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1999-01-0823V001 - Accuracy of Static Timing Devices PDF
1999-01-0823V001 - Accuracy of Static Timing Devices PDF
Klaus-Christoph Harms
AVL-LIST GmbH
Paul Henderson
Stanadyne Automotive Corp.
Fred McLeod
LucasVarity Diesel Systems
400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-5760
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ISSN 0148-7191
Copyright 1999 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.
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1999-01-0823
Klaus-Christoph Harms
AVL-LIST GmbH
Paul Henderson
Stanadyne Automotive Corp.
Fred McLeod
LucasVarity Diesel Systems
ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION
The correct timing of the diesel injection pump on engine WORK GROUP – The ISO work group conducting the
is of major importance for all functions of the engine and work described in this paper had the designation ISO/
for its exhaust emissions, during production pass off as TC22/SC5-SC7/JWG1. This is defined by being a joint
well as in the field. Within the diesel service workshops a working group (JWG) under the subcommittees (SC)
variety of devices exist to test the timing of the injection SC5 and SC7, responsible respectively for engine mea-
pump on engine. Most of them operate by clamp-on surements and diesel fuel injection equipment, under the
transducer being fitted to the injection pipe. technical committee (TC) responsible for road vehicles.
The task allocated to the group was to define a procedure
A large uncertainty exists concerning the accuracy of
and test devices to measure the dynamic relationship of
such timing systems. Most diesel engine manufacturers
the injection process on diesel engines for road vehicles.
do not have confidence in the timing devices capability
The work group was comprised of experts from Austria,
and, therefore, do not recommend their usage.
France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and the
A working group within the International Organization for United States.
Standardization (ISO) adopted a method for the valida-
tion of these measurement systems, which usually is SUBJECT – The optimum performance of a diesel
used to judge the capability of measurement gauges for engine with respect to power, fuel consumption, exhaust
industrial production processes. emissions and smoothness is dependent upon the cor-
rect timing of the fuel injection event which for conven-
The clamp-on systems fail marginally to fulfill the statisti-
tional engines this is normally stated in terms of the
cal demands of a production process but may be consid-
angular relationship of the injection pump drive shaft to
ered satisfactory for use as a service diagnostic
the engine crankshaft.
instrument, which generally needs not be verified against
the ambitious demands of production settings. This angular relationship as produced by the manufactur-
ing facility for new engines can change over the lifetime of
The dynamic timing systems have shown to be superior
the product, such as through lengthening of the timing
to some conventional, static-mechanical timing proce-
belt/chain, and must therefore be checked occasionally.
dures, given the right conditions. They could well serve
One indication that it should be checked could be if the
as an in-service measurement system, if the nominal
vehicle fails emission tests or if there are complaints con-
errors in the readings between devices of different manu-
cerning fuel consumption, noise, or loss of power.
facturers could be avoided.
1
The test method adopted was to fulfilll the following con- is set by the injection pump relative to the pumping
ditions: function. The engine manufacturer uses this refer-
ence to set the pump on the engine. The method
1. Be a quick & simple measurement process.
can also be used in service for testing or setting pur-
2. Fuel lines to the high-pressure or low-pressure sides poses. The device requires additional design
should not be disturbed. expense for the injection pump and is therefore only
3. The injection pump should not be disturbed. installed on a portion of the inline injection pumps
4. A guaranteed overall accuracy of ± 1° engine timing (EURO I and II) as well as on a small portion of the
should be achieved. distributor injection pumps. The procedure cannot be
retrofitted and thus cannot be universally used.
5. Be a reliable operation.
2. Pressure Wave Method (indirect) - The most com-
6. Be of low cost.
mon example of this is the clamp-on transducer
Theoretically, there are many possible methods to mea- method, by which a sensor is clamped on the
sure this relationship. These have been summarized in high-pressure pipe in order to measure the expan-
Figure 1. In this figure, 18 different measurement possi- sion of the tube. The respective electronics transmits
bilities concerning 9 different principles are shown along a trigger signal for a chronological characterization of
with a series of existing test devices and their respective the injection process.
measurement principles.
All other processes require more changes to the engine,
for example, the measurement of the movement or the
MEASUREMENT PROCEDURE SELECTION closing noise of the nozzle needle. Some are only indi-
rectly connected to the injection process (e.g., combus-
When the 18 measurement possibilities shown in Figure
tion noise or heat).
