Patent ID: 7600379

Claim:
An exhaust gas turbocharger for an internal combustion engine, including: an air intake tract ( 6 ), an exhaust gas line ( 4 ), a compressor ( 5 ) disposed in the air intake tract ( 6 ) of the internal combustion engine ( 1 ), an exhaust gas turbine ( 3 ) having a turbine housing ( 14 ) with a turbine wheel ( 12 ) and being disposed in the exhaust gas line ( 4 ), the exhaust gas turbine ( 3 ) having an inflow duct ( 13 ) arranged upstream of the turbine wheel ( 12 ) in the turbine housing ( 14 ) of the exhaust gas turbine ( 3 ), a variable turbine guide vane structure ( 11 ) arranged in an inlet flow passage ( 16 ) of the inflow duct ( 13 ) to the turbine wheel ( 12 ), said variable turbine guide vane structure ( 11 ) comprising a support ring ( 18 ) with guide vanes ( 19 ) supported on one side of the support ring ( 18 ) and the support ring ( 18 ) being mounted in a floating manner in a wall section ( 21 ) of the turbine housing ( 14 ), and spacer sleeves ( 24 ) arranged in the inlet flow passage ( 16 ), so as to define an end-side operating gap of the guide vanes ( 19 ) having a predetermined size between 0.02 and 0.1 mm as measured in the cold state, the spacer sleeves ( 24 ) consisting of a material having expansion properties which match expansion properties of the guide vanes ( 19 ) during temperature changes in the inlet flow passage ( 16 ) in order to maintain the end side operating gap of the guide vanes ( 19 ) with changing temperatures at the predetermined size.