UCONN Mechancial Engineering Senior Design Job Ticket

UCONN Mechancial Engineering Senior Design Job Ticket

Sponsoring Company: Stanadyne LLC

Project Title:DE Pump Solenoid Valve Position Sensor

Prime Contacts: Brian Cox

860-525-0821 x5139

This will be a joint project between Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering Students

The Engineering Challenge:Stanadyne is a global leader in fuel injection system technology for diesel and gasoline engines, enabling greater efficiency, engine power and performance.

To properly deliver the precise amount of fuel from the DE (series D Electronic) Pump (see figure 1) to the injectors for optimum engine efficiency, the Engine Control Unit (ECU) must understand when the pump solenoid valve fully seats. In prototype (development) systems, a proximity sensor can be used to measure the position of the valve armature to know when it fully seats (see figure 2). This aids in prototype system development, engine calibration, and basic troubleshooting.

In production systems, the opportunity does not exist to install this proximity sensor. This makes troubleshooting pump related issues more difficult as we must rely on other methods to estimate when the valve fully seats.

The ability to directly measure the valve seating with production hardware can greatly increase troubleshooting abilities during system development. This may also have applications for improved service tools or as an interface to customer ECUs for easing the development effort to interface and control the DE pump.

Description of Problem/Project:The objective of this project is todesign a low cost DE Pump solenoid position sensor for production systems. The sensor could measure the knock of the armature hitting the seat(2ms event at 10 Hz) or another position feature and output a digital signal in real-time to be read by an engine control unit or oscilloscope.

The sensor and associated electronic circuit should be embedded into the DE solenoid cap. A new solenoid cap design will need to be designed to accommodate the additional sensor pins.

Figure 1 DE Pump

Figure 2 Armature and Cap Assembly

Expected Deliverables:

Research position sensor approaches.

Understand system level requirements.

Analyze the current design to understand the loads and frequencies in the current design.

Identify candidate configurations and methods to detect valve position.

Conduct trade studies and down select material/configuration.

Design, fabricate and test prototype components to understand and validate new design elements.

Working prototype of the DE Pump Valve Position Sensor.

Suggested design for a new solenoid cap with integrated electronics and connector.

Bill of Materials and Cost analysis.

All Electrical schematics and circuit board layout. Analytical and test results, CAD models, Materials.

• Is there a specific software package required for the projects? Y ___ N _X__

Which package (name/version) ______

• U.S. Citizen/Person (green card) Required? Y____ N _X___

• Will Export Controlled data be used in project (EAR/ITAR) Y _____N_X__

• NDA/IP Agreements required? Y ___ N _X_

• Other considerations: Testing and machining capabilities at Stanadyne will be available to the Team