Remote oxygen flow adjustment
AssigneeSilverbow Development, LLC
InventorsTodd Allum, Gregory J. Kapust
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A flow control apparatus includes a pressure regulator fluidly coupled to an inlet region and an outlet region and configured to reduce a pressure from a first value in the inlet region to a second value in the outlet region, where the second value is lower than the first value; and a variable area orifice disposed between the outlet region and an outlet opening of the apparatus, wherein a flow rate of a gas is controlled by the variable area orifice and is discharged from the apparatus to a gas supply line. A free area of the variable area orifice that is disposed between a movable element and a surface of the variable area orifice is configured to change linearly in response to a translation of the movable element relative to the surface.
Claims19
An apparatus, comprising:
- a pressure regulator fluidly coupled to an inlet region and an outlet region and configured to reduce a pressure from a first value in the inlet region to a second value in the outlet region, where the second value is lower than the first value;
- and
- a variable area orifice disposed between the outlet region and an outlet opening of the apparatus, wherein a flow rate of a gas is controlled by the variable area orifice, and the gas flows through the variable area orifice and is discharged from the apparatus to a gas supply line,
- wherein the variable area orifice has a flow area through which the gas flows, wherein the flow area is disposed between a movable element and a surface of the variable area orifice, and wherein at least one of the surface or the movable element has a curved shape in a flow direction of gas through the variable area orifice, and the flow area is configured to change linearly based on the curved shape in response to a translation of the movable element relative to the surface.
A system, comprising:
- a gas source;
- and
- a flow control apparatus fluidly coupled to an outlet of the gas source, the flow control apparatus comprising:
- a pressure regulator fluidly coupled to an inlet region and an outlet region and configured to reduce a pressure from a first value in the inlet region to a second value in the outlet region, where the second value is lower than the first value;
- and
- a variable area orifice disposed between the outlet region and an outlet opening of the flow control apparatus, wherein a gas flows through the variable area orifice and is discharged from the flow control apparatus to a gas supply line,
- wherein the variable area orifice has a flow area through which the gas flows, wherein the flow area is disposed between a movable element of the variable area orifice and a surface of the variable area orifice, and wherein at least one of the surface or the movable element has a curved shape in a flow direction of gas through the variable area orifice, and the flow area is configured to change linearly based on the curved shape in response to a translation of the movable element relative to the surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.