Valve device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12449043-B2
Application number	US-202217689037-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 8, 2022
Priority date	Sep 13, 2019
Publication date	Oct 21, 2025
Grant date	Oct 21, 2025

Abstract

A valve device includes a housing, a stator disposed in the housing and defining at least one passage hole, a driving portion, a shaft configured to be rotated by a rotational force generated by the driving portion, and a rotor in contact with the stator and configured to adjust an amount of the fluid flowing through the at least one passage hole by rotating about an axis along with the shaft. One of an inner circumferential side surface of the housing or an outer circumferential side surface of the stator has at least one engaging protrusion and the other has at least one engaging recess. The at least one engaging protrusion is engaged with the at least one engaging recess such that the stator is restricted from rotating in a circumferential direction of the axis.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A valve device comprising:
a housing;
a stator disposed in the housing and defining at least one passage hole through which a fluid flows;
a driving portion configured to generate a rotational force;
a shaft configured to be rotated by the rotational force generated by the driving portion; and
a rotor disposed to be in contact with the stator in the housing and configured to adjust an amount of the fluid flowing through the at least one passage hole by rotating about an axis along with a rotation of the shaft, wherein
the housing has an inner circumferential side surface,
the stator has an outer circumferential side surface facing the inner circumferential side surface of the housing,
the stator has at least one engaging protrusion protruding from the outer circumferential side surface toward the inner circumferential side surface of the housing,
the housing has at least one engaging recess on the inner circumferential side surface,
the at least one engaging protrusion is engaged with the at least one engaging recess such that the stator is restricted from rotating in a circumferential direction of the axis,
the housing includes a cylindrical body portion having a housing axis that extends along the axis,
a first virtual plane is defined as a plane that connects the axis and the housing axis in a radial direction of the housing axis, the axis and the housing axis extending on the first virtual plane,
a second virtual plane is defined as a plane that is perpendicular to the first virtual plane and that passes through the housing axis in the radial direction, the housing axis extending on the second virtual plane,
the stator includes a stator body portion having a stator axis that extends along the axis,
the second virtual plane passes through the stator body portion such that the stator body portion is virtually divided by the second virtual plane into two areas, and
the stator is disposed inside the cylindrical body portion of the housing such that the at least one engaging protrusion is located in one of the two areas and the stator axis is located in the other of the two areas.

2. The valve device according to claim 1 , wherein
the housing includes the cylindrical body portion having the housing axis that extends along the axis,
the inner circumferential side surface of the housing defines an outlet opening through which the fluid flows out of the cylindrical body portion, and
the at least one engaging recess is disposed at a position of the cylindrical body portion that is offset from the outlet opening in the circumferential direction.

3. The valve device according to claim 1 , wherein
the stator includes the at least one engaging protrusion and the stator body portion,
the stator is disposed inside the housing with a gap defined between the outer circumferential side surface of the stator and the inner circumferential side surface of the housing,
the stator body portion includes the stator axis that is coaxial with the axis of the rotor,
the at least one engaging protrusion protrudes along a radial direction of the stator axis, and
the at least one engaging protrusion has a length in the radial direction of the stator axis that is equal to or more than twice a dimension of the gap between the outer circumferential side surface and the inner circumferential side surface.

4. The valve device according to claim 3 , wherein
a cross-section of the at least one engaging protrusion perpendicular to the stator axis has a rectangular shape,
the at least one engaging protrusion has:
two protrusion side surface portions having a planar shape and extending in a first direction in which the at least one engaging protrusion protrudes; and
a protrusion outer surface portion having a planar shape and extending in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the protrusion outer surface portion being connected to the two protrusion side surface portions, and

a dimension of the protrusion outer surface portion in the second direction is greater than a dimension of each of the two protrusion side surface portions in the first direction.

5. The valve device according to claim 4 , wherein
the stator body portion has a passage curved surface portion defining a part of the passage hole,
the passage curved surface portion curvedly extends in the circumferential direction, and
the at least one engaging protrusion has a dimension in the circumferential direction that is less than that of the passage curved surface portion.

6. The valve device according to claim 1 , wherein
the rotor includes a rotor outer circumferential surface, and
the at least one engaging protrusion is located outward of the rotor outer circumferential surface in a radial direction of the axis.

7. The valve device according to claim 1 , wherein
the stator includes an opening surface on which the rotor slidably moves,
the rotor includes a sliding surface facing the opening surface of the stator, and
a minimum distance between a center of the opening surface and an outer edge of the opening surface is equal to or greater than a maximum distance between a center of the sliding surface and an outer edge of the sliding surface.

8. The valve device according to claim 1 , wherein
the stator is a single stator, and
the housing axis passes through the single stator.

9. The valve device according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least one engaging protrusion is located only in the one of the two areas.

10. The valve device according to claim 9 , wherein
the stator axis is located only in the other of the two areas.

11. The valve device according to claim 1 , wherein
a cross-section of the at least one engaging protrusion perpendicular to the stator axis has a rectangular shape,
the at least one engaging protrusion has a protrusion side surface portion having a planar shape and extending in a first direction in which the at least one engaging protrusion protrudes,
the at least one engaging recess has a recess side surface portion having a planar shape and extending in the first direction,
the stator is restricted from rotating by a contact between the protrusion side surface portion and the recess side surface portion.

12. The valve device according to claim 1 , wherein
the housing has a side wall portion having the inner circumferential side surface, and
a thickness of the side wall portion varies in a circumferential direction.

13. The valve device according to claim 12 , wherein
the side wall portion has a thick portion and a thin portion,
a wall thickness of the thick portion is thicker than a wall thickness of the thin portion, and
the at least one engaging recess is located only in the thick portion.

14. The valve device according to claim 12 , wherein
the side wall portion of the housing is divided by the second virtual plane into a first portion and a second portion,
a cross sectional area of the first portion cut along a plane perpendicular to the housing axis is larger than a cross sectional area of the second portion cut along the plane perpendicular to the housing axis, and
the at least one engaging recess is located only in the first portion.

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Mizunuma Takehito
• SANO Ryou
• Higuchi Akira
• Shimada Hiroki

Classifications

• F16K31/535

  for rotating valves (F16K31/54 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60L2240/545

  Temperature · CPC title

• F16K31/53

  with toothed gearing · CPC title

• F16K27/045

  with pivotal obturating members · CPC title

• F16K31/041

  for rotating valves (F16K31/055 takes precedence) · CPC title