Automotive Fuel Tanks
For each new vehicle a specific fuel system is developed, to optimize the use of available space. Moreover, for one car model, different fuel system architectures are developed, depending on the type of the car, the type of fuel (gasoline or diesel), nozzle models, and region.
Two technologies are used to make fuel tanks for automobiles:
- Plastic high-density polyethylene (HDPE) fuel tanks made by blow molding. This technology is increasingly used as it now shows its capacity to obtain very low emissions of fuel (see Partial zero-emissions vehicle). HDPE can also take complex shapes, allowing the tank to be mounted directly over the rear axle, saving space and improving crash safety. Initially there were concerns over the low fracture toughness of HDPE, when compared to steel or aluminum. Concern for safety and long term ability to function should be considered and monitored.
- Metal (steel or aluminum) fuel tanks welded from stamped sheets. Although this technology is very good in limiting fuel emissions, it tends to be less competitive and thus less on the market.
Modern cars often feature remote opening of the fuel tank fuel filler flap using an electric motor or cable release. For both convenience and security, many modern fuel tanks cannot be opened by hand or otherwise from the outside of the car.
Read more about this topic: Fuel Tank
Famous quotes containing the words fuel and/or tanks:
“I had an old axe which nobody claimed, with which by spells in winter days, on the sunny side of the house, I played about the stumps which I had got out of my bean-field. As my driver prophesied when I was plowing, they warmed me twice,—once while I was splitting them, and again when they were on the fire, so that no fuel could give out more heat. As for the axe,... if it was dull, it was at least hung true.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Today, almost forty years later, I grow dizzy when I recall that the number of manufactured tanks seems to have been more important to me than the vanished victims of racism.”
—Albert Speer (1905–1981)