Patent ID: 7299997

Claim:
A fuel injector comprising: an inlet and an outlet and a passage extending along a longitudinal axis from the inlet to the outlet, the inlet communicable with a flow of fuel; a seat disposed in the passage proximate the outlet, the seat including a sealing surface that faces the inlet and a seat orifice extending through the seat from the sealing surface along the longitudinal axis; a closure member being reciprocally located between a first position displaced from the seat, and a second position contiguous the sealing seat surface of the seat to form a seal that precludes fuel flow past the closure member; and a metering orifice disc disposed between the seat and the outlet, the metering orifice disc comprising a plurality of metering orifices located radially outward of the seat orifice and extending through the orifice disc from a surface recessed relative to a top end of the orifice disc, a wall disposed proximate to each metering orifice and outwardly thereof relative to the longitudinal axis, and a flow divider disposed between each metering orifice and the longitudinal axis, the wall and the flow divider defining a pair of converging flow channels to each metering orifice transverse to the longitudinal axis, the flow channels combining proximate to each metering orifice so that, when the inlet of the injector is provided with a pressurized fluid over a range of pressure from 200 kiloPascals to 600 kiloPascals and the closure member is actuated to the first position, the metering orifice disc provides an atomized fluid having a Sauter-Mean-Diameter of less than 70 microns proximate the outlet of the fuel injector.