DELIVERY DEVICE FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE

Abstract

A delivery device for a motor vehicle for delivering oil from an oil sump to a lubricating oil circuit of internal combustion engine has, as an oil pump, a double-stroke vane-type pump with positive guidance of vanes. A direct drive of the vane-type pump by means of the internal combustion engine is configured for an operating point P2. An increased or reduced oil demand is compensated by means of an activatable electric drive. A compact oil pump of very small dimensions may thus be used.

Claims

1. A delivery device for a motor vehicle for delivering oil from an oil sump to a lubricating oil circuit of an internal combustion engine or to a transmission, comprising: a mechanical direct drive; an activatable electric drive; a control device, the activatable electric drive connected to the control device; an oil pump which is driven by at least one of the mechanical direct drive or by the activatable electric drive; at least two components which are part of the oil pump and are movable relative to one another, for delivering the oil, and the mechanical direct drive is connected to a first of the at least two components that are movable relative to one another, and the activatable electric drive is connected to a second of the at least two components that are movable relative to one another, the at least two components further comprising; a rotor; and a runner part surrounding the rotor; wherein the direct drive configures the power of the oil pump for an operating point at medium or high rotational speed of the internal combustion engine and operating temperature, and the activatable electric drive increases the power of the oil pump to the actual requirement.

2. The delivery device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: a pot-shaped housing structure which separates a pressure side of the oil pump from the surroundings; a narrowed portion being part of the pot-shaped structure; and a shaft section which is part of the activatable electric drive, the narrow portion leads to the shaft section of the activatable electric drive; wherein the narrowed portion is connected rotationally conjointly to the shaft section and is sealed off with respect to a housing part of the oil pump.

3. The delivery device of claim 1, the control device further comprising a generator mode for the activatable electric drive for the purposes of reducing the power of the oil pump.

4. The delivery device of claim 1, the second of the at least two components that is driven by the activatable electric drive further comprising a freewheel for supporting the torque generated by the direct drive.

5. The delivery device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the freewheel supports a drive shaft of the activatable electric drive with respect to a housing part.

6. The delivery device of claim 1, the second of the at least two components that is driven by the activatable electric drive further comprising a brake for supporting the torque generated by the direct drive.

7. The delivery device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the brake supports a drive shaft of the activatable electric drive with respect to a housing part.

8. The delivery device of claim 1, the oil pump further comprising a double-stroke vane-type pump having two mutually oppositely situated swept volumes.

9. The delivery device of claim 8, the double-stroke vane-type pump further comprising a static guide element for preloading the vanes against the radially outer runner part.

10. The delivery device of claim 9, wherein the fixed guide element projects into the rotor.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] The invention permits numerous embodiments. To further illustrate its basic principle, two of these embodiments are illustrated in the drawing and will be described below. In the drawing:

[0016] FIG. 1 schematically shows an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle having a delivery device according to the invention,

[0017] FIG. 2 schematically shows the construction of an exemplary embodiment of an oil pump of the delivery device from FIG. 1,

[0018] FIG. 3 shows a characteristic map relating to the design of the oil pump from FIG. 1 with a demand characteristic curve of the internal combustion engine;

[0019] FIG. 4 is a side view of a double-stroke vane-type pump which is used as an oil pump in FIGS. 1 and 2; and

[0020] FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line V-V in FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0021] The following description of the preferred embodiment(s) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.

[0022] FIG. 1 schematically shows an internal combustion engine 1 of a motor vehicle having a delivery device 2 for delivering oil from an oil sump 3 to a consumer 4. The consumer 4 may be a lubricant circuit of the internal combustion engine 1 or a transmission (not illustrated) which is connected to the internal combustion engine 1. The delivery device 2 has an oil pump 5 with a direct drive 6 by means of the internal combustion engine 1 and an activatable electric drive 7. An electric motor 8 of the activatable electric drive 7 is connected to an electronic control device 9 which actuates the electric drive 7 via control lines 10, and which supplies electrical current from an on-board electrical system 11 of the motor vehicle, in a manner dependent on input signals such as a motor rotational speed, the demanded motor torque, the oil temperature and a setpoint pressure. For the supply of the input signals, the control device 9 is connected to signal lines 12.

