Systems and methods for operating a ball valve
AssigneeWCM Industries, Inc.
InventorsGabriel Young, William T. Ball
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aspects of the disclosure relate to providing a pulse control to a ball valve to reduce the amount of torque required to adjust the position of the ball valve. In an aspect, the technology relates to a method for reducing resistance of a ball valve. The method includes generating a pulse having a duration and a polarity; providing the pulse to an actuator configured to rotate a ball of the ball valve; and rotating, by the actuator, the ball of the ball valve by an amount based on the duration of the pulse and a direction based on the polarity of the pulse, wherein the ball valve does not change state after rotation of the ball.
Claims20
A system for reducing resistance of a ball valve, the system comprising:
- a ball valve comprising a ball with a bore;
- an actuator operatively connected to the ball valve and configured to rotate the ball;
- and
- pulse generator circuitry operatively connected to the actuator and configured to:
- generate a first pulse having a duration and a first polarity, and
- provide the first pulse to the actuator to rotate the ball by an amount based on the duration and a direction based on the first polarity;
- wherein at least one of the actuator or the pulse generator circuitry is configured to, upon detecting a trigger, cause the actuator to rotate the ball to a fully closed position, and wherein detecting the trigger comprises detecting a loss of connection to a remote utility control device.
A system for reducing resistance of a ball valve, the system comprising:
- a utility control device located remotely from a ball valve and configured to generate a series of pulses including a first pulse and a second pulse with opposite polarities;
- an actuator operatively connected to the ball valve and configured to receive the series of pulses and rotate the ball based on the series of pulses;
- valve circuitry, comprising a capacitor configured to discharge to rotate the ball to the fully closed position
- wherein the valve circuitry is configured to, upon detecting a trigger, cause the capacitor to discharge and the actuator to rotate the ball to a fully closed position, wherein detecting the trigger comprises detecting a loss of connection to the utility control device.
A system for reducing resistance of ball valves, the system comprising:
- a utility control device configured to communicate with a plurality of ball valve systems, each ball valve system of the plurality of ball valve systems comprising an actuator and an associated ball valve;
- wherein the utility control device is configured to transmit addressable control signals to each of the plurality of actuators to rotate its associated ball valve;
- wherein each ball valve system of the plurality of ball valve systems is configured to, upon detecting a trigger comprising a loss of connection with the utility control device, cause its actuator to rotate its associated ball valve to a fully closed position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.