AU2005206584A1

AU2005206584A1 - Half turn lever operated pinch valve

Info

Publication number: AU2005206584A1
Application number: AU2005206584A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Barrett Morley Musgrave Payne
Original assignee: PAYNE BARRETT MORLEY M
Current assignee: PAYNE BARRETT MORLEY M
Priority date: 2004-01-27
Filing date: 2005-01-17
Publication date: 2005-08-04
Also published as: NZ537464A; GB2410538A; GB0423112D0; WO2005071295A1; GB2410538B

Description

WO 2005/071295 PCT/AP2005/000001 1 HALF TURN LEVER OPERATED PINCH VALVE This invention is concerned with valves known as pinch valves being those which are opened and closed by pinching or releasing a resiliently de-formable sleeve. The sleeves are used in the control of abrasive and corrosive fluids. The sleeves are discarded when worn out allowing the valve to operate with repeated sleeve replacements. In the nature of presently known hand operated pinch valves the opening'and closing is accomplished by a threaded valve spindle rotated by a hand wheel. This requires many hand wheel rotations and is time consuming. It is known that most abrasive damage is done to these sleeves during this slow opening and closing. The prime object of this invention is to replace the slow hand wheel operated pinch valve with a fast action half turn lever operated pinch valve. In order to accomplish this a new type of pinch valve has been developed and is described as follows. A valve body fabricated from standard tubes and flanges of different materials. into which the sleeve is inserted and locked by retaining rings. The closing action is provided by a half turn lever operating through a pivot and fulcrum movement producing progressively increasing closing forces into the locked closed position which can only be disengaged by a reverse movement to the hand lever, The locked closed position occurs when the fulcrum has been pushed by the lever to the very bottom of it's 180 degree arc of travel and slightly beyond the valve's center line to the fulcrurn's off center stop position. This is the closed position and the fulcrum is locked in by the up thrust of the elastic resilience of the clamped shut sleeve. Most importantly the fulcrum movement through the bottom half of it's arc of travel produces high clamping forces to pinch the sleeve shut against pipe line fluid pressures. The resiliently de-formable sleeve further provides elastic shock absorption areas in the clamped shut position.. This shock dampening is most important as surge pressures and accompanying pipe line hammer is a product of the quick closing action. The resiliently de-formable sleeve further provides abutments which are compressed into static seals between flanges when the valve is bolted to opposing pipe line flanges. The quick acting lever operated closing assembly incorporates a double disc brake packed with sticky viscous grease to slow the valve's opening action. The elastic and pressured sleeve snaps out of the valve's closed and locked position when the hand lever is pushed to the valve's open position. It is essential to brake the lever whiplash. The viscous grease also provides lubrication to the pivot and fulcrum and prevents ingress of dirt. Two valves of this invention positioned side by side and with their closing assemblies back to back and their hand levers interconnected and flanges on one side interconnected to a common inlet will give lever selection of one of two pipe line outlets. A gentle. safe diversion selection by half turn hand lever is achieved as both closing gates simultaneously open and close benefiting from a neutral pressure balanced mid position. Fig. I represents the cross section, side view, valve closed. Fig. 2 represents the cross section. end view, valve closed. Fig. 3 represents the cross section of the body only. side view. valve open. Fig. 4 represents the cross section. end view. valve open. Fig. 5 shows the cross section of the sleeve and retaining rings. Fig. 6 shows two valves interconnected. end view. one open. one closed. Fig. 7 shows two valves interconnected, end view, both half open in neutral.

WO 2005/071295 PCT/AP2005/000001 2 Fig. 1 shows the cross section of the side view of the valve in the fully closed position with the sleeve pinched shut and a pipe line flange bolted to one of the valve's flanges and the opposite valve flange is open. The cross section shows the valve body 19 with the bracket 18 and end flanges 20 and cross section of the resiliently de-formable sleeve 10 secured in it's central position within the valve body 19 by the retaining rings I I situated within their valve body recess 15 with the sleeve 10 clamped shut producing elastic pressure absorption areas A and A. The sleeve 10 is shown clamped shut at 23 between the bottom of the closing gate 14 and the bottom of the valve body 19 producing an elastic up thrust force at 23 and a locked closed position of the off center located fulcrum at 29. The left side of valve's cross section shows pipe line flange 36 bolted to its opposing valve flange 20 with the flexible abutment of the sleeve 10 compressed and contained into a static fluid seal 16 within recess 15. The right side of the valve is shown open and not bolted to a pipe line flange and therefore it shows the flexible sleeves abutment 13 protruding beyond the face of the flange 20. It shows the sleeve 10 secured in a central position by the retaining ring 11 which is clipped into the sleeve's moulded grooves 12 and further clipped into the recess 15 within both valve flanges 20. It shows the retaining rings 1 I solidly backed up against the step 22 at both machined ends of the steel tube body 19 which in turn is welded at 21 to the valve's flanges 20. The closing gate 14 is seen protruding through the crosswise slot 17 situated between slot 26 of bracket 18. The bracket 18 is in cross section and shows the milled 180 degree slot 31 containing the fulcrum 29 which is locked in it's down thrust valve closed position. The guide slot 26 reveals one of the thrust arms 30 which is also in the down thrust position. This view also shows the pivot 28 with it's grease dispersal channel 33 and the inside of the containing disc 32 through slot 31 with the hand lever 25 attached on the far side. Fig. 2 shows a cross section of the valve with sleeve 10 clamped shut between the rounded leading edge of the closing gate 14 and the rounded bottom half of the valve body 19. The sleeve 10 is pinched shut at 23 and has also been doubled in thickness at both folds 24 at each side of the closing gate. The closing gate 14 is fully extended to the valve's pinched shut position and it protrudes through the crosswise slot 17 situated between bracket 18 and guides 26. The sleeve's elastic pressure absorption areas A and A are shown and so is the elastic up thrust at the sleeve's pinched shut position 23. The relation of both containing discs 32 to the thrust arms 30 and fulcrum 29 pivot 28 and connecting pin 27 is shown. Grease dispersal nipple 34 and channel 33 and the interfacing greased areas between bracket 18 and discs 32 provide a brake action or drag to prevent the backlash of the hand lever 25. The hand lever 25 is shown welded at 35 to the outsides of the containing discs 32.

