GB2443426A

GB2443426A - Radiator valve

Info

Publication number: GB2443426A
Application number: GB0621535A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Alan Frederick Rees
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-10-30
Filing date: 2006-10-30
Publication date: 2008-05-07
Also published as: GB0621535D0; GB2445221A; GB0720037D0

Abstract

A central heating radiator valve comprises a rotatable ball bored with a right-angled hole A. The ball is rotated by a separate stem B having a tongue N on one end which engages in a groove M in the ball, and a slot or cross at the other end which can engage the blade of a screwdriver to rotate the ball. On the screwdriver end of the stem is a slot or groove C which relates to a circular dial G mounted around the stem to provide an indication of whether the valve is open or closed. To ensure the integrity of the valve, at least two O rings J, K, S, T must fail before the valve will leak through the stem, while two other O rings will need to fail before water will seep through the valve in the closed position.

Description

A Readable Central Heating Balancing Valve.

A Central Heating System consists of a mixture of large and small radiators., this system only works satisfactorily as long as the radiators are balanced ie. the flow of hot water to each radiator is controlled to suit the size of each radiator, the larger the radiator the more gallons of water per hour must pass through it to maintain the temperature, to achieve this balance every radiator must have an inlet and an outlet valve. The inlet valve is usually a thermostatically controlled valve or is manually controlled, being opened or closed by a wheelhead grip, the return valve is a wheelhead valve without its handgrip, the valve stem being concealed by a freely rotating cap, it is this valve known as a Lockshield which is used to balance the radiators. The stem is simply screwed in to restrict the flow to the radiator or screwed open to increase the flow, the cap is replaced once the radiators are balanced so that the valve is not altered as this would upset the system balance. This works satisfactorily until someone wishes to remove a radiator and closes off both valves to do so, then when the radiator is refitted it is usual for both valves to be fully re-opened, this causes an imbalance particularly when a number of radiators have been removed and refitted. The Householder will then experience the small radiators being too hot and the large radiators not being hot enough. It is the intention of the present invention to provide an easily adjustable valve with an easily readable means of setting and re-setting enabling central heating systems to be quickly and accurately re-balanced.

The normal balancing valve consists of a valve operated by a threaded stem and washer with no indication except by counting the rotations of how open or closed it is. The readable Lockshield valve is a variation of the rotating ball valve but in this case the ball is not bored straight through but at a right-angle A' Drawing No.1, this allows the valve to be formed in the normal right-angled shape of most radiator valves. The ball is opened and closed by means of a turn-stem B', this stem will be rotated by a Phillips-Posidrive, or slot-screwdriver, but in either case there will be a slot C' going across to one side of the stem head to indicate the position of the valve i.e. open or closed or in-between. This stem will be mounted in a housing D', which will contain one or more sealing rings E', to stop water leaking through the stem, the housing will have an outside thread with a flat F', machined on one side of it. Over this housing will slide a suitable material disc G', with a flat-sided hole in it, a nut H' will then fit on to the thread to hold the disc in position, this disc will be marked with an open' and closed position with degrees of closure between them, thus as the stem is turned from open to closed the indicator slot C' across the top of the stem will align with a mark on the disc G' to show how open the valve is, so that if the valve is closed it can be easily opened and reset.

The assembly and sealing of the valve is achieved by inserting the bail through the top opening 1' until it sits on 0 ring J', 0 ring K' is positioned by the top opening cap L'. The ball will have a slot M' across it which will fit on to a tongue N' on the turn-stem, the turn stem will be sealed by one or more 0 rings E'.

A limitation of this valve is that the ball, although having two 0 rings J' and K' to position and line it up is only sealed by one ring J', it would be far superior if the ball is sealed by two 0 rings and this is achieved as shown in Drawing No.2. In this case all the features of Drawing No.1 apply but now there is an added opening R' opposite the valve outlet and a further 0 ring S' is positioned around this outlet,, a fourth 0 ring T' is held in place by the hole cap U'. The Ball can now be fitted from the top through the opening 1' as in Drawing No.1, but it cannot slide onto the tongue N' because the ring S' is not compressed and will push the ball slightly to one side, the bottom ring J' will also not be compressed but all four rings will be fully compressed when both hole caps L' and U', are tightened into position which will position the ball perfectly. The slot M' will now be perfectly positioned for the tongue N' to fit into it, the stem B' will be inserted from the outside and pushed into position, the tongue sliding into slot M' until the circlip V' already fitted into groove W' lines up with its matching groove X' so that the stem cannot be pushed out by water pressure. Both rings Q' are cap sealing rings, unlike normal Lockshield valves which depend on one washer for a seal the readable valve must have two 0 rings fail before any leakage can occur, Drawing No.3.

