Source: Diesel Progress
Author: Mike Osenga
May 2000 Issue

FORD & RACOR DEVELOP FUEL CONDITIONING MODULE

Jointly developed fuel delivery, filtration, separation package targeted of Ford's diesel-powered vehicles; "common architecture across platform lines"

In a new product development program that continues the redefinition of the relationship between component suppliers and OEMs, Ford Motor Co. and the Racor Division of Parker Hannifin Corp. have collaborated on a new fuel filter/fuel delivery pump module for diesel-powered trucks. Ford will be the first manufacturer to utilize the new module, which is expected to debut on its light-duty trucks.

While the specifics of the product itself are innovative, especially given the size requirements for the module, the route the two companies took to develop this module from concept to production product is interesting as well. It also provides a glimpse at the many different and close ways component suppliers and vehicle manufacturers are working together today.

Targeted for eventual use, Ford said, on all its trucks (and maybe cars) with a diesel engine, whether the engine is supplied by International, Caterpillar, Detroit Diesel, Cummins or others, is a frame-mounted diesel fuel-conditioning module (DFCM) developed in tandem by Ford and Racor. Designed to deliver fuel from the tank to the engine, filter the fuel, and separate out water in the fuel, the module itself is only slightly larger than a standard Racor fuel water/filter separator.

The pump portion of the DFCM is a 12 Vd.c. electric pump with a roller vane pumping element that supplies 50 gph at a regulated 60 psi. Reflection the importance of space as a design criterion, the pump is fitted into the center of the filter element area - in essence surrounded by the filter element.

Through this arrangement, the pump and the pressure regulator are protected from wear by placing it on the clean side of the filter, which also shields the pump from vibration and gravitational forces and prevents pump noise from being transmitted, via the vehicle body frame, to the passenger compartment.

For cold weather operation, the DFCM has an electric fuel heater and a thermal-controlled recirculating valve. The recirculating valve allows hot fuel coming from the engine to enter the inlet side of the filter element if fuel tank temperatures are below 90°F. If the tank temperature is above 90°F, the return fuel goes directly back to the tank.

The filtration media is Racor's Aqua-Bloc II, a new generation of filter media. The original AquaBloc media has found use in diesel-powered vehicle applications worldwide. AquaBloc II is designed to remove wear particles down to one micron and is housed in a cartridge that has no metal components, allowing for incineration or other environmentally friendly disposal. The cartridge design also prevents the engine from being operated without a filter adding additional engine protection.

The interesting part of this joint product development program is that both Ford and Racor hold patents on the module as part of Ford's Global Technologies, Inc. (FGTI) licensing program.

The DFCM module will be built in Racor's Modesto, Calif., facility and will be exclusive to Ford. However Racor can also sell the module to other vehicle manufacturers, without limitations, paying a royalty to Ford as part of its agreement with FGTI's Patent & Technology Licensing Office.

According to Brad Brown, product design engineer for Ford's Advanced Diesel Fuel Systems group and the lead engineer on this project, the high-pressure common rail fuel injection systems used on the diesels supplied to Ford require a constant 60 psi fuel pressure without pulsation. Most of today's high pressure injection pumps are also less tolerant of dirty fuel, meaning better filtration is needed as well, before the fuel reaches the pump.

One option, Brown said, was to mount an electric fuel pump regulated to the required pressure somewhere on the vehicle. However, this, he said, would have meant special brackets, fuel lines, fittings, a protective screen and an electrical harness. The pump would also have to have been installed upstream of the filter and, while protected by a screen, was not seen as having adequate filtration for the fuel injection pump.

Enter Racor. Ron Socia, Racor's Detroit account manager, was aware of Ford's interest in cleaner fuel at constant fuel delivery and contacted David Hodgkins, Racor's manager of customer development and the company's research and development engineers.

The DFCM development project also came at an interesting point in the history of Ford's vehicle design process, as well as its relationship with component suppliers, and Michael Soltis, manager of the Research & Vehicle Technology (RVT)-Fuel Systems Technology Team based at Ford's Dearborn, Mich., Advanced Engineering Center.

