JP7473316B2 - solenoid valve - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates primarily to solenoid valves that are installed in gas piping.

Conventionally, this type of solenoid valve is provided with a valve housing having an inlet, a valve chamber communicating with the inlet, and a valve seat with a valve hole located at one axial end of the valve chamber, a valve body disposed within the valve chamber facing the valve seat, and an electromagnetic solenoid that moves the valve body axially forward and backward toward the valve seat (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

When such a solenoid valve is installed in a gas pipe, if an abnormality occurs in which the supply gas pressure becomes high due to a malfunction of the gas regulator or the like, when the solenoid valve is closed, the valve disc, which is made of an elastic material such as rubber, will bend and bite into the valve hole due to the high pressure in the valve chamber. This bending can cause wrinkles to form in the part of the valve disc that contacts the valve seat, causing the valve to fail to close, or the valve disc may bite into the valve hole and cause the valve to fail to open.

JP 2000-205432 A JP 2017-57935 A

In view of the above, the present invention aims to provide a solenoid valve that can prevent valve closing or opening failure due to deflection of the valve body even when the pressure inside the valve chamber becomes high.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an electromagnetic valve comprising a valve housing having an inlet, a valve chamber communicating with the inlet, and a valve seat located at one axial end of the valve chamber and with a valve hole opened therein, a valve body provided within the valve chamber facing the valve seat, and an electromagnetic solenoid for moving the valve body axially back and forth toward the valve seat , wherein the valve body is made entirely of an elastic material, including not only the portion that seats on the valve seat but also the portion that faces the valve hole, and the valve seat is provided with a plurality of protrusions spaced apart in the circumferential direction that protrude into the valve hole and suppress jamming of the valve body into the valve hole.

According to the present invention, even if the pressure inside the valve chamber becomes high, the protrusion on the valve seat can prevent the valve body from bending and biting into the valve hole when the valve is closed. Therefore, it is possible to prevent failure to close or open the valve due to the bending of the valve body.

In the present invention, it is desirable that the axial end edge of each protrusion on the valve chamber side is located at a position a predetermined small distance inside the valve hole from the valve seat surface on which the valve disc of the valve seat can sit. In this way, even if the position of the axial end edge of the protrusion on the valve chamber side is slightly shifted toward the valve chamber due to manufacturing tolerances, the edge will not protrude from the valve seat surface into the valve chamber. Therefore, the valve disc reliably contacts the valve seat surface when the valve is closed, ensuring sealing.

FIG. 2 is a cutaway side view of the solenoid valve according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view corresponding to FIG. 2 of another embodiment.

1 shows a solenoid valve according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is installed in a gas pipe. This solenoid valve comprises a valve housing 1 having an inlet 11, a valve chamber 12 communicating with the inlet 11, and a valve seat 14 with a valve hole 13 located at one axial end of the valve chamber 12, a valve element 2 disposed within the valve chamber 12 and facing the valve seat 14, and an electromagnetic solenoid 3 for moving the valve element 2 axially toward and away from the valve seat 14. The entire valve element 2, including not only the portion seated on the valve seat 14 but also the portion facing the valve hole 13, is made of an elastic material such as rubber.

The electromagnetic solenoid 3 has a coil 31, a bobbin 32 around which the coil 31 is wound, a pair of collars 33, 33 for transmitting magnetic force inserted into the bobbin 32, a guide tube 34 inserted into the collars 33, 33, a movable iron core 35 slidably inserted into the guide tube 34 from one axial end side of the guide tube 34 and connected to the valve body 2 at one axial end, a fixed iron core 36 arranged in the guide tube 34 near the other axial end so as to face the movable iron core 35, and a spring 37 that biases the movable iron core 35 in one axial direction via the valve body 2. When the coil 31 is not energized, the biasing force of the spring 37 moves the movable iron core 35 in one axial direction, and the valve body 2 is displaced to a closed position where it is seated on the valve seat 14. On the other hand, when current is applied to the coil 31, the movable core 35 moves in the other axial direction against the biasing force of the spring 37 and adheres to the fixed core 36, and the valve body 2 is displaced to an open position away from the valve seat 14. In addition, a buffer member 35a is provided at the portion of the movable core 35 facing the fixed core 36 to absorb the shock when the movable core 35 is adhered to the fixed core 36.

However, if an abnormality occurs in which the supply gas pressure becomes high due to a malfunction of the gas regulator, etc., when the solenoid valve is closed, the high pressure in the valve chamber 12 may cause the valve element 2 to bend and bite into the valve hole 13. If this bending occurs, wrinkles may form in part of the part of the valve element 2 that contacts the valve seat 14, causing a valve closing failure in which gas leaks, or the valve element 2 may bite into the valve hole 13, causing a valve opening failure in which the valve element 2 does not move to the open position even when current is applied to the coil 31.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the valve seat 14 is provided with a plurality of protrusions 15 spaced apart in the circumferential direction, which protrude into the valve hole 13 and prevent the valve body 2 from being wedged into the valve hole 13. In this embodiment, the plurality of protrusions 15 extend to the center of the valve hole 13 and intersect with each other, but as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the valve seat 14 may be provided with relatively short protrusions 15 that do not extend to the center of the valve hole 13.

By providing the protrusion 15 as described above, even if the pressure inside the valve chamber 12 becomes high, the protrusion 15 can prevent the valve body 2 from bending and biting into the valve hole 13 when the valve is closed. Therefore, the above-mentioned valve closing failure and valve opening failure due to the bending of the valve body 2 can be prevented. Note that the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, in which the protrusion 15 extends to the center of the valve hole 13 where the valve body 2 bends the most, is more advantageous in terms of preventing the bending of the valve body 2.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the axial edge of each protrusion 15 on the valve chamber 12 side is located a predetermined minute distance L (e.g., 0.7 mm) into the valve hole 13 from the valve seat surface 14a of the valve seat 14 on which the valve body 2 can be seated. This minute distance L is set to be slightly larger than the expected maximum positional deviation due to manufacturing tolerances of the above-mentioned edge of the protrusion 15. As a result, even if the position of the above-mentioned edge of the protrusion 15 is shifted toward the valve chamber 12 due to manufacturing tolerances, the edge will not protrude from the valve seat surface 14a into the valve chamber 12. Therefore, when the valve is closed, the valve body 2 reliably contacts the valve seat surface 14a, ensuring sealing.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above with reference to the drawings, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, in the above embodiment, the protrusion 15 is integrally formed with the valve seat 14, but a ring-shaped member having the protrusion 15 may be fitted into the valve hole 13.

1... valve housing, 11... inlet, 12... valve chamber, 13... valve hole, 14... valve seat, 14a... valve seat surface, 15... protrusion, 2... valve body, 3... electromagnetic solenoid, L... minute distance.

Claims (2)

A solenoid valve comprising: a valve housing having an inlet, a valve chamber communicating with the inlet, and a valve seat located at one axial end of the valve chamber and having a valve hole formed therein; a valve body provided in the valve chamber facing the valve seat; and an electromagnetic solenoid for moving the valve body axially back and forth toward the valve seat, wherein the valve body is entirely made of an elastic material, including not only a portion that sits on the valve seat but also a portion that faces the valve hole,
1. A solenoid valve comprising: a valve seat having a plurality of projections spaced apart from one another in the circumferential direction, the projections projecting into a valve hole and preventing a valve element from being wedged into the valve hole. The solenoid valve according to claim 1, characterized in that the axial end edge of each protrusion on the valve chamber side is located at a position that is a predetermined small distance inside the valve hole from the valve seat surface on which the valve disc of the valve seat can be seated.

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