Thermostatic mixing valves
AssigneeKohler Mira Limited
InventorsNigel Sansum, Richard Hopson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A thermostatic mixing valve for hot and cold water has a valve member for controlling the relative proportions of hot and cold water admitted to a mixing chamber according to user selection of a desired water temperature and a thermostat responsive to the mixed water temperature to adjust the position of the valve member to maintain constant the selected water temperature. The valve member is biased by a return spring in the form of a wave spring having a plurality of turns with transverse waves configured such that adjacent turns sit peak to peak. The wave spring is strong in compression and weak in torsion allowing the ends of the spring to move laterally to accommodate any misalignment in the components of the valve.
Claims18
A thermostatic mixing valve having respective inlets for connection to supplies of hot and cold water and an outlet for temperature controlled water, a valve member movable between hot and cold seats to vary the relative proportions of hot and cold water supplied to a mixing chamber, thermostatic means responsive to temperature of water in said mixing chamber for controlling movement of said valve member in accordance with adjustable selection of the outlet water temperature, and a spring biasing said valve member wherein said spring comprises a wave spring.
In a thermostatic mixing valve having respective inlets for connection to supplies of hot and cold water and an outlet for temperature controlled water, a valve member movable between hot and cold seats to vary the relative proportions of hot and cold water supplied to a mixing chamber, thermostatic means responsive to temperature of water in said mixing chamber for controlling movement of said valve member in accordance with adjustable selection of the outlet water temperature and a return spring and an overload spring biasing said valve member, the improvement wherein at least one of said return spring and said overload spring comprises a wave spring made from strip material coiled about a longitudinal axis to form a plurality of successive spring turns extending between a first terminal end and a second terminal end, each spring turn having a wave form with wave crests and wave troughs in which adjacent spring turns are configured with wave crests of one spring turn abutting wave troughs of the other spring turn.
A mixing valve for mixing two fluids, said valve having means for controlling the mixing ratio of the two fluids, said ratio control means including a wave spring made of metal strip where at least one pair of adjacent turns of said wave spring is provided with opposed peaks that contact one another.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.