JPH0669834B2 - Liquid supply device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a liquid supply device for supplying a foamable liquid such as gasoline, and particularly to a liquid supply device suitable for automatic full tank liquid supply. Regarding the device.

[Prior art]

Generally, when refueling a vehicle with a gasoline refueling device or the like, so-called full tank refueling is often performed to refuel the fuel tank until the fuel tank is full. For this reason, a liquid level sensor is provided on the oil supply nozzle, and when the liquid level sensor operates, the pump and solenoid valve stop operating with an automatic valve closing mechanism attached to the oil supply nozzle or a signal from the liquid level sensor. It is configured to do.

However, since gasoline is an effervescent liquid, bubbles are likely to occur during refueling, and the liquid level sensor may be actuated by the bubbles, and refueling may be stopped when the tank is not actually full. For this reason, it is the actual situation that the operator of the filling station is performing additional refueling by manual operation, and there is a drawback that the refueling work requires time and effort.

In order to remedy such a drawback, as a refueling device according to the prior art, for example, as shown in JP-A-58-30993, after the liquid level sensor comes into contact with liquid or bubbles, refueling is stopped once. , A calculation circuit that determines whether or not the refueling amount or refueling time that was performed before that time reached a predetermined reference value that is considered to be full tank refueling, and the foam necessary to restart refueling after the refueling was stopped once. A timer that sets a predetermined time longer than the disappearance waiting time, and refuels after the predetermined time set by the timer elapses until the refueling amount or the refueling time is determined to be equal to or less than a predetermined reference value by the arithmetic circuit. It is known that the operation is repeatedly restarted and stopped.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, the timer sets a predetermined time longer than the actual bubble disappearance waiting time,
Since the additional refueling is restarted in order to substantially refill the tank after the time set by the timer has elapsed, there have been the following problems. That is, the bubble disappearance time varies depending on various external factors such as the refueling time, the amount of refueling, the type of liquid, the structure of the refueling nozzle, etc. performed before that time. In particular,
At the time of normal refueling until the liquid level sensor first detects that the tank is full, a large flow rate of the oil liquid flows for a long time, and bubbling is the largest during this period. Even during this normal refueling, the tank capacity varies depending on the vehicle, and the amount of bubbles generated is not constant. Further, even in one full tank refueling operation, in the additional refueling after the normal refueling, the liquid level sensor operates and the refueling stops only when a small amount of the oil liquid flows for a short time, so that the bubbling is small. In spite of this, the conventional technique assumes a predetermined time longer than the longest bubble disappearance waiting time and uniformly sets the predetermined time by a timer, so that the liquid supply time is very long. However, there was a problem that it was inferior in workability.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art, and the time from when the liquid / bubble sensor is activated and the liquid supply is stopped until the liquid supply is restarted, For example, it is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid supply device which is calculated based on a liquid supply amount, a liquid supply time, a liquid type, and the like and is always capable of performing a full tank liquid supply in a minimum time.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a liquid supply device according to the present invention is provided with a liquid supply means consisting of a pump or an electromagnetic valve provided in the middle of a flow path whose one side is connected to a tank, and the other side of the flow path. A liquid supply nozzle having a discharge pipe at its tip, a liquid / foam sensor provided on the liquid supply nozzle and detecting a liquid surface or a foam surface reaching the discharge pipe to output a detection signal;・ By the output of the detection signal from the foam sensor,
A liquid feed stop means for stopping the operation of the liquid feed means, and a judgment as to whether or not a predetermined full-fill condition is satisfied when the liquid feed means stops the operation of the liquid feed means. A tank determining means, and a liquid supply restarting means for restarting the liquid supply by restarting the liquid supplying means after the predetermined time has elapsed when the full tank determining means determines that the full tank determining condition is not satisfied. Is equipped with.

The features of the configuration adopted by the present invention are that the liquid supply state measuring means for measuring the liquid supply state based on the operation each time the liquid supply means operates, and the input of the detection signal from the liquid / bubble sensor. Based on the measured value measured by the liquid supply state measuring means, a bubble disappearance waiting time is calculated, and the calculated time is set as a predetermined time in the liquid supply reunion means. Is.

In this case, the liquid supply state measuring means may be configured to measure the operating time each time the liquid sending means operates, and the liquid supply state measuring means may further measure each operating time of the liquid sending means. In addition, the liquid supply amount at that time can be measured.