The creation of the Research & Vehicle Technology-Fuel Systems Technology Team (originally the Advanced Technology Group) was a direst result of the Ford 2000 restructuring program that began in 1995.

"With Ford 2000's emphasis on vehicle platforms, modularity and commonality, functional groups such as fuel systems, steering, suspensions and brakes were created as centers of excellence for innovations, which in our case was fuel systems," Soltis said.

Soltis said that prior to Ford 2000, "we weren't yet thinking in terms of systems. The RVT-Fuel Systems Technology Team was formed to coordinated the architecture of fuel systems across all Ford diesel platforms."

Kiran Shah, supervisor of the RVT-Advanced Fuel Systems group, said that the group's responsibility was essentially everything upstream of the engine's fuel injection pump and the technology developed would follow an engine across any and all platforms within Ford.

"We do the advanced and preprogram development work and then hand it off to the chassis group to implement." Shah said. Harish Chawla, Ford's Chief Program Engineer of Diesel Programs - Truck Vehicle Center, added that the cost benefits were clearly evident, which caused Ford to accelerate the DFCM program.

From that charter, Brown said, the first step was to evaluate and prioritize the needs of all the diesel groups within Ford, a process that was done in 1997-98. Two of the major needs identified from that benchmarking was for common base fuel filtration architecture, and a growing need for electric fuel delivery pumps.

"It was obvious fairly quickly that with the advent of common rail and the new generation of diesel fuel systems, we were going to need more flow, more precisely controlled constant pressure, meaning less pressure fluctuation and improved filtration," Brown said.

And as has become common throughout the engine-powered equipment world, Ford also wanted, if possible, to work with a single supplier. "At that point in the process, electric fuel pumps for diesel engines were comparatively new," Brown said, "and we wanted to work with someone that could integrate the electric pump with fuel filtration and other options. We were looking for a systems integrator."

The final result of the joint development program between Ford and Racor is the modularized DFCM from which a Ford platform designer can tell the RVT-Fuel Systems Technology Team exactly what features are needed. "It allows our platform designers to buy the specific functionality they need," Soltis said.

The DFCM modules allow platform designers to choose from a continuous or intermittent electric fuel pump; several options of the fuel recirculation feature; a tunable pressure regulator; a selection of size and mounting options; a number of elements and bowl sizes; and optional electric fuel heater; an optional water sensor that alerts the operator when the water separator bowl is full; and porting options that allow the fuel line fittings to come straight into the module or at various angles.

"With this, we don't have to reinvent the wheel with every new diesel program," Brown said. "It also reduces the installation costs because of the commonality of components and options. Two mounting bolts and you're done."

Soltis added that "our platform managers don't have to do the fuel systems development work or assign resources to this part of the design. We do that for them."

This commonality and flexibility, Ford felt, was especially important as the module could eventually be used on everything from diesel-powered Escort cars to larger trucks as the platform concept becomes more and more developed within Ford worldwide.

The final unique element of this program is the involvement of Ford Global Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Co. Established in 1997 to manage all the company's intellectual property, the Patent & Technology Licensing Office is the business arm of FGTI and is charged with licensing intellectual and technological properties for Ford, according to Henry Fradkin, director of the Patent and Technology Licensing Office.

The FGTI program licenses products in six areas: body & classis; chemical; electrical/electronics; manufacturing; powertrain; and software. The licensing of patents and technologies includes software, copyrights and technical knowhow developed at Ford facilities worldwide. Any or all, said FGTI, can be licensed outright or used as the basis for a joint venture or other such business arrangement, both in the automotive and non-automotive markets.

In this specific instance, Racor holds the patent on the filter element and element interfaces, while Ford has a patent on the module assembly itself.

This, both companies agree, gives each what it desires. Ford has patented assembly it can apply to any of its diesel-powered vehicles, while Racor has a major customer for the new module, as well as the ability to sell it to other equipment OEMs is that the testing and development costs have been covered. Ford, in turn, benefits from the success of the module, via royalties, on Racor's open market sales.