Method of manufacturing a valve sleeve

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a cylindrical valve sleeve is provided. The method includes the steps of providing a cylindrical valve having an inner wall, an outer wall and an end shoulder disposed therebetween. The shoulder is machined to form a circumferential groove which defines a swedgeable shoulder area on the shoulder. The inner wall is broached to include a plurality of open ended longitudinal slots radially spaced about the inner wall. Next, the shoulder areas are swedged at preselected spaced positions contiguous to the end portions of the longitudinal slots to deform the preselected positions axially and radially inwardly into the slot end portions whereby the slot end portions are substantially closed relative to the inner wall of the sleeve. The preselected spaced positions are discontinuous relative to the shoulder to minimize the necessary force and resulting deformation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.