[Action]

First, the general operation of the liquid supply device will be described.
When the liquid supply nozzle is inserted into the fuel tank of the vehicle and the valve is opened, liquid supply by the liquid supply means is started. When liquid supply continues and the liquid level or bubble level in the fuel tank rises, the liquid / bubble sensor detects this and outputs a detection signal.

In this way, when the detection signal is output from the liquid / bubble sensor, the liquid supply stop means stops the operation of the liquid supply means. When the liquid supply stop means is activated, the full tank determination means causes the liquid supply means to operate every time the liquid supply means operates (for example, when the pump is driven), or when the liquid supply amount at the previous operation is predetermined. It is determined whether the condition is reached.

Then, if the full tank determination means determines that the full tank condition is reached, the liquid supply is stopped at that point. On the other hand, when it is determined that the full tank condition is not satisfied, the liquid supply resuming means measures the predetermined time after the detection signal is output from the liquid / bubble sensor, and then restarts the liquid sending means. Thus, the liquid supply is restarted by the liquid supply means, the additional liquid supply is stopped at the time when the measurement signal is output from the liquid / bubble sensor, and the liquid supply is continued until the full tank determination means determines that the tank is full. The restart and stop are repeated, and the full tank refueling is completed.

However, according to the present invention, the dead time from the stop of the operation of the liquid sending means by the liquid sending stopping means to the restart of the liquid sending means by the liquid supply restarting means is reduced as much as possible. Is.

For this reason, the liquid feeding state measuring means, whenever the liquid feeding means operates, the liquid feeding state during the operating period (for example, the operation time of the pump or the electromagnetic valve etc. each time the liquid feeding means operates, or the liquid feeding state). Measure the amount of liquid supplied from the nozzle) as a factor.

Next, when the detection signal is input from the liquid / foam sensor, that is, when the liquid supply is stopped by the liquid supply stopping unit, the bubble disappearance waiting time calculation unit reads the measured value by the liquid supply state measuring unit, The bubble disappearance waiting time is calculated according to the magnitude of the measured value. Then, the foam disappearance waiting time calculating means outputs the calculated foam disappearance waiting time to the liquid supply resuming means, and stores the present foam disappearance waiting time required for restarting the liquid supply as a predetermined time.

Thereby, the minimum bubble disappearance waiting time required for the next additional liquid supply can be given from the measurement result of the liquid supply state at the previous liquid supply operation, and the useless waiting time is eliminated.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the liquid supply device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

First, in FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a fixed type oil supply device, which is provided with a main body 2, a fixed pipe 3 having one end connected to an underground tank (not shown), Fixed pipe 3
A pump 5 driven by a pump motor 4 provided in the middle of the flow path and a flow meter 7 equipped with a flow pulse generator 6
A refueling nozzle 9 provided at the other end of the fixed pipe 3 through a hose 8, a liquid / foam sensor 10 provided at a cylinder tip 9A of the refueling nozzle 9, and a refueling nozzle 9 for detaching the refueling nozzle 9. Nozzle housing portion 11 provided on the side wall of the main body 2, and a nozzle switch that outputs an opening signal when the nozzle 9 is hung on the fuel tank 9 and outputs a closing signal when removed.
2, a refueling amount display 13 for displaying the refueling amount, and a control device 14 having a specific configuration shown in FIG. 2 and connected to each of them through a signal line.

Here, the liquid / bubble sensor 10 detects a liquid level or a bubble level in the fuel tank when it reaches a predetermined position and outputs a detection signal, for example, an ultrasonic sensor, a photoelectric sensor, A capacitance sensor or the like is used.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a specific configuration of the control device 14 in FIG. 1, which control device 14 is a pump motor drive circuit 15 for controlling the drive of the pump motor 4, and an oil supply amount display based on the count signal. A display drive circuit 16 for driving each digit of the device 13 and a processing circuit 17 including a microcomputer and the like. Then, the processing circuit 17 is a CPU 18 that performs arithmetic processing.
And the ROM 19 storing the programs shown in FIG. 4 and FIG.
And an I / O circuit for inputting and outputting signals to and from the RAM 20 having the configuration shown in FIG. 3 described later, the pump motor drive circuit 15, the display drive circuit 16, the nozzle switch 12, and the liquid / bubble sensor 10 described above. 21 and the system bus 22 that connects them
And an oscillator 23 connected to the CPU 18 for oscillating a clock pulse. The flow rate pulse transmitter 6 is directly connected to the CPU 18 via a waveform shaping circuit (not shown).

