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US 12,667,870 B2Granted
Full-flow sanitary valve
AssigneesFlowtrend, Inc., Process Innovation—Food Safety, LLC
InventorsJose Galvan, Sunil Samuel, Barry Plante, Gabe Miller
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sanitary valve including a body including at least two body openings; a plug disposed within the body, rotatable around a vertical axis, moveable along the vertical axis within the body, and including a plug top surface and at least two plug openings; a stem including a first stem end attached to the top plug surface and a second stem end; and an actuator attached to the second stem end and operable to rotate the stem and the plug around the vertical axis and to move the stem and the plug along the vertical axis.
Claims18
A sanitary valve comprising:
- a body comprising a body top, a body bottom, and at least two body openings, wherein the body top is a side of the body toward a stem of a plug and the body bottom is a side of the body away from the stem of the plug;
- the plug, disposed wholly within the body, rotatable around a vertical axis, moveable along the vertical axis within the body, and comprising at least two plug openings in fluid communication, wherein the plug comprises a top plug surface and a lateral plug surface that slopes downward and inward, to reduce trapping fluid or to facilitate a flow of fluid to a bottom plug surface of the plug, wherein the top plug surface is a side of the plug toward the stem, and wherein the bottom plug surface is a side of the plug away from the stem;
- the stem, disposed along the vertical axis, comprising a first stem end attached to the top plug surface and a second stem end;
- and
- an actuator attached to the second stem end and operable to rotate the stem and the plug around the vertical axis and to move the stem and the plug vertically along the vertical axis;
- wherein one of the at least two body openings is a bottom body opening in the body bottom and one of the at least two plug openings is a bottom plug opening;
- wherein the top plug surface slopes outward and downward from the stem to an outermost circumference of the plug to reduce trapping fluid or to facilitate a flow of fluid to the bottom of the plug;
- and
- wherein an inner lateral surface of the body comprises one or more vertical linear drainage channels that are not in fluid communication with a lateral body opening, when the plug is in a seated position and the at least two plug openings are in full communication with the at least two body openings, to reduce trapping fluid or to facilitate cleaning of the sanitary valve, wherein the one or more drainage channels extend above and below the plug when the plug is seated in the body, wherein the inner lateral surface of the body is between the body top and the body bottom.
6 more elements
A sanitary valve kit comprising:
- a sanitary valve comprising:
- a body comprising at least two body openings;
- a plug disposed wholly within the body, rotatable around a vertical axis, moveable along the vertical axis within the body, and comprising at least two plug openings in fluid communication, wherein the plug comprises a top plug surface and a lateral plug surface that slopes downward and inward, to reduce trapping fluid or to facilitate a flow of fluid to a bottom of the plug;
- a stem comprising a first stem end attached to the top plug surface and a second stem end;
- and
- an actuator attached to the second stem end and operable to rotate the stem and the plug around the vertical axis and to move the stem and the plug vertically along the vertical axis;
- wherein one of the at least two body openings is a bottom body opening in a bottom-most surface of the body and one of the at least two plug openings is a bottom plug opening;
- wherein the top plug surface slopes outward and downward from the stem to an outermost circumference of the plug to reduce trapping fluid or to facilitate a flow of fluid to the bottom of the plug;
- and
- wherein an inner surface of the body comprises one or more vertical linear drainage channels that are not in fluid communication with a lateral body opening, when the plug is in a seated position and the at least two plug openings are in full communication with the at least two body openings, to reduce trapping fluid or to facilitate cleaning of the sanitary valve, wherein the one or more drainage channels extend above and below the plug when the plug is seated in the body;
- wherein the top plug surface, the lateral plug surface, the bottom of the plug, the bottom body opening, the bottom-most surface of the body, the two plug openings, the vertical linear drainage channels, and the lateral body opening are so oriented when the vertical axis is oriented vertically.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.