GB2459369A

GB2459369A - Vehicle fuel tank inlet with integrated water drain valve

Info

Publication number: GB2459369A
Application number: GB0906815A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Christian Zentner
Original assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
Current assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
Priority date: 2008-04-24
Filing date: 2009-04-21
Publication date: 2009-10-28
Anticipated expiration: 2029-04-21
Also published as: US20090266835A1; GB2459369B; GB0906815D0; CN101618677A; DE102008020538A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a vehicle tank flap module housing 2 with a trough body 4 and an opening 10 for the liquid drainage of liquids 12 such as water or fuel present in the trough body. Here, a flexible means 14 for covering the opening 10 is provided, which is arranged in such a manner that it opens the opening upon reaching of an adequately high liquid level h in the tank flap module housing. The flexible means may be embodied as a sealing lip, flap, film hinge or valve. The flexible means may be manufactured of a fuel resistant plastic such as EPDM. The flexible means may be injection-molded on to or positively connected with the trough body. The trough body may be embodied as a two-component trough body.

Description

Tank flap module housing with integrated water drain valve Technical area The invention relates to a tank flap module housing with a trough body and an opening for the liquid drainage of liquids present in the trough body such as for example water or fuel.

Prior art

Tank flap module housings with a module body and an opening for the liquid draining of the aforementioned kind are known in the prior art. Tank flap module housings of this kind serve for the joining of a tank connection of the motor vehicle with a body of said motor vehicle.

When refueling it frequently occurs that fuel is still present in the refueling nozzle which on removing the refueling nozzle tends to drip off near the tank connection. In addition to this, a careless user can overfill the tank so that fuel again runs out of the filler neck. Furthermore, the filler necks are regularly covered through tank flaps for aerodynamic reasons towards the body side. The tank flaps however are never com-pletely tight so that when driving in rain, water can collect in the tank flap module. The tank flap module housings are therefore embodied trough-shaped in a lower region in order to be able to accommodate the aforementioned liquids, i.e. for example fuel or water, without fuel getting on to the vehicle body and without water collected in the tank flap module hous-ing runs into the tank during refueling.

For the drainage of the aforementioned liquids an opening is regularly provided in the lower region of the mostly trough-shaped trough body, through which the water or the fuel can drain. In the prior art a hose is usually arranged on this opening which from the opening leads to the vehicle under floor. Liquids which accumulate in the trough body can thus be discharged to the bottom.

Problematic with this solution known from the prior art is that swirled-up dirt is able to get into the trough body through the connecting hose and that the trough body becomes dirty as a result. In the worst case the dirt can enter the tank on refueling and cause more rapid clogging of the gaso-line filter.

Furthermore, the provision of drain hoses is problematic since the inner walls of the hoses become moist during the drainage of fuel or water, as a result of which swirled-up dirt adheres to the walls of the hoses and can lead to clogging of the hose.

Object The object of the invention is to further develop a tank flap module housing of the known kind in that the entry of dirt in the tank flap module housing is effectively prevented and that the risk of clogging of the drain is reduced.

Presentation of the invention The object is solved through a tank flap module housing ac-cording to Claim 1.

To solve this object a tank flap module housing according to the invention is provided with a trough body and an opening for the liquid drainage of liquids such as water or fuel present in the trough body, which provides a flexible means for covering the opening. The flexible means according to the invention is arranged in such a manner that it opens the open- ing once an adequately high liquid level in the tank flap mod-ule housing is reached.

The opening of such a tank flap module housing is thus normal-ly sealed towards the bottom through the flexible means. Dust or other dirt cannot enter the tank flap module housing from the outside through the opening. The flexible means opens the opening only when the liquid level in the tank flap module housing is adequately high, for example upon refueling or when rainwater has entered from the outside.

When providing a hose to be connected to the opening, cleaning of the hose is additionally made possible through the flexible means since the liquid in the tank flap module housing exits in surges depending on the concrete embodiment of the flexible means, as a result of which the liquid runs through the hose with higher energy.

Tank flap in the sense according to the invention comprises all possible closures, i.e. also screw closures and the like.

Surprisingly it has been shown that pressure develops within the trough body while driving which causes stronger adherence of the flexible means to the opening. For this reason the flexible means opens the opening while driving only at higher liquid levels than when stationary. While driving it is thus ensured that the opening is not continuously opened, whereas the opening during refueling is opened already at substantial-ly smaller liquid quantities.

With the tank flap module housing according to the invention all applicable safety regulations can be satisfied. To reduce the fire and explosion hazard on refueling, the fuel must drain off even with very small quantities. However since the refueling of the vehicle always takes place with the vehicle stationary, fuel which on refueling of the vehicle drips into the trough body, has to be briskly discharged through the opening that can be very easily opened. While driving, only water must usually be discharged so that there is no ignition hazard.

According to a first advantageous development of the tank flap module housing according to the invention the flexible means is embodied as sealing lip, flap, film hinge or valve. More preferably sealing lips can be manufactured particularly cost-effectively since these for example can be manufactured as one-piece injection-molded parts without expensive molds, and without hinges or the like. Even with hinges and valves advan-tages in terms of sealing and susceptibility to dirt can be achieved.

