JPH06323121A - Automatic oil supply device in oil pan - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an automatic oil supply device in an oil pan which ensures indication of an oil amount in an engine oil pan and controls the amount with accuracy. CONSTITUTION:This device is provided with plural oil level detecting means 3, 4 to continuously detect oil levels in an oil pan 2, an actual oil level computing means 6 to compute an actual oil level by averaging detected oil levels, and a replenishing means 6 to replenish new oil into the oil pan when the actual oil level is below a reference oil level after compared with the reference oil level.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic liquid supply apparatus, and more particularly to an automatic oil pan oil supply apparatus for automatically supplying oil into an oil pan of an engine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional example of a liquid automatic supply device for automatically supplying a liquid such as oil to a container, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-2359.
There is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 15.

In the device of this publication, the liquid level is detected by a plurality of Hall ICs and magnets arranged at a plurality of positions, liquid is supplied when the liquid level is below a predetermined position, and above the predetermined position. When that happens, the supply is stopped.

[0004]

However, the liquid level detection in the liquid automatic supply device described in the above publication is "1" or "0" detection of whether or not the magnet has passed through the Hall IC. The surface position cannot be detected continuously. Further, since the liquid surface position is not detected continuously, the liquid amount cannot be accurately grasped, and the liquid amount cannot be accurately displayed and the liquid amount cannot be accurately controlled.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to accurately display the amount of liquid, particularly the amount of oil in an oil pan of an engine.
It is to provide an automatic oil supply device in an oil pan that can accurately control the amount of oil.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is an automatic oil supply device for an oil pan, which automatically supplies oil to the oil pan of an engine, so that the oil level in the oil pan is continuous. A plurality of oil level detecting means for detecting the actual oil level, a means for calculating an actual oil level by averaging the plurality of detected oil level, an actual oil level and a reference oil level And a replenishing means for supplying new oil into the oil pan when the actual oil level is below the reference oil level.

[0007]

The oil level detecting means of the automatic oil supply system in the oil pan according to the present invention continuously detects the oil level as a coil inductance value and outputs an AC signal having an oscillation level corresponding to the inductance value. A plurality of such oil level detecting means are provided to obtain a plurality of AC signals indicating the oil level.

By averaging the plurality of AC signals, the error of the oil level detection due to the inclination and waviness of the oil level is offset, and the amount of oil in the oil pan can be accurately grasped.

This accurately grasped oil level is compared with the reference oil level, and when the oil level is below the reference oil level, new oil is supplied into the oil pan by the replenishing means. The amount of oil in the oil pan can be controlled to an arbitrary amount by changing the reference oil level.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an automatic oil supply system for an oil pan according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a cylinder block which constitutes a cylinder, and an oil pan 2 which is the lowermost part of the cylinder is provided below the cylinder block 1. Lubricating oil is pooled in the oil pan 2. To the left and right of the oil pan 2,
Pipes 2a, 2b communicating with the upper and lower parts of the oil pan 2
Is provided, and two oil level sensors 3 and 4 for detecting the position (oil level) of the oil level 5 in the oil pan 2 are provided in the pipes 2a and 2b.

The oil level sensors 3 and 4 are magnetic bodies 3a and 4
a and coils 3b and 4b. The magnetic bodies 3a and 4a float in the oil and move up and down according to the vertical direction of the oil surface 5, and the inductance values of the coils 3b and 4b continuously change according to the vertical direction of the magnetic bodies 3a and 4a. The oil level signal indicating the inductance value is input to the terminals T1, T2 and T3, 4 of the control circuit 6.

The reserve tank 7 stores oil to be supplied into the oil pan 2, and a lower limit oil level sensor 8 is provided in the reserve tank 7, and this sensor 8
When the oil level 9 of the reserve tank 7 has decreased to a position where oil cannot be supplied to the oil pan 2, a lower limit signal is output to the terminal T5 of the control circuit 6.

