h p valve needle 110 however moves somewhat further and falls back toward the end of time segment c valve needle 110 reaches armature 130 and rests on it at the end of time segment d the activation of solenoid 140 then ends and thus activation duration u03b4t a also ends after a short period of time of sticking on solenoid 140 armature 130 and with it the valve needle begins to move in the closing direction toward the end of time segment e valve needle 110 has reached the valve seat while the armature is still bouncing fig3 shows various armature lift profiles h m 1 through h m 7 as a function of time t in a fuel injector including a solenoid valve and an armature free path such as that shown in fig1 a through 1f for example in a preferred specific embodiment when a method according to the present invention is carried out armature lift profiles h m 1 through h m 7 correspond to activation durations which always increase further beginning with index 1 up to index 7 all armature lift profiles have in common the fact that the armature begins to lift only after a certain period of time namely here from point in time t 0 before that the armature remains in its resting position so called u201c armature sticking u201d due to hydraulic.