A fuel-resistant plastic has proved to be a suitable material for the flexible means. Preferably the fuel-resistant plastic is an elastorner. EPDM as well as PP have proved to be suitable fuel-resistant materials. With the help of these materials the tank flap module housings according to the invention can be manufactured particularly cost-effectively and durably.

A further particular advantage is obtained if the flexible means is injection-molded on to the trough body. This makes possible particularly cost-effective manufacture of the tank flap module housing according to the invention and brings about particularly reliable connection of the flexible means to the opening.

As an alternative to this it can be provided that instead of a flexible means injection-molded on a means can be provided which can be positively attached. Such positive connections facilitate the repair in the event of a defect since a defec-tive flexible means can be simply replaced.

Furthermore the trough body is preferably embodied as two- component trough body. Here, a hard component and a soft com-ponent are provided. The trough body itself advantageously consists largely of a hard component. Glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene (GFK-PP) has proved to be particularly suitable.

Connection to the tank filler neck is preferably realized out of a soft component. EPDM has proved to be particularly suita-ble here.

Forming the trough body as two-component trough body on the one hand facilitates the assembly of the trough body and on the other hand guarantees certain flexibility between trough body and filler neck, which increases the durability. For the trough body is secured to the sidewalls of the vehicle body, whereas the tank is usually secured in the floor region of the vehicle. While driving, relative displacements can occur be-tween sidewall and floor region however.

Preferably the two-component trough body is injection-molded in a single injection molding operation, wherein soft compo- nent and hard component merge with each other to form a ma- terial connection. The flexible means according to the inven-tion in this case can be co-attached during both the injection molding process as well as in an additional injection molding process.

Preferably the tank flap module housing is embodied in such a manner that the opening can be opened at a liquid level from 1 mm.

The sealing of a drain opening through a flexible means ac- cording to the invention, more preferably a flexible means in-jection-molded on can be provided in the motor vehicle area more preferably in the passenger car area wherever a liquid drain must be provided for technical reasons. For door, door- sill as well as water drain of a convertible top can be men-

tioned as examples.

Further objectives, features as well as advantageous applica- tion possibilities of the invention are obtained from the fol-lowing description of an exemplary embodiment by means of the drawings. Here, all described and/or depicted features in their practical combination form the object of the present in- vention even independently of the patent claims and their ref-erences.

Brief description of the Figures

It shows: Figure 1 a section through a tank flap module housing ac- cording to the invention in schematic representa-tion with a flexible means in closed position and Figure 2 a section through a tank flap module housing ac- cording to the invention in schematic representa-tion with a flexible means in opened position.

Exemplary embodiment (s) Figure 1 shows a schematic cross section through a tank flap module housing 2 according to the invention with a trough body 4.

The trough body 4 is embodied as two-component trough body with a soft component 4.1 and a hard component 4.2. The soft component 4.1 consists of ethylene-propylene-dien rubber (EPDM) and with an opening 6 constitutes a connection to a tank filler neck which is not shown. The hard component 4.2 consists of glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene (GRP-PP) Soft component 4.1 and hard component 4.2 are manufactured in one injection molding operation and thus form a material con-nection with each other.

The tank flap module housing 2 according to the invention is closed off towards the vehicle outside through a tank flap 8.

Instead of a tank flap 8 a screw connection or the like can also be provided.

In the lower region of the trough body 4 an opening 10 is pro-vided through which liquid accumulated in the lower region of the trough body 4, for example water or fuel, can drain off.

The opening 10 according to the invention is sealed through a sealing lip 14.

The sealing lip 14 is directly injection-molded on to the opening 10. Here, the sealing lip 14 is secured to the opening only on one side, on the other side the sealing lip 14 is free. The sealing lip 14 is embodied so that it rests against the opening 10 with slight pre-stress and completely closes off the opening 10 in that it rests against the edges of the opening 10 all around.

The contact forces of the sealing lip 14 while driving are in-creased in that in the interior of the trough body 4 a vacuum is formed relative to the outer region of the motor vehicle, through which the sealing lip 14 is sucked on to the opening 10. Because of this the closing forces with which the sealing lip 14 seals the opening 10 change as a function of the driv-ing state of the vehicle. To overcome the closing forces a liquid level h must materialize in the trough body 4 while driving that is higher than with a standing vehicle. Because of this it is achieved on the one hand that on refueling even smallest quantities of fuel can drain off, whereas the opening while driving is only opened when an adequate amount of wa-ter, for example through rain, has collected within the trough body 4. At the same time, with the provision of a drain hose which is not shown, a certain cleaning effect can be achieved through this.

The triggering liquid level h according to the exemplary embo-diment with stationary vehicle is set to 1 mm.

Figure 2 shows the tank flap module housing 2 according to the invention with opened sealing lip 14. As soon as the liquid 12 has reached an intended minimum height h of 1 mm (see Figure 1) , the sealing lip 14 is pressed from a contact position on the opening 10 in to an open position through the liquid pres-sure thus created. The liquid 12 can drain off through the opening 10.

List of reference numbers 2 Tank flap module housing 4 Trough body 4.1 Soft component 4.2 Hard component 6 Opening for filler neck 8 Tank flap Opening for liquid drainage 12 Liquid 14 Sealing lip h Liquid level