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US 4,056,984 AGranted
Valve operating mechanism
AssigneeNone recorded
InventorBrian Vaughan Kenealy
Life of this patent
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AssigneeNone recorded
InventorBrian Vaughan Kenealy
Estimating the term…
Conventional manually operated gate valves may be opened or closed, but at a rate limited by the strength and agility of the operator. The subject mechanism allows such valves to be rapidly closed or opened (but not both) under the influence of stored energy in springs, or similar accumulators of energy, after the release mechanism is tripped manually or by an automatic mechanism. The mechanism also allows the valve to be opened or closed gradually, under the control of a conventional handwheel or automatic drive means.
A manually energised operating mechanism for a valve including a threaded rod movable under manual control with general mechanical advantage longitudinally at low speed between a valve open position and a valve closed position as well as any intermediary position, means biasing the rod with stored mechanical energy either to the open or to the closed position, without any external power source, a control unit rotatable on the rod to urge the rod towards the desired valve position with or against the action of the bias, a rotatable axially fixed ratchet unit embracing the rod and adapted frictionally to abut the control unit to inhibit reverse movement thereof through the agency of the bias yet so proportioned as to allow a controlled slipping to occur when reverse rotation is manually applied and reduces the frictional effect between the control unit and the ratchet unit to allow the rod to move in the reverse direction, a pawl limiting rotation of the ratchet with the control unit during opening of the valve (alternatively closing of the valve), and means to release the pawl to allow the biasing means to apply the manual energy stored therein to urge the rod towards the desired position by causing rotation of the manual control in the reverse direction, the pitch of said threaded rod being such that an axial force applied thereto causes relative rotation therebetween.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
Mechanical actuating means: with toothed gearing
Including screw and nut: including means to selectively transmit power [e.g., clutch, etc.]
Valves
Technical subjects covered by former us classification
Term ended 8 Nov 1994 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
According to the invention a valve operating mechanism includes a threaded rod (which may replace the conventional spindle of a gate valve) movable longitudinally between the valve "open" position and the valve "closed" position, means biasing the rod to the closed position, a control unit rotatable on the rod to urge the rod towards the valve open position against the action of the bias, a rotatable axially fixed ratchet unit embracing the rod and adapted frictionally to abut the control unit to inhibit reverse movement thereof at least partially through the action of the bias, a pawl limiting rotation of the ratchet with the control unit during opening of the valve and means to release the pawl to allow the biasing means to urge the rod towards the closed position by causing rotation of the control unit in the reverse direction. Should the application require it the bias may, as an alternative, be in the direction of the valve "open" position and this alternative is implied in all further descriptions. Thus, when the control unit is rotated in a direction to open the valve the control unit, abutting against the ratchet unit, causes longitudinal movement of the rod. The frictional association between the control unit and the ratchet unit causes the latter to rotate with the control unit and prevents the latter from reversing. When the control unit is rotated in a direction to close the valve, friction between the ratchet unit and control unit is reduced by movement of the latter away from the ratchet unit, allowing the control unit to be rotated with relative ease.
Futher according to the invention the control unit embodies a gear wheel operatively coupled directly or indirectly to a drive pinion which is associated with mechanically operable rotating means. Preferably the rotating means is in the nature of a hand wheel, crank or some other form of prime mover, with suitable means to give automatic operation, for example an electric motor controlled by limit switches.
Also according to the invention the drive pinion is coupled to the control unit gear wheel through an idler so mounted as to be disengageable from the control means by a lateral movement relative to the rod. In one arrangement the idler pinion is rotatably mounted on a lever projecting radially away from the rod and being so mounted that in one position of the lever the idler operatively engages the control unit gear wheel and in a second position the idler frees itself from operative engagement with the control unit gear wheel. Preferably with this arrangement the lever is pivotally mounted.
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a partially sectioned perspective view of a valve operating mechanism.
Referring to the drawing, a valve operating mechanism includes a rod, 1, threaded at one end 1b thereof, the other end 1a being adapted to be coupled to a valve spindle, not shown. A complementary control unit 2 in the form of a gear wheel 2b connected by tubing to a threaded portion 2a is located on end 1b of the rod to act as a collar. The control unit is rotatable by means of a drive pinion 4, through an idler pinion 3. The drive pinion 4 is in turn coupled to hand wheel 5 by way of a drive shaft 6. In this case the drive shaft 6 is substantially parallel to the rod 1, such an arrangement being for a hand wheel located at the top of a valve. Alternatively where a valve requires a hand wheel on a side thereof, the drive shaft being transverse to the rod 1 is coupled to the drive pinion 4 through a bevel gear type gear box, not shown.
Located on the shaft adjacent the control unit 2 is a ratchet unit 7 comprising a ratchet wheel 7a connected to friction portion 7b by means of a tube. The ratchet unit is mounted on a thrust bearing 8 on a casing 9. The casing is adapted to be mounted on the body of a valve, not shown. Preferably the casing seals virtually the entire casing, as illustrated.
A clock-wise rotation of the hand wheel 5 causes like rotation of the drive pinion 4 which drives the gear unit in a clock-wise direction. On clock-wise rotation the control unit abuts against and frictionally engages the ratchet unit 7. Thus clock-wise rotation of the gear wheel draws the rod into the casing to open the valve.