Hinged kink valve

A two-way valve apparatus for controlling the flow of a medium, comprising:

• (a) a generally flat support made of rigid material, with two pivot brackets mounted on said support with pivot holes oriented so that the axes of said pivot holes are collinear and thereby define a pivotal axis generally parallel to said support,
• (b) a lever comprising an elongated handle prolongated at approximately right angle by two lever arms, with each of said lever arms terminated by a pivot pin approximately parallel to the longitudinal axis of said handle, with said pivot pins inserted in said pivot holes so that said lever can hinge about said pivotal axis,
• (c) an elbow tubular fitting fastened to said handle so that the prolongation of the axis of one of its ends intersects said pivotal axis at a right angle, and the axis of its other end is approximately parallel to said pivotal axis,
• (d) a port tubing made of semi-rigid material coupled to the latter end of said elbow fitting, and long enough that said tubing is free to follow said lever when lever is moved about said pivotal axis, with the other end of said port tubing constituting the first port of said two-way valve,
• (e) a static tubular fitting mounted on said support through a fitting bracket so that the prolongation of the axis of one end of said static fitting intersects said pivotal axis at a right angle at approximately the same location of the intersection described in (c) above, and the other end of said static fitting constituting the second port of said two-way valve,
• (g) a generally tubular valve member made of semi-rigid plastic material selected from the group consisting of polyethylene, polypropylene, their fluorinated derivatives, and nylon, in which an irreversible kink has been made by hyperflexion of said valve member, where said kink can restrict the lumen of said valve member as some function of the angle of flexion of said valve member, and where said kink can shut close the lumen when the valve angle is in an extreme acute position,
• (h) couplings fastening said valve member between said elbow fitting and said static fitting so that the general axis of said kink is approximately collinear with said pivotal axis, and so that said valve flexion angle can be changed by rotation of said lever about said pivotal axis, thereby said valve apparatus provides a continuous medium-tight passage which can throttled at the location of said kink in some proportion of the angle of said lever relative to said support.