Valve
AssigneeIllinois Tool Works Inc.
InventorsMichael Henker, Yue Ma
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This disclosure relates to a valve comprising a housing, an actuating shaft and a plurality of groups of valve body elements. The plurality of groups of valve body elements are disposed in the housing and capable of rotating in the housing. The actuating shaft is configured to selectively actuate at least one group of valve body elements in the plurality of groups of valve body elements to rotate. The valve is provided with a plurality of fluid passages therein, and the actuated at least one group of valve body elements can connect or disconnect at least one of the plurality of fluid passages. The valve provided by the present disclosure can control and switch more fluid passages when an output power of an actuating device is limited.
Claims15
A valve, comprising:
- a housing defining a housing cavity and a plurality of housing openings configured to fluidly connect the housing cavity to an outside of the housing, the plurality of housing openings including at least one inlet to allow a fluid to flow into the housing and at least one outlet to allow the fluid to flow out of the housing;
- an actuating shaft;
- and
- a plurality of valve body elements disposed in the housing and capable of rotating in the housing to control an opening and closing state of each of the plurality of housing openings, each of the plurality of valve body elements being configured to rotate about a respective axis to control the opening and closing state of at least one housing opening of the plurality of housing openings,
- wherein the actuating shaft is configured to selectively actuate each of the plurality of valve body elements to rotate, such that, when one of the valve body elements of the plurality of valve body elements is actuated, the other one or more valve body elements of the plurality of valve body elements are not actuated,
- wherein the housing cavity is provided with a plurality of flow paths therein, each flow path connecting at least two housing openings of the plurality of housing openings, and actuation of an actuated at least one valve body element connects or disconnects at least one of the plurality of flow paths by controlling the opening and closing state of the corresponding at least one housing opening of the plurality of housing openings, and
- wherein, in a closed state, each of the plurality of valve body elements fluidly isolates the housing cavity from the outside of the of the housing at a respective one or more of the plurality of housing openings.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.