Further, FIG. 3 shows a specific configuration of the storage area realized in the RAM 20, and stores a data table I storing the bubble disappearance waiting time at the time of normal refueling and the bubble disappearance waiting time at the time of additional refueling. Data table II and motor ON timer tm
And bubble disappearance time timer ta and bubble disappearance waiting time setting area
It consists of ta up and refueling flag area KFLG.

Here, in the data table I, the drive time of the pump motor 4 based on the unit of second (sec) and the bubble disappearance waiting time ta up corresponding thereto are stored as t ₁ , t ₂ , ... That is, according to the data table I, the pump 5 is driven at a constant flow rate until the liquid / foam sensor 10 is activated for the first time (hereinafter, referred to as "normal oil supply") by inserting the oil supply nozzle 9 into the fuel tank. Shows the relationship between the drive time of the pump 5 and the bubble disappearance waiting time, and this relationship is a value actually measured in advance by the actual refueling work.
The value varies depending on the liquid type.

On the other hand, the data table II stores the drive time of the pump motor 4 in units of millisecond (msec) and the bubble disappearance waiting time ta up corresponding thereto as Δt ₁ , Δt ₂ , ... That is, it shows the relationship between the drive time of the pump 5 and the bubble disappearance waiting time when the pump 5 is driven for a very short time for additional lubrication, and this relationship is also a value actually measured in advance.

Further, the motor ON timer tm measures the clock pulse while the pump motor 4 is driven and measures the time tm. The bubble disappearance time timer ta measures the clock pulse after the liquid / foam sensor 10 outputs the detection signal, and the bubble disappearance time
It measures ta. Bubble disappearance waiting time setting area ta
up accesses the pump drive time column of data table I or II from the motor ON time by motor ON timer tm,
The bubble disappearance waiting time ta up corresponding to the motor ON time (pump drive time) is set as t ₁ , t ₂ , ... Or Δt ₁ , Δt ₂ ,. Further, since the refueling flag area KFLG has different foaming conditions between normal refueling and additional refueling, a flag of "0" is set during normal refueling and a flag of "1" is set during additional refueling.

This embodiment is constructed in this way, and its operation will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

First, when the refueling nozzle 9 is removed from the nozzle accommodating portion 11 in order to refuel a vehicle stopped near the fixed refueling device 1, a closing signal is output from the nozzle switch 12 to start refueling work (step S1). . By inputting the closing signal to the processing circuit 17, the motor in the RAM 20 is controlled under the control of the CPU 18.
The ON timer tm and the bubble disappearance time timer ta are reset to zero, the refueling floor KFLC in the refueling flag area KFLG is cleared to "0", and the flag indicating the normal refueling state is set (step S2). In addition, the pump motor drive circuit 15
The pump motor 4 is started via the display device drive circuit 16, and the previous display value in the oil supply amount display 13 is reset to zero via the display drive circuit 16. The next step S3 is a waiting loop for whether the refueling nozzle is opened and the actual refueling work is started.The confirmation in step S3 is made based on whether or not the measured value of the flow rate pulse by the flow rate pulse interrupt processing is zero. Done. The above is the pretreatment before the start of refueling.

Now, when the worker inserts the refueling nozzle 9 into the fuel tank and opens the valve, the oil liquid in the underground tank is discharged from the refueling nozzle 9 through the fixed pipe 3, the pump 5, the flow meter 7, and the hose 8, A flow rate pulse is transmitted from the pulse transmitter 6, counting of the amount of refueling is started by the flow rate pulse interrupt process, and this count value is displayed by the refueling amount display 13.

When the start of refueling is confirmed in this way (step S
3) In the next step S4, the motor ON timer tm starts measuring the time by the clock pulse. Then, in the liquid / bubble sensor 10, the liquid level or the bubble level in the fuel tank rises and this
It is confirmed whether or not it is turned on (step S5).

When refueling progresses and the liquid / bubble sensor 10 is turned on, the detection signal is input to the processing circuit 17, the CPU 18 stops driving the pump motor 4 (step S6), and the motor ON timer tm
To stop counting (step S7). The amount of refueling during this period including the predetermined overrun amount is Q ₁ , and the motor ON time measured during this period is tm ₁ (see FIG. 6). The above is the normal refueling operation.

In this way, when the normal refueling is completed, the CPU 18 determines in the next step S8 whether or not the full refueling is completed. The determination method is as to whether or not the drive time of the pump motor 4 (motor ON time tm) is shorter than a predetermined time (for example, 0.5 seconds), and the detection signal from the liquid / bubble sensor 10 is longer than a predetermined time (for example, (2 seconds or more) Whether or not the output continues, the amount of refueling at the time of additional refueling is a predetermined amount (for example, 0.1
It is carried out depending on whether or not it is less than the above), or by combining the above methods.