1 were examined to see if they fulfilll the given criteria,
only 2 methods potentially met the requirements. Thus, only the clamp-on transducer has found wide-
spread use in the repair workshops. Worldwide, almost
1. Verify Static Method (Pump Shaft Position) - This
50,000 units have been sold, i.e., almost all diesel engine
method uses fuel injection pump drive shaft or cam-
workshops have this type of unit.
shaft reference of varying forms. The shaft position
Pump Advance
Position
Emissions
Spill C ut Of f
Ba ck P ressur e Trade Off Pump
Pump Shaft
Dynamic Position
Pumping Pump
Plunger Posn Conventional
Static Very Static Pressure
Method Transducer
Needle
Closure Piezo Strain
Vibration Combustion Gauge
METHOD Noise/Press
Cylinder Head
Movement
Bolt Strain
Transducer
(FM) Highspeed
Thermocouple
Proximity Injector Combustion
Transducer Needle Lift Heat
(Hall) Ultrasonic
/Press Pressure Wave Thermometry
On P ump On Pipe
On Pipe
Methods in use
0002.ppt
2
DESCRIPTION OF THE CLAMP-ON A trigger threshold is defined as a percent of the signal
TRANSDUCER difference between the zero level and the maximum
amplitude, which when attained gives out a trigger mark.
Only a brief description of this process will be given The zero level for this is defined as an arithmetic mean
because this type of system has been used in the mar- value over the entire signal curve (this equates approxi-
ketplace for almost 20 years. mately to the pressure level in the pipe in the dwell
between the injections). The maximum amplitude is the
SENSOR – The sensor is clamped to the high-pressure peak value from the previous injection.
line by using a screw or bracket clamp. The measure-
1400
70807
ment position must be defined with an accuracy of
around ± 10 mm and must be positioned on a straight 1200 Clamp-On Transducer
piece of the line, the length of the straight section being Inline Pressure Transducer
1000
greater than 20 mm. The pipe at this position must be
free from surface errors such as burrs and free from dirt. 800
bar
Depending on the design, the sensor picks up either the 600
expansion of the perimeter of the tube or the increase in
the diameter and changes this into an electrical signal. 400
Both types of sensors use a piezo-electrical effect for the
200
measurement element, sensing changes in the element
tension, producing an electrical charge. 0
-20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Two sensor examples from current production are shown degree cam angle
in Figure 2.
Figure 3. Pressure trace comparison
3
ACCURACY a procedure is determined and set into a ratio for the tol-
erances of the measurement values to be checked.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS – In defining the accuracy Upon reaching a defined value, the procedure is suffi-
required for the devices, it is necessary to first define cient for the task at hand.
what is to be measured. It makes sense that this procedure is also used for
With respect to the dynamic timing tester, a decision assessing the accuracy of the dynamic timing tester.
must first be made as to whether the static beginning of
delivery, the dynamic beginning of delivery, or the begin- GAUGE CAPABILITY – Capability assesses the repeat-
ning of injection from the nozzle is to be measured. This ability of a measurement procedure. This ability to repeat
decision depends on the goal that is to be reached. a test or the precision of the repetition is determined by
repeating the testing under constant conditions until a
The purpose of the procedure is to adjust the fuel injec- statistically relevant number is attained (i.e.,≥ 25). The
tion pump setting on all engines, so that a consistent tim- results are statistically evaluated and applied to the fol-
ing of fuel injection from the nozzle is achieved relative to lowing formula:
an engine crank angle reference. For this, the measure-
ment procedure must fulfill the following conditions:
1. The measurement variables used must represent the
engine function.
2. The measurement unit used must show repeatability where:
and reproducibility, which are clearly better than the
T = overchecking tolerance of the product. The allowed
tolerances allowed for the characteristics being mea-
tolerance for the beginning of delivery desired by engine
sured.
manufacturers is the most frequently mentioned value 2°
Regarding point 1, it was determined that the pressure crank (± 1° crank).
increase measurement method is clearly an accurate
sw = standard deviation of the repeat measurements.
representation of the relation between the pump and the
engine independent of whether or not it more closely rep- The term cgm is designated as the gauge capability. Its
resents beginning of delivery from the pump or begin- value should be ≥ 1.33, so that the accuracy is good
ning of injection from the nozzle. enough for the measurement unit to guarantee the pro-
duction process taking into account high-volume produc-
The repeatability and reproducibility mentioned in point 2
tion. However, this value implies initially only that the
are the subject of the work herein described and are
random errors are small enough and does not indicate
closely examined.
anything concerning a systematic deviation. This must
also be checked and guaranteed.
COMPARISON WITH OTHER MEASUREMENT PRO-
CEDURES – Often the accuracy of a measurement pro- For the beginning of delivery test, gauge capability values
cedure is assessed by comparing it with other existing were determined from measurements made on three dif-
procedures and a correlation is searched for. In relation ferent vehicles: vehicle 1 (2.5l DI), vehicle 2 (1.6l Turbo
to the high-pressure pipe pressure rise device, this meant IDI), and vehicle 3 (2l IDI). The results and the respec-
checking the correlation to the normal static measure- tive evaluation of the gauge capability (cgm) is shown in
ment procedure for the installation position of the pump Figure 4.
to the engine.
