Fluid handling – Systems – With flow control means for branched passages
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-28
2001-11-20
Fox, John (Department: 3627)
Fluid handling
Systems
With flow control means for branched passages
C137S269000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06318409
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for assembling at least two pressurized fluid control members which takes the form of an interface to which said control members, which are essentially pneumatic, are fixed.
The technical field of the invention is the production of control units for actuators for valves used in the agriculture-foodstuffs and sanitation industries.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A control unit of the above kind has various components such as electrical terminal blocks, detectors, control, command and regulation electronic modules and all kinds of pressurized fluid control members, such as solenoid valves or electrically-operated distributor valves, which, by allowing a control fluid, preferably compressed air, to pass or not, selectively actuate the opening and/or the closing of a valve. These control units are generally mounted directly on the top of the valve, on the one hand to simplify the assembly of the valve and to reduce the length of the control pipes and on the other hand to enable monitoring by means of any cam and sensor device of the position of the mobile members of the valve, a part of which, such as the end of the actuator rod, can therefore project into the control unit.
In the case of units currently known in the art which have to house at least two control members, such as solenoid valves, external to the block proper on which they are fixed, either their size (height or diameter) is increased, which is a problem because it increases the overall size of the valve, or the size of the solenoid valves is reduced, which is to the detriment of their control fluid flow cross section, which compromises the valve closing or opening speed.
The units are generally cylindrical, so as to be continuous with the body of the valve, and the space available inside them is limited by the many members to be housed in them: also, at present, when it is required to use at least two control members, such as two solenoid valves, mounted on a common interface unit enabling flow of the control fluid, it is impossible, without increasing the size of the control unit or reducing that of the solenoid valves, to place the valves there along with their interface unit, because the resulting assembly is of generally parallelepiped shape and occupies a relatively large volume.
The problem that arises is that of being able to produce valve actuator control units of the above kind, intended in particular for the agriculture-foodstuffs and sanitation industries, in which at least two if not three or more control members, such as solenoid valves, electrically-operated distributor valves or any pressurized fluid logic elements (such as essentially pneumatic elements, referred to in the present description by the generic term “control members” or the more specific term “solenoid valves”) are housed therein, within a compact overall size and within a volume whose external shape is curved, such as a circular cylinder, without compromising the performance of the valve actuators in terms of the control fluid flowrate.
One solution to the problem stated is a system for assembling at least two pressurized fluid control members, where said fluid is preferably gas and even compressed air, which takes the form of an interface to which said control members are fixed and including fluid flow pipes. The pipes connect in particular at least the feed and outlet orifices of the control members which actuate opening and closing of at least one valve of a foodstuffs product conveyor circuit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention, the interface unit has at least two faces with an angle &agr; between them from 30° to 60°, which angle is approximately 45° in one particular embodiment, and each of which is adapted to receive at least one of the control members; at least one of the faces of the interface unit is even adapted to receive at least two control members. In fact these faces are situated in radial planes perpendicular to tangents to the curve of the outside shape of the control unit in which the interface unit is to be housed: if that curve is a circle, and the control unit is therefore a circular cylinder, these faces are in diametral planes. The other faces which join them of course follow this outside shape on one side, of which they therefore constitute chords, and that of the central part on the other side, so that the interface unit appears to be generally triangular when seen in a plane perpendicular to those faces.
The result is a new system for assembling at least two control members on an interface unit which solves the problem stated: by fixing at least two control members to two separate faces of the interface unit, the angle between which in fact corresponds to the curvature of the outside shape of the control unit in which they are to be housed, the control members can be placed as close as possible to that outside shape and therefore occupy the smallest possible overall volume; this frees up the rest of the volume inside the control unit for its other components, without having to increase the size of the control unit or to reduce the size of the control members, for example in order to ensure for the solenoid valves an optimum compressed air flowrate such as 3.66×10
−3
Nm
3
/s.
Thus with three control members such as solenoid valves assembled in accordance with the invention and ensuring at least the above flowrate the dimensions of the control unit can be limited to a diameter and a height of 130 mm, compared to existing control units including at least three solenoid valves with the same flowrate, which have heights of the order of 230 mm and a diameter of 180 mm, which additionally increases their price. To remain within dimensions of 130 mm, both for the height and for the diameter, some manufacturers use solenoid valves with a lower flowrate such as 1.5×10
−3
Nm
3
/s or 1.66×10
−3
Nm
3
/s, which degrades the performance of the valves and is incompatible with the speed requirements of modern fabrication processes in the agriculture-foodstuffs and sanitation industries.
Other advantages of the present invention could be cited, but those cited above are already sufficient to demonstrate the novelty and the benefit of the invention. The description and the accompanying drawings refer to one embodiment of the invention in the form of a system for three solenoid valves, although this is not limiting on the invention. Other embodiments are possible within the scope and the extent of the invention, in particular by changing the shapes of the faces that do not carry control members, by replacing the solenoid valves shown with one or more other control members, or by increasing the number of control members, for example with two control members on each face, or reducing the number of control members, with one only on each face.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3384114 (1968-05-01), Hathaway et al.
patent: 3806088 (1974-04-01), Stoneman et al.
patent: 4225089 (1980-09-01), Stone
patent: 5642756 (1997-07-01), Lawerence et al.
patent: 5906223 (1999-05-01), Pinkham
patent: 2432835 A1 (1976-01-01), None
patent: 142281 A1 (1985-05-01), None
patent: 816731 A2 (1998-01-01), None
patent: 824196 A1 (1998-02-01), None
Bonnefous Jean
Maraud Bruno
Sagot Benoît
Fox John
S.A. Defontaine
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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