[0023] The oil pump 5 has a rotor 13 and a runner part 14 surrounding the rotor 13. The rotor 13 is connected to the direct drive 6, whereas the runner part 14 is driven by the activatable electric drive 7. The oil pump 5 thus has two components, which are movable relative to one another, for delivering the oil. The oil pump 5 has a pot-shaped housing structure 16 which separates a pressure side 15 from the surroundings. The pot-shaped housing structure 16 has a narrowed portion 18 which leads to a shaft section 17 of the activatable electric drive 7. Furthermore, in the shaft section 17 of the activatable electric drive 7, there is arranged a freewheel 19 which, when the electric drive 7 is not electrically energized, supports a torque of the direct drive 6 with respect to a static component.

[0024] In an alternative embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, the activatable electric drive 7 is permanently actuated by the control device 9 and is capable, if the power of the direct drive 6 is sufficient, of supporting the torque thereof. If the power of the direct drive 6 is higher than the power to be supplied to the oil pump 5, the electric drive 8 is switched into a generator mode and may thus reduce the power of the oil pump 5. In this embodiment, no freewheel is provided on the activatable electric drive 7. The embodiment as per FIG. 2 is otherwise constructed in the same way as that in FIG. 1.

[0025] FIG. 2 schematically shows an exemplary embodiment of the construction of the oil pump 5. To simplify the drawing, only one half of the oil pump 5 is illustrated. It is seen here that the narrowed portion 18 of the pot-shaped housing structure 16 is sealed off with respect to a housing part 21 of the oil pump 5 by means of a sealing ring 20. The shaft section 17 is connected to a rotor 22 of the electric drive 7. A further housing part 23 has an inlet duct 24 of the oil pump 5. The inlet duct 24 is connected to the oil sump 3 illustrated in FIG. 1. An outlet duct 25, which leads to the consumer 4 from FIG. 1, of the oil pump 5 is arranged together with an overpressure valve 26 in another housing part 27. A stator 28 of the electric drive 7 surrounds the rotor 22 and is arranged rotationally fixedly in the oil pump 5.

[0026] FIG. 3 shows a diagram of the delivery volume of the oil pump 5 versus the rotational speed of the internal combustion engine 1. At an operating temperature of approximately 90-110 C. the internal combustion engine 1 has an oil demand Q versus the rotational speed n, which is illustrated as characteristic curve I. The power to be imparted by the direct drive 6 according to the invention is denoted by II. A maximum power of the oil pump 5 during parallel operation of the direct drive 6 and of the electric motor 7 is denoted by III. At a medium rotational speed of for example approximately 2700 revolutions per minute, the power required for the operation of the oil pump 5 corresponds to the power generated by the direct drive 6. This point is denoted in the diagram by P2. If the rotational speed of the direct drive 6 lies below the medium rotational speed, the power of the oil pump 5 is increased by activating the electric drive 7. Above the medium rotational speed, the electric drive 7 may be switched into a generator mode in order to reduce the power of the direct drive 5. Alternatively, it is also possible for excess delivered oil to be discharged via the overpressure valve 26 illustrated in FIG. 2. The arrows directed vertically upward and downward from the line II thus correspond to the increase or reduction, by means of the activatable electric drive 7, of the power generated by the direct drive 6.

[0027] A characteristic curve of a drive situation according to the prior art is denoted by IV. The design point for the drive is denoted by P1. A direct drive which ensures adequate delivery performance at a low idle running rotational speed of approximately 800 revolutions per minute would have to have this characteristic curve. A comparison of the characteristic curves IV and I clearly shows that, by means of the combination with the activatable electric drive 7, a particularly low-powered and thus compact oil pump 5 is used.

[0028] FIG. 4 shows a double-stroke vane-type pump 28 which is preferably used as an oil pump 5 in FIGS. 1 and 2. The vane-type pump has two swept volumes 29, 30. The vane-type pump 28 has, in the rotor 13, guides 31 for extendable vanes 32. A static guide element 33 which projects into the rotor 13 preloads the vanes 32 radially outward against the runner part 14 of the oil pump 5. The guide element 33 has an outer contour corresponding to the inner contour of the runner part 14. The vanes 32 are subjected to positive guidance by the guide element 33, such that delivery of the oil is ensured directly upon the start of the oil pump 5. The oil pump 5 may thus also be used for delivering engine oil in a lubricating oil circuit of the internal combustion engine 1.

[0029] FIG. 5 shows a sectional illustration through the vane-type pump 28 from FIG. 4 along the line IV-IV. It is seen here that the rotor 22 is sealed off with respect to the runner part 14 by means of a sealing web 34.

[0030] The description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations that do not depart from the gist of the invention are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention.