WO2008105722A1

WO2008105722A1 - Fuel tank arrangement for a vehicle

Info

Publication number: WO2008105722A1
Application number: PCT/SE2008/050157
Authority: WO
Inventors: Johan Liljekvist; Donald Kristofersson
Original assignee: Scania Cv Ab
Priority date: 2007-02-26
Filing date: 2008-02-08
Publication date: 2008-09-04
Also published as: EP2121365A1; SE0700479L; EP2121365B1; BRPI0808168A2; BRPI0808168B1; SE530936C2; EP2121365A4

Abstract

A fuel tank arrangement (10) for a vehicle, in particular for a heavy load vehicle driven by a diesel engine, comprises: a fuel tank (12) for receiving and storing fuel, a fuel filter (18) element for separating water from the stored fuel, a water container (16) for storing water separated from the fuel. In order to permit an easy access to the filter element 18 and the water container (16) in a space saving manner, said fuel tank (12) is provided with a recess (14) at its outer periphery, wherein said water container (16) is arranged within said recess (14) to be accessible from the outside of the fuel tank (12).

Description

Fuel tank arrangement for a vehicle

The present invention relates to a fuel tank arrangement for a vehicle, in particular for a heavy load vehicle driven by a diesel engine, said fuel tank arrangement comprising: a fuel tank for receiving and storing fuel, a fuel filter element for separating water from the stored fuel, and a water container for storing water separated from the fuel.

In fuel tanks, in particular in diesel fuel tanks, during the operation of vehicles, a considerable amount of water is accumulated due to condensing effects. This results from the fact that diesel fuel regularly includes a certain proportion of water which accumulates at the bottom of the fuel tank. In order to guarantee a failure-free operation of the engine and the associated engine components, as injection pumps electronic controlling means, fuel sensors etc., the accumulated water should be separated from the fuel before the latter is supplied to the engine. Therefore, modern vehicles include a water separating device, also called water filter.

A corresponding fuel tank arrangement including a water filter is already known from DE 39 40 026 Cl. This arrangement shows a fuel tank having a filter arrangement which protrudes downwards from the bottom of the fuel tank. This arrangement requires substantial space in the vehicle. Moreover, this fuel tank arrangement provides a restricted access to the filter element for maintenance purposes.

A similar arrangement is also known from SU 1444179 Al. This document also shows a possibility of arranging water filters outside the fuel tank.

Alternatively, the prior art documents according to US 5,662,089 and EP 1 596 057 A2 show filter arrangements which are accommodated within the interior of a fuel tank. Such arrangements provide a very limited access to the filter.

Finally, the German Utility Model DE 9311357 Ul discloses a filter element which is fixed to a tank arrangement by means of a snap fit connection.

The above solutions show a plurality of different ways of arranging a filter component on a fuel tank. These solutions, as outlined above, provide substantial drawbacks in terms of a limited access as well as the requirement of space. It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a fuel tank arrangement for a vehicle, which does not require additional space when mounting into a vehicle and which provides easy access for maintenance purposes.

This object is solved by a fuel tank arrangement for a vehicle, in particular for a heavy load vehicle driven by a diesel engine, said fuel tank arrangement comprising: a fuel tank for receiving and storing fuel, a fuel filter element for separating water from the stored fuel, and - a water container for storing water separated from the fuel, wherein that fuel tank is provided with a recess at its outer periphery, wherein said water container is arranged within said recess to be accessible from the outside of the fuel tank.

By using a recessed fuel tank, it is possible to arrange the water container in the recess and outside of the fuel tank such that no additional space is required for accommodating the water container in the vehicle. Moreover, such an arrangement of the water container provides an easy access to the water container, in particular for maintenance or emptying purposes.

According to one embodiment of the invention, said recess is formed in an edge region of said fuel tank. Preferably, said fuel tank has an approximately cuboid form wherein said recess is formed such that one of the lateral edges of the cuboid running in vertical direction is cut away or depressed in order to provide the recess. However, according to the invention it is also possible to provide a recess in form of a groove or cavity in one of the side surfaces of the tank.

