Hall effect valve spool position sensor
AssigneeHUSCO International, Inc.
InventorsRollin Christianson, Raud Wilke, Leif Pedersen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hydraulic control valve has a spool slidably received in a bore of the valve body. The spool can be moved in opposite directions to control flow fluid to and from a pair of workports. A sensor assembly has a coupling attached to the spool and holds a permanent magnet. A Hall effect sensor produces an electrical signal indicating the position of the permanent magnet and thus the spool. A double acting spring assembly biases the coupling and spool with respect to the housing of the sensor when the spool moves in one direction, and biases the coupling and spool with respect to the valve body when the spool moves in the other direction.
Claims14
A hydraulic control valve comprising:
- a valve body having a bore with an axis, an inlet in communication with the bore and an outlet in communication with the bore;
- a spool has an end and is received in the bore to control the flow of fluid between the inlet and the outlet, the spool can be moved axially in either a first direction or a second direction within the bore;
- a sensor assembly including a housing, a coupling connected to the spool to move therewith, a permanent magnet attached to the coupling, and a magnetic sensor mounted adjacent to the permanent magnet for producing an electrical signal which varies in correspondence with changes in position of the permanent magnet;
- and
- a double acting spring assembly operatively coupled to bias the coupling and spool with respect to the housing when the spool moves in the first direction and to bias the coupling and spool with respect to the valve body when the spool moves in the second direction.
A hydraulic control valve comprising:
- a valve body having a supply inlet, a drain outlet, a workport and a bore in communication with the supply inlet, the drain outlet and the workport;
- a spool with an end and being slidably received in the bore, the spool having a neutral position in which the spool blocks flow of fluid between the workport and both the supply inlet and outlet, the spool being moveable a first direction from the neutral position to enable fluid to flow from the supply inlet to the workport and being moveable a second direction from the neutral position to enable fluid to flow from the workport to the drain outlet;
- a sensor assembly including a coupling connected to the spool to move therewith, a permanent magnet attached to the coupling, and a Hall effect sensor mounted adjacent to the permanent magnet for producing an electrical signal which varies in correspondence with a position of the permanent magnet with respect to the Hall effect sensor;
- and
- a double acting spring assembly operatively couple to bias the coupling and spool with respect to the housing when the spool moves in the first direction, and to bias the coupling and spool with respect to the valve body when the spool moves in the second direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.