US1524054A - Hydraulic safety valve, especially adapted for tank trucks, tank cars, and the like - Google Patents

Description

Jan 2-7, 1925. 1,524,054

, ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR W. S. PENFIELD HYDRAULIC SAFETY VALVE AND THE LIKE 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet l TANK TRU TANK CARS Filed Jan. 5,

Jim 2151501 Jan. 1,524,054

E,ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR S. PENF'iELD HYDRAULIC SAFETY VALV TANK TRUCKS TANK CARS AND THE LIKE Filed Jan. 5, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Jfivenziar. /wzzzw J. uw za/ attorneys W. S. PENFIELD HYDRAULIC SAFETY VALVE,ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR TANK TRU TANK CARS, AND THE LIKE Filed Jan. 5, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet s AW ITW [Em endow.

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UNITED STATES 1,524,054 PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM s. PENFIELD; on .SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORINIA.

nymmumc SAFETY VALVE, ESPECIALLY ADAP'IED- FOR TANK TRUCKS, TANK cans,

. AND THE LIKE.

Application med January 3, 1924. .Serial No. 684,156.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, WILLIAM S. PEN- FIELD, a citizen of the United States, residing at city and county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hydraulic Safety Valves, Especially Adapted for Tank Trucks, Tank Cars, and the like, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to safety valves for controllin the outlets of fluid containing tanks, an is particularly adapted for use on tank-trucks or tank-ears and other tankvehicles.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple apparatus by which the flow of fluid from a tank may be shut off at the outlet of the tank itself, and which is independent of the regular delivery valves or faucets of the tank. This is of particular advantage in tank-trucks, which usually have their delivery, faucets at the rear end for convenience in drawing off the contents. Such faucets are necessarily in an exposed position, and are liable to be damaged or broken off as a result of a collision, in which case the contents of the tank escapes and is lost; and where such tank-trucks are used for carrying gasoline, the fire hazard involved in such an accident is very great. The same thing applies to railway tank- CSLIS'.

In the apparatus embodying my present invention, the outlet of the tank made in the wall thereof is closed by a valve located at such outlet, and preferably wholly housed within the tank itself, so that it cannot be injured or rendered inoperative except through the destruction of the walls of the tank; and said valve is controlled, simply and quickly, by devices which may be conveniently located in any position on the vehicle. Moreover, my valve is automatically closed, preferably by means contained within the tank, so that, even if the exterior control devices included in said means are damaged along with the delivery faucets, the valve at once closes, automatically, to prevent the discharge of the contents of the tank.

My invention will be described, and'is herewith illustrated. as applied to a tanktruck of the usual type employed ,for de livering gasoline, and having three separate compartments. It will be apparent, however, that the invention is. equally applicable to tank-vehicles of other types. It is to be understood, moreover, that the form and construction of the apparatus may be varied from that shown and described, within the limits of theclaims hereto appended, without departing from the spirit of the invention as expressed in said claims.

With this in view a preferred embodiment of my invention will now be fully described with reference to the accompanyin drawings, wl1erein- Tig. 1 is a side elevation, partly broken away, of the body of a tank-truck equipped with my safety valves.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic plan of the piping for the'sa-me.

Fig. 3 is a central vertical section, en-

larged, of one of the valves, and is taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the same.

Fig. 5 is .a sectional plan of the same, taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3.

v Fig. 6 is a vertical section of the control device.

Figs. 7, 8 and 9 are sections taken respectively on'the lines 7-7, 88, and 99 of-Fig. 6, and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

In the drawings, and referring for the moment to Fig. 1 thereof, the reference numeral 1O designates the body or frame of a truck, on which is mounted a. tank 11 divided into three compartments by partitions 12, each such compartment having the usual delivery pipe 13 extending to the rear of the truck, as indicated in Fig. 2. Said delivery pipes 13 may be provided with any suitable faucet or other control device, not shown, for permitting the withdrawal -of the contents of the tank 11 in the usual manner.

Each compartment of the tank 11 is provided with a safety valve device 14, Fig. 1, one of which is shown in detail in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. For convenience in mounting the valve device 14; in previously constructed tanks, I prefer to provide a collar 15, Fig. 3, which is welded in a hole cut in the bottom of the tank, and .to which is bolted, from the outside. a. flange 16, said flange carrying the valve device 14. By this means the valve device can be inserted from the outside-without thenecessity of providing a man-hole in the tank to enable a workman to enter it.

The delivery pipe 13 is secured, in any suitable manner, to the flange 16. The valve device 14, which extends upwardly from said flange 16 and is secured thereto by bolts 17, Fig. 4, is provided with a valve seat 18, Fig. 3, above the delivery pipe 13. A valve 19-cooperates with said seat, and is carried on a vertically movable stem 20, which passes through suitable packing 21 into a cylinder 22, and carries a piston 23 operable in said cylinder A cap 24 closes the upper end'of the cylinder 22, to prevent the tank fluid from entering it, and a spring 25 is interposed between said cap and the piston 23, said spring normally holding the valve 19 to its seat 18, thereby closing the outlet to the delivery pipe 13 to prevent the tank fluid from escaping into said delivery 1 p l he space above the valve 19 is, of course, open to the tank fluid, the cylinder 22 being supported upon legs 26, as shown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5. A vent passage 27 extends from the upper portion of the cylinder 22 through one of said legs and through the flange 16 to the outside, to prevent compression in said cylinder aboveits piston 23. A passage 28 is formed in the other leg 26, through which fluid under pressure may be admitted to the cylinder 22 below the piston 23, for the purpose of opening the valve. A pipe 29 connects with said passage 28 through a suitable aperture in the flange 16, as shown. Thus when fluid under pressure is admitted to the cylinder 22 through said ipe 29 and passage 28, the valve 19 is raised from its'seat 18, and the delivery pipe 13 thereby opening, and when said fluid pressure is relieved, the spring 25 immediately closes said valve. The legs :36 are preferably provided with guides 30, between which the valve 19 operates The pipes 29 for supplying the pressure third to the valve devices 11 may be led to one or more convenient positions on the vehicle. and connected with control devices 31, which will be full described hereinafter. In Fig. 1 of the rawings, I have shown two such control devices 31, one positioned at the rear of the vehicle in proximity to the delivery ends of the tank pipes 13, and the ot her mounted on the dash-board 32, so that the, driver of the vehicle may operate the safety-valves without leaving his seat. In order that each control device 31 may be used to operate any or all of the valves, there should he provided some suitable selective connecting device, which, for purposes of illustration, I have shown as comprising a manifold 33 in proximity to each control device 31, the several pressure lines 29 leading to both manifolds 33, as indicated in Fig.

2, and provided with independent valves or stop-cocks 34 at each manifold. The manifolds 33 are connected to the control devices 31 by pi s 35 and 36 as will be presently described One of the control devices 31, both of which are identical, is illustrated in detail in Figs. 6, 7, 8 and 9. It comprises a reservoir 37 for containing a supply of the operatii or pressure fluid, which may be any suitab e liquid such as oil or glycerin. The reservoir 37 has a filling plug 38 for renewal of the operating liquid, but as such liquidis returned to said reservoir from the valve operating cylinders 22, its renewal is necessary only to compensate for accidental leakage.

lVithin the reservoir 37 is a pump cylinder 39, in which is a piston or plunger 40 operated manually by an exterior handle or knob 41. The liquid is admitted to the pump cylinder 39 from