Pilot operated valve

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9097360-B2
Application number	US-201314389863-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2013
Priority date	Apr 3, 2012
Publication date	Aug 4, 2015
Grant date	Aug 4, 2015

Abstract

A valve for a refrigeration system includes a valve body having an inlet port, an outlet port, and walls forming a main cavity. The valve also includes a cartridge that resides within the main cavity and having a piston configured to travel in a first direction to permit fluid flow from the inlet port to the outlet port and in a second direction to impede fluid flow from the inlet port to the outlet port and a port plate configured to removably couple to the valve body to substantially close an end of the main cavity substantially enclosing the cartridge within the main cavity, the port plate including a plurality of ports, each port configured to accept at least one of various valve control elements configured to control the piston to permit or impede the fluid flow from the inlet port to the outlet port.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A valve for a refrigeration system comprising:
a valve body having an inlet, and outlet, and a valve seat, and a cavity;
a port plate removably coupled to the valve body, and an inlet pressure passageway in fluid communication with the inlet port of the valve body and an outlet pressure passageway in fluid communication with the outlet port, such that the port plate functions to control a piston to open and close the valve;
a cartridge disposed within the cavity of the valve body, the cartridge being accessible without disconnecting the valve from the system by removing the port plate from the valve body, the cartridge having a piston that engages the valve seat to close the valve and that disengages the valve seat to open the valve;
a regulator for setting an actuation pressure of the valve, the regulator coupled to the port plate and having a passageway in communication with a passageway through the port plate to the cavity; and
a manual opening mechanism including a valve stem for manually moving the piston to open and close the valve, the manual opening mechanism extending through an opening in the port plate that is in axial alignment with the piston,
wherein the port plate is configured for removably coupling to the valve body in one of a number of different configurations for converting the valve from solenoid operation, to regulator operation, or to regulator operation with multiple functional features.

2. The valve of claim 1 , further comprising a strainer coupled to the valve body such that flow through the inlet of the valve body passes through the strainer.

3. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the port plate includes
a first port extending through the port plate along a first axis that is angularly offset from a central axis of the port plate;
a second port extending through the port plate along a second axis that is angularly offset from the central axis; and
a third port extending through the port plate along a third axis that is angularly offset from the central axis;
wherein the offset of the respective axes of the respective ports through the port plate allows a subassembly to be coupled to and removed from one of the ports in the port plate without interference from subassemblies coupled to other ports in the port plate.

4. A valve for a refrigeration system comprising:
a valve body having an inlet port, an outlet port, and walls forming a main cavity;
a cartridge configured to reside within the main cavity and having a cylinder in which a piston is movable in a first direction to permit fluid flow from the inlet port to the outlet port and in a second direction to impede fluid flow from the inlet port to the outlet port; and
a port plate removably mounted to the valve body for closing an end opening of the main cavity through which the cartridge can be inserted into and removed from the main cavity, the port plate including a plurality of functional ports, each functional port configured to accept at least one of plural valve control elements configured to control the piston to permit or impede the fluid flow from the inlet port to the outlet port, each functional port being disposed at an acute angle relative to a central axis of the piston so that a valve control element mounted to a respective functional port will not block access to fasteners securing the port plate to the valve body so that the port plate can be removed from the valve body without removal of the control element or control elements from the port plate.

5. The valve of claim 4 , wherein the cartridge residing within the main cavity becomes accessible without disconnecting the valve from the refrigeration system by removing the port plate from the valve body.

6. The valve of claim 4 , wherein the valve body has an inlet pressure passageway and the port plate and the cartridge have walls forming part of an annular passageway, the inlet pressure passageway and the annular passageway in fluid communication with the inlet port, wherein fluid pressure from the inlet port controls the piston to permit or impede the fluid flow from the inlet port to the outlet port.

7. The valve of claim 4 , wherein each of the ports is configured to accept one of various valve control elements for the valve to be configurable in a number of different configurations including a configuration simultaneously including a solenoid control and a regulator operation.

8. The valve of claim 4 , wherein the acute angle is 25 degrees, 35 degrees, 45 degrees, 55 degrees, 65 degrees, or a range of from 25 degrees to 65 degrees.

9. The valve of claim 4 , comprising:
a manual opening mechanism including a valve stem and configured for manually moving the piston to permit or impede the fluid flow from the inlet port to the outlet port, wherein at least a portion of the manual opening mechanism extends through an opening in the port plate that is in axial alignment with the piston.

10. The valve of claim 4 , wherein the cartridge comprises:
a cartridge body forming a housing and having a seat;
an elongated stem having a radially enlarged head portion for sealing against a seat; and
the piston extending radially outward from the stem at an end of the stem opposite the radially enlarged head portion;
wherein the cartridge body includes a shelf between the radially enlarged head portion and the piston, the shelf portion having a relief hole for fluid flow into and out of a chamber formed by a surface of the piston and an upper surface of the shelf.

11. The valve of claim 4 , wherein the cartridge includes
a cartridge body forming a piston chamber and a valve seat;
a valve member for sealing against the valve seat; and
the piston movable in the cylinder, wherein the piston is movable axially in the piston chamber and connected coaxially to the valve member for moving the valve member;
wherein the cartridge body includes a shelf interposed between the valve member and the piston so as to block the flow of fluid passing through the valve seat from directly impinging on the piston, and at least one relief flow passage fluidly connecting fluid pressure from a valve seat side of the shelf to a piston side of the shelf.

12. The valve of claim 11 , wherein the valve member is connected to the piston by a valve stem extending through an opening in the shelf.

13. The valve of claim 11 , wherein a spring is interposed between the piston and shelf for biasing the valve member against the valve seat.

14. The valve of claim 11 , wherein the cartridge body has a shoulder for engaging a corresponding shoulder of a valve body for axially positioning the cartridge in the valve body, and the cartridge further has a nose portion having a width less than the width of the shoulder and forming at its distal end the valve seat.

15. The valve of claim 11 , wherein the relief flow passage opens to a reduced diameter side wall of the cartridge.

16. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the axial alignment of the manual opening mechanism and the piston includes each of the manual opening mechanism and piston having central longitudinal axes extending therethrough being collinear.

17. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the cavity includes a cylindania-shaped portion disposed between the inlet port and the inlet pressure passageway to direct contaminant away from the inlet pressure passageway, the cylindania-shaped portion having a central longitudinal axis aligned parallel to a central longitudinal axis of the inlet port.

18. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the inlet pressure passageway provides fluid com

Assignees

• Parker Hannifin Corp

Inventors

• Mesner Steve
• Rahman Anis M
• Jalluri Srinivasu N V S
• Marshall Brian D

Classifications

• Y10T137/794

  With means for separating solid material from the fluid · CPC title

• F15B13/0835

  Cartridge type valves · CPC title

• Y10T137/5109

  Convertible · CPC title

• F25B2341/067

  Expansion valves having a pilot valve · CPC title

• F16K31/44

  Mechanical actuating means · CPC title