C o v e r S t o r y FUEL IN JECTION SYSTEMS

THE NEW DENSO COMMON RAIL

DIESEL SOLENOID INJECTOR
The new G4S injector from Denso with a three-way valve function improves hydraulic efficiency, thus cutting fu-
el consumption by around 1 %. A 75 % reduction in moving masses results in significantly improved hydraulics.
Due to its minimised leakage, the injector has considerably lower fuel cooling requirements and is significantly
more robust in dealing with variations in diesel fuel qualities.

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 A ut h o r s
INTRODUCTION Thanks to its high actuation forces, the
G3P injector realises a direct three-way
An increasing numbers of diesel engines valve, which can minimise switching
will be sold worldwide, with growth leakage significantly. It is a disadvantage
especially in the emerging markets. On of conventional current in-production
the other hand, extremely strict emis- solenoid injectors, where high switching
sion regulations and CO2 regulation leakages plus clearance leakages cause
Shuichi Matsumoto
is Director Diesel Injection
need to be fulfilled in the developed waste of energy and fuel deterioration due
­E ngineering Division at Denso countries. Therefore, the diesel injection to high local temperatures in the fuel
­C orporation in Kariya (Japan). equipment is required to realise higher return lines [2]. A breakthrough was
fuel metering accuracies and to provide required to the control valve structure [1]
increased injection pressures to meet to accomplish zero clearance leakage
stricter emission and fuel consumption using a solenoid actuator.
regulations, while realising higher spe- In the new 4th generation solenoid
cific engine performance. injector, G4S, this could be achieved by
Engine makers and OEMs further a new three-way valve function. Com-
Kenji Date require improved robustness against pared to current solenoid injector (G3S,
is Manager at the Diesel ­Injection
Engineering Division, Denso
diversified market fuels, pressure mainte- generation 3 solenoid) the overall
­C orporation in Kariya (Japan). nance characteristics in the idle stop sys- hydraulic performance was improved [2].
tem (ISS) and easy installation of the fuel Compared to G3P, thanks to simple sole-
injection equipment (FIE). One key com- noid technology, long lifetime require-
ponent to meet these demands is the ments of commercial applications are
injector. Technically, it is possible with enabled with up to 2,500 bar and later
an in-production 3rd generation piezo 3,000 bar injection pressure [3].
injector G3P (generation 3 piezo) to fulfil
Tooru Taguchi the oncoming requirements [1]. However,
is Project Assistant Manager at the the solenoid technology guarantees for G4S INJECTOR HYDRAULIC
Diesel Injection Engineering Division,
Denso Corporation in Kariya (Japan).
high robustness, long lifetimes and cost FUNCTION AND PERFORMANCE
optimisation. Thus, Denso has developed
a new generation solenoid injector G4S The current in-production G3S injector
(generation 4 solenoid) meeting the same has mounted the solenoid valve on the
performance as the G3P injector. The top of the injector. Thanks to the more
focus was on the development targets as than 70 % reduced switching leakage, the
mentioned in, 1. G4S solenoid could be minimised in size
Dr. Olaf Erik Herrmann
is Team Leader Advanced Diesel
Engine Management System at Denso
International Europe in Wegberg features FIE benefit G3S G3P G4S
(Germany).
Eliminate clearance Start-stop capability, fuel robustness,
No Yes Yes
leakage efficiency

Minimise switching Further improved fuel robustness and

No Yes Yes
leakage fuel efficiency

Easy installation, pressure sensor

Small size control valve option (i-ART, intelligent accuracy No Yes Yes
refinement technology)

Individual nozzle open/

Injection rate tuning option No Yes Yes
close speed

Locate actuator and Reduced moving mass to improve

­c ontrol chamber direct hydraulic performance, injection ac- No Yes Yes
close to needle curacy and stability

Increase injection pres- Reduced emissions, reduced fuel 2500 to

2000 bar 2000 bar
sure consumption, high power 3000 bar*

* Next step for heavy duty application

❶ Development targets for the new G4S injector compared with other Denso diesel injectors

