GB2177182A - Valves - Google Patents

Abstract

A valve, e.g. for a radiator, which may be operated remotely, includes means for moving the valve member 13,53 to open and/or close the valve comprising a closed compartment 19,66 containing a flowable medium such as a liquid, gas, wax, the compartment including a movable wall member 22,71 connected to the valve member and a controllable electrical resistance heating means 26,67 to cause the medium to selectively expand to move the wall member. In Fig. 1, an expansion of the medium diaphragm 22 moves downwardly to close the valve 13. In Fig. 2, on expansion of the medium, end 71 of kellows 66 moves to the left so as to rotate valve member 53 to close the valve through pawl-and-ratchet mechanism 72,62 and pinion gearing 58,61. Current to heating means 67 is controlled by a changeover switch 77 which is operated by a lobed cam 63 that rotates with valve member 53. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Valve The present invention relates to valves. In particular the specification relates to a valve which may be operated remotely.

Remotely operated valves are widely available, commonly comprising a valve incorporating an electric motor which opens and closes the valve in accordance with remote signals.

Such valves, although widely used, are expensive and require a mains voltage supply.

A particular use for a remotely controlled valve is in, for example, the hotel industry.

Rooms in a hotel can be vacant for some time and if the heating is left on a considerable waste of energy takes place. If the heating is switched off manually by closing the radiator valve the room is cold when the guest arrives.

In a modern purpose built hotel it is common for the valves on the radiators to be motor controlled so that when the guest checks out they can be switched off and when the guest checks in they can be switched back on again remotely, for example, from the reception desk.

There arise particular problems, however, in installing such an arrangement in an existing hotel. Thus the motorised valves are expensive in themselves but also require a mains voltage supply and this requires considerable work to install. As a result the cost of installation prohibits installation in many existing hotels.

The present invention provides a valve comprising a valve member, means for moving the valve member to open and/or close the valve, said moving means comprising a closed compartment containing a fluid, the compartment including a movable wall member connected directly or indirectly to the valve member, and controllable heating means to provide a source of heat whereby to cause the fluid in the compartment selectively to expand, to move the movable wall and hence to open and/or close the valve.

Such an arrangement has many advantages.

The arrangement may be very simply provided as thermostatically controlled valves having closed compartments of this type are know, although conventionally the ambient temperature operates the valve; in the present instance the addition of a small heating element in the form of, for example, an electrical resistance heating element, can be used to open and/or close the valve.

The amount of heat required to open and/or close the valve is very small and can be provided at a low voltage and this opens the possibility that the wiring to the valve may be by means of fine wire such as bell wire which can be externally mounted by being attached to, for example, the skirting board in a room in an existing hotel.

Various arrangements of valve according to the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a vertical cross section through a valve according to a first embodiment of the invention, Figure 2 is a side view of a second valve according to the invention, Figure 3 is a plan view of part of the valve of Fig. 2, Figure 4 is a plan view of another part of the valve of Fig. 2, and, Figure 5 is an electrical circuit diagram for the valve of Fig. 2.

Referring to Fig. 1 there is illustrated a water valve 10 for a radiator heating system having an inlet 11 and an outlet 12, a valve member 13 movable in a vertical direction into engagement with a valve seat 14. The valve member 13 includes a valve head 16 and a stem 17 which passes into the upper part 18 of the valve. The upper part 18 includes a closed chamber 19 formed by the upper end 21 of the valve housing and a diaphgram 22 which extends across the upper end 21 of the valve housing. The diaphragm 12 includes a central plate 23 to the underside of which is connected the valve stem 17, a coil spring 24 bearing between the underside of the central plate 23 and a lower part of the valve housing to urge the diaphragm 22 upwardly. The closed chamber 19 is completely full of a fluid which may be a gas but is preferably a liquid or thermoplastic medium.Also mounted within the closed chamber 19 is a heating coil 26, the heating coil being connected to two terminals 27, 28 which pass through the housing and are connected to a fine two core wire 29 which may be in the form of bell line, that is fine insulated line.

The valve described operates in the following manner. Under normal conditions the valve member 13 is lifted away from the valve seat 14 and water may flow from the inlet 11 to the outlet 12. When it is desired to close the valve, for example if used in the hotel when the room is vacant, an electrical current is passed along line 29 and through the heating coil 26. This causes the fluid inside the chamber 19 to expand and thereby move down the central plate 23 of the diaphragm 22. This in turn moves downwardly the valve stem 17 and causes the valve member 13 to move into engagement with the valve seat 14 to shut off the flow of water from the inlet 11 to the outlet 12.

Only a very small change of temperature is required to cause the movement of the valve member 13 so as to open and close the valve and consequently only a very small current is required to be passed through the heating coil 26. In practice the voltage applied across the heating coil 26 may be as low as 6, 9 or 12 volt which enables the wire 29 to be surface mounted as there is no danger if the line is accidentally broken.

In the particular example shown in Fig. 1, the valve is intended for in line application, that is the valve is separate from the radiator and is plumbed into the water pipe. However, suitble modifications to the valve can be made so that the valve can be mounted to the radiator in the conventional way.

An alternative embodiment of the invention is described with reference to Figs. 2 to 5.

