US 4,037,784 AGranted

Steam trap

AssigneeSociete Industrielle des Charmilles

InventorLouis J. Sabarly

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Abstract

A steam trap allowing the escape of condensate from a working fluid of steam comprises an escape valve mounted in a chamber in which the working fluid flows. The escape valve includes a valve seat member and a deformable metal diaphragm normally closing the steam trap and preventing the escape of steam. The diaphragm closes a housing in which a control fluid of water initially only partially fills the housing to which a vacuum is later applied. The housing bears along the periphery of the diaphragm where the diaphragm is supported by a shoulder in the valve seat member. The valve seat member includes a cylindrical central chamber radially inwardly of the valve seat and an annular chamber radially outwardly of the valve seat. The cylindrical chamber is larger in diameter than and upstream of an escape passageway for carrying away condensate also in the valve seat member. The annular chamber is in communication through a check valve and passages with the chamber in which the escape valve is mounted. Accordingly the pressure of the working fluid is exerted against the corresponding outer annular portion of the diaphragm in communication with the annular chamber and preponderates over the pressure in the enclosures when there is condensate in the chamber in which the steam is mounted.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A steam trap construction for allowing the escape of condensate of and from a working fluid under pressure and adapted for mounting in a body having a working fluid chamber communicating with a working fluid inlet and selectively communicating with or closed off from a condensate outlet, said trap construction comprising an enclosure carried by said body, a deformable metal diaphragm carried by said enclosure and dividing the latter into a first chamber and a second chamber, control fluid means in said first chamber under pressure, an annular valve seat extending into said second chamber and communicating via passage means with said outlet, one face of said diaphragm confronting and being capable of seating on said valve seat and its opposite face being exposed to said control fluid, and fluid passage means establishing communication between said working fluid chamber and said second chamber of said enclosure radially outwardly of said valve seat, said diaphragm being deformable to a position off said valve seat when the pressure of said working fluid acting on said one face of said diaphragm exceeds the pressure of said control fluid acting on the opposite face of said diaphragm, whereby fluid may pass from said second chamber into said outlet via said passage means, the area of said one face of said diaphragm exposed to said working fluid being less than the area of the opposite face of said diaphragm exposed to said control fluid when said diaphragm is seated on said valve seat.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.