On vehicle 1, the values for cgm, are far above 1.33,
The static measurement method (e.g., linear plunger which are very good values, except at higher speeds.
travel of the injection pump) is however, in principle, so The reason for the good values may be that the crank-
different from a dynamic measurement method on an shaft position is measured with an increment angle sen-
operating engine that a correlation cannot be expected if sor, which is thus very accurate.
the measurement is to be made in tenths of a degree. In
On vehicle 2, the values lie in the range of 1.03 to 1.25;
addition, the static method itself is known to have rela-
again with the exception of higher speeds. Even though
tively poor reproducibility.
the value 1.33 is not quite attained, this is also however
Thus, a comparison with the static measurement method considered a good result and the measurement proce-
is not a suitable process in order to assess the accuracy dure is thus useable.
of the dynamic timing tester.
On vehicle 3, the cgm values for the three low speeds lie
between 0.67 and 0.83. These values indicate that the
NEW EVALUATION PROCEDURE FOR ACCURACY –
repeatability is not as good, the requirement is thus only
For industrial measurements, new evaluation procedures
fulfillled when higher tolerances are permitted. The poor
for accuracy of the measurement procedure have been
repeatability is probably because the angular determina-
developed and introduced in the last few years. With
tion occurs on the V-belt pulley, thus on a smaller diame-
these procedures, the repeatability and reproducibility of
ter than on a flywheel, which is not good for accuracy.
4
Figure 4. Vehicle test results
It is obvious that on all three engines that were tested, At medium or high speeds, where the timing device for
the repeatability of the beginning of delivery measure- the injection system functions, the repeatability is clearly
ment above 1500 RPM was worse by a factor of 2-3. The worse and the capability of the measurement unit is no
reason for this is that above this speed, the timing longer guaranteed. This is however not caused by the
advance device on the injection pump starts functioning. measurement device.
These normally have hysteresis effects, which influence
To summarize, the dynamic timing testers can basically
the ability to accurately measure in tenths of a degree
fulfill the criteria of the gauge capability. However, in indi-
crankshaft angle.
vidual situations this can be negatively influenced by spe-
On one of the three vehicles tested the rules of the gauge cific conditions of the engine or the injection equipment.
capability are adequately fulfillled within the high A corresponding test is required for each individual situa-
demands and statistical rules for industrial measurement tion in order to make sure that dynamic timing systems
technology; the second vehicle just barely failed. On the are applicable.
third vehicle the gauge capability was inadequate and
could only be fulfillled if higher tolerances are allowed.
5
REPRODUCIBILITY – Reproducibility is a measure of Variance range is used in parallel to gauge capability.
the repetition of a complete measurement (including the While the gauge capability concerns, in principle, con-
entire measurement setup) at a different time, in contrary stantly maintained peripheral conditions (lab conditions),
to the repeatability where the measurements occur the “spread of the measurement equipment” is more like
immediately one after the other. the behavior under real-life conditions, i.e., with continu-
ally different test units.
In order to be able to guarantee that the results are statis-
tically significant, 25 test specimens, for example, are The use of this methodology involving a large-scale test
each evaluated for repeatability (for comparison: for on numerous vehicles and with a number of test units is
repeatability there would be 25 measurements on the described in the following.
same test specimen).
The evaluation occurs thus:
VEHICLE TESTING
6
Table 1. Difference between measurement 1 and 2 for 5 All of these statements concern the measurement in the
test units and 12 vehicles, all values in ° crank low-idle range. Measurements were also made at in-
creased speeds of 3000 rpm at zero load. The results
Veh. Equipment number
however indicate that reproducibility is poor and any sta-
no. 1 2 3 4 5 tistical evaluation does not appear sensible. The reason
5 -0,1 -0,2 0,0 0,0 -0,1 for this is not due to begin-of-delivery measurements but
rather because it is very difficult to precisely maintain a
6 -0,1 -0,1 -0,2 -0,2 0,0 constant speed when the engine is running freely using a
7 0,0 -0,1 -0.5 -0,3 -0,4 tachometer and the accelerator pedal. This causes a
variation in the position of the timing device and subse-
8 -0,2 -0,2 0,0 -0,2 -0,3 quent in the begin-of-delivery measurements.
9 0,1 -0,1 -0,2 0,0 -0,2
Measurement of the begin-of-delivery at medium speeds
10 0,3 -0,3 -0,1 0,0 -0,1 and thus within the operating range of the timing device
11 0,1 -0,4 -0,1 -0,2 -0,1 does not appear to make a lot of sense. Thus a
cross-evaluation of all vehicles and all testers has
12 0,0 -0,1 - -0,3 -0,1 resulted in interesting results.