WO 2005/071295 PCT/AP2005/000001 3 Fig. 3 shows the cross section of the side view of the valve body 19 and it's flanges 20 with the resiliently de-formable sleeve 10 in the fully open full flow position. The valve closing gate 14 has been fully extended upwards by hand lever 25'allowing the resiliently de formable sleeve 10 to push the closing gate assembly outwards and upwards and the resilient sleeve has returned to it's full flow open position. The sleeve 10 is shown without pipline flanges bolted on and with it's flexible projecting abutments 13 uncontained and uncompressed. The sleeve 10 is shown centrally locked in position by retaining ring 11. This cross section shows the retaining ring I1 solidly backed up against the step 22 at both machined ends of the tube 19 which forms the valve's body 19 which in turn is welded to the valve's flanges 20 at weld 21. The half turn lever 25 is welded at 35 to the outside of containing disc 32 which in turn is connected at fulcrum 29 by thrust arms 30 to connecting pin 27. The closing gate 14 has been pulled up. sliding between parallel guides 26. Fig. 4 shows a cross section of the valve with the sleeve 10 in the fully open position giving full flow of the pipe line fluid. The hand lever 25 can be placed at any position and can be arranged to open and close the valve through any arc of 180 degree travel backwards or forwards or under or over. Fig. 5 shows the cross section of the side view of the moulded resiliently de-formable sleeve 10 and at either end of the sleeve 10 are external circular grooves 12 moulded into the outside diameter of the sleeve. The retaining rings 11 slip into these grooves 12 and also into the recess provided in the valve flanges 15. The protruding flexible abutment of the sleeve 13 will on the bolting on of the opposing pipe line flanges compress into high pressure fluid seals 16 which contain the pressured fluid within the valve's sleeves 10 and in the pipe line. The sleeve has no internal or external reinforcement. Fig. 6 shows two valves joined together by bracket 36 with their closing assemblies positioned back to back. Both valves have their closing levers 25 interconnected by sleeve 37 and locked by pins 38. Both hand levers 25 are positioned to face in the same direction throughout their half turn arc of travel. Therefore as one valve is locked into it's fully opened position the other valve is automatically locked into it's fully closed position. When the hand lever is reversed to the end of it's opposite half turn arc of travel both valves open and closed positions are again reversed. Fig. 7 shows the two valves joined together as shown and described in Fig. 6. The interconnected hand levers 25 are shown in their neutral position half way between each valves fully open and fully closed position. Both valves closing gates 14 and their resiliently de-formable sleeves 10 are respectively half open and half closed depending on the direction of movement of their hand levers 25.

Claims

CLAIM 1

A tubular valve body fabricated from standard tubes and flanges into which is inserted a resilientiy de- formable sleeve which is locked into place by two retaining rings which are backed against die shoulder of die tubular valve body within d e recess in die flange bore into which die sleeve abutments are compressed into static seals.

CLAIM 2

A tubular valve body according to Claim 1 with a crosswise slot to accommodate die sliding closing gate and to which is welded die bracket with it^'s vertical gate slot in alignment with die 180 degree off set half round fulcrum slot and central pivot location.

CLAIM 3

A half turn lever operated closing gate with a half round leading edge conforming to die contour of the valve^'s tubular body against which the sleeve is pinched shut by pushing the top half of the sleeve into it^'s bottom half giving an elastic up thrust force to lock the fulcrum into die valve closed position.

CLAIM 4

A half turn lever operated closing gate which slides within it^'s guide slots according to Claim 2 and is actuated by hand lever operating tlirough a half turn pivot and fulcrum action to produce a progressive increasing closing force until die sleeve is pinched tighd}' shut and die fulcrum is locked in die valve closed position.

CLAIM 5

A half turn hand lever closing assembly which actuates pivoting brake discs situated on both sides of the bracket into which viscous grease is pumped providing a brake effect to prevent hand lever backlash when die lever is moved out of the locked closed position.

CLAIM 6

A moulded resiliently de-formable sleeve according to Claim 1 having substantial wall diickness and no internal or external reinforcement with moulded grooves around tlie outside diameter providing outward projecting seal abutments.

CLAIM 7

A resiliently de-formable sleeve according to Claim 3 which in die pinched closed position gives an elastic up tiirust force locking tlie valve in it's closed position.

CLAIM 8

A resiliently de-formable sleeve which in die pinched closed position provides elastic shock absorption areas at both sides of the closed gate,

CLAIM 9

A combination of two valves of this invention locked together side by side with dieir closing and opening half turn levers interconnected providing a flow diverter selection of one of two pipe line outlets.