According to an alternative embodiment of the invention, said fuel tank is provided with a fuel tank mounting structure for mounting said fuel tank to a vehicle chassis, wherein said fuel tank mounting structure forms said recess in which said water container is accommodated. Preferably, in this embodiment, said fuel tank mounting structure comprises two carrier elements mounted to said outer periphery of said fuel tank. Thus, according to this embodiment, the fuel tank is not provided with a depression or the like but said recess is formed by a gap between the two carrier elements of the fuel tank mounting structure. Thereby, the water container can also be accommodated in a space-saving manner while being accessible from the outside of the fuel tank. According to a further embodiment of the invention, said fuel filter element is also arranged within said recess to be accessible from the outside of the fuel tank. This means that, besides the fuel tank, also the fuel filter element is arranged within said recess. Thus, no provisions have to be made for integrating the water container and/or the filter element in the interior of the fuel tank. Arranging the filter element outside of the fuel tank further facilitates the maintenance of the whole arrangement. Filter elements or filter cartridges arranged within a filter element are to be cleaned or even replaced in regular maintenance intervals. Arranging such a filter element outside the fuel tank permits conducting such maintenance steps in a less time-consuming manner.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, said filter element and said water container are connected to each other. Preferably, both the filter element and the water container are arranged as a compact and stabile unit.

In order to supply fuel to said filter element arranged in said recess and in order to lead away cleaned fuel from said filter element, a suction line leads from said fuel tank to said filter element for leading fuel from the fuel tank to the filter element and wherein a supply line leads fuel from the filter element to an engine of the vehicle for supplying the latter with filtered fuel. Such suction and supply lines are usually arranged directly on the surface of the tank or even in correspondingly arranged grooves or recesses outside the tank in order to provide a compact and stabile arrangement.

As mentioned above, during operation it is necessary to empty the water container in certain maintenance intervals. Therefore, the water container can be provided with a corresponding valve mechanism. In order to provide a possibility of detecting the actual water level within the water container, a further embodiment of the invention provides an indication means arranged within the water container.

According to a particular embodiment of the invention, said recess and said water container as well as said filter element are formed such that neither component protrudes over a generated shell surface of a virtual non-recessed fuel container.

In the following two embodiments of the invention are described with regard to the attached figures, wherein: Fig. 1 shows a first embodiment of a fuel tank arrangement according to the invention in a perspective view, and

Fig. 2 shows a second embodiment of said fuel tank arrangement according to the invention.

A fuel tank arrangement 10 according to the first embodiment of the invention, as shown in fig. 1, comprises a hollow fuel tank 12, which has a substantially cuboid form with rounded edge regions. Such a fuel tank arrangement 10 can be mounted within a heavy load vehicle which is driven by a diesel engine. Thus, the fuel tank arrangement 10 is provided for storing diesel fuel. As well known in the art, diesel fuel can include a certain proportion of water, which must be separated from the diesel fuel before supplying it to the combustion engine.

As depicted in fig. 1, the fuel tank 12 has an edge region, which is depressed into the fuel tank 12 in order to provide a recess 14. In this recess 14, a water container 16 as well as a filter element 18 is provided. A suction line 20 which is drawn out of the interior of the fuel tank 12 runs to the filter element 18. Moreover, a supply line 24 leading filtered fuel from the filter element 18 to the engine (not depicted) is running substantially parallel to the suction line 20.

As shown in fig. 1, the filter element 18 is directly arranged above the water container 16 and coupled thereto such that both components, the filter element 18 and the water container 16, form a stabile unit.

As can be seen from fig. 1, the geometry of the water container 16 is adapted to the recessed edge portion 14 of the fuel tank 12. This can be particularly recognized when viewing the upper surface 26 of the water container 16, on which the filter element 18 is mounted. The water container 16 is formed such that the unit including the water container 16 and the filter element 18 does not protrude over a generated shell surface of the fuel tank 12, provided that it "virtually" has no recess. Such a generated shell surface of a virtually non-recessed fuel tank is indicated by the chain line 28 running around the recessed edge portion.