When it is necessary to supply oil from the reserve tank 7 into the oil pan 2 due to a shortage of oil in the oil pan 2, the control circuit 6 opens the solenoid valve 10 and drives the replenishment pump 11 to discharge the oil. Make it work. As a result, the oil in the reserve tank 7 is supplied into the oil pan 2 via the supply pipe 12.

Further, the control circuit 6 calculates the oil amount from the oil level signal indicating the inductance value inputted from the oil level sensors 3 and 4, and displays this oil amount on the oil amount display meter 13. Further, the control circuit 6 turns on the abnormal oil level lamp 14 when the oil level sensors 3 and 4 simultaneously detect a high level abnormality or a low level abnormality of the oil level, thereby causing an abnormality such as an abnormally long oil supply time. When the error is detected, the abnormal lamp 15 is turned on.

Next, the operation of the control circuit 6 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The oil level signals input from the oil level sensors 3 and 4 are input to the LC oscillating circuits 16 and 20, and the LC oscillating circuits 16 and 20 output an AC signal having a level corresponding to the inductance value indicated by the oil level signal. This AC signal is rectified and smoothed by the rectifying / smoothing circuits 17 and 21, and becomes a DC signal indicating the oil level. This DC signal is applied to the buffer amplification circuits 18 and 2.
After being amplified by 2, it is 1/2 by the 1/2 attenuator circuits 19 and 23.
Is attenuated to the level of. The reason why the level is attenuated to 1/2 is that the two oil level levels detected by the oil level sensors 3 and 4 are averaged by the non-inverting circuit 24 in the next stage.

The averaging operation will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, when the oil pan 2 tilts, the oil itself does not tilt with the oil pan 2 and maintains the previous state, that is, the horizontal state, so that the oil level indicated by the sensors 3 and 4 is maintained. Will be different. For example, when the oil pan 2 is tilted to the left as shown in FIG. 3, the oil level remains the initial oil level 5a and does not become the oil level 5b. Therefore, the oil level of the left sensor 3 is the right sensor. It is 2L higher than the oil level of 4. That is, when the first oil level is A, the oil level when the oil pan 2 is tilted to the left is A + L for the left sensor 3 and A-L for the right sensor 4. Therefore, (A + L + A−L) /
By performing the calculation of 2 = A, the oil level can be accurately detected. In this way, the non-inverting addition circuit 2
4 eliminates the error of the oil level due to the inclination of the oil pan 2. In addition, when the oil level is wavy due to the pitching, rolling, etc. of the automobile, the rectifying and smoothing circuits 17 and 21 are used for LC.
The output signals of the oscillation circuits 16 and 20 can be averaged to prevent the influence of the wave.

The signal indicating the actual oil surface level (hereinafter referred to as the actual oil surface level) output from the non-inverting addition circuit 24 is the reference oil surface level output from the reference voltage generation circuit 26 in the voltage comparison circuit 25. Is compared with a reference voltage indicating that the voltage comparison circuit 2 outputs the comparison result as an oil level comparison signal.
5 is output to the new oil supply circuit 27 and the supply monitoring timer 28.

When the new oil supply circuit 27 determines from the oil level comparison signal that the actual oil level is lower than the reference oil level, the solenoid valve 10 is opened and the supply pump 1
1 is operated to start refueling from the reserve tank 7 (FIG. 1) to the oil pan 2 via the replenishment pipe 12, and when it is determined that the actual oil level is higher than the reference oil level, the refueling pump The operation of 11 is stopped, the solenoid valve 10 is closed, and the oil supply from the reserve tank 7 to the oil pan 2 is stopped.

The replenishment monitoring timer 28 monitors the replenishment time of oil, and if the replenishment of oil is still made after a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of replenishment, it is judged that the replenishment system is abnormal and the replenishment is stopped. A stop command signal for stopping the supply is output to the circuit 29. By this stop command signal, the replenishment stop circuit 29 stops the replenishment via the new oil replenishment circuit 27, operates the abnormal lamp lighting circuit 30, and lights up the abnormal lamp 15 via the terminal T9.

