Valve with downstream manual bleed
AssigneeThe Toro Company
InventorsAnthony M. Wlodarczyk, James T. Wright, III, John L. Baker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A valve for controlling the flow of a liquid includes a valve seat which is engaged by a selectively operable valve member. A pressure chamber above the valve member contains upstream pressurized fluid in the closed position of the valve. The valve is opened by bleeding off pressurized fluid from this pressure chamber. A manual bleed screw assembly is used to manually open the valve when desired by initiating this pressure bleed procedure from the pressure chamber. The bleed screw assembly bleeds the pressurized fluid to a downstream location in the flow path, rather than to atmosphere, without having to completely remove the bleed screw assembly from the port in which it is received.
Claims10
A valve for controlling the flow of a liquid, which comprises:
- (a) a valve housing having an upper cap, the valve housing providing an inlet, an outlet, a flow path for liquid flowing from the inlet to the outlet, and a valve seat located in the flow path between the inlet and the outlet;
- (b) a selectively operable valve member movably carried in the valve for sealing against the valve seat for closing water flow through the valve and which is movable away from the seat to allow water flow through the valve between the inlet and the outlet, one side of the valve member being exposed to fluid pressure upstream of the valve seat and the other side of the valve member forming a portion of a pressure chamber for receiving fluid pressure upstream of the valve seat such that the upstream fluid pressure is received on both sides of the valve member in a closed position of the valve;
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- (c) an upwardly facing manually operable bleed screw assembly carried on the cap of the valve for selectively bleeding off fluid pressure from the pressure chamber to open the valve independently of the operation of any other on/off control device, wherein the bleed screw assembly controls flow in a manual bleed path provided in the valve which manual bleed path leads into the flow path downstream of the valve seat, and wherein the bleed screw assembly is rotatable carried, on the cap of the valve for rotation about a substantially vertical axis.
A valve for controlling the flow of a liquid, which comprises:
- (a) a valve housing which comprises a valve body having an upper end closed by a cap, the valve housing providing an inlet, an outlet, a flow path for liquid flowing from the inlet to the outlet, and a valve seat located in the flow path between the inlet and the outlet;
- (b) a selectively operable valve member movably carried in the valve for sealing against the valve seat for closing water flow through the valve and which is movable away from the seat to allow water flow through the valve between the inlet and the outlet, one side of the valve member being exposed to fluid pressure upstream of the valve seat and the other side of the valve member forming a portion of a pressure chamber for receiving fluid pressure upstream of the valve seat such that the upstream fluid pressure is received on both sides of the valve member in a closed position of the valve;
- (c) a remotely controlled actuator comprising an electrically operated solenoid carried on the cap of the valve in a first, upwardly facing Port for selectively bleeding off fluid pressure from the pressure chamber in a first bleed path provided in the valve which first bleed path leads into the flow path downstream of the valve seat;
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- (d) a manually operable actuator comprising an upwardly facing, rotatable bleed screw carried on the cap of the valve in a second, upwardly facing port which is separate from the first port, wherein the bleed screw is rotatable on the cap within the second port about a substantially vertical axis for selectively bleeding off fluid pressure from the pressure chamber in a second bleed path provided in the valve which second bleed path leads into the flow path downstream of the valve seat, wherein the operation of the manually operable actuator is independent of the operation of the remotely controlled actuator to allow either actuator to independently open the valve without moving the other actuator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.