JPH0459215B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a device used at a gas station or the like to supply fuel oil to automobiles.

(b) Prior Art At a gas station, devices for supplying multiple types of oil, such as gasoline and diesel oil, are installed side by side or separately within the same premises. However, because the external shapes of the refueling devices are the same, people sometimes stop by mistake, and as a result, accidents often occur in which a gasoline vehicle is refueled with diesel oil, or a diesel vehicle is refueled with gasoline. It is necessary to drain the oil from the fuel tank and oil supply line, which requires a large amount of expense and effort.

On the other hand, as a method for determining oil type,
There is one that utilizes the dielectric constant and light transmittance found in 95245.

The former is determined based on the change in capacitance between the positive and negative electrodes when the sensor part is immersed in oil, while the latter is made by placing the light emitting part and the light receiving part facing each other and placing liquid between them. The determination is made based on the intensity of light received by the light receiving section when the light is present.

Furthermore, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 51-2332 discloses a system that uses a gas sensor to detect the presence of fuel gas (the type of oil cannot be determined) and to control a refueling system.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention When trying to determine the type of oil in the fuel tank of an automobile by adopting the method of detecting the relative dielectric constant or light transmittance as a method for determining the type of oil, The following problems arise.

First, cars that are trying to get refueled generally have low oil in their fuel tanks, and the distance from the filler port to the oil is long, making it difficult to insert the sensor very far into the tank. If you want to attach the sensor to the nozzle without submerging it in oil, you will have to adopt a structure in which the sensor protrudes significantly from the nozzle only when detection is detected, which complicates the drive mechanism and occupies a large space, making it difficult to operate the nozzle itself. It also gets worse.

Second, in some car models, the pipe connecting the fuel filler port and the fuel tank is extremely bent, making it impossible for the sensor to reach the oil.

On the other hand, the gas sensor type simply detects the refueling port and allows refueling. Therefore, the present applicant first developed a gas sensor-equipped oil supply system (Japanese Patent Application No. 62-205554) that uses a gas sensor to determine the type of oil by detecting the concentration of the target component gas contained in the oil vapor. ) was proposed. However, unlike G oil (gasoline), which has a high concentration of gases to be detected, devices for D oil (light oil), which has a low concentration, have the following problems.

In other words, in the case of light oil vehicles, it may not be possible to determine whether or not the nozzle discharge pipe is inserted into the fuel filler port because the concentration of the component gas to be detected is low, and therefore it is unclear whether or not to make a determination. There is.

Therefore, it is conceivable to provide a refueling port sensor in the nozzle to notify the start of the determination, but this would be expensive due to the problem of explosion protection.

(d) Means to solve the problem This method solves the above problem without installing an oil filler sensor and also makes it possible to determine the type of oil.The structure corresponds to the amount of oil measured by a flow meter. a flow rate pulse transmitter that outputs a number of flow rate pulse signals; a counting circuit that counts the number of flow rate pulse signals; a determination circuit; a second determination value setting circuit in which an intermediate value between the concentration of the detection target component gas generated from the G oil and the concentration of the detection target component gas generated from the D oil is set as a second determination value; It consists of a determination circuit and a second determination circuit.

(e) Action The manually operated valve of the nozzle is opened and oil begins to flow, and the number of flow rate pulse signals is counted by the counting circuit. When the counted value reaches the first judgment value, the oil supply is stopped by the output signal from the first judgment circuit, the oil type is judged, and the value of the detected concentration value signal from the gas sensor is determined as the second judgment value. The second determination circuit outputs a refueling permission signal to enable refueling on the condition that it does not exceed .

(F) Example First, the first example is shown as 1st, 2nd, 3A, 3B,
This will be explained below based on Figures 4 and 5.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a housing for a refueling device, which is installed on an island 2 made of concrete.

A pump 3 pumps up oil from an oil storage tank (not shown) through an oil feed pipe 4 and sends it to a flow meter 5.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a flow rate pulse transmitter, which outputs one flow rate pulse signal p every time the flow meter 5 measures a unit of oil (for example, 1/100 liter).

