Directional Control Valve

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017268681-A1
Application number	US-201715457073-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 13, 2017
Priority date	Mar 15, 2016
Publication date	Sep 21, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A directional control valve, comprising: a valve body having a bore to receive a spool; a spool mounted in said bore; at least one stopper mounted in said bore, said stopper being axially adjustable and fixable at a selected axial position. The provision of an axially adjustable stopper eliminates the need to select a suitably sized stopper from a selection of stoppers or to grind down (resize) a single stopper. It reduces the number of parts in the valve (thus reducing cost) and it also shortens the calibration time for the valve as there is no need to remove the stopper from inside the bore in order to perform an adjustment. As the valve is tested after each adjustment, this also means not removing the stopper and breaking the seal (draining the valve) between each testing phase. The calibration can therefore be performed much more efficiently.

First claim

1 . A directional control valve, comprising:
a valve body having a bore; a spool movably mounted in said bore; and at least one stopper being fixably attachable to said valve body at a plurality of possible axial positions.

2 . A directional control valve as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the control valve is configured such that axial position of the at least one stopper relative to the valve body is continuously variable prior to being fixedly attached to the valve body.

3 . A directional control valve as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the bore is a threaded bore and the stopper is a threaded stopper.

4 . A directional control valve as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the stopper comprises a bore and wherein the stopper comprises an expansion pin arranged within the bore such that it can cause radial expansion of the stopper to fix its axial position.

5 . A directional control valve as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the stopper comprises a tapered expansion pin arranged such that axial movement of the expansion pin within the stopper bore causes radial expansion of the stopper.

6 . A directional control valve as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the expansion pin and the bore are threaded.

7 . A directional control valve as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the expansion pin is formed from a material softer than the material of the stopper.

8 . A directional control valve as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the stopper comprises one or more radial slots that facilitate radial expansion of the stopper.

9 . A directional control valve as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising a biasing member arranged in the bore between the stopper and the spool.

10 . A directional control valve as claimed in claim 1 , comprising two stoppers mounted in said bore, each stopper being fixably attachable to said valve body at a plurality of possible axial positions.

11 . A stopper for a directional control valve, said stopper comprising:
an expansion portion arranged to be radially expandable so as to fix the stopper against the inside of a bore of the directional control valve.

12 . A method of calibrating a directional control valve comprising:
inserting a stopper into a bore in a valve body of the directional control valve; axially moving the stopper relative to the valve body based on test results of said directional control valve without removing the stopper from the bore; and fixing the stopper to the valve body.

13 . A method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the moving is continuously variable movement.

14 . A method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the step of fixing comprises radially expanding the stopper against the inside of the bore.

15 . A method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein:
the inserting step comprises inserting two stoppers into the bore; and the moving step comprises axially moving one or both of said stoppers relative to the valve body based on test results of said directional control valve without removing either stopper from the bore.

Assignees

• Hamilton Sundstrand Corp

Inventors

• Bielen Michal

Classifications

• F16K27/041

  cylindrical slide valves · CPC title

• F16K11/07 Primary

  with cylindrical slides · CPC title

• F16K11/0704

  comprising locking elements · CPC title