Fuel injector having flat seat and needle fuel seal

Claim 1

In an electromagnetic-operated fuel injector of the type comprising an injector body having a fuel passage terminating at a tip end at which fuel is emitted, a seat member disposed at said tip end, said seat member comprising a transverse wall containing a hole through which fuel passes, an axially reciprocal needle having a tip end that coacts with said seat member to open and close said hole in response to operation of the fuel injector, and a needle guide member that is coaxial with said seat member, said needle guide member having a guide hole that guides the axial reciprocation of said needle to and from said seat member and one or more additional holes through which fuel passes through said needle guide member toward said seat member, the improvement which comprises said seat member having a seat on said transverse wall that is raised toward the tip end of said needle and an annular well surrounding said raised seat, said seat comprising a flat annular surface surrounding the hole in said seat member and disposed perpendicular to the axial reciprocation of said needle, the surface portion of the hole in said seat member that is immediately contiguous said flat annular surface being of a frusto-conical shape which tapers inwardly in the direction away from said needle, the tip end of said needle being of a conical shape whose cone angle is greater than the cone angle of the frusto-conical surface portion of the hole in said seat member and just slightly less than a right angle so that when said needle is operated to close the hole in said seat member, an annular shaped portion of the conically shaped tip end of the needle seats on said flat annular surface of said seat at the rim of said frusto-conical surface portion of the hole in said seat member, and wherein the tip end of said needle and said flat annular surface and the immediately contiguous frusto-conical shaped surface portion of said seat have different hardnesses.