EP2239465B1

EP2239465B1 - Pond units

Info

Publication number: EP2239465B1
Application number: EP10250034.5A
Authority: EP
Inventors: George Leigh Walters
Original assignee: Exel Industries SA
Current assignee: Exel Industries SA
Priority date: 2009-03-31
Filing date: 2010-01-11
Publication date: 2019-07-03
Anticipated expiration: 2030-01-11
Also published as: EP2239465A3; EP2239465A2

Description

This invention relates to pond unit flow control valves and generally to pond units.
Such pond units may typically be pond filter units and/or pond pump units.
Pond pump units and pond filter units are used in, for example, garden ponds to help in the treatment of water in the pond and/or to provide circulation of water around the pond to help condition the water and/or to supply water features such as fountains and so on.
In such circumstances there can be a desire to take in water from various different locations within a pond for filtration and/or for supply to, for example, a fountain. One possibility is to provide several separate pumping and/or filtration systems each having its own intake, but this is a relatively expensive way in which to proceed.
It is more desirable to provide systems in which, for example, one pump can be used to draw water into the system from more than one intake area.
The document EP1908961A2 discloses a pump having a suction connection which has two suction channels. The document DE10043668A1 discloses an immersion pump which has a pump housing which acts as a filter. The document US2007/0183905A1 discloses a pond pump having an intake connector which is moveable relative to the suction port so that the volume of the suction port may be varied.
Each of these documents describe units having a relatively complex and non-compact design.
It is the aim of the present invention to provide pond units and pond unit flow control valve which can be useful in such systems.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a pond unit control valve according to claim 1. According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a pond unit according to claim 8.
The flow control valve comprises at least one tube like portion which comprises the main flow passage.
The controllable inlet may comprise an inlet aperture provided in the tube like portion.
The flow control valve may comprise a moveable blanking portion for selectively blanking part or all of the inlet aperture.
The flow control valve may be arranged so that the controllable inlet remains partially open even when the control valve is moved to its most closed position. This can help to prevent overload of a pump provided as part of a wider system should the main inlet of the pond unit become blocked.
The moveable blanking portion may be insufficiently large to completely blank the inlet aperture.
The flow control valve comprises a sleeve which is mounted co-axially with respect to the tube like portion and the flow control valve is arranged to allow relative rotational movement between the tube like portion and the sleeve to control a degree of openness of the controllable inlet. The sleeve and the tube like portion may be arranged so that even when moved to a most closed position the controllable inlet remains partially open.
The sleeve may be rotationally moveable relative to the tube like portion and the housing of the pond unit.
The flow control valve may comprise restriction means for restricting the range of relative rotational movement allowed between the sleeve and the tube like portion. The restriction means may also serve to restrict the allowed degree of openness and/or closedness of the controllable inlet.
The restriction means may comprise at least one projection provided on one of the sleeve and the tube like portion and a corresponding recess, in which the projection is received, provided on the other of the sleeve and the tube like portion, respective ends of the recess forming end stops against which the projection abuts to provide end points of allowed relative rotational movement between the sleeve and the tube like portion.
The recess may extend circumferentially part way around a curved surface of the sleeve or the tube like portion.
The restriction means may comprise a pair of projections and a respective pair of recesses.
The or each projection may be provided on a respective tab, formed in, and that may deform resiliently relative to the remainder of, the one of the sleeve and tube like portion on which the projection is provided.
The sleeve may comprise the moveable blanking portion.
The main inlet into the housing of the pond unit may be arranged at a fixed location relative to the flow control valve. The main inlet into the housing may be arranged at a fixed location relative to the housing as a whole.
The flow control valve comprises a control collar for controlling a degree of openness of the controllable inlet. The control collar is disposed around the main inlet into the housing.
The control collar is arranged for use in moving the sleeve and tube like portion relative to one another. The control collar is arranged for use in moving the sleeve relative to the tube like portion and optionally relative to the housing of the pond unit.
The sleeve is provided around the tube like portion. A portion of the sleeve is arranged as the control collar.
A portion of the sleeve projects through the housing to the exterior, said portion comprising the control collar.
The tube like portion and sleeve may each be straight. The tube like portion and sleeve may be arranged as concentric cylinders.
The sleeve may comprise a housing engaging portion via which the sleeve may be mounted for rotational movement relative to the housing of the pond unit. The housing engaging portion may comprise a spaced pair of flanges defining a space therebetween that receives a portion of the housing. The received portion of the housing may be a portion of the sidewall of the housing.
The pond unit may comprise a pump having an inlet and an outlet. The control valve may be disposed in a flow path between the main inlet into the housing and the inlet of the pump. With this arrangement, of course, the control valve controls the proportion of water fed to the pump from the main inlet of the housing and from the secondary inlets.
The main inlet into the housing may be arranged co-axially with the inlet to the pump. The main inlet into the housing may be arranged at a fixed location relative to the inlet to the pump.
The main inlet into the housing, the inlet to the pump and the flow control valve may be arranged coaxially with one another. The main inlet into the housing, the inlet to the pump and the main flow passage of the flow control valve may be arranged coaxially with one another.
The outlet of the pump may be connected to the main outlet from the housing.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 schematically shows a pond unit with hoses connected to a main inlet and a main outlet of the pond unit;
Figure 2 shows the pond unit of Figure 1 but with a housing open and the hoses disconnected;
Figure 3 schematically shows a flow control valve of the pond unit shown in Figures 1 and 2 with a controllable inlet of the flow control valve in its most closed position;
Figure 4 shows the flow control valve of Figure 3 when the controllable inlet is in its most open position; and
Figure 5 is an exploded view of the flow control valve shown in Figures 3 and 4.

Figures 1 and 2 show a pond unit which, in the present embodiment, is a garden pond pump unit. The pond pump unit comprises a housing 1 within which is mounted a pump 2. The housing 1 is hingedly moveable between a closed position as shown in Figure 1 and an open position as shown in Figure 2 which allows access to the interior of the housing 1.
The pond unit comprises a main inlet 3 into the housing 1 and a main outlet 4 from the housing 1. The main inlet 3 is connected via a flow control valve 5 to an inlet 21 of the pump 2 and the main outlet 4 is connected to an outlet 22 of the pump 2. The main inlet 3 into the unit comprises a main inlet aperture 11 provided in the housing 1 and an inlet connector 31 (see Figure 2) onto which a hose h (see Figure 1) may be fitted. The main outlet 4 comprises a main outlet aperture 12 provided in the housing 1 and an outlet connector 41 (see Figure 2) to which hose h may be connected (see Figure 1).
Four side walls 13 of the housing 1 are provided with filtering apertures 14 which provide secondary inlets into the interior of the housing 1 from the region surrounding the pond unit. The size and shape of these apertures 14 may be selected to provide the desired level of mechanical filtering of water flowing into the interior of the housing 1 from the surroundings. The filtering apertures 14 are located so that at least some are in an uppermost portion of the housing/cage when the unit is in its, or one of its intended orientations for use. The two sidewalls without apertures are both useful as bases on which the unit can be stood.
The flow control valve 5 is arranged to control the proportion of water which is fed to the pump 2 which originates from the main inlet 3 and from the interior of the housing and hence from the secondary inlets/filtering apertures 14. The water drawn in by the pump 2 in operation, from whichever source, is delivered to the main outlet 4 and hence may be carried away from the pond unit via the respective hose h.
In an alternative, another form of outlet device besides a hose might be connected to the main outlet 4.
For example, a filter fountain might be connected directly to this outlet.
The hose h connected to the main inlet 3 may be used to transport water to the pond unit from a remote location and may, for example, be connected to another similar pond unit or another type of filter unit or so on. Normally however, this other pond unit or filter unit would not contain a pump but rather reliance would be made on the pump 2 provided in the present pond unit to draw water from that remote location. Thus, the present pond unit is arranged to allow extraction of water from the pond from two distinct locations and arranged for feeding of water from both of these locations to the main outlet 4 and then onwards to a desired location. This means that this single unit may serve to take in water from two distinct areas of a pond for treatment.
It will be appreciated that in a system where there is a filter unit connected to the hose h leading to the main inlet 3, this other filter unit may be a second pond unit of the present type. This second pond unit (not shown) might most typically not include a pump but still include a flow control valve of the present type to allow control of the proportion of water fed to the main outlet of the second pond unit coming from the main inlet of the second pond unit and the secondary inlets of the second pond unit.
The flow control valve 5 of the pond unit shown in Figures 1 and 2 will now be described in more detail with particular reference to Figures 3 to 5. Figures 3 and 4 show the flow control valve 5 in isolation and Figure 5 shows an exploded view of the flow control valve.
As most clearly seen in Figure 5, the flow control valve 5 comprises two cylindrical portions which are mounted one within the other. A first of these cylindrical portions is a tube like portion 51, which comprises a main flow passage for receiving water from the main inlet 3 and feeding this towards the inlet 21 of the pump 2. At a first end, the tube like portion 51 carries a connector nut 52 for mounting to the inlet 21 of the pump 2 and at its second end it has a threaded portion 53 to which the inlet connector 31 can be connected. The tube like portion 51, and flow control valve 5 as a whole is shown connected both to the pump 2 and to the inlet connector 31 in Figure 2.
The tube like portion 51 comprises two inlet apertures 54a (only one of which can be seen in the drawings) which allow water in the interior of the housing 1 of the pond unit to flow into the main passageway of the flow control valve 5, provided that the apertures 54a are not obscured.
The other cylindrical portion of the flow control valve 5 is a sleeve 55 which surrounds the tube like portion 51 and is rotatable relative to the tube like portion 51. The sleeve 55 comprises a control collar 56 which, when the flow control valve 5 is mounted in the housing 1 as shown in Figures 1 and 2, resides outside of the housing 1. This control collar 56 can be used by the user to control the degree of openness of the flow control valve to hence control the proportion of water allowed into the pump 2 which comes from the interior to the housing 1 compared with that which comes from the main inlet 3.
The sleeve 55 comprises a pair of apertures 54b (only one of which is shown in the drawings) which can be aligned with the apertures 54a in the tube like portion 51, when the flow control valve is in its most open state as shown in Figure 4. On the other hand, the apertures 54a and 54b may be displaced from one another (due to rotational movement of the sleeve 55 relative to the tube like portion 51) to, in effect, blank off the inlet apertures 54a in the tube like portion 51.
The flow control valve 5 is shown in its most closed position in Figure 3 where the inlet apertures 54a coincide with blanking portions 57 of the sleeve 55. This also corresponds to the position where the portions of the tube like portion 51 which are disposed circumferentially between the inlet apertures 54a, are aligned with the centre of the apertures 54b in the sleeve 55.
Note however that the inlet apertures 54a have a greater circumferential extent than the blanking portions 57 so that even in its most closed position as shown in Figure 3, there is still a water flow path through the side wall of the flow control valve 5, ie through the inlet apertures 54a, into the main flow passage of the flow control valve 5. This means that even with the flow control valve 5 in its most closed state, water from the interior of the housing will still be fed to the pump 2. This can be advantageous because if the main inlet 3 becomes blocked or there is a block further upstream such that the main inlet 3 provides no water to the pump 2, the water from the interior of the housing 1 will still be fed to the pump 2 to help prevent overload of the pump 2, ie to help prevent starvation of the pump 2.
The sleeve 55 comprises a spaced pair of flanges 58 which run around the external curved surface of the sleeve 55 and define between them a slot within which the side wall of the housing 1 in the region of the main inlet aperture 11 is received when the flow control valve 5 is mounted in the housing as shown in Figures 1 and 2. This arrangement allows rotational movement of the sleeve 55 relative to the housing 1 and the tube like portion 51 whilst securely locating the flow control valve 5 in position.
An o-ring seal 59 is provided around the outer circumferential surface of the tube like portion 51 adjacent to the connecting nut 52 which is used to connect the flow control valve 5 to the pump 2. This provides a seal between the tube like portion and the sleeve 55 in this region.
The extent of rotational movement of the sleeve 55 relative to the tube like portion 51 is restricted by restriction means provided within the flow control valve 5. In particular, as most clearly seen in Figure 5, the tube like portion 51 is provided with a pair of projections 510 (only one of which is shown in the drawings) and the sleeve 55 is provided with corresponding recesses 511 which receive the projections 510. As can be seen in Figure 5, each recess 511 terminates with a respective pair of end walls 512. As the projections 510 are located in the respective recesses 511 in the assembled control valve, rotation of the sleeve 55 relative to the tube like portion 51 is limited to that region where the projection is within the circumferential extent of the recess 511. When the sleeve 55 is moved such that the end wall 52 of the recess abuts with the respective projection 510, further rotational movement of the sleeve 55 in that direction is prevented unless excessive force is applied. This can control rotation of the sleeve 55 relative to the tube like portion 51 between the fully open and fully closed positions and help the user realise that the fully open or fully closed position has been reached - for example when the housing 1 is closed.
The projections 510 are each provided on tabs 513, which tabs 513 are formed by cutting out material of the tube like portion 51. This means that the projections 510 and tabs 513 have a degree of resilience which allows the projections 510 to be pushed inwards towards the axis of the tube like portion 51 so as to project less far from the outer curved surface of the tube like portion 51 than in their rest position which can facilitate assembly of the flow control valve 5.
The main inlet 3, flow control valve 5 and inlet 21 to the pump 2 are co-axially aligned with a straight flow path from the main inlet 3 to the pump inlet 21 and are in a fixed relation to one another. This can help provide an effective unit that is easy to operate and not liable to block or malfunction. The control collar 56 is disposed around the main inlet 3 which provides a compact design and an intuitive control for the user. The control collar 56 is formed as a once piece moulding with the remainder of the sleeve 55. Thus the flow control valve 5 including the user achievable control element - ie the collar comprises just two parts 51, 55 and an intervening seal 59.