Reference numeral 7 denotes a refueling nozzle, which has a discharge pipe 8 at its tip and is connected to the flow meter 5 via a rotary joint 9, a hose 10, and a connecting pipe 11.

12 is a nozzle detection switch, and nozzle case 1
When the nozzle 7 is hooked to the nozzle 3, a detection signal m is output, and when it is detached, a non-detection signal n is output.

14 is a display box housing a fuel supply indicator 15; 16 is a pump motor for rotating the pump 3; 17 is a control unit housing an electric circuit to be described later;
18 is a buzzer for notification.

Reference numeral 19 denotes a switching unit which is a source of negative pressure, and includes an air supply pipe 21 extending from a compressor (not shown) through an air valve 20, an air supply pipe 22 connected to the nozzle 7, and a switching unit formed in the nozzle case 13, in which a gas sensor 42 is housed. An air supply pipe 24 leading to the sensor chamber 23 is connected to the body 25, and as shown in FIGS. A narrowed portion 27 is formed which is a source of generation. (The principle of negative pressure generation by this narrowing part 27 is well known, so it will be omitted.) The gas sensor 42 is a catalytic combustion type sensor that detects benzene, toluene, xylene, or other flammable components contained in oil and gas. and semiconductor sensors can be used effectively.

28 is a diaphragm chamber to which hydraulic pressure is transmitted via a branch pipe 29 extending from the communication pipe 11, and when the hydraulic pressure is applied, the diaphragm 30 is bent as shown in FIG. 32 is pushed up against the elasticity of the spring 70.

Note that this valve chamber 31 includes a bypass passage 33 connected to the upstream air passage 26 of the constricted part 27, a communication passage 34 connected to the air supply pipe 22, and a negative pressure passage 35 connected to the constricted part 27.
and are each open.

36 is a needle valve that adjusts the opening area of the bypass passage 33 to change the amount of air flowing into the valve chamber 31 via the bypass passage 33; 37 is the opening area of an atmosphere opening passage 38 that opens the communication passage 34 to the atmosphere; The needle valve 39 to be changed is made of lightweight resin, etc., and is opened to the atmosphere when the pressure in the communication passage 34 becomes higher than atmospheric pressure.
A spherical check valve 41 is a stopper that restricts displacement of the check valve.

Note that 43 in FIG. 1 is a control valve that adjusts the amount of oil passing through, and 44 in FIG. 2 is an ignition prevention net, and the sensor chamber 23 is opened to the atmosphere through this ignition prevention net 44.

In FIG. 5, 45 is a counting circuit that counts the number of flow rate pulse signals p and sends the counted value to the counted value signal l.
and is displayed on the oil supply amount display 15 as the oil supply amount.

Reference numeral 46 denotes a pump motor drive circuit, which energizes the pump motor 16 at low speed by inputting a non-detection signal n output from the nozzle detection switch 12 and deenergizes it by inputting a refueling stop signal S, which will be described later, to permit refueling. It is energized at full speed by inputting signal k, and deenergized by inputting detection signal m.

Reference numeral 47 denotes an air valve drive circuit, which energizes and opens the air valve 20 upon input of the ventilation start signal f, and deenergizes and closes the valve upon input of the ventilation end signal e.

48 is a timer circuit that measures time by counting the number of clock signals c output from the clock signal generation circuit 49, and when the detection signal m is input, that is, when the nozzle 7 is returned to the nozzle case 13, the timer circuit shown in FIG. t ₂ hours are measured, and at the end of this t ₂ hours, a ventilation end signal e (one pulse) is output.

50 is a first judgment value setting circuit that determines the number of flow rate pulse signals p sufficient to confirm the start of refueling, that is, the flow rate pulses corresponding to the amount of oil required for the hose 10 to expand after the nozzle 7 is removed from the nozzle case 13. A value exceeding the number of signals p (6 pulses in FIG. 4) is set as the first judgment value, and that value is output as the first judgment value setting signal h.

