Fuel Injection - A Short History http://www.marinediesels.co.uk/members/Camshaftless/history.

htm

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Common Rail and Camshaftless Engines
Fuel Injection - A Short History

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History.
Although marine engineers will be familiar with the cam driven reciprocating helical scroll type fuel jerk pump, timed to
the engine crankshaft, as used in the majority of todays marine diesel engines, fuel injection has not always been achieved
using this method. Early engines used high pressure compressed air at about 66 bar to blow the fuel oil into the cylinder
through the fuel valves (Blast injection). This was replaced by several reciprocating fuel pump systems, the most common
of which were the air injection system, the Archaouloff system, and the airless system.

In the air injection system, the fuel pump was driven by an eccentric. The fuel was delivered to the fuel valve, the quantity
determined by the closing of the pump suction valve as the plunger moved upwards. There was also a high pressure 66
bar air supply to the fuel valve. The opening of the fuel valve was controlled by a cam driven rocker, and on opening, the
high pressure air atomised and injected the fuel.

In the Archaouloff system, the energy of the air being compressed in the engine cylinder was used to drive a reciprocating
plunger. The air was tapped off the engine cylinder and led to an air impulse cylinder, the piston of which drove the
reciprocating plunger of the fuel pump and delivered fuel to the hydraulically operated fuel valve.

The airless system was the name given to the cam operated reciprocating fuel pumps which have developed into the
modern jerk pumps. Early systems used eccentrics to operate suction or spill valves to control fuel quantity, much like the
modern Sulzer two stroke fuel pump. However Bosch patented a system using a helical scroll to control the quantity of
fuel delivered each stroke, and it is this system that is in common use today.

It is not generally known that the first airless injection system (i.e. not to use compressed air to atomise the fuel) was a
common rail system. The invention of this system is often mistakenly credited to Doxford, but it was invented and
patented by Vickers of Barrow in Furness.

In this early common rail system the engine driven fuel pumps pressurised a fuel rail to about 400 bar from which pipes
led to the fuel valves operated by cams and rocking levers. Independently driven pumps were provided to prime the
system for starting.
Later systems used hydraulically operated injectors, the delivery of fuel being controlled by a cam operated valve. Fuel
quantity was controlled by an eccentric on the cam follower.

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Fuel Injection - A Short History http://www.marinediesels.co.uk/members/Camshaftless/history.htm

However it can be seen that with all the aforementioned systems, some form of mechanical timing via a camshaft is used
to control injection of the fuel. The development of these mechanical fuel injection systems became more sophisticated
with the introduction of Variable Injection Timing so that start and end of injection could be controlled.

With the integration of industrial electronics into marine engineering systems coupled with the giant strides made in the
development of computer technology, it has now become possible to re-introduce the fuel injection common rail along
with other fuel injection systems, using this modern technology to time the injection of fuel without mechanical aids.

In addition to this, it has become possible to dispense with the timed camshaft altogether by using similar systems to
control operation of valves and the air start system.

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