Auto-drain unit
AssigneeParker-Hannifin Corporation
InventorsDavid Sellick, Alan Troup
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An auto-drain unit for a compressed gas supply system, comprising: a first, main chamber including a liquid collection reservoir; a second, reference chamber; a discharge valve actuatable to discharge collected liquid from the liquid collection reservoir; a trigger mechanism for actuating the discharge valve; a diaphragm at least in part defining the liquid collection reservoir and the reference chamber, the diaphragm being configured to be movable under the weight of liquid collected in the liquid collection reservoir and operate the trigger mechanism when the weight of collected liquid exceeds a predetermined threshold; and a fluid conduit fluidly connecting the reference chamber to a location in the main chamber above the maximum possible liquid level therein.
Claims20
1 An auto-drain unit for a compressed gas supply system, comprising:
- a first, main chamber including a liquid collection reservoir;
- a second, reference chamber;
- a discharge valve actuatable to discharge collected liquid from the liquid collection reservoir;
- a trigger mechanism for actuating the discharge valve;
- a diaphragm at least in part defining the liquid collection reservoir and the reference chamber, the diaphragm being configured to be movable under the weight of liquid collected in the liquid collection reservoir and operate the trigger mechanism when the weight of collected liquid exceeds a predetermined threshold;
- and
- a fluid conduit fluidly connecting the reference chamber to a location in the main chamber above the maximum possible liquid level therein.
The auto-drain unit of claim 1, wherein the diaphragm is slack and able to move freely when loaded.
The auto-drain unit of claim 1, wherein the diaphragm has a thickness of not more than about 50 μm.
The auto-drain unit of claim 1, wherein the trigger mechanism comprises a trigger valve for actuating the discharge valve, the trigger valve being actuated when the weight of collected liquid exceeds a predeterminable threshold.
The auto-drain unit of claim 1, wherein the fluid conduit comprises an annular conduit.
17 The auto-drain unit of claim 16, wherein the annular element comprises first and second co-axial tubular sections of different lateral dimension, with the fluid conduit being defined therebetween.
The auto-drain unit of claim 1, wherein the compressed gas supply system is a pneumatic supply system.
An apparatus, comprising a filter assembly including an auto-drain unit as in claim 1.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.