Fuel injection system greatly affects the performance of a direct injection diesel engine. A common rail injection system was introduced to satisfy the stringent emission standards, low fuel consumption, and low noise in recent years. The performance of a common-rail fuel injection system is strongly influenced by the injector characteristics. The common rail injector has evolved in order to improve its injection performance. The piezo-actuated injector is more suitable for common rail injection system due to its fast response and is expected to replace current solenoid-operated injector. In this study, nonlinear mathematical models are proposed for the solenoid-operated and the piezo-actuated injectors for control applications. Based on these models, the injection rate, which is one of the most important factors for the injection characteristics, is estimated using sliding mode observer. The simulation results and the experimental data show that the proposed sliding mode observers can effectively estimate the injection timing and the injection rate for both common-rail injectors.