Valve

A valve, comprising:

• a valve housing having valve openings in mutually opposite wall regions of the valve housing;
• a closing element that in a closed position closes at least one of the valve openings, in an intermediate position is raised from both of the valve openings and is arranged between the valve openings, and in a fully opened position fully opens the valve openings;
• at least one valve drive configured to move the closing element to and fro in mutually opposite first movement directions between the fully opened position and the intermediate position, and in mutually opposite second movement directions between the intermediate position and the closed position;
• two mutually opposite flanges, each having a passage opening;
• the flanges are movable towards and away from one another by the at least one valve drive and are connected to the closing element by forced coupling moveably with respect to movements of the closing element in the first movement directions;
• the flanges in the fully opened position of the closing element are pressed against the mutually opposite wall regions of the valve housing and thus the passage openings of the flanges connect the valve openings together;
• and
• the two flanges each comprise a sequence of fingers and recesses arranged respectively between two adjacent fingers, and the fingers of the respective flange surround the passage opening of the respective flange, and the fingers of one said flange engage in the respective recesses of the other said flange.