Valve assembly for a subsea well control system

In a subsea control system for providing hydraulic control of underwater equipment and having a female member adapted to be connected to the underwater equipment and having a retrievable male member coacting with the female member, said male and female members each including a plurality of fluid control passageways therethrough, the improvement in a valve assembly for controlling the flow of hydraulic fluid through the control passageways comprising,

• a plurality of pilot operated control valves each having an inlet, an outlet, and a vent port,
• a laminated manifold block having top, middle, and lower layers, said valve manifold being connected to the top of the male member and extending beyond the top of the male member for accommodating said valves,
• a plurality of individual valve housings releasably secured to the top layer of the valve manifold for receiving said control valves, each of said housings having a pilot line connection,
• a plurality of outlet passageways extending through the top, middle and lower layers of the valve manifold providing communication between one of the outlets of one of the control valves and one of the fluid passageways in the male member, said outlet passageways in the top layer being positioned in a plurality of longitudinally and transversely extending lines,
• said middle layer of the valve manifold including a plurality of separate fluid supply manifolds which extend through the top layer to different control valve inlets for controlling different underwater equipment having different actuating pressures,
• said middle layer of the valve manifold including a plurality of separate fluid exhaust manifolds which extend through the top layer to one of the vent ports of the control valves,
• said fluid supply manifold and said fluid exhaust manifold extending through the top layer of the valve manifold at points offset from said longitudinally and transversely extending lines of the outlet passageways, and
• the lower layer of the valve manifold includes another fluid exhaust manifold connected to each of the separate exhaust manifolds in the middle layer.