The fuel tank arrangement 10 operates as well known in the art. Diesel fuel is sucked out of the interior of the fuel tank 12 via the suction line 20 and led to the filter element 18. In the filter element 18, the diesel fuel containing a certain proportion of water is filtered such that the water is separated from the fuel. The filtered, i.e. substantially water-free, diesel fuel is led via supply line 24 to the engine. The water separated from the diesel fuel, however, is stored within the water container 16.

By providing a fuel tank arrangement 10 according to the invention, it is possible to arrange the two components filter element 18 and water container 16 outside the fuel tank 12 in a recessed edge portion. Such arrangement provides easy access to these two components filter element 18 and water container 16. Therefore, it is easy to empty the water container 16 by using a (not depicted) valve element. Moreover, the filter element 18 is easily accessible and can be cleaned or replaced for maintenance purposes easily in a less time-consuming manner compared to prior art arrangements.

Fig. 2 shows the second embodiment of the fuel tank arrangement 10. Again, a nearly cuboid fuel tank 12 is provided with a water container 16 in a space-saving manner. The fuel tank 12 comprises two carrier elements 34, 36 mounted to the outer periphery of the fuel tank 12. The carrier elements 34 and 36 provide a fuel tank mounting structure, which serves for fixing said fuel tank 12 to a longitudinal beam member 32 of the vehicle chassis. The two carrier elements 34 and 36 are therefore provided with a plurality of fixing holes, as depicted in fig. 2. The two carrier elements 34 and 36 are arranged at the fuel tank 12 in a certain distance from one another. Thereby they form a gap or recess 14 wherein the water container 16 is arranged in a space-saving manner. The water container 16 is connected to a non-depicted filter element by means of a water supply line 38. Moreover, one can see that the water container 16 is provided at its bottom with a valve element 30 for emptying it.

Also a combination of the two embodiments according to figures 1 and 2 is possible, such that the water container 16 as well as the filter element are arranged in the recess formed between the two carrier elements 34 and 36.

Claims

1. Fuel tank arrangement (10) for a vehicle, in particular for a heavy load vehicle driven by a diesel engine, said fuel tank arrangement (10) comprising: - a fuel tank (12) for receiving and storing fuel, a fuel filter element (18) for separating water from the stored fuel, a water container (16) for storing water separated from the fuel, characterized in that said fuel tank (12) is provided with a recess (14) at its outer periphery, wherein said water container (16) is arranged within said recess (14) to be accessible from the outside of the fuel tank (12).

2. Fuel tank arrangement (10) according to claim 1, characterized in that said recess (14) is formed in an edge region of said fuel tank (12).

3. Fuel tank arrangement (10) according to claim 1, characterized in that said fuel tank (12) is provided with a fuel tank mounting structure (34, 36) for mounting said fuel tank (12) to a vehicle chassis (), wherein said fuel tank mounting structure 34, 36 forms said recess (14) in which said water container (16) is accommodated.

4. Fuel tank arrangement (10) according to claim 3, characterized in that said fuel tank mounting structure (34, 36) comprises two carrier elements mounted to said outer periphery of said fuel tank (12).

5. Fuel tank arrangement (10) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said fuel filter element (18) is also arranged within said recess (14) to be accessible from the outside of the fuel tank (12).

6. Fuel tank arrangement (10) according to claim 5, characterized in that said filter element (18) and said water container (16) are connected to each other.

7. Fuel tank arrangement (10) according to claims 5 or 6, characterized in that a suction line (20) leads from said fuel tank (18) to said filter element (18) for leading fuel from the fuel tank (12) to the filter element (18) and wherein a supply line (24) leads fuel from the filter element (18) to an engine of the vehicle for supplying the latter with filtered fuel.

8. Fuel tank arrangement (10) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said water container (16) includes a valve mechanism (30) for emptying it.

9. Fuel tank arrangement (10) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said water container (16) includes an indication means for indicating an actual water level.

10. Fuel tank arrangement (10) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said recess and said water container (16) as well as said filter element (18) are formed such that neither component protrudes over a generated shell surface (28) of a non-recessed fuel tank.