ROTATORY VALVE HAVING ONE-PIECE SEAT CONSTRUCTION

• US 3,698,687 A
• Filed: 07/17/1970
• Issued: 10/17/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Masaru Kitamura
• Original Assignee: Masaru Kitamura
• Inventors: Kitamura, Masaru
• Primary Examiner(s): Weakley, Harold W.
• Application Number:
  US05/055,737
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: 251/315,316,317
• US Class Current: 251/315.01
• CPC Class Codes: F16K 5/0668 Single packings
• CPC Class Codes: F16K 5/208 with tongue-shaped means

Abstract

A ball valve comprising a valve casing having a flowway therethrough, a spheroidal or spherical valve element having a passageway therethrough, said valve element being rotatably mounted within said valve body whereby said passageway can be moved into and out of register with said flowway, and a pair of valve seat members disposed within said valve casing forming a space between them for said valve element, said seat members being annular and each having in cross-section a body portion and an inwardly extending flange portion, said flange portion being deformable and having opposing faces, at least a portion of which are parallel and inclined to a plane radial to the axis of said flowway so as to provide substantially tangential engagement between one of said faces of each of seat members and said valve element.

Claims

1. A valve comprising a casing having a flowway therethrough, a spheroidal valve element having a passageway therethrough, said valve element being rotatably mounted within said casing for rotation between registering and non-registering positions of said flowway and said passageway, and a pair of annular seat members mounted within said casing in generally encircling relation to said flowway and in separated relation to each other within said casing to thereby form between them a space for said spheroidal valve element, each of said seat members being of one piece construction and comprising a body portion and an elastically deformable flange portion adjoined at an annularly extending notch facing said valve element, said flange portion projecting from said body portion inward towards said flowway, said flange portion being of lesser thickness than said body portion when viewed in transverse cross-section and having opposing faces at least a portion of which are substantially parallel to one another and inclined to a plane radial to the axis of the flowway, the greater part of said parallel portion of said flange faces facing said valve element being in engagement with said valve element.

2. The valve of claim 1 wherein said faces of said flange portions engaging said spheroidal valve element and the faces of said body members adjacent said spheroidal valve element are substantially frustonconical.

3. The valve of claim 1 wherein said seat members have substantially concave recesses annularly disposed so as to lie substantially at the point where said flange portions and said body portions are joined, the surfaces of said concave recesses and the faces of said flange portions opposite said faces in engagement with said spheroidal valve element being contiguous with one another to thereby form smooth continuous surfaces.

4. The valve of claim 1 wherein said seat members are disposed within said body with respect to said spheroidal valve element as to produce initial distortion of said flange portions outwardly from said spheroidal valve element and thereby cause said faces of said flange portions engaging said spheroidal valve element to exert sealing pressure against said spheroidal valve element.

5. The valve of claim 3 wherein said concave recesses have a substantially circular radius of curvature.

6. The valve of claim 1 wherein said passageway and said flowway are substantially cylindrical.

7. The valve of claim 1 wherein said seat members are disposed within said casing with respect to said valve element and the faces of said body portions facing said valve element are separated by a distance such that sufficient pressure acting against said valve element will urge said valve element into sealing contact with the face of one of said body portions facing said valve element.

8. The valve of claim 7 wherein said faces of said body members facing said valve element are substantially frustoconical.

9. The valve of claim 8 wherein said faces of said flange portions engaging said valve element are substantially frustoconical.