autotechreview N o v e mb e r 2 013 Vo lum e 2 | I s su e 11 25

 C o v e r S t o r y FUEL IN JECTION SYSTEMS

Before injection the needle, the moving sure in the control chamber can rise again
Control valve mass can be reduced very quickly thanks to an independent
drastically by 75 %. inlet orifice. The closing speed can be
Intermediate
chamber Part of the control influenced by tuning of the inlet orifice –
chamber shown in ② is typically fast closing is preferred.
Inlet-orifice the so called control The positive impact on the injector
High-pressure plate, which is normally hydraulic performance is shown in 3.
circular groove closing the inlet orifice Thanks to the ballistic needle, the so
as seen on top left side. called gain curve of the injector is very
Outlet orifice The outlet orifice is linear, same or better as known from the
included in the control G3P [1, 2]. Up to 2,500 bar the curves can
plate and can be tuned be kept linear and for each pressures well
Control plate to determine the open- separated, which is needed for accurate
ing speed of the needle. injection control and for efficient compen-
Control chamber When the control valve sation functions. Also to keep the gain
opens, the pressure in curves smooth, especially in the small
Nozzle needle
the control chamber quantity area, is beneficial for stable pilot
Start of injection End of injection will be dropped. During injection quantities in production and
injection, the control during lifetime.
plate keeps the inlet ori- As indicated in ③, the conventional
fice closed, so no flow solenoid injector requires some connect-
into the control cham- ing element, which creates friction and
ber occurs. When the increases the moving mass. For G4S the
control valve is closed, repeatability from injection to injection
❷ G4S solenoid injector structure and function as shown in ②, on bot- has been improved. The so called shot-to-
tom right side, thanks shot performance is also shown in ③.
to a high-pressure circu- With even 2,500 bar injection pressure the
and moved centrally to the injector close lar groove the force balance on the control shot-to-shot deviation is improved by up
to the nozzle needle. As shown in 2 there plate will change. to 50 % compared to the conventional
is no additional command piston needed The intermediate chamber pressure injector with 2,000 bar injection pressure.
any more and the needle is actuated will become same as in the control cham- To inject on every cylinder at every com-
directly by the pressure in the control ber and the pressure in the high-pressure bustion cycle, same injection quantities is
chamber. There is no part in the injector, circular groove is higher. This creates a beneficial. In the pilot quantity area mini-
which is sliding and has sealing function change in force balance on the control mised shot-to-shot deviations enable
at the same time. Thanks to the direct plate and the control plate is moving and directly a reduction of the minimum pos-
positioning of the control chamber above opening the inlet orifice. Then, the pres- sible injection quantity. In combination

80 Rail pressure [bar] Conventional

2500 G3S
70 2000
Injection quantity [mm3/stroke]

1600
60 1200 New
800 Actuator G4S
50 400
40

30
deviation [mm3/stroke]
Shot to shot quantity

G3S (2000 bar) G4S (2500 bar)

20

10

0 Command piston

10
8 Injected fuel quantity [mm3/stroke]
6
4 Nozzle needle
2
0
0 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00
Energising time [ms]

❸ Injection quantity of G4S as function of electrical ­energising (left) and injection quantity deviation from injection-to-injection (right)

26 www.autotechreview.com
 Low end torque

Leakage [mm3/stroke]
G3S G4S 40
Two-way valve Three-way function
with command piston without command piston
20
0.5 kW
mech. power
0
G3S G4S
L H L H

Rated power
Control
chamber

Leakage [mm3/stroke]
40
Command
piston
20
Nozzle
needle 2 kW
0 mech. power
G3S G4S

H High-pressure side Clearance leakage

L Low-pressure side Switching leakage

❹ Injector fuel leakage for G3S and G4S injector for a four-cylinder engine at 2000 bar injection pressure

with conventional learning functions or progressive with the utilised injection injection pressure). At high engine
optional with i-ART, stable pilot injections pressure [2]. Also at lower engine speeds, speeds, the clearance leakage per stroke is
can be realised, for example, to ensure clearance leakage becomes bigger due to reduced due to less time between injec-
stable emissions and performance for pas- more time between the injections. The tions. However, the total leakage flow
senger car applications during lifetime. second contribution is the switching leak- delivered by the high-pressure pump
age, which for conventional injectors increases. Thus, at rated power the leak-
occurs not only from control chamber, but age creates almost 2,000 W of pump driv-
BENEFIT OF THREE-WAY-FUNCTION also from high-pressure side as long as ing power as total saving potential.
VALVE the armature of the solenoid valve is With G4S the clearance leakage is
opened. That means for each injection it avoided completely. This allows especially
The elimination of clearance leakage and occurs; and the
reduction of switching leakage was a longer the injec-
Injection quantity: 80 mm3/stroke
major development target. Hydraulic sim- tion duration is,
80
ulations, engine bench and vehicle inves- the more switching
tigations have shown, that, thanks to leakage occurs.
leakage reduction, about 1 % fuel con- The worst case,
sumption reduction is possible for passen- thus, is full load G3S (2000 bar)
60
ger car application and for heavy duty operation as
application in the whole map area [4]. shown in ④. At
Leakage [mm3/stroke]

