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US 5,970,996 AGranted
Throttling valve for compressed air or the like and its application to an airjet loom
AssigneePicanol N.V.
InventorsHugo Markey, Jozef Peeters, Dirk Lewyllie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A throttling valve (11) in particular for an airjet loom includes an electric drive (27) for two valve components (17, 19) subtending a throttling gap (25), the drive including motor displaceable in predetermined positions by means of a control and/or regulation unit for setting throtting gaps (25) of predetermined sizes.
Claims8
A throttling valve for controlling flow of compressed gaseous fluid such as air, comprising:
- first and second relatively movable valve components, the relative positions of which define an adjustable throttling gap between the components;
- an electric drive connected to at least one of the valve components to move one valve component relative to the other to establish the size of a throttling gap between said components;
- said electric drive comprising a stepper type motor displaceable by a control unit into predetermined positions, each position corresponding to a predetermined size of said throttling gap;
- a control unit connected to the electric drive motor for selectively driving the motor into select ones of said predetermined positions and into a spatially fixed reference end position;
- said valve components including a plunger and a rigid valve seat;
- said plunger having a distal frusto-conical profile extending over a majority length of the plunger and an adjacent proximal cylindrical profile for cooperating with said valve seat;
- said plunger further including a rigid radial shoulder terminating the cylindrical profile opposite to the frusto-conical profile, said shoulder being larger in diameter than said valve seat;
- said radial shoulder rigidly abutting said valve seat in the closed position, said closed position with the shoulder rigidly abutting said valve seat constituting said spatially fixed reference end position;
- an airjet loom having at least one main filling blowing nozzle;
- a source of compressed air;
- and
- at least one main valve for regulating cyclic flow of compressed air to said main nozzle;
- said throttling valve controlling flow of compressed air from said source of compressed air to said at least one main nozzle when said valve is closed;
- said throttling valve supplying compressed air from said compressed air source to said main blower nozzle at a lower pressure than air supplied to the nozzle by said main control valve;
- said loom including a control unit programmable for different main nozzle operating conditions connected to said motor for controlling the size of the throttling gap and thereby the flow of air to said main nozzle in accordance with different desired main nozzle operating conditions;
- a compressed air supply line between said at least one throttling valve and at least one main nozzle, and an air pressure sensor in said air supply lines;
- said pressure sensor providing a pressure signal to said control unit;
- said control unit programmed to process said air pressure signal and to control the electric motor in response to a processed air pressure signal in accordance with said different desired main nozzle operating conditions.
15 more elements
A method of operating a throttling valve for controlling flow of compressed gaseous fluid such as air, wherein the throttling valve includes first and second relatively movable valve components, the relative positions of which define an adjustable throttling gap between the components;
- an electric drive connected to at least one of the valve components to move one valve component relative to the other to establish the size of a throttling gap between said components;
- said electric drive comprising a stepper type motor displaceable by a control unit into predetermined positions, each position corresponding to a predetermined size of said throttling gap;
- said control unit connected to the electric drive motor for selectively driving the motor into select ones of said predetermined positions and into a spatially fixed reference end position;
- said valve components include a plunger and a rigid valve seat;
- said plunger having a distal frusto-conical profile extending over a majority length of the plunger and an adjacent proximal cylindrical profile for cooperating with said valve seat;
- said plunger further including a rigid radial shoulder terminating the cylindrical profile opposite to the frusto-conical profile, said shoulder being larger in diameter than said valve seat;
- said radial shoulder rigidly abutting said valve seat in the closed position, said closed position with the shoulder rigidly abutting said valve seat constituting said spatially fixed reference end position;
- comprising
- advancing said plunger by said stepper motor to cause engagement of said rigid radial shoulder with said rigid valve seat to establish the position of said plunger at said reference end position;
- and than
- incrementally moving said rigid radial shoulder away from said rigid valve seat by said stepper motor into selected ones of said predetermined positions to establish selected ones of said throttling gap,
- whereby said reference end position enables establishment of said throttling gap as a function of the distance said plunger has moved away from said reference position.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.