Flow directing spool for valve

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9482352-B2
Application number	US-201213714799-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2012
Priority date	Dec 15, 2011
Publication date	Nov 1, 2016
Grant date	Nov 1, 2016

Abstract

A spool valve includes a body defining a bore and a positionable spool located within the bore. The spool includes a central body portion having a diameter and a number of sealing lands separated by the central body portion. Each sealing land has a diameter larger than the central body portion diameter. A plurality of flow-shaping rings are located between first and second sealing lands, and each comprise an intermediate diameter larger than the central body portion diameter and smaller than the sealing land diameter.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A valve comprising:
a valve body defining a bore having a central axis, the valve body also defining a gallery including an annular cavity that surrounds the central axis and includes an open inner side in fluid communication with the bore, the gallery having an axial width; and
a spool mounted within the bore, the spool being movable within the bore along the central axis, the spool including a first annular sealing land and a second annular sealing land that each project radially outwardly from a main body of the spool, the spool including a flow-shaping ring disposed between the first annular sealing land and the second annular sealing land that projects radially outwardly from the main body of the spool, the flow-shaping ring having an outer diameter that is smaller than an outer diameter of the first annular sealing land and the second annular sealing land, the flow-shaping ring being separated from the first annular sealing land by an annular flow-shaping groove, the annular flow-shaping groove having an axial width that is smaller than the axial width of the gallery, wherein the flow-shaping ring and the flow-shaping groove are axially co-extensive with the gallery when the gallery is fully open, and wherein the flow-shaping groove has a diameter substantially equal to a diameter of the main body of the spool.

2. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the outer diameter of the flow-shaping ring is at most 90 percent of the outer diameter of the annular sealing land.

3. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the annular flow-shaping groove defines an outer diameter that is at most 60 percent of the outer diameter of the annular sealing land.

4. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the outer diameter of the flow-shaping ring is 70-90 percent of the outer diameter of the annular sealing land, and the annular flow-shaping groove defines an outer diameter that is 40-60 percent of the outer diameter of the annular sealing land.

5. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the outer diameter of the flow-shaping ring is about 80 percent of the outer diameter of the annular sealing land, and the annular flow-shaping groove defines an outer diameter that is about 50 percent of the outer diameter of the annular sealing land.

6. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the flow-shaping ring has an axial width that is less than 25 percent of the axial width of the gallery.

7. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the annular flow-shaping groove has an axial width that is at least 20 percent of the axial width of the gallery.

8. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the annular flow-shaping groove has an axial width that is 20-50 percent of the axial width of the gallery.

9. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the flow-shaping ring has a first side that faces axially towards the flow-shaping groove and a second side that faces axially away from the flow-shaping groove, and wherein when the gallery is fully open the second side of the flow-shaping ring defines an axial flow gap with respect to the gallery that is in the range of 40-60 percent of the axial width of the gallery.

10. The valve of claim 1 , wherein the flow-shaping ring has a first side that faces axially towards the flow-shaping groove and a second side that faces axially away from the flow-shaping groove, and wherein when the gallery is fully open the second side of the flow-shaping ring defines an axial flow gap with respect to the gallery that is about 50 percent of the axial width of the gallery.

11. A spool valve comprising:
a body defining a bore comprising a first gallery and an adjacent second gallery defined by a plurality of walls; and
a positionable spool located within the bore, wherein the spool comprises:
a central body portion comprising a central body portion diameter;
sealing lands each comprising a sealing land diameter larger than the central body portion diameter, the sealing lands including first and second sealing lands that are separated by the central body portion, wherein the positionable spool is configured to be positioned such that when the sealing lands are aligned with the walls, the central body portion extends from the first gallery to the adjacent second gallery; and
a plurality of flow-shaping rings located between the first and second sealing lands, wherein the flow-shaping rings each comprise an intermediate diameter larger than the central body portion diameter and smaller than the sealing land diameter wherein when the sealing lands are aligned with the walls so as to seal the first gallery and the adjacent second gallery, a first one of the plurality of flow-shaping rings is disposed in the first gallery and a second one of the plurality of flow shaping rings is disposed in the adjacent second gallery, and wherein each flow-shaping ring has a first side that faces axially towards the central body portion and a second side that faces axially away from the central body portion, and wherein when the first gallery and the second gallery are fully open, each of the first side and the second side of each of the plurality of flow-shaping rings are spaced from an adjacent wall of the plurality of walls by a distance that is in a range of 40-60 percent of an axial width of each of the first gallery and the second gallery.

12. The spool valve of claim 11 , wherein the intermediate diameter comprises about 80% of the sealing land diameter.

13. The spool valve of claim 12 , wherein the central body portion diameter comprises about 50% of the sealing land diameter.

14. The spool valve of claim 11 , wherein the spool further comprises a groove between one of the sealing lands and a one of the flow-shaping rings.

15. The spool valve of claim 14 , wherein the groove comprises a groove width of greater than about 20% of a width of at least one of the first gallery and the adjacent second gallery.

16. A valve comprising:
a valve body defining a bore having a central axis, the valve body also defining a plurality of galleries that are axially spaced-apart from one another along the central axis, the galleries including a pump gallery positioned between a first work-port gallery and a second work-port gallery, each of the galleries including an annular cavity that surrounds the central axis and includes an open inner side in fluid communication with the bore, the valve body defining a first work port fluidly connected to the first work-port gallery, a second work port fluidly connected to the second work-port gallery, and a pump port fluidly connected to the pump gallery, the pump gallery defining an axial width; and
a spool mounted within the bore, the spool being movable within the bore along the central axis, the spool including first and second annular sealing lands that project radially outwardly from a main body of the spool, the first and second annular sealing lands being separated from one another by an annular flow passage that extends along the central axis between the valve body and the main body of the spool, the spool including first and second flow-shaping rings that project radially outwardly from the main body of the spool, the first and second flow-shaping rings being positioned within the flow passage, the first and second flow-shaping rings having outer diameters that are smaller than outer diameters of the first and second annular sealing lands, the first flow-shaping ring being separated from the first annular sealing land by a first annular flow-shaping groove, the second flow-shaping ring being separated from the second annular sealing land by a second annular flow-shaping groove, the first and second annular flow-shaping grooves having axial width

Assignees

• Eaton Corp

Inventors

• West Gary
• Tamboli Javedkhan Nijam
• Kulkarni Aniruddha

Classifications

• F15B13/0402 Primary

  for linearly sliding valves, e.g. spool valves · CPC title

• Y10T137/8671

  With annular passage [e.g., spool] · CPC title

• F16K11/0708

  comprising means to avoid jamming of the slide or means to modify the flow · CPC title

• F16K11/0712 Primary

  comprising particular spool-valve sealing means · CPC title