Leakage from the high-pressure side low end torque, a

results in more fuel to be delivered by the bit more than 40
40
high-pressure pump and thus fuel con- mm3 per stroke
sumption increase of the engine. Further- leakage fuel need
more leakage reduction is essential for to be additionally
efficient injection pressure increase, delivered by the
which offers emissions and fuel consump- high-pressure 20 G4S (2500 bar)

tion potential [3, 4]. pump – this is a

4 shows the actual quantity of the saving potential of
leakage of a conventional solenoid injec- more than 500 W
tor compared to G4S. On current solenoid pump driving 0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
injector G3S, clearance leakage occurs at power (at a four-
the command piston and nozzle needle. It cylinder-engine Durability test time [h]
is known that clearance leakage increases and 2,000 bar ❺ Stability of leakage d
­ uring durability test

autotechreview N o v e mb e r 2 013 Vo lum e 2 | I s su e 11 27

C o v e r S t o r y FUEL IN JECTION SYSTEMS

Fuel exchange
Fuel drift happens
Maximum 0.4
Total acid number

No fuel drift
TAN

G4S

Maximum TAN
Minimum

[mg KOH/g]
TAN 0.05
0.3
Time

G3S
temperature [°C]

120 0.2
Leakage

60

0 600 800 1200 1600

0
G3S G4S Endurance test time [h]

❻ Accelerated bio fuel robustness test on pump bench (schematic)

at low end torque a drastic leakage reduc- this, formation and adhesion of biopoly- the hydraulic efficiency can be increased
tion and thus CO2 potential. This feature mer deposits was improved. An acceler- allowing about 1 % fuel savings. Also the
is also supporting the ISS (idle start stop) ated test cycle to evaluate the injection hydraulic performance of the injector was
function in an optimum way. After engine system in terms of robustness against improved – the shot-to-shot deviation was
stop, the pressure can be maintained in deposits is shown in 6. Here, the worst reduced by 50 %. The fuel leakage tem-
the rail easily for several minutes. For the case bio-fuel mixture of 20 % soya bean- perature can be reduced, which improves
next start-up the rail pressure is available based bio-diesel is tested. The so called the fuel robustness of the injector and
directly from the rail. TAN (Total Acid Number) increases due reduces the need for fuel cooling. Denso
Additionally, the switching leakage can to oxidisation of fuel during fuel storage has launched the G4S injector at the
be reduced by more than 70 % thanks to accelerated by high temperatures in the beginning of 2013 with up to 2,500 bar
the three-way valve function. The remain- injection system – for example injector injection pressure and later will increase
ing leakage correlates to the minimum leakage. The test shows how long the the injection pressure up to 3,000 bar.
required energy to operate the servo injec- conventional in-production solenoid sys-
tor (at low end torque less than 100 W). tem survives till fuel drift as function of References
This increase of efficiency is also key for maximum selected TAN occurs. The [1] Kondo, S.; Toyoshima, Y.; Takayama, T.;
Yamaguchi, M.: 200 MPa Piezo Common Rail Sys-
further hydraulic efficient increase of achieved robustness is sufficient for tem. Journal of Society of Automotive Engineers of
injection pressure beyond 2,500 bar up to today’s market fuel situation [5]. The new Japan, No 20095709, 10/2009
3,000 bar [4]. solenoid injector is significantly more [2] Matsumoto, S.; Date K.; Yamada, K.: Con-
cepts and Evolution of Injector for Common Rail
5 shows the leakage characteristics robust against this extreme test and
System, SAE 2012-01-1753, 2012
after durability test. The clearance leakage showed no fuel drift within 1,600 hr, [3] Shinohara, Y.; Takeuchi, K.; Herrmann, O.;
is proportional to the cube of the clear- even if the maximum TAN number is ­L aumen, H. J.: 3000 bar Common Rail System,
In: MTZ 72 (2011), No. 1, pp. 4-8
ance, and the clearance, which is usually increased. Thus, there is a bigger poten-
[4] Herrmann, O.; Nakagawa, M.; Kenhard, M.;
approximately 1 μm, is very sensitive to tial to keep the robustness of the system Schwab, H.; Miyaki, M.; Shinohara, Y.; Takeuchi,
wear. On the other hand, orifice flow is even if fuels will change in the future. K.; Uchiyama, K.: Ultra High Pressure and En-
proportional to the orifice area, which The explanation why the newly devel- hanced Multiple Injection – Potentials for the Die-
sel Engine and Challenge for the Fuel Injection
explains, why switching leakage is less oped solenoid injector G4S is more robust System. Fuel Injection Systems for IC engines, IM-
sensitive in the durability test. The new to biopolymer deposits is on the one ECHE, 2012
structure without sliding portion and with hand, the number of moving parts and [5] Omori, T.; Tanaka, A.; Yamada, K.; Bunne, S.:
Biodiesel deposit formation mechanism and im-
three-way valve function, thanks to its the actually internal sliding area are
provement of FIE. SAE 2011-01-1935, 2011
principle, is free from effects of temporal reduced drastically. On the other hand,
wear even after the durability test, so the the internal temperature of the injector
leakage quantity hardly changes at all. can be reduced.
Very stable and small leakage quantities
were verified, as shown in ⑤ [2].
Worldwide experience with different CONCLUSION
fuels [5] has led to counter measures, like
DLC coatings applied to the valve sliding Denso’s new solenoid injector G4S real- Read this article on
portion of the in-production injector. By ises a three-way-function valve. By this www.autotechreview.com

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