Valve arrangement with main shifting valve and pilot control valve

• US 4,796,662 A
• Filed: 05/23/1988
• Issued: 01/10/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/1987
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Daimler-Benz AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Daimler-Benz AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Inventors: Hoffmann, Ruediger, Feichtiger, Dieter, Schwerdt, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Michalsky, Gerald A.
• Application Number:
  US07/197,268
• Time in Patent Office: 232 Days
• Field of Search: 137/596.16, 251/30.02, 251/30.05, 251/129.17
• US Class Current: 137/596.16
• CPC Class Codes: F16K 31/42 by means of electrically-actuated members in the supply or discharge conduits of the fluid motor F16K31/40 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/87209 Electric

Abstract

A valve arrangement with a main shifting valve and a pilot control valve in which the main shifting valve controls the connection between an inlet line and an outlet line. Depending on the position of the pilot control valve, a control pressure space is connected with the inlet line and is therewith acted upon with the inlet pressure, respectively, is relieved of the pressure by a connection with an essentially pressureless return line in order to close, respectively, open the main shifting valve. As the inlet, outlet and return lines terminate on the same bottom side of the socket, the valve arrangement can be arranged in a particularly simple manner on a line plate of a hydraulic, respectively, pneumatic shifting arrangement.

Claims

1. A valve arrangement comprising main shifting valve means, pilot control valve means including a valve member movable between two valve seats, said valve member being operable to be sealingly pressed against one valve seat by means of an externally actuatable plunger means and thereby closes off a connection between an inlet line with a control pressure space which is opened up when placed against the other valve seat and at the same time also opens a connection between the control pressure space and a return line which is closed off when the valve member of the pilot control valve means is placed against the other valve seat, said main shifting valve means including a main valve member displaceable into a closing position by the pressure in the control pressure space when the connection between the inlet line and the control pressure space is open, said main valve member being displaceable into the control pressure space at least partly in the manner of a displacement member, the main valve member being operable to be sealingly pressed against its seat arranged between the inlet line and an outlet line when displaced into its closing position, valve housing means accommodating the control pressure space, the one valve seat of the pilot control valve means being provided at the other end face of the valve housing means opposite the control pressure space, a valve seat part arranged at said other end face of the valve housing means and providing the other valve seat of the pilot control valve means, a first intermediate space means operatively connected with the inlet line remaining between the seat of the main shifting valve means and the valve housing means, a second intermediate space means remaining between the valve seat part and the valve housing means, said second intermediate space means being operatively connected, respectively, operatively connectable by way of a line extending through the valve housing means with the first intermediate space means, by way of a further line extending through the valve housing means with the control pressure space and by way of an opening adjoining the other valve seat of the pilot control valve means respectively controlled by the valve member of the pilot control valve means with the return line, the inlet, outlet and return lines being arranged extending through a socket means of the valve arrangement and terminating at the same end face of the socket means, the socket means being provided at its end face opposite the orifices with a cup-like recess in which the inlet and outlet lines terminate on the side of the bottom, the seat of the main shifting valve means being arranged at the inlet orifice of the outlet line, the valve housing means being inserted into the cup-like recess in the manner of a plug while leaving free the first intermediate space means, the valve seat part resting on the end face of the valve housing means opposite the bottom of the cup-like recess in the manner of a cover and holding fast a sealing ring sealing the valve housing means in the cup-like recess at the facing circumferential edge of the valve housing means, sleeve means surrounding the socket means being arranged at the socket means under formation of an annular space which is operatively connected, on the one hand with the return line, and on the other, with a space present on the end face of the valve seat part opposite the valve housing means, said last-mentioned space being operatively connected with the second intermediate space means by way of an opening adjoining the other valve seat in the valve seat part.

2. A valve arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the inlet, outlet and return lines are arranged approximately parallel to one another in a common axial plane of the socket means.

3. A valve arrangement according to claim 2, wherein the socket means is arranged on a line plate means and the inlet, outlet and return lines are connected with lines extending in the line plate means.

4. A valve arrangement according to claim 3, wherein the end face of the sleeve means opposite the socket means is closed off by means of a diaphragm means whose edge is sealingly clamped in between a ring-shaped collar arranged at the sleeve means and an intermediate member which axially support the valve seat part on the collar.

5. A valve arrangement according to claim 4, wherein a bore is provided in the intermediate member for the guidance of the plunger means whose one end cooperates with the valve member of the pilot control valve means and whose other end abuts at the diaphragm means.

6. A valve arrangement according to claim 5, wherein said last-mentioned other end is rounded-off or mushroom-head-like shaped.

7. A valve arrangement according to claim 5, wherein a line is arranged in the intermediate member which connects a space between the diaphragm means and the intermediate member at the plunger means with the space connected with the return line on the side of the valve seat part opposite the valve housing means.

8. A valve arrangement according to claim 7, further comprising an electromagnet means arranged at one of sleeve means and collar.

9. A valve arrangement according to claim 8, wherein the electromagnet means includes one of core and adjusting member coaxial with the plunger means.

10. A valve arrangement according to claim 7, further comprising line plate means with at least two valve arrangements arranged thereon as well as three lines arranged therein, of which one is adapted to be connected with a pressure source, another with a load and still another with a reservoir, the inlet line of one valve arrangement being operatively connected by way of the line of the line plate means which is connected with the load, with the outlet line of the other valve arrangement, the line of the line plate means connected with the pressure source being operatively connected with the inlet line of the other valve arrangement and the line of the line plate means connected with the reservoir operatively connecting the return line of the other valve arrangement with the outlet line as well as the return line of the one valve arrangement.

11. A valve arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the socket means is arranged on a line plate means and the inlet, outlet and return lines are connected with lines extending in the line plate means.

12. A valve arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the end face of the sleeve means opposite the socket means is closed off by means of a diaphragm means whose edge is sealingly clamped in between a ring-shaped collar arranged at the sleeve means and an intermediate member which axially support the valve seat part on the collar.

13. A valve arrangement according to claim 12, wherein a bore is provided in the intermediate member for the guidance of the plunger means whose one end cooperates with the valve member of the pilot control valve means and whose other end abuts at the diaphragm means.

14. A valve arrangement according to claim 12, wherein a line is arranged in the intermediate member which connects a space between the diaphragm means and the intermediate member at the plunger means with the space connected with the return line on the side of the valve seat part opposite the valve housing means.

15. A valve arrangement according to claim 12, further comprising an electromagnet means arranged at one of sleeve means and collar.

16. A valve arrangement according to claim 1, further comprising line plate means with at least two valve arrangements arranged thereon as well as three lines arranged therein, of which one is adapted to be connected with a pressure source, another with a load and still another with a reservoir, the inlet line of one valve arrangement being operatively connected by way of the line of the line plate means which is connected with the load, with the outlet line of the other valve arrangement, the line of the line plate means connected with the pressure source being operatively connected with the inlet line of the other valve arrangement and the line of the line plate means connected with the reservoir operatively connecting the return line of the other valve arrangement with the outlet line as well as the return line of the one valve arrangement.