Claims

A pond unit flow control valve having a main flow passage (51) for receiving water from a main inlet (3) and feeding water towards a main outlet (4) of a pond unit and a controllable inlet (54a, 54b) for controllably allowing flow of water into the main flow passage, characterised in that,
the flow control valve comprises a control collar (56) for controlling a degree of openness of the controllable inlet, the control collar being arranged to be disposed around the main inlet into a housing,
the flow control valve comprises at least one tube like portion (51) which comprises the main flow passage,
the flow control valve comprises a sleeve (55) which is mounted co-axially with respect to the tube like portion and the flow control valve is arranged to allow relative rotational movement between the tube like portion and the sleeve to control a degree of openness of the controllable inlet,
the control collar is arranged for use in moving the sleeve and tube like portion relative to one another, and
the sleeve is provided around the tube like portion and a portion (510) of the sleeve is adapted to project through a housing to the exterior and said portion of the sleeve comprises the control collar.
A pond unit flow control valve according to claim 1 in which the controllable inlet comprises an inlet aperture (54a) provided in the tube like portion.
A pond unit flow control valve according to either of claims 1 or 2 in which the tube like portion and sleeve are each straight.
A pond unit flow control valve according to any one of claims 1 to 3 in which the sleeve comprises a housing engaging portion (58) via which the sleeve is mounted for rotational movement relative to the housing.
A pond unit flow control valve according to any preceding claim in which the flow control valve is arranged so that the controllable inlet remains partially open even when the control valve is moved to its most closed position.
A pond unit flow control valve according to any one of claims 1 to 4 in which the flow control valve comprises restriction means (511, 510, 512, 513) for restricting the range of relative rotational movement allowed between the sleeve and the tube like portion.
A pond unit flow control valve according to claim 6 in which the restriction means comprises at least one projection (510) provided on one of the sleeve and the tube like portion and a corresponding recess (511), in which the projection is received, provided on the other of the sleeve and the tube like portion, respective ends (512) of the recess forming end stops against which the projection abuts to provide end points of allowed relative rotational movement between the sleeve and the tube like portion.
A pond unit comprising a housing (1), a main inlet (3) into the housing for receiving water from a hose (h) and a main outlet (4) from the housing for allowing water to leave the housing, the housing having filtering apertures (14) therein which provide secondary inlets into the housing from a region surrounding the housing, the unit further comprising a flow control valve (5) according to any one of claims 1 - 7.
A pond unit according to claim 8 which comprises a pump (2) having an inlet and an outlet, with the flow control valve disposed in a flow path between the main inlet into the housing and the inlet of the pump, wherein the main inlet into the housing, the inlet to the pump and the flow control valve are arranged coaxially with one another to form a straight flow path from the main inlet to the pump inlet.