JPH11245672A - Vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the operation, and the maintenance and inspection of the valve means of a gas cylinder, in a vehicle to use a compressed natural gas as the fuel of the loading engine. SOLUTION: In a bus 1 using a compressed natural gas as the fuel of the loading engine 2, a gas cylinder 3 to store the compressed natural gas is provided on a roof 4, a lid 6 allowable to open and close by the inside of the room is provided close to the main valve 5 of the gas cylinder 3, and furthermore, a cover member 7 to generally cover the gas cylinder 3, the main valve 5, and the lid 6, from the upper side, is also provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure of a vehicle using compressed natural gas as a fuel for an onboard engine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 7-23623, a conventional vehicle using a gas fuel for an on-board engine is provided by suspending a fuel cylinder on a vehicle body frame with a bracket, bolts or the like. Is placed under the floor of the car body, but in this case, there is a problem that the required space under the narrow floor is significantly narrowed by the fuel cylinder placed under the floor, and in order to improve the ease of getting on and off the vehicle There has been a problem that is a major obstacle in promoting lowering the floor of vehicles.

[0003] For this reason, it is conceivable to dispose a fuel cylinder on the roof of a vehicle body. However, when the gas fuel is compressed natural gas, an overflow prevention valve built in a main valve attached to the gas cylinder has a gas flow path. If the valve is emergency closed, it is necessary to directly operate the main valve to restart the overflow prevention valve.If the fuel cylinder is located on the roof of the vehicle body, the above operation of the main valve will not be possible. Not only is it very troublesome, but also the maintenance and inspection work of the main valve is very difficult and its maintenance is problematic.The main stop valve which is turned on and off by a key switch is attached to the gas cylinder integrally with the main valve. In the case of the electric main valve, if the fuel cylinder is located on the roof of the vehicle body, maintenance work is very difficult as in the case of the mechanical main valve described above. was there.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to facilitate operation and maintenance of a gas cylinder valve means in a vehicle using compressed natural gas as a fuel for an onboard engine.

[0005]

Therefore, a vehicle according to the present invention has a gas cylinder disposed on a roof for storing compressed natural gas, which is a fuel for an on-board engine, and a gas cylinder disposed on the roof. A valve means interposed between the engine and the engine, a lid provided on the roof close to the valve means and capable of being opened and closed from the indoor side, and the gas cylinder, the valve means and the lid on the roof. And a cover member that covers from above.

That is, since the gas cylinder for storing the compressed natural gas of the fuel for the mounted engine is arranged on the roof of the vehicle, the space under the vehicle body floor is narrowed by the gas cylinder, and the vehicle floor is reduced as in the related art. Not only is there no risk of obstruction, but also the gas cylinder and valve means on the roof, and the lid provided on the roof in close proximity to the valve means are covered from above by the cover member. By opening the lid from the indoor side, the operation of the valve means and the maintenance and inspection work can always be easily performed from the indoor side regardless of the presence or absence of rainfall.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the present invention shown in the drawings will be described below. The bus 1 has an engine 2 mounted on the rear side, and a plurality of gas cylinders 3 for storing compressed natural gas, which is the fuel of the engine 2, are attached to a bracket (not shown) mounted on the roof 4 of the bus 1 by a clamp, a band, or the like. By being fixed, the bus 1 on the roof 4
Are arranged in the front-rear direction.

The roof 4 is provided with a lid 6 which can be opened and closed from the indoor side in proximity to a main valve 5 having a built-in overflow prevention valve attached to the rear end of the gas cylinder 3. , A main valve 5, and a cover member 7 that entirely covers the lid 6 from above. In addition, the safety valve 8 attached to the front and rear and the side of the gas cylinder 3 respectively,
It is opened at a predetermined temperature or higher and a predetermined gas pressure or higher, and a side safety valve (not shown) can improve heat responsiveness in particular.

Therefore, since the gas cylinder 3 is disposed on the roof 4, even if the bus 1 is equipped with the gas cylinder 3, the space under the floor of the bus 1 is not narrowed. The bus 1 can be utilized, and the floor of the bus 1 can be reduced, so that the ease of getting on and off the bus 1 can be easily increased.

Further, by opening the lid 6 provided on the roof 4 from the indoor side as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 1, the main valve 5 attached to the rear end of the gas cylinder 3 can be easily operated from the indoor side. Therefore, it is extremely easy to close the main valve 5 once to restart the overflow prevention valve after the overflow prevention valve incorporated in the main valve 5 is closed urgently when the gas fuel flow path is broken. In addition, it is similarly easy to restart the main valve 5 to use the compressed natural gas in the gas cylinder 3 as fuel for the engine 2 and to perform maintenance work on the main valve 5 from the indoor side as necessary. It can be easily performed, and its function can be satisfactorily ensured by improving the maintainability of the main valve 5.

Moreover, since the gas cylinder 3, the main valve 5, and the lid 6 on the roof 4 are entirely covered from above by the cover member 7, it is possible to reliably prevent raindrops from directly falling on them. Even when the lid 6 is opened during rainfall, raindrops do not enter the vehicle compartment,
The above operation and maintenance and inspection work of the main valve 5 can be easily performed at all times irrespective of the presence or absence of rainfall, which is practically very convenient.

On the other hand, even if the gas cylinder 3 is disposed on the roof 4, the gas cylinder 3 is completely covered by the cover member 7, so that the appearance of the bus 1 can be prevented from being particularly impaired, and at the same time, the bus 1 can be prevented from being damaged. There is an advantage that it is possible to easily suppress an increase in air resistance at the time of traveling and to surely reduce the fuel efficiency of the engine 2.

In the above-described embodiment, the gas cylinder is provided with a mechanical main valve.
Needless to say, even if the main stop valve is changed to an electric type main valve attached to the gas cylinder integrally with the main valve, the same operation and effect as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

[0014]

In the vehicle according to the present invention, a gas cylinder for storing compressed natural gas as a fuel for an on-board engine is disposed on a roof of the vehicle, and the gas cylinder and valve means and the roof are disposed adjacent to the valve means. The lid and the lid are covered from above by the cover member.If necessary, the lid can be opened from the indoor side to operate the valve means and perform maintenance and inspection work from the indoor side regardless of rainfall. This can be easily performed, and the maintainability of the valve means can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a main part in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bus 3 Gas cylinder 4 Roof 5 Main valve 6 Lid 7 Cover member

Claims (1)

[Claims] A gas cylinder disposed on a roof for storing compressed natural gas as fuel for an onboard engine; valve means disposed on the roof and interposed between the gas cylinder and the engine; A vehicle having a lid provided on the roof so as to be openable and closable from the indoor side in proximity to the valve means, and a cover member for covering the gas cylinder, the valve means and the lid from above on the roof.