GB2467988A

GB2467988A - Mixing valve

Info

Publication number: GB2467988A
Application number: GB0911690A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Qingjun Xie
Original assignee: SUPREMA
Current assignee: Suprema (zhuhai J/v) Thermostatic Sanitaryware Co
Priority date: 2009-02-20
Filing date: 2009-07-07
Publication date: 2010-08-25
Anticipated expiration: 2029-07-07
Also published as: AU2009100638A4; CN201368255Y; GB2467988B; GB0911690D0

Abstract

A mixing valve comprises a valve body 1 having cold and hot water inlets 111, 121 arranged on a side wall of the valve body at different heights. A bottom end of the valve body is provided with a mixed water outlet 131. The lower end of a regulation screw 5 engages the top of a thermosensitive element 3. A temperature sensor of the thermosensitive element 3 engages a regulator 4 and a lower part of the regulator 4 engages a return spring 2. The regulator 4 is driven by the thermosensitive element 3 and the return spring 2 to float up and down in an inner chamber of the valve body 1. The upper end of the regulator 4 is always higher than the hot water inlet 121, and the lower end of the regulator 4 is always lower than the cold water inlet 111. A regulation opening 41 is cut in the regulator to regulate a degree of opening of the cold and hot water inlets. A periphery of the regulator 4 is provided with first and second sealing rings 9, 10 for sealing the respective cold and hot water inlets 111, 121.

Description

Constant Temperature and Balanced Pressure Pipeline Valve This invention relates to the technical field of water-heating equipment, in particular to a constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve.

With the progress of science and technology and improvement of people's living standard, a pipeline valve with a thermostatic function has been widely used in various water supply systems in houses and hotels. Such a pipeline valve is characterized in that the customer regulates an outlet water temperature according to actual demand and the outlet water temperature remains constant once the temperature is set, which can avoid fluctuations of the outlet water temperature due to pressure changes and unstable temperatures of the incoming water and is safe and can prevent scalding.

The key point of keeping the outlet water temperature constant is to detect the actual outlet water temperature and sensitively to regulate a ratio of the incoming cold water and hot water. To detect the actual outlet water temperature means detecting the temperature of the mixed outlet water after the cold water and hot water is fully mixed, which can be completely achieved with prior art.

The ordinary thermostatic pipeline valve sold on the market only functions on the supply failure of cold water, namely, when the incoming cold water suffers a sudden supply failure, the flow of the mixed outlet water drops rapidly or even stops. However, such a valve is not effective on a supply failure of hot water and the flow of mixed outlet water cannot drop rapidly or stop when the incoming hot water suffers sudden supply failure in winter, which may cause the user frostbite or to feel uncomfortable and which is the reason that the existing product cannot meet the requirement of TMV3 certification system. TMV certification is an independent third-party certification plan managed by BuildCertTM and is the highest criterion of NHS Estates D08 standard for a mixer valve in UK used to certificate category III of thermostatic mixing valve. It also certifies category II of thermostatic mixing valve in UK market for preventing a child accident and improving the safe use of domestic hot water. Furthermore, the seal of the incoming cold water and hot water of the traditional thermostatic pipeline valve is realized by the end face seal of the regulator, which is poor in sealing and unreliable in performance and needs high processing precision of the sealing face.

The invention provides a constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve. The purpose of the invention is to mitigate the influence of pressure of the incoming cold water and hot water through a simple structure using a thermostatic function. The valve has a rubber axial seal to regulate clearance of the incoming cold water and hot water and provide balanced pressure.

The aforesaid purpose is realized by the following technical solution.

A constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve comprises a valve body, a return spring, a thermosensitive element, a regulator, a regulation screw and a valve plug. A cold water inlet and a hot water inlet are arranged on the side wall of the valve body at different height from the down to top, the top opening of the valve body is provided with the valve plug and the regulation screw, the lower end of the regulation screw touches and fits the top of the thimble of the thermosensitive element, the temperature sensor of the thermosensitive element touches and fits the regulator, the lower part of the regulator touches and fits the return spring, the regulator is driven by the thermosensitive element and the return spring and floats up and down in the inner chamber of the valve body, the bottom end of the valve body is provided with a mixed water outlet; which is characterized in that: the upper end of the regulator is always higher than the hot water inlet, and the lower end of the regulator is always lower than the cold water inlet, a regulation opening is cut on the regulator to regulate the opening degree of the cold water inlet and hot water inlet, the periphery of the regulator is provided with a first sealing ring for sealing the cold water inlet and a second sealing ring for sealing the hot water inlet.

A third sealing ring is arranged between the upper end of the regulator and the inner wall of the valve body above the hot water inlet and a fourth sealing ring is arranged between the lower end of the regulator and the inner wall of the valve body under the cold water inlet.

The invention can stop the supply of cold water or the supply of hot water, respectively to prevent scalding when the supply of cold water supply becomes abnormal and also to prevent frostbite and discomfort when the supply of hot water becomes abnormal and the mixed water is too cold. Furthermore, the invention has a sealing ring axially to seal the incoming cold water and hot water and is simple in structure. Compared with an ordinary thermostatic pipeline valve, the invention can withstand a higher pressure difference ratio between the incoming cold water and hot water, and the performance of the product is safe and reliable when the pressure difference ratio of the cold to the hot incoming water pressure is no greater than 6: 1 and can meet the requirement of TMV3 certification system.

The invention may be better understood with reference to the illustrations of embodiments of the invention in which: Figure 1 is a sectional view of the constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve of the invention; and Figure 2 is an exploded view of the constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve of the invention.

As shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, the constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve provided by an embodiment of the invention comprises a valve body 1, a return spring 2, a thermosensitive element 3, a regulator 4, a regulation screw 5, a valve plug 6, a nut cap seat 7, a nut cap 8, a first sealing ring 9, a second sealing ring 10, a third sealing ring 48, a fourth sealing ring 49, a fifth sealing ring 51 and a grip ring 101.

A cold water joint ii and a hot water joint 12 are respectively arranged on the opposed sides of the valve body 1. A cold water inlet iii and a hot water inlet 121 corresponding to the cold water joint and the hot water joint respectively are provided on the side wall of the valve body 1 at different heights. An upper opening of the valve body 1 is provided with the valve plug 6, the regulation screw 5 matches an internally-threaded hole of the valve plug 6. The fifth sealing ring 51 is arranged on a periphery of the lower end of the regulation screw 5. The upper end of the regulation screw 5 extends out of the valve plug 6 for manual setting of the temperature, and the regulation screw 5 is provided with a grip ring 101 for limiting a range of up and down movement of the regulation screw. A lower end of the regulation screw 5 touches and fits a thimble of the thermosensitive element 3. A temperature sensor of the thermosensitive element 3 touches and fits the regulator 4.

The base of the regulator 4 is provided with the return spring 2: a lower part of the regulator 4 touches and fits the return spring 2. The regulator 4 closely contacts the inner wall of the valve body 1 and can float up and down in an inner chamber of the valve body 1 when driven by the thermosensitive element 3 and the return spring 2.

A regulation opening 41 is provided on the regulator 4; when the regulator 4 floats up and down, a size of an overlapping section between the regulation opening 41 and the cold water inlet iii and hot water inlet 121 respectively determines the ratio of the incoming cold to the hot water. The first sealing ring 9 and the second sealing ring 10, which are separately located below and above the regulation opening 41, are provided on the periphery of the regulator 4 for sealing purposes.

The third sealing ring 48 is arranged on the periphery of the upper end of the regulator 4, and fits the inner wall the valve body above the hot water inlet 121. The fourth sealing ring 49 is arranged on the periphery of the lower end of regulator 4 and fits the inner wall of the valve body under the cold water inlet. When the regulator 4 floats up and down, its upper end is always higher than the hot water inlet 121, and its lower end is always lower than the cold water inlet iii, so it can be guaranteed that no water will leak along the upper and lower periphery of the regulator 4. The upper end of the valve body 1 is provided with a nut cap seat 7, which holds the nut cap 8, so the regulation screw 5 can be covered after the temperature is set. The bottom end of the valve body 1 is provided with a mixed water outlet 13 land an outlet water joint 13.

The following is the description of the working principle of the invention with the help of the Figures. The three arrows in Figure 1 indicate the incoming direction of the cold water (C) and the hot water (H) and the outflow direction of the mixed water (Mix). Cold water flows into the regulator 4 through a clearance between the valve body 1 and the first sealing ring 9. Hot water flows into the regulator 4 through a clearance between the valve body 1 and the second sealing ring 10. The cold water and hot water is fully mixed in the chamber of the regulator 4 and contacts the thermo sensitive element 3. When the pressure of the incoming hot water rises due to the outside influence or the hot water temperature rises, the temperature of the mixed water will rise suddenly and exceed the initial set temperature. The thermosensitive element 3 then pushes the regulation screw 5 under the effect of thermal expansion, but the regulation screw 5 has been fixed when the initial temperature is set and cannot move. So the thermosensitive element 3 is affected by the counterforce and drives the regulator 4 to move downward, which reduces the clearance between the valve body 1 and the second sealing ring on the regulator 4, namely, the hot water inlet 121 gets smaller and the mixed water temperature is restored to the initial set temperature. When the pressure of the incoming hot water decreases due to an outside influence or the hot water temperature decreases, the temperature of the mixed water will suddenly decrease to be lower than the initial set temperature. The thermosensitive element 3 then separates from the regulation screw 5 under thermal contraction. The regulation screw 5 has been fixed when the initial temperature is set and cannot move, so the thermosensitive element 3 has a clearance and the regulator 4 is driven upward by the restoring force of the return spring 2. The clearance between the valve body 1 and the second sealing ring 9 of the regulator 4 decreases, namely, the cold water inlet iii gets smaller and the mixed water temperature is restored to the initial set temperature. When the cold water exhibits the two aforesaid conditions, the regulator 4 will move contrarily.

The setting of the initial temperature is by turning the regulation screw 5 to regulate the clearance between the incoming cold water and hot water to control the temperature of the mixed water. The incoming cold water and hot water flow into the regulator 4 through the valve body 1, the hot water contacts the thermosensitive element 3 in the chamber of the valve body 1 and flows out through the mixed water outlet 131 after being fully mixed.

Claims

Claims 1. A constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve comprising a valve body, a return spring, a thermosensitive element, a regulator, a regulation screw and a valve plug; wherein a cold water inlet and a hot water inlet are arranged on a side wall of the valve body at different heights, a top opening of the valve body is provided with the valve plug and the regulation screw, a lower end of the regulation screw touching and fitting a top of a thimble of the thermosensitive element, a temperature sensor of the thermosensitive element touching and fitting the regulator, and a lower part of the regulator touching and fitting the return spring, wherein the regulator is drivable by the thermosensitive element and the return spring to float up and down in an inner chamber of the valve body, a bottom end of the valve body being provided with a mixed water outlet; wherein an upper end of the regulator is always higher than the hot water inlet, and a lower end of the regulator is always lower than the cold water inlet, a regulation opening being provided on the regulator to regulate a degree of opening of the cold water inlet and hot water inlet, a periphery of the regulator being provided with a first sealing ring for sealing the cold water inlet and a second sealing ring for sealing the hot water inlet.
2. A constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve according to the claim 1, wherein a third sealing ring is arranged between the upper end of the regulator and the inner wall of the valve body above the hot water inlet nd a fourth sealing ring is arranged between the lower end of the regulator and the inner wail of the valve body below the cold water inlet.
3. A constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve according to the claim 1, wherein the upper end of the valve body is provided with a nut cap seat, and a nut cap is arranged on and fits the nut cap seat.
4. A constant temperature and balanced pressure pipeline valve according to the claim 1, wherein the regulation screw is provided with a grip ring.