Valve for in-floor pool cleaning system
AssigneeBlue Square Manufacturing, LLC
InventorPaul Gerald Malinasky, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a valve for use in in-floor pool cleaning systems. The valve has a housing with an inlet port, an internal cavity and multiple outlet ports. A drive source, which can be an impeller positioned in the cavity and in fluid communication with the inlet port, is directly or indirectly (such as by a gear assembly) connected to a fluid control plate that has one or more apertures. As fluid enters the cavity through the inlet port the drive rotates the fluid control plate. As the plate rotates the aperture(s) rotate to allow the fluid to pass through the aperture(s) and into the respective outlet ports.
Claims40
A valve for use in an in-floor pool cleaning system, the valve comprises a housing, having an internal cavity, an inlet port, and a plurality of outlet ports, an interior floor that includes a plurality of openings, and each of the plurality of openings is to one of the plurality of outlet ports;
- a drive source and a fluid control plate inside the cavity;
- the drive source is an impeller and a gear and is in fluid communication with the inlet port, whereby fluid that enters the inlet port rotates the drive source;
- the fluid control plate includes an aperture and a gear assembly mounted to the fluid control plate;
- the gear of the impeller of the drive source is coupled to the gear assembly of the fluid control plate whereby rotation of the drive source urges rotation of the fluid control plate so as to move the aperture sequentially over each of the outlet ports to permit fluid to enter the outlet port over which the aperture is positioned;
- the fluid control plate has a bottom surface that is in contact with the interior floor to assist in preventing leakage into each of the plurality of openings over which the aperture of the fluid control plate is not positioned;
- the housing has an interior wall and a gear surface on the interior wall;
- and the gear surface is in mechanical communication with the gear assembly.
A mechanism for use in a valve, the mechanism comprising a floor that includes a plurality of openings;
- a gear assembly having a plurality of gears, the gear assembly is mounted on a fluid control plate the fluid control plate has an aperture for permitting water to pass through, a drive source includes an impeller and a gear;
- the gear of the impeller of the drive source is coupled to the gear assembly of the fluid control plate, whereby rotation of the drive source about the shaft urges rotation of the fluid control plate;
- the fluid control plate has a bottom surface that is in contact with the floor to assist in preventing leakage into each of the plurality of openings over which the aperture of the fluid control plate is not positioned;
- and the mechanism is configured to fit into a housing having an interior wall with teeth on the interior wall, wherein at least one of the gears of the plurality of gears is positioned so as to mechanically engage the teeth on the interior wall.
A housing for a valve, the housing having an internal cavity, a lid to access the internal cavity and an inlet to the internal cavity, the inlet being tangential to the internal cavity, and a floor including outlet ports, the outlet ports each extend from an opening in the floor to an exit opening, the exit openings are each larger than the openings in the floor and the outlet ports each progressively opens wider from the corresponding opening in the floor to the corresponding exit opening, and the outlet ports extend radially outward each at an outwardly-extending angle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.