51 is a first judgment circuit which generates a refueling stop signal s (one pulse) when the value of the count value signal l reaches the value of the first judgment value setting signal h after the non-detection signal n is input.
and a ventilation start signal f (one pulse).

Reference numeral 52 denotes a detection time setting circuit, which is the time required for the determination described later, and is set to _the time _t1 shown in FIG.
It outputs a detection time signal u indicating time.

Note that if the gas sensor 42 is installed near the discharge pipe 8 of the nozzle 7, this time _t1 can be brought close to almost zero.

Reference numeral 53 denotes a second judgment value setting circuit that determines whether D oil (for example, light oil) generates a relatively low concentration of detection target gas and G oil (for example, gasoline) generates a relatively high concentration of detection target gas. The middle value (the A value indicated by the dashed line in Figure 4) is the second value.
It is set as a judgment value, and the value is output as a second judgment value signal v.

Reference numeral 54 denotes a second determination circuit, which counts the clock signal c using the input of the refueling stop signal s as a trigger, and calculates t ₁ hour (value of the detection time signal u).
At the same time, the value of the detected concentration signal r output from the gas sensor 42 is compared with the value A (the value of the second judgment signal v) when the t ₁ hour has passed or during the t ₁ hour, and the former The refueling permission signal k (one pulse) is output on the condition that the value does not exceed the latter value, but if the former value exceeds the latter value, the above t ₁
Even after a period of time has elapsed, the refueling permission signal k is not outputted, and a buzzer activation signal w is output for a certain period of time (for example, 10 seconds) to activate the buzzer 18 for a certain period of time to notify that the vehicle is a gasoline vehicle.

The first embodiment based on the above configuration will be described below in the order of operations during refueling.

When a customer's car comes to the office and removes the nozzle 7 from the nozzle case 13, the output signal of the nozzle detection switch 12 changes from a detection signal m to a non-detection signal n, and in response to this, the following operations are performed. .

Return of the previous count value to zero in the counting circuit 45 (zero display on the oil supply amount display 15) Low-speed energization of the pump motor 16 (at this time, in FIG. 4, due to the expansion of the hose 10 due to the increase in hydraulic pressure Although the counting circuit 45 counts these flow rate pulse signals p, the first judgment circuit 51 does not judge that the manual operation valve (not shown) built in the nozzle 7 has been opened.) Next, the nozzle 7 discharges. When the pipe 8 is inserted into the filler port 56 of the fuel tank 56 as shown in FIG. At times, the flow rate pulse signal p measured by the flow meter 5 is counted in addition to the previously counted count value of the expansion of the hose 10.

When the count value of the counting circuit 45 reaches the value set in the first judgment value setting circuit 50, the first judgment circuit 51 outputs a refueling stop signal s to the pump motor 1.
6 is deenergized and a blowing start signal f is output to open the air valve 20.

When the air valve 20 opens, compressed air is sent to the switching unit 19 via the air pipe 21 and the compressed air is sent to the constriction section 27.
The air is sent to the air pipe 24 through the air.

At this time, since no hydraulic pressure is acting on the diaphragm chamber (because the pump motor 16 is de-energized), the valve 32 is in the state shown in FIG. Since it is cut off, the negative pressure path 35 becomes negative pressure, and the air pipe 2
2, the fuel tank 3 via the valve chamber 31 and the negative pressure path 35
The oil gas in the gas sensor 5 is sucked, mixes with the air flow injected from the constricted portion 27, and is blown toward the gas sensor 42 through the air pipe 24.

At this time, the atmosphere release passage 38 is also in a negative pressure state, so even if the check valve 39 is displaced and the atmosphere release port 40 is opened as shown in FIG. Weaken the negative pressure to the extent that it does not reach.

When the oil gas reaches the gas sensor 42, the value of the detected concentration value signal r increases.

The second determination circuit 54 compares the value of the detected concentration value signal r with the value of the second determination value signal v (value A) when _t1 hour has passed since the input of the refueling stop signal s, and determines that the former value is On the condition that the latter value is not exceeded (if it is D oil, it will not be exceeded), a refueling permission signal k is output to energize the pump motor at high speed.