The reserve tank remaining amount monitoring circuit 31 monitors the remaining amount of oil in the reserve tank 7, and when it is determined that sufficient oil for replenishing is not remaining in the reserve tank 7, A stop command signal for stopping the supply is output to the supply stop circuit 29. By this stop command signal, the replenishment stop circuit 29 stops replenishment via the new oil replenishment circuit 27 in the same manner as described above, and the abnormal lamp lighting circuit 3
0 is operated and the abnormal lamp 15 is turned on via the terminal T9.

Circuits 32 to 39 in FIG. 2 are circuits for detecting whether the oil level in the oil pan 2 is abnormal,
The abnormal oil level includes an abnormally high oil level and an abnormally low oil level. The circuits 32-35 are circuits for detecting an abnormally high oil level. In the sensor 3 abnormal high oil level detection circuit 32, the oil level detected by the oil level sensor 3 and the high oil level reference level output from the high oil level reference voltage generation circuit 33 are compared,
When the detected oil level is higher than the high oil level reference level, a signal of logic level "1" indicating that the oil level is abnormally high is output. The operation of the sensor 4 abnormally high oil level detection circuit 34 is similar. When both the detection circuits 32 and 34 output the signal of the logic level "1", the AND circuit 35 outputs the signal of the logic level "1", and the detection circuits 32 and 3
When any one of 4 outputs a signal of logic level "0" indicating that the oil level is not abnormally high, the AND circuit 35 outputs a signal of logic level "0".

The circuits 36 to 39 are circuits for detecting an abnormally low oil level. In the sensor 3 abnormal low oil level detection circuit 36, the oil level detected by the oil level sensor 3 is compared with the low oil level reference level output from the low oil level reference voltage generation circuit 37 to determine the detected oil level. If the oil level is lower than the low oil level reference level, it indicates that the oil level is abnormally low.
The signal of is output. The operation of the sensor 4 abnormal low oil level detection circuit 38 is similar. When both the detection circuits 36 and 38 output a signal of logic level "1", the AND circuit 39
Outputs a signal of logic level "1", and when one of the detection circuits 36 and 38 outputs a signal of logic level "0" indicating that the oil level is not abnormally low, the AND circuit 3
9 outputs a signal of logic level "0".

The OR circuit 40 is the AND circuits 35 and 39.
When a signal of logical level "1" indicating that any of the above is abnormal is output, a signal of logical level "1" is output to operate the abnormal oil level lamp lighting circuit 41 to cause the abnormal oil level lamp 14 to operate. Light up.

[0025]

As described above in detail, in the automatic oil-filling device in the oil pan according to the present invention, by averaging the oil level detected by the plurality of oil level detecting means,
Since the error in the oil level detection due to the inclination and the waviness of the oil level can be offset to accurately grasp the amount of oil in the oil pan, it is possible to accurately display and control the amount of oil.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an automatic oil supply device in an oil pan according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block system diagram showing in detail a control circuit of the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an oil level explanatory view showing an oil level state in an oil pan.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Cylinder Block 2 Oil Pan 3, 4 Oil Level Sensor 6 Control Circuit 7 Reserve Tank 8 Lower Limit Oil Level Sensor 10 Solenoid Valve 11 Replenishment Pump 12 Replenishment Piping 13 Oil Level Indicator 14 Abnormal Oil Level Lamp 15 Abnormal Lamp

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automatic oil supply device for automatically supplying oil into an oil pan of an engine, comprising: a plurality of oil level detecting means for continuously detecting an oil level in the oil pan; The actual oil surface level calculating means for averaging a plurality of oil surface levels to calculate the actual oil surface level, and the actual oil surface level and the reference oil surface level are compared, and the actual oil surface level is the reference oil surface level. An automatic oil supply device in an oil pan, comprising: a replenishing means for supplying new oil into the oil pan in the following cases.