Here, if it is confirmed in the determination operation of step S8 that the fuel tank 9 is full, or if the fuel nozzle 9 is closed in the middle even if the tank is not full, the fuel nozzle 9 is closed. The input of the closing signal from the nozzle switch 12 which is output by pulling out the fuel tank and hooking it in the nozzle housing portion 11 is confirmed (step S14). As a result, the drive of the pump motor 4 is stopped, and the refueling ends (step S15).

When it is determined in the determination operation in step S8 described above that the tank is not full, the bubble disappearance waiting time ta up is calculated in step S9. This calculation means is performed based on the flow chart shown in FIG. That is,
In step S110, it is confirmed whether or not the refueling flag KFLG is "0". If the refueling flag KFLG is “0”, it is determined that the refueling operation performed this time is normal refueling, the data ONI is accessed, and the motor ON time tm ₁ measured by the motor ON timer tm ₁ corresponds to this. The bubble disappearance holding time ta up to be selected is selected from t ₁ , t ₂ , ... And this is set in the bubble disappearance waiting time setting area ta up (step S111).
When this setting is completed, set the refueling flag KFLG to "1".
And a flag indicating that the refueling operation after the next time is additional refueling is set (step S112). On the other hand, if the refueling flag KFLG is "1" in the determination in step S110, it is determined that the refueling operation performed this time is additional refueling, the data table II is accessed, and the motor ON time tm by the motor ON timer tm is accessed. _{From 2} , tm ₃ , ..., the corresponding bubble disappearance waiting time ta u
Select p from Δt ₁ , Δt ₂ , ... And set it in the bubble disappearance waiting time setting area ta up (step S113).

By the way, in the above description of steps S1 to S8, since the refueling is normal, the motor ON time tm ₁ is calculated from the data table I.
The bubble disappearance waiting time ta up corresponding to is set in the bubble disappearance waiting time setting area ta up. When this setting is completed, the bubble disappearance time timer ta starts counting clock pulses to measure the bubble disappearance time (step S10). In the next step S11, it is determined whether or not the measurement time ta ₁ of the bubble disappearance time timer ta is longer than the set bubble disappearance waiting time ta up, and when ta ₁ > ta up, the bubble disappearance signal is transmitted. To be done.

By transmitting the bubble disappearance signal, it is considered that the bubbles in the fuel tank have disappeared, and the measured values of the motor ON timer tm and the bubble disappearance time timer ta are reset to zero (step S12).
At the same time, a pump motor drive signal is output from the CPU 18, the pump motor 4 is restarted, and the process returns to step S4 (step S13).

Thus, the operations of steps S4 to S8 are repeated, the refueling amount Q ₂ is refueled by the first additional refueling, and the motor ON time tm ₂ during this time is measured by the motor ON timer tm (FIG. 6). reference). Then, when it is determined in step S8 that the full refueling is not completed, the data table
The bubble disappearance waiting time ta up corresponding to the motor ON time tm ₂ from II
Is selected from Δt ₁ , Δt ₂ , ... And set in the bubble disappearance waiting time setting area ta up (see step S113). At this time, since the motor ON time tm ₂ is short and there is little foaming, a short bubble disappearing time corresponding to this is set. When this setting is completed, steps S10 to S13 are repeated again, the amount of refueling Q ₂ is refueled, and the process returns to step S4.

Further, similar additional fueling operation as described above is repeated, the oil supply amount Q _3, Q ₄ are refueling, after the end of the third additional fueling operation, in step S8, for example, the oil supply amount Q ₄ are predetermined oil amount (For example, if it is less than 0.1),
This means that the tank was almost completely refueled. As a result, refueling is completed in step S14.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the driving time of the pump including the flow velocity before the full tank preliminary detection signal is input, the amount of refueling, and the refueling time are taken as factors, and each bubble disappearance waiting time is set to the shortest. Therefore, the refueling work can be performed quickly. Further, each of the data tables I and II can be set according to various conditions such as the flow velocity, the liquid type, the model, etc., and can be set to values suitable for the installation conditions of the oil supply device.

Here, in the flow chart in FIG. 4, step 6 is a concrete example of the liquid supply stop means according to the present invention, step S8 is a full tank determination means, and steps S10 to S13 are liquid supply restart means,
Further, steps S4 to S7 are specific examples of the liquid supply state measuring means, and steps S110 to S113 in FIG. 5, that is, step 9 in FIG. 4 are specific examples of the bubble disappearance waiting time calculating means.