Referring to Fig. 2 there is shown a valve 50 having an inlet 51 and outlet 52. Illustrated by means of dotted lines is a valve member 53 which is the type having a through bore 54, the valve member 53 rotating in a valve seat so that, in the position shown in Fig. 2, the through bore 54 interconnects the inlet 51 and outlet 52 and in the position at right angles thereto (when rotated about a vertical axis) prevents communication between the inlet 51 and outlet 52.

The valve member 53 is connected to a valve stem 56 which extends upwardly out of the lower valve housing 57, the upper end of the stem 56 carrying a pinion 58.

Drive means for rotating the pinion 58 and hence the stem 56 and valve member 53 is provided in the form of a pinion 61 of twice the diameter of the pinion 58 so that a single rotation of the pinion 61 rotates the pinion 58 twice. Above the pinion 61 there being attached coaxially and non-rotatably a pawl 62 and above the pawl 62 connected coaxially and non-rotatably to the pawl 62 is a cam 63.

Means for rotating the pawl 62 is shown in Fig. 3 and comprises a closed chamber which is full, as before, of a liquid or thermoplastic medium or even in certain circumstances gas.

As before within the closed chamber 66 there is mounted an electric heating coil 67 connected to a feed line 68. The closed chamber 66 is in the form of bellows, the outer (ie the right hand) end 69 of which is held rigidly with respect to the rest of the valve and the inner (left hand) end 71 is free to move. The inner end 71 is also connected to a ratchet 72 which engages with the teeth of the pawl 62 as is clear from Fig. 3.

The shape of the cam 63 is illustrated in Fig. 4 and as can be seen includes four lobes 73, 74, 75, 76, a changeover electrical switch 77 being mounted adjacent the cam 63 with the operating lever 78 thereof following the cam 63. The wires 68 from Fig. 2 are in fact a two-core line, one core 81 of which is connected to one terminal of a battery or similar low voltage electrical supply and the other line 79 of which is connected to the changeover switch 77 and through the changeover switch 77 with one or other of wires 82, 83.

The valve of Figs. 2 to 5 operates as follows. Assume the valve member 53 is in the initial position shown in Fig. 2, that is in which the inlet 51 and outlet 52 are interconnected by the through bore 54. Current is passed along line 82 through the changeover switch along line 79 through the heating coil 67 and returns through line 81. The application of heat by the heating coil 67 will cause the liquid in the closed chamber 66 to expand and thence move the end 71 to the left in Fig. 2 and thereby move the ratchet 72. This rotates the pawl 62 through an angle which will rotate the valve member 53 so that the through bore 54 is at right angles to the position shown in Fig. 2 and thereby the inlet 51 and outlet 52 are no longer interconnected.

At the same time as rotating the pawl 62 expansion of the liquid in the closed chamber 66 rotates the cam 63 from the position shown in Fig. 4 to that in which the operating lever 78 moves off at the lobe 73 to the adjacent reduced part of the cam 84 which changes the changeover switch 77 from the position in which line 79 is connected to line 82 to a position in which line 79 is connected to line 83. Line 83 is not connected to a power supply and so the current to the heating coil 67 is cut off. In this way the liquid within the closed chamber 66 cools which withdraws the ratchet 72. This motion is not of course translated into rotational motion of the pawl 62.

The next time the valve is to be operated then voltage is applied across lines 83 and 81 in which case current flows along line 83, through changeover switch 77 to line 79 through the heating coil 67 and back through the line 81. This causes a rotation of the valve so that the through bore 54 communicates inlet 51 and outlet 52. At the same time the rotation of the cam 63 causes the operating lever 78 to move into contact with lobe 74 and this changes the changeover switch 77 once again so that the line 79 is connected to line 82.

It will thus be understood that successive applications of voltage to lines 82 or 83 will cause the valve to open and close successively.

The invention is not restricted to the foregoing example.

Other means for producing a motion from expansion of liquid or other medium in a closed chamber can be used to operate a valve. Thus for example the closed chamber may be in the form of a spriral in which case if one end of the spiral is held, the opposite end of the spiral will rotate which may be used to operate a screw member.

Furthermore although the heating coil 67 has been shown within the closed chamber 66, it may be simply arranged adjacent the closed chamber 66. In place of an electrical heating coil other forms of heating may be provided, for example, a hot water supply.

The closed chamber may be made of metal, a plastic material, or a ceramic material, or may comprise a piston and cylinder unit. The fluid within the closed chamber may be a gas, liquid, wax or thermoplastic material. The closed chamber 66 may comprise a single closed chamber in the form of a single capsule or may comprise a plurality of capsules in the form of a stack.

Claims (10)

1. A valve comprising a valve member, means for moving the valve member to open and/or close the valve, the said moving means comprising a closed compartment containing a fluid, the compartment including a movable wall member connected directly or indirectly to the valve member, and controllable heating means to provide a source of heat whereby to cause the fluid in the compartment selectively to expand, to move said wall, and hence to open and/or close the valve.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the controllable heating means comprises an electrical resistance heating element.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which the heating element operates at 6, 9 or 12 volts.

4. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3 in which the movable wall member comprises a diaphragm.

5. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 4 in which the fluid is a liquid.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 4 in which the fluid is a thermoplastic medium.

7. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6 in which expansion of the fluid causes the valve to close, opening of the valve being effected by spring means.

8. Apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6 in which the valve means comprises a rotary valve, there being provided a linear to rotary means between the moveble wall member and the valve member.

9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 in which the linear to rotary means comprises a pawl and pinion.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Fig. 1 or Figs. 2, 3 and 4.