Patent ID: 8307810

Claim:
A fuel injection system, comprising: at least two high-pressure fuel pumps, each high-pressure fuel pump being configured to pump fuel at a high pressure into a high-pressure fuel distribution line system fluidly communicating with an internal combustion engine, wherein each of the high-pressure fuel pumps is configured to be operated in a first supply pump mode and a second pump supply mode, such that in the first pump supply mode a first amount of fuel is pumped, and in the second pump supply mode a second amount of fuel is pumped, said second amount of fuel being greater than the first amount of fuel, wherein the total amount of fuel simultaneously pumped by all high-pressure fuel pumps corresponds to an amount of fuel that is necessary to operate the internal combustion engine at a predetermined engine load, and a control unit configured to alternately operate the high-pressure fuel pumps such that, during a first time period at least one of the high-pressure fuel pumps is operated in the first pump supply mode and one or more other high-pressure fuel pumps is simultaneously operated in the second pump supply mode, and such that during a second time period at least one high-pressure fuel pump operated during the first time period in the second pump supply mode is operated in the first pump supply mode and one or more other high-pressure fuel pumps is simultaneously operated in the second pump supply mode.