In the embodiment, the description has been made assuming that the normal refueling and the additional refueling are started and stopped by starting and stopping the pump motor 4, but a solenoid valve is provided in the middle of the fixed pipe 3 and the opening and closing operations of the solenoid valve are performed. May be done. In this case, the pump motor 4 may be started and the solenoid valve may be opened by the closing signal from the nozzle switch 12, and step S6 may be set to "open solenoid valve" and step S13 may be set to "close solenoid valve".

Also, the bubble disappearance time timer ta is liquid. Although it has been stated that counting is started at the rise of the detection signal from the bubble sensor 10,
As shown by the dotted line in FIG. 6, counting is started at the falling edge of the detection signal from the liquid / bubble sensor 10, and the measurement time t'a ₁ , t '
a ₂ , ... May be measured. In this case, the full tank refueling operation becomes more reliable.

Further, as a means for measuring the liquid supply state, the case where the drive time of the pump motor 4 in Steps S4 to S7 in FIG. 4 is timed has been taken as an example, but the amount of oil supply and the flow velocity before that are individually measured. , May be any of these factors,
Further, the valve opening time of the oil supply nozzle 9 may be used as a factor.
In particular, when the refueling amount is used as a factor, the refueling amount for each additional refueling can be immediately obtained by subtracting the refueling amount before that, by the integrated refueling amount and the detection signal from the liquid / bubble sensor 10. Therefore, a motor ON timer or the like may be unnecessary.

〔The invention's effect〕

The liquid supply device of the present invention is as described in detail above, and is provided with liquid supply state measuring means for measuring the liquid supply state based on the operation each time the liquid supply means is operated, Based on the input of the detection signal, the bubble disappearance waiting time calculating means for calculating the bubble disappearance waiting time from the measurement value measured by the liquid supply state measuring means, and setting the calculated time as the predetermined time in the liquid supply restarting means. Since the liquid supply resuming means is configured to operate the liquid feeding means again after the set bubble disappearance waiting time is set, the liquid feeding restarting means is temporarily stopped by the liquid feeding stopping means. The bubble disappearance waiting time until the liquid supply resuming means re-drives the liquid supply means can be given as a variable and minimum time based on the actual liquid supply state at the time of the last liquid supply operation. The time supply is short And, it can be performed efficiently liquid supply operations.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an oil supply device used in this embodiment, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing a concrete configuration of the control device in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration in RAM in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a liquid supply operation, and FIG. Is a flow chart showing the operation of calculating the bubble disappearance waiting time, and FIG. 6 is a time chart showing a series of liquid supply operations. 1 ... Fixed lubrication device, 4 ... Pump motor, 5 ... Pump, 6 ... Flow pulse generator, 7 ... Flow meter, 8 ...
Hose, 9 ... Refueling nozzle, 10 ... Liquid / foam sensor, 12 ...
… Nozzle switch, 13 …… Refueling amount indicator, 14 …… Control unit, 17 …… Processing circuit, 18 …… CPU, 19 …… ROM, 20 …… RA
M, I, II ... Data table.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A liquid feeding means comprising a pump or an electromagnetic valve provided in the middle of a flow path connected to a tank on one side, and a liquid supply nozzle provided on the other side of the flow path and having a discharge pipe at its tip. The liquid / foam sensor provided on the liquid supply nozzle and configured to detect the arrival of the liquid surface or the foam surface on the discharge pipe and output a detection signal, and the detection signal output from the liquid / foam sensor, A liquid supply stop means for stopping the operation of the liquid supply means, and a full tank for determining whether or not a predetermined full tank condition is satisfied when the operation of the liquid supply means is stopped by the liquid supply stop means. And a liquid supply resuming unit that restarts the liquid supply by restarting the liquid supply unit after the predetermined time has elapsed when the full-tank judging unit judges that the full-tank judging condition is not satisfied. In the liquid supply device, Bubble disappearance from the measured value measured by the liquid supply state measuring means based on the input of the detection signal from the liquid / foam sensor, which measures the liquid supply state based on its operation each time it moves. A liquid supply device comprising a bubble disappearance waiting time calculation means for calculating a waiting time and setting the calculated time in the liquid supply resuming means as a predetermined time. 2. The liquid supply apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the liquid supply state measuring means measures the operating time of each time the liquid supply means operates. 3. The liquid supply apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the liquid supply state measuring means measures the amount of liquid supply before each time the liquid supply means operates.