GB2053422A - Valve block - Google Patents

Abstract

A component of a valve block comprises a rectangular module having an inlet port 23 which communicates via a valve seat 21 with two parts, one at each end of a transverse flow passage 19. A valve 26 for controlling flow from the inlet 23 to the passage 19 is mounted in an opening provided in a fence 25 of the module which is perpendicular to the faces containing the three ports. The module may include an outlet port which communicates via a duct 34 with the passage 19. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Manifolds and components therefor This invention relates to valved manifolds and components therefor.

The invention is concerned with components which can be secured together to form a manifold of the desired characteristics, each component providing an inlet and/or outlet to or from the manifold and each component being arranged to receive a valve mechanism which controls fluid flow through the inlet or outlet.

Normally, the valve mechanism received in a component will be of the remotely-controllable type, e.g. pneumatic valve mechanism. In such case, a component may have secured thereto a mounting carrying a manually operable valve mechanism in series with the remotely controllable valve mechanism.

According to the invention we provide a component for a valved manifold comprising a rectangular block having first and second ports in first and second opposite faces of the block, a third port in a third face of the block, first internal passage means interconnecting the first and second ports, an internal valve seat between, and in communication with, the first internal passage means and second internal passage means which extend from the valve seat to the third port and a bore extending between the valve seat and a fourth face of the block, which fourth face is perpendicular to the third face, to receive valve mechanism to co-operate with said valve seat such that the valve mechanism can selectively engage said seat and mutually isolate the first and second passage means or place said first and second passage means in communication.

The component may have a fourth port in a fifth face of the block opposite to said third face, the fourth port being in communication with the first internal passage means.

The first and second ports may be of larger cross sectional area than the parts of the first passage means adjacent to said ports so that internal shoulders are formed adjacent to the first and second ports.

The invention provides a manifold comprising two or more of the components above described secured together so that the first face of each block is juxtaposed to the first or second face of the adjacent block and so that the first internal passage means of at least one pair of adjacent blocks are in communication.

If it is desired to divide the manifold up into various parts, the first passage means of at least two adjacent components may be mutually isolated by a blanking member received in the ports of the juxtaposed faces between the internal shoulders adjacent to the ports.

The manifold will comprise a number of components secured together and at the or each free end of the manifold it will be necessary to close the first or second port. This may be accomplished by a blanking member received in the port and located between the shoulder adjacent to the port and a blanking plate secured to the component.

In operation, each component will have a remotely-controllable valve mechanism received in the bore.

Where it is desired to have a manual control in series with the remotely controllable valve mechanism then the component will have secured to its third face a ported mounting carrying a manually operable valve mechanism so that a port in the mounting communicates with the third port in the block, said manually operable valve mechanism being operable to control fluid flow to or from the third port.

Normally, the manually operable valve mechanism will be upstream in the direction of fluid flow from the remotely operable valve mechanism so that if the manually operable valve mechanism is closed it is possible to remove the remotely operable valve mechanism for servicing or replacement.

The invention also provides a component as described above in combination with the remotely-controllabie valve mechanism received in said bore and a manually operable valve mechanism received in a ported mounting secured to the third face of the block so that a port in the mounting communicates with the third port in the block, said manually operable valve mechanism being controllable to allow or prevent supply of fluid through the mounting to said third port.

The invention will now be described in detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a section on the line A-A of Figure 3 through a component and mounting having respectively a remotely operable valve mechanism and a manually operable valve mechanism; Figure 2 is an elevation of the combination of Figure 1 together with a manifold comprising two components connected together, each component having a remotely operable valve mechanism; and Figure 3 is a plan view of the combination of Figure 2.

Referring now to the drawings, the assembly comprises three components each in the form of a rectangular block and which are secured together, the components are indicated generally at 10, 11, and 1 2 respectively. The components are secured together by four rods, two of which are shown at 13 which pass through bores in the components 11 and 12 and are received in threaded bores in the components 10 at their one ends and carry nuts 14 at their other ends.

The component 10 has first and second ports (see Figure 3) 15 and 16 in opposite first and second faces 1 7 and 1 8 of the block forming the component. The ports 1 5 and 1 6 are interconnected by a through bore 1 9 and extending upwardly from this as shown in Figure 1 is a passage 20 which terminates in a valve seat 21.

The through bore 1 9 and the passage 20 constitute parts of first passage means. A third face 22 of the component has a port 23 formed therein and this communicates with second passage means 24 which also communicates with the valve seat 21.

A bore 24 extends from the second passage means to a fourth face 25 of the block and received in the bore 24 is a pneumatically operated valve mechanism indicated generally at 26. Briefly, the valve mechanism comprises a valve spindle 27 carrying a piston 28 at its upper end operating in a chamber 29. The piston is urged downwardly by a spring 30 and it can be moved upwardly against the spring by means of compressed air introduced under the piston 28 into a port 31. At its lower end the valve spindle carries a valve member 32 which engages the valve seat 21. The spring 30 thus urges the valve member 32 into engagement with the valve seat 21 but compessed air introduced under the piston will lift the valve spindle thus placing the first and second passage means in communication.

A port 32 is formed in a fifth face 33 of the block opposite to the third face 22 and this port 32, which is the fourth port in the block, communicates by a passage 34 to the through bore 1 9, the passage 34 forming part of the first passage means in communication with the valve seat 21. An outlet fitting 35 is secured to the face 33 in communication with the port 32.