13 0,1 -0,3 0,0 0,1 0,2
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS – The results for the five testers
14 0,1 -0,3 0,0 -0,2 0,1
on all vehicles for the low-idle tests are shown in Figure
15 0,0 0,0 0,1 0,0 -0,1 5.
16 0,4 -0,1 -0,1 -0,1 0,1 The diagram indicates the following:
1. The angular relation for the injection pump differs
A reproducibility of an average of 0.14° is determined to from engine to engine, with a maximum variation for
be rather good, considering that this value was created the 12 engines around 1.5° crank. Statistical evalua-
with a timing light pickup and a manual adjustment to tion results in a 6s value of 2.7° crank.
agree with the marks.
2. All five testers indicated these differences from
Representing the results of reproducibility, the values are engine to engine in a similar manner.
as found in Table 2. 3. There are systematic differences among the five
testers; average variation 0.5° crank.
Table 2. Reproducibility results 4. The statistical deviation of the testers (6 s = 0.5° -
Equipment number 0.7° crank) as well as the systematic deviation in the
test units from each other (0.5° crank) are less than
1 2 3 4 5 the statistical deviation of the beginning of delivery
6s∆[°cr] 1,0 0,7 0,9 0,8 1,0 on the engines (6 s = 2.7° crank, see above).
7
Dynamic Timing Devices at Opel Astra
Results of 5 devices at low idle
12,0
11,5
Degree crankshaft
11,0
10,5
10,0
1 2 3 4 5
9,5
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Car-No.
15,5
15
14,5
10 10,5 11 11,5 12
low idle-value; [°crankshaft]
8
ASSESSMENT CONCLUSIONS
1. The repeatability precision and the variance range of 1. The requirement within the ISO organization to stan-
the dynamic timing tester is, judged by the stringent dardize the beginning of delivery measurement pro-
statistical rules of the industrial production measure- cedures for the service area, resulted in the forming
ment technology, just at the limits of usability. of a special work group.
2. Under normal, less stringent statistical measure- 2. The only practical procedure is the already known
ments, the repeatability of the dynamic timing tester clamp-on transducer that is widely used in service
is good enough to attain an accuracy of ± 1° crank workshops.
for the beginning of delivery on the engines. 3. In order to assess the capability of the procedure,
3. The variance range of the measurement process is numerous tests of the units from different manufac-
clearly less than the effective variance in the begin- turers were completed according to the specifications
ning of delivery on new engines, set with help of the in the assessment procedure for units for industrial
lift measurement on the plunger of the injection pump measurement technology.
(in the interim, however, more exact procedures are 4. Because of the stringent statistical requirements, the
used for engine production). testers are just below the limits of usability, which for
4. Because, in principle, the measurement process is a service unit produces respectable results. Under
capable of determining differences on new engines normal, non-statistical requirements, the clamp-on
with a sufficient degree of accuracy, it is also capable transducer is, in principle, suitable.
to record deviations and errors during testing with a 5. The differences between the units produced by vari-
used engine. ous manufacturers is disturbing, and in order to be
5. Systematic differences between the equipment pro- able to standardize these testers, an injection system
duced by the different manufacturers are disturbing. simulation unit is to be made.
6. The statements above are valid for low idle and with 6. The ISO work group is to continue their work until the
normal, continuously rising pressures at the injection aforementioned standards are established.
lines.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FURTHER PROCEEDINGS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the permission of
Based on these results, the ISO working group men- Adam Opel AG to test vehicles at its Bochum facility.
tioned here has recommended that an injection equip- Also, the authors acknowledge AVL-LIST GmbH, Lucas-
ment simulation unit shall be created in order to equalize Varity Diesel Systems, Robert Bosch GmbH, and Stana-
the test results received from different manufacturer’s dyne Automotive Corp., and the respective technical
testers and to permit standardization. support staff at each company for completing and pub-
lishing this work.
Examples of such a test rig already exist but have to be
redesigned in order to make use of the newest technol-
ogy in electronic recording.
At the same time, standards are being developed and are
currently in the concept stage which includes the follow-
ing:
ISO/DIS 13555-1:1998 Road Vehicles - Dynamic proce-
dure for checking the timing of diesel fuel injection - Part
1: Preconditioning.
ISO/DIS 13555-2:1998 Road Vehicles - Dynamic proce-
dure for checking the timing of diesel fuel injection - Part
2: Test method.
ISO/WD 13555-3:1998 Road Vehicles - Dynamic proce-
dure for checking the timing of diesel fuel injection - Part
3: Validation of test equipment.