for lubricating an engine, and more particularly to a method for lubricating an engine for driving a compressor of a heat pump for cooling and heating.

[Prior Art] Equipment that uses an engine to drive a heat pump compressor to perform air conditioning and heating is often used in general households, so it is required to be maintenance-free for a long period of time. There is.

However, in the engine for the heat pump air conditioning system mentioned above,
The engine is operated and stopped relatively frequently, and when the engine is stopped, blow-high condensed water generated by cooling may mix into the lubricating oil, causing the lubricating oil to deteriorate relatively quickly. Therefore, it is usually necessary to change the lubricating oil every 2000 hours as maintenance for the device, which is very inconvenient for the user.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an engine lubrication method that solves the above-mentioned problems and reduces the frequency of lubricating oil replacement.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention achieves the above object by providing a lubricating oil reservoir in the engine body, and providing a lubricating oil tank separate from the engine body with a larger capacity than the oil reservoir, and connecting the oil tank and the oil reservoir. The lubricating oil is connected by a circulation circuit, and when the engine starts, the temperature of the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir is raised to a predetermined temperature or higher to evaporate water, and then the lubricating oil is forced to circulate in the circulation circuit. It is characterized by starting the.

In this way, the condensed water generated when the engine is stopped is substantially evaporated at the oil sump stage, and then the lubricating oil is circulated between the oil sump and the oil tank. Condensed water etc. will not mix. Also,
Since the large-capacity oil tank is provided separately from the engine body, condensed water does not mix into the lubricating oil in the oil tank when the engine is stopped.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 schematically shows the main parts of an engine that implements the lubrication method of the present invention.

1 is a lubricating oil reservoir provided in the crankcase of the engine body. The lubricating oil is sucked up by a lubrication pump 4 through a strainer 3 and circulated within the engine body.

Moreover, 2 is an oil tank for lubricating oil provided separately from the engine body. The oil tank 2 has a sufficiently larger capacity than the oil reservoir 1, and is capable of storing a large amount of lubricating oil.

The oil sump and the oil tank 2 are connected to each other by an oil passage 7 having a circulation pump 5 and an oil passage 8 having an on-off valve 6 such as a solenoid valve. The circulation pump 5 in the oil passage 7 pumps up the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir 1 through the strainer 9 and supplies it to the oil tank 2, and the on-off valve 6 in the oil passage 8 pumps up the lubricating oil stored in the oil tank 2. The oil is supplied to the oil sump 1 on and off, and these oil passages 7 and 8 form a circulation circuit.

The oil reservoir 1 is provided with an oil amount upper limit sensor 10 and an oil amount lower limit sensor 11 for detecting the oil amount, and an oil temperature sensor 12 for detecting the oil temperature. These sensors 1
The detection signals of 0, 11, and 12 are input to the control unit 3, and the control unit 13 controls the on/off operation of the circulation pump 5 and the opening/closing of the on-off valve 6 in accordance with these signals, and controls the opening and closing of the on-off valve 6. The oil amount in the reservoir 1 is determined by the oil amount upper limit sensor 10 and the oil amount lower limit sensor 1.
1, and the temperature of the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir 1 is made to have characteristics suitable for engine lubrication.

In the engine configured as described above, the lubrication method according to the present invention is carried out according to the flow charts shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B.

First, as shown in step I in FIG. , 11. The lubricating oil in this oil reservoir 1 may be mixed with blow-pipe condensed water generated when the engine is stopped. Note that, in the present invention, this oil amount adjustment is not necessarily necessary, and may be performed when necessary.

In the oil amount adjustment described above, some of the lubricating oil mixed with condensed water may be supplied to the oil tank 2 by driving the circulation pump 5, but since the amount is small, the lubricating oil is There is no problem with deterioration.

When the engine is started after adjusting the oil amount, as shown in step H, the same oil amount adjustment as in step I is performed again. This step (2) corresponds to a case where a small amount of oil leaks from the opening/closing valve during operation, resulting in a change in the oil amount.This allows the oil amount to be constantly checked during operation.

Further, step (2) acts to prevent oil from overheating and prevents oil from deteriorating at high temperatures. At this time, since there is sufficiently little moisture in the hot oil, no moisture accumulates in the tank 2.

After this step H, step (2) shown in FIG. 2B is performed.

In this step ■, leave the engine running,
The operation is performed until the temperature of the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir 1 rises to a predetermined temperature range, and the predetermined temperature range continues until a predetermined set time has elapsed. The predetermined temperature is the temperature at which the properties of the lubricating oil make engine operation most efficient, as well as the temperature at which condensed water evaporates. Further, the predetermined set time is a time sufficient to evaporate substantially all of the condensed water mixed into the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir. By going through this step (2), the condensed water in the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir 1 is substantially evaporated, and the lubricating oil becomes in a state containing almost no water.

After this step (■) is completed, the process moves to step (2), where the circulation pump 5 is turned on and the oil in the oil sump 1 is returned to the oil tank 2 to the lower limit of oil amount, and the on-off valve 6 is opened to drain the oil in the oil tank 2. After filling the oil sump 1 to the upper limit of the oil amount, the on-off valve 6 is closed to forcefully circulate the lubricating oil between the oil sump 1 and the oil tank 2. At this time, since the oil sensors 11 and 12 are located above the strainer 3, the circulation pump 5 does not suck air.

According to the above-described engine lubrication method, the large-capacity oil tank provided separately from the engine body is not affected by condensed water caused by cooling when the engine is stopped. In addition, lubricating oil that has entered the oil reservoir when the engine is stopped is not circulated between the oil tank and the oil tank immediately when the engine is started, but only after the oil temperature rises above a specified temperature and the condensed water evaporates. Since the oil tank is forced to circulate, condensed water will not mix with the large volume of lubricating oil in the oil tank.

Therefore, early deterioration of the lubricating oil is not caused, and the frequency of replacing the lubricating oil can be reduced.

In the present invention, the forced circulation circuit provided between the oil reservoir 1 and the oil tank 2 is not limited to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and other configurations may be used as long as forced circulation is possible. You can. FIG. 3 shows another example in which a supply oil passage 7 is branched from the discharge passage of the circulation pump 4 in the engine, and this oil passage 7 is provided with a throttle 103 and an on-off valve 106. A circulation pump 105 is provided in the oil path 8 for reflux. Also in the case of this circulation circuit, the circulation pump 105 is turned on.

By turning off and opening and closing the on-off valve 106, forced circulation according to the flowchart described above can be performed.

In the above-described embodiments, the case of an engine for a heat pump air-conditioning system was explained, but the present invention is also applicable to lubrication of other general engines.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention provides a lubricating oil reservoir in the engine body, and also provides a lubricating oil tank separate from the engine body with a larger capacity than the oil reservoir, so that the oil tank and the oil reservoir are connected to each other. The lubricating oil is connected by a circulation circuit, and after the temperature of the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir is raised to a predetermined temperature or higher at the start of engine startup and water is evaporated, the lubricating oil is forced to circulate in the circulation circuit. This ensures that there is no substantial mixing of condensed water into the large oil tank. Therefore, early deterioration of the lubricating oil can be suppressed, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of when the lubricating oil is replaced. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an engine according to another embodiment of the present invention.

1... Oil sump, 2... Oil tank, 5... Circulation pump, 6... Open/close valve, 7.8... Oil path (circulation circuit), 1
゜... Oil amount upper limit sensor, 11... Oil amount lower limit sensor,
12...Oil temperature sensor, 13...Control unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A lubricating oil reservoir is provided in the engine body, and a lubricating oil tank with a larger capacity than the oil reservoir is provided separately from the engine body, and the oil tank and the oil reservoir are connected by a circulation circuit. An engine lubrication method comprising: raising the temperature of the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir to a predetermined temperature or higher at the start of engine startup, evaporating water, and then starting forced circulation of the lubricating oil in the circulation circuit.