A mounting 36 is secured to the component 10 and has an L-shaped passage 37 therethrough, a valve seat 38 being provided between the ends of the passage. A manually operable valve mechanism 39 carries a valve member 40 which can engage the seat 38 to seal communication between the inlet ports 41 of the mounting 36 and the port 23 in the component 10.

As shown in Figure 3, the port 1 6 in the component 10 is of greater cross sectional area than the through bore 1 9 so that a shoulder 42 is formed between the port and the through bore. In the port is received a blanking member 43 which blanks off the through bore 19 from a similar through bore in the component 11 as will be described. The other end of the through bore 1 9 in the component 10 is closed off by a further blanking member 44 which is of shouldered configuration, the larger diameter part thereof fitting into the port 1 5 and the smaller diameter part thereof fitting into a bore 45 in a blanking plate 46 which also has a flange 47 to enable the assembly to be mounted on a supporting structure.

So far as the assembly thus far described is concerned, operation of the pneumatic valve mechanism 26 will either prevent or allow fluid to flow from the inlet port 41 of the mounting 36 to the outlet fitting 35 of the component 10. If the manually operable valve mechanism 39 is operated to bring the valve member 40 into engagement with the seat 38 then this flow is prevented and the pneumatically operated valve mechanism 26 can be removed from the bore 24 for service or replacement.

Turning now to the component 11, this has formed therein first and second ports 48 and 49 which are connected by a through bore 50 similar to the through bore 1 9. The internal passages in the component 11 are arranged as in the component 10 except there is no port such as 32 with its passage 34. Thus there is a third port 51 which communicates with an inlet fitting 52 and there is a valve seat between the port 51 and the through bore 50 which is controlled by a pneumatic valve mechanism 53.

The internal passages in the component 12 are exactly as described for the component 10. Thus there is a first port 54 and a second port 55 in opposite first and second faces, the ports being interconnected by a through bore 56. There is a third port 57 which communicates with a valve seat between that port and the through bore 56 and a pneumatically operable valve member 58 has a valve member which can engage the valve seat. A port 59 is formed in the face of the block opposite to the port 57 and this communicates with the through bore 56 and is connected to an outlet fitting 60.

The through bores 50 and 56 in the components 11 and 12 are in communication via the ports 49 and 54. The port 55 is closed by a blanking piece 61 fitting in the port 55 in a manner similar to that described for the blanking piece 44 and is held therein by a similar blanking plate 62.

It will be seen that the components 11 and 12 provide a manifold in that there is one outlet 60 and two inlets constituted by the inlet fitting 52 in communication with the port 57. When the valve 53 is closed and the valve 58 is opened then fluid may flow from the inlet fitting 63 to the outlet fitting 60. Conversely, when the valve 58 is closed and the valve 53 is open fluid may flow from the inlet fitting 52 into the through bore 50 in the component 11 and then into the through bore 56 in the component 12 and then out through the outlet fitting 60.

The manifold may be built up from any number of components such as 11 and 12 and may be subdivided as required by placing blanking members such as 43 in the ports such as 49 and 54.

Thus one could, for example, have six components such as 11 and 12 secured together and this could either form a single manifold with six inlets and one outlet or it could be divided, for example into two manifolds each having three inlets and one outlet. It will be seen that the components may be used and connected together to produce manifolds of the desired characteristic and any remotely operable valve may be combined in series with a manually operable valve as shown for the component 10.

Claims (9)

1. A component for a valved manifold comprising a rectangular block having first and second ports in first and second opposite faces of the block, a third port in a third face of the block, first internal passage means interconnecting the first and second ports, an internal valve seat between, and in communication with, the first internal passage means and second internal passage means which extend.from the valve seat to the third port, and a bore extending between the valve seat and a fourth face of the block (which is perpendicular to the third face) to receive valve mechanism to cooperate with said valve seat such that the valve mechanism can selectively engage said seat and mutually isolate the first and second passage means or place said first and second passage means in communication.

2. A component according to Claim 1 including a fourth port in a fifth face of the block opposite to said third face, the fourth port being in communication with the first internal passage means.

3. A component according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein the first and second ports are of larger cross-sectional area than the parts of the first passage means adjacent to said ports so that internal shoulders are formed adjacent to the ports.

4. A manifold comprising two more components as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 3 secured together so that a first face of each block is juxtaposed to the first or second face of the adjacent block and so that the first internal passage means of at least one pair of adjacent components are in communication.

5. A manifold according to Claim 4 when linked with Claim 3 wherein the first passage means of at least two adjacent components are mutually isolated by a blanking member received in the ports of the juxtaposed faces between the internal shoulders adjacent to the ports.

6. A manifold according to Claim 4 when linked with Claim 3 or according to Claim 5 wherein at the or each free end of the manifold the free first or second face of the component at that end has a blanking member received in the port thereof and located in said shoulder and a blanking plate secured to said component.

7. A manifold according to any of Claims 4 to 6 wherein each component has a remotely controllable valve mechanism received in said bore.

8. A manifold according to any of Claims 4 to 7 wherein at least one of the components has secured to its third face a ported mounting carrying a manually-operable valve mechanism and so that a port in the mounting communicates with the third port in the block, said manually operable valve mechanism being operable to control fluid flow to and from said third port.

9. A component as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3 in combination with a remotely controllable valve mechanism received in said bore and a manually operable valve mechanism received in a ported mounting secured to the third face of the block so that a port in the mounting communicates with the third port in the block, said manually operable valve mechanism being controllable to allow or prevent supply of fluid through the mounting to said third port.