Drawing No.4 represents a third variation of the Readable Balancing Valve, in this case the stem mounting is part of sealing cap L' and the stem B', and disc G', are all mounted on the top of the valve and the slot "M' is moved to the top of the ball instead of the front, the ball now rotates around the bottom water inlet,horizontally, not vertically, as in Drawings I and 2, but it still requires two of the 0 rings to leak when in the 2 x off position before seepage can occur. The assembly is the same as Drawing 2, but this valve stem is inserted from the top and as a result the open or closed position is read from above. Because the valve stem B' is now mounted into the top opening cap L', the flat F' is no longer suitable to position disc G' because its location cannot be guaranteed when cap L' is screwed into position. Therefore in this form Drawing 4, the flat F' is not on either the thtead or disc G'. The disc will still be held in position by nut H' but will now be tightened onto a slightly serrated surface Z' to ensure it does not move, Drawing 6.

This system of fixing the disc can also apply to Drawings 1 and 2, also in this variation the top 0 ring K' [which in Drawings I and 2 is purely to position the ball and balance 0 ring J'J, would act as an extra 0 ring to seal stem B' against leakage.

The valve will fit either end of the radiator without reversing the flow through it,in this form the valve stem B',could be inserted from the inside of the housing L' with a collar on the stem to stop it going right through, the tongue and groove meshing during assembly. In this case the circlip V' and the circlip groove W, would not be needed, the stem B' would have to be straight to allow it to be inserted up the length of the stem housing, Drawing 5. k

Claims

Claims.

1. A central heating radiator valve which has an inlet and outlet incorporating a rotating ball with an L' shaped, or right-angled bore through it, this bore is large enough not to restrict the flow when it is in the open position. The ball having a groove machined 90 around from the bore, the ball being rotated through a turned stem which has a slot at one end and a tongue at the other end, the tongue engaging with the groove in the ball,the ball being rotatable by inserting a tool into the slot in the stem, the stem being sealed by a stem sealing ring.

2. A central heating radiator valve as in claim I wherein the tool for rotating the ball is a pozidrive' or a traditional screwdriver.

3. A radiator valve according to claims 1 and 2 wherein the ball is sealed around its axis by four 0 rings,

4. 4. A radiator valve according to any preceding claims wherein the ball is larger than the inlet or outlet of the radiator valve.

5. A radiator valve according to any preceding claim wherein it is formed in the traditional radiator valve shape of a right-angle, assembled by use of two removable and resealable caps which have a secondary purpose of housing two of the 0 rings.

6. A radiator valve according to any preceding claims wherein a slot machined onto the top of the stemhead elongates the screwdriver slot so that the elongated groove indicate the position of the valve bore with reference to the flow of water passing through the valve alternatively the indicator could be an arrow or other such feature cast into the stem top.

7. A radiator valve according to any preceding claims wherein a disc marked with graduations of degree is mounted onto the valve stem housing so that, in conjunction with the slot in claim 6, the degree of closure of the valve can be accurately ascertained, alternatively the open' and closed' position and degrees in between could be cast into the valve body.

8. A radiator valve according to any preceding claims wherein the pipe connections are of a form to match existing standard radiator valves allowing the valve to be fitted into the inlet or outlet flow and still read for an accurate indication of how open or closed the valve is.

9. A radiator valve according to any preceding claim wherein it has four main sealing rings to accurately position the bail within the valve body and at least two of these rings must fail for

S

the valve to n longer be watertight

10. A radiator valve according to any preceding claims wherein the valve stem is inserted after the ball, from the outside and retained in its correct position by a circlip, the stem being sealed by at least one 0 ring or other packing.

Ii. A radiator valve according to any preceding claims wherein in one of its forms the stem cam be mounted into its housing from the inside and positioned, tongue in slot as the valve is assembled, thus using no circlip, but with the screwdriver end of the stem being no larger than the stem itself.

12. A radiator valve according to any preceding claims wherein the ball can be fully rotated but has only one fully opened position, from which it is closed by degrees through turning 90, all other positions being fully closed.

13. A radiator valve according to any preceding claims wherein the ball may rotate horizontally or vertically according to the choice of stem position, but in either form Claim still applies.

14. A radiator valve according to any preceding claims when the stem of the valve is located at the top of the valve, the stem in this instance is sealed by an extra 0 ring actually sealing on the ball, not the stem itself.