Alternatively, the value of the detected concentration value signal r and the value of the second judgment value signal v are continued to be compared for t ₁ hour, and refueling is permitted on the condition that the former value does not exceed the latter value during this t ₁ hour. Outputs signal r.

However, if the oil in the fuel tank 55 is G oil, the value of the detected concentration value signal r exceeds the A value as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 4, so in this case, the refueling permission signal k is Instead of output, the buzzer 18 is activated to notify that the vehicle is not a D oil vehicle.

When the pump motor 16 is energized at full speed and the hydraulic pressure in the connecting pipe 11 increases, the diaphragm 30 is pushed up along with the valve 32 to the position shown in FIG. 3A against the elasticity of the spring 70, thereby venting. The compressed air in the passage 26 passes through the bypass passage 33 and the valve chamber 3.
1. The gas is sent through the communication path 34 to clean the inside of the air pipe 22, and the gas sensor 42 is also cleaned. (At this time, the air blown to the gas sensor 42 does not contain oil or gas.) At this time, the air pressure in the air release path 38 becomes higher than the atmospheric pressure, so the check valve 39 moves to the position shown in Figure 3A and closes the air release port. 40 to eliminate leakage of cleaning air and improve cleaning efficiency.

The refueling operation continues in this state, and a display corresponding to the refueling amount is displayed on the refueling amount display 15.

When the desired amount of oil has been supplied and the nozzle 7 is returned to the nozzle case 13, the nozzle detection switch 12 is activated.
The pump motor 16 is deenergized by the detection signal m generated from t ₂ , but the timer circuit 48
The timer starts counting the time and when _t2 hours have elapsed, an air blowing end signal e is output to close the air valve 20.

From the beginning of this time _t2 , the hydraulic pressure disappears, and the valve 32 is pushed by the spring 70 to the position shown in FIG. 3B, and atmospheric air is sucked in from the air pipe 22.
At this time, since the nozzle 7 has already been returned to the nozzle case 13, there is no risk of suctioning oil or gas, and the cleaning of the gas sensor 42 and the air pipe 22 can essentially be continued.

Next, the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 6. Functional parts that are the same as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same numbers, and their explanation will be omitted, and only the differences between the two embodiments will be described.

In the second embodiment shown in FIG. 6, a control valve 43 for restricting the flow of oil, shown by a dashed line in FIG. This control valve controls the flow of oil including low-speed refueling, refueling stop, and full-speed refueling.

That is, when the non-detection signal n is input at the start of refueling, the control valve drive circuit 60 slightly opens the control valve 43 to perform low-speed refueling, and outputs the refueling stop signal s.
When is input, it is fully closed, and when the refueling permission signal k is input, it is fully opened to enable full speed refueling. Then, when the refueling is finished and the detection signal m is input, the engine is fully opened.

In this case, the pump motor 16 is controlled only by the output signal of the nozzle detection switch 12, and is energized (full rotation) when the non-detection signal n is generated.
When the detection signal m is generated, the cell is energized.

As described above in detail, in the first and second embodiments, opening of the manually operated valve of the nozzle is determined based on the number of flow rate pulse signals generated after the nozzle 7 is removed from the nozzle case 13. However, the number of flow rate pulse signals p corresponding to the initial expansion of the hose 10 may be ignored (returning to zero or counting rejected), and the determination may be made based on the number of flow rate pulse signals p output thereafter. A counting circuit may be provided separately from that for counting the amount of oil supplied.

