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AssigneeGeneral Cable Corporation
InventorsBernard W. Settlemyer, Clifford W. Knappenberger, Alfred Bader
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This invention makes possible the use of a very small pressure relief valve for protecting pressure gauges, thermometers, humidity indicators and other detectors from excessive pressure in an element in which the fluid is contained and of which the indicators must measure a characteristic. The pressure relief valve is located in an exhaust branch outlet from passages that connect the detector with the element in which the fluid is contained; and the relief valve has a housing with an inlet port of a cross-section much less than the cross-section of the passage from the element containing the fluid. This inlet port throttles the flow of fluid into the relief valve. By thus reducing the cross section of the inlet port, the relief valve can be as small and inexpensive as desired, commensurate with the flow required by the detector where the detector is of a nature requiring a flow of the fluid.
Apparatus for detecting characteristics of a fluid, including in combination, an element in which the fluid is contained under pressure, a detector for sensing a particular characteristic of the fluid, a passage leading from said element and another passage leading to said detector, means for protecting the detector from excess pressure in said element in which the fluid is contained, said means comprising a pressure relief valve including a housing enclosing a chamber, inlet and outlet ports of said chamber connecting with the passages leading from the element and to the detector, respectively, a third port for exhaust of fluid from the chamber, the pressure relief valve controlling flow of fluid from said third port, the inlet port being of substantially smaller diameter than the outlet port for throttling the flow of fluid into the chamber of the relief valve to limit the maximum rate of flow that can reach the relief valve so that said maximum rate of flow can be discharged from the apparatus by a relief valve of smaller size, less weight and lower cost, while the larger outlet port limits any flow throttling upstream of the relief valve, and the third port of the relief valve being of a cross-section sufficient to exhaust fluid from the chamber at a rate equal to the throttled flow through the inlet port.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.