Electrostatics of Fuel System for the Automobile

“Module” is a recent trend in Automotive Industry and many kinds of module products were exhibited at the '98 SAE International Congress & Exposition. Returnless fuel pump module is being developed to enable the vehicle to meet lower emissions requirements. Returnless fuel pump module integrates Fuel pump, Fuel filter and Pressure regulator. One characteristic of this module is to make the fuel filter of plastic and to hold it by a plastic bracket for weight reduction. Also, a returnless fuel delivery system uses a plastic fuel tube in place of a rubber hose. Here, design consideration of static electricity was needed. In general, the charged object is grounded. However, we have derived the unique idea to decrease the static electricity of the fuel filter with a non-conductive plastic case and plastic tube without taking the static charge to ground by reducing the generating charge.