(g) Effects Since the oil type is determined as described above, the sensor is not connected, and therefore a complicated device is not required to send the sensor to the oil level in the car's fuel tank. Furthermore, there is no risk of shortening the lifespan of the sensor itself or causing malfunction, and there is no need for a separate sensor to detect the fuel filler port, and there is a fueling device that can determine which oil is relatively less likely to generate detection target component gases. It is something that can be done.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 shows the internal structure of the oil supply system, Figure 2 shows details of the sensor chamber, and Figures 3A and B show the operation inside the switching unit when hydraulic pressure is applied and when it is not applied, respectively. Figure 4 shows the relationship between the output curve of the gas sensor and the operation of other components,
FIG. 5 shows the electrical circuit in the first embodiment, and the electrical circuit in the sixth embodiment.
The figure is a block diagram showing the electrical circuits in the second embodiment. 3... Pump, 5... Flow meter, 19... Switching unit, 21, 22, 24... Air pipe, 30... Diaphragm, 32... Valve, 33... Bypass path, 35... Negative pressure path, 39... Check valve, 55... Fuel tank.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An oil supply pump, a flowmeter that measures the oil pumped by the pump, an oil flow path connected to the flowmeter and an oil supply hose that extends outside the housing, and an oil supply hose that is connected to the tip of the oil supply hose. A refueling nozzle, an air pipe whose one end extends near the discharge pipe of the refueling nozzle and whose other end is connected to a negative pressure source, and an air pipe installed at a position where it comes into contact with the gas sucked through this air pipe, a gas sensor that detects the concentration of a detection target component gas generated from the gas and generates a corresponding detected concentration value signal;
The flow meter has a flow rate pulse generator that outputs a number of flow pulse signals corresponding to the amount of oil measured, and a counting circuit that counts the number of flow rate pulse signals, and the flow meter has a flow rate pulse signal that outputs a number of flow pulse signals corresponding to the amount of oil measured, and a counting circuit that counts the number of flow rate pulse signals. G oil to be generated and D to generate relatively low concentration detection target component gas
A device for D oil installed in a place where oil is handled, which includes a first judgment value setting circuit in which the number of flow rate pulse signals sufficient to confirm the start of refueling is set in advance as a first judgment value, and a first judgment value setting circuit from G oil. a second judgment value setting circuit in which an intermediate value between the concentration of the detection target component gas generated and the concentration of the detection target component gas generated from D oil is set as a second determination value; 1 judgment value and outputs a refueling stop signal when the former value reaches the latter value; 1. A refueling device with a gas sensor, comprising: a second determination circuit that compares two determination values and outputs a refueling permission signal on the condition that the former value does not exceed the latter value. 2. An oil supply pump, a flowmeter that measures the oil pumped by this pump, an oil supply hose that is an oil flow path connected to the flowmeter and extends outside the housing, an oil supply nozzle connected to the tip of the oil supply hose, and one end. The air pipe is extended to the vicinity of the discharge pipe of the oil supply nozzle and the other end is connected to a negative pressure generation source, and the component to be detected generated from the oil is installed at a position where it comes into contact with the gas sucked through this air pipe. a gas sensor that detects the concentration of the gas and generates a corresponding detected concentration value signal;
The flowmeter has a flow rate pulse generator that outputs a number of flow rate pulse signals corresponding to the amount of oil measured, and a counting circuit that counts the number of flow rate pulse signals, and has a relatively high concentration component gas to be detected. G oil to be generated and D to generate relatively low concentration detection target component gas
A device for D oil installed in a place where oil is handled, which includes a first judgment value setting circuit in which the number of flow rate pulse signals sufficient to confirm the start of refueling is preset as a first judgment value, and a first judgment value setting circuit from G oil. a second judgment value setting circuit in which an intermediate value between the concentration of the detection target component gas generated and the concentration of the detection target component gas generated from oil D is set as a second determination value; A detection time setting circuit that sets the detection time required to detect the concentration of the detection target component gas contained in a first determination circuit that outputs a refueling stop signal when the value is reached;
The detection time is measured after the refueling stop signal is generated;
A second determination circuit that compares the detected concentration value signal from the gas sensor with the second determination value when the detection time has elapsed, and outputs a refueling permission signal on the condition that the former value does not exceed the latter value. A refueling device with a gas sensor, characterized by comprising: 3. The oil supply device with a gas sensor according to item 1 or 2, wherein the pump is deenergized upon generation of a refueling stop signal and energized upon generation of a refueling permission signal. 4. The refueling according to item 1 or 2, wherein a valve inserted in the oil flow path is closed when a refueling stop signal is generated, and the valve is opened when a refueling permission signal is generated. Device.