NZ537464A - Half turn lever operated pinch valve - Google Patents

Abstract

A pinch valve comprises a flanged tubular valve body (19) into which is inserted a replaceable resiliently de-formable sleeve (10). The sleeve secured in position has protruding ends, which form into compression seals (16) between flanges (20). A slot (26) in the tubular valve body accommodates a sliding closing gate (44). A half turn hand lever (25) working through a pivot and fulcrum (28) gives positive valve closure against pressurised pipeline fluids. A gentle valve opening is controlled by grease packed brake discs. The sleeve in the pinched shut position suppresses shock loads and pipeline hammer permitting quick valve closing. Two valves with interconnected closing levers and interconnected pipe inlet gives a diverter selection of two outlets.

Description

537464 Intellectual oropfrtv'"offTc?i OF A!.?. - 5 JAN 2005 RECEIVED Patents Act 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION HALF TURN LEVER OPERATED PINCH VALVE I / w»LEANNE EVANS, of 14 Ellington Road, Kumalo, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, a South African Citizen HEREBY dcclare the invention for which I / we pray that a patent may be granted to me Im and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement 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 resilientlv 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. Tliis 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 tlirough 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 lex er to the very bottom of it's 180 degree arc of travel and slightly beyond the valve's center line to the fulcrum'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 tlirough the bottom half of it's arc of travel produces high clamping forces to pinch the sleeve shut against pipe line fluid pressures.

The resilientlv 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 resilientlv 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. 1 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. 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 resilientlv de-formable sleeve 10 secured in it's central position within the valve body 19 by the retaining rings 11 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 dirust force at 23 and a locked closed position of die off center located fulcrum at 29.

The left side of valve's cross section shows pipe line flange 36 bolted to it's 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 11 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 tlirough 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 die inside of the containing disc 32 tlirough 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 die valve's pinched shut position and it protrudes tlirough 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. 3 Fig. 3 shows the cross section of the side view of the valve body 19 and it's flanges 20 with tlie resilientlv de-formable sleeve 10 in tlie fully open full flow position.

The valve closing gate 14 has been fully extended upwards by hand lever 25 allowing tlie resilientlv de-formable sleeve 10 to push tlie closing gate assembly outwards and upwards and tlie 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 11 solidly backed up against the step 22 at both machined ends of the tube 19 which forms the valve's bod}- 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 tlie 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 tlie valve tlirough 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 eitlier end of tlie sleeve 10 are external circular grooves 12 moulded into tlie outside diameter of the sleeve.

The retaining rings 11 slip into these grooves 12 and also into the recess provided in tlie valve flanges 15. Tlie 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 tlie 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 tlie same direction throughout their half turn arc of travel.

Therefore as one valve is locked into it's fully opened position tlie other valve is automatically locked into it's fully closed position. When tlie 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. Tlie 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 tlie direction of movement of their hand levers 25. 4

Claims (1)

1. CLAIM 1 A half turn lever operated pinch valve comprising in working combination a tubular valve body containing a resiliently deformable sleeve and a slot containing a closing gate with a bracket welded at a right angle to the tubular valve body and centrally located between flanges at opposite ends of the tubular body, said bracket having a vertical slot to guide and support the open and close action of the gate and in a further working combination a pivot in vertical alignment with the slot, said pivot providing a bearing for the action of a half turn lever which is welded to two pivoting brake discs containing a traveling fulcrum within the confine of a half circular slot providing the fulcrum with a 180 degree arc of travel with stop positions at each end on an axis through both stop positions off set from vertical alignment with said fulcrum further providing a linear gate open and close action via two thrust arms. CLAIM 2 A half turn lever operated pinch valve as claimed in Claim 1 in which in use the arc of travel of the half turn lever is transferred through disc and fulcrum and thrust arms to the linear action of the closing gate producing a high clamping force. CLAIM 3 A half turn lever operated pinch valve as claimed in Claim 1 in which in use the closing gate and fulcrum and lever enter a locked in closed position in the lower stop of the fulcrum's arc of travel. CLAIM 4 A half turn lever operated pinch valve as claimed in Claim 1 in which in use the opening whiplash of the valve's half turn lever is slowed by the pivoting brake action of the disc's grease packed interface. END OF CLAIMS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE OF N.Z. 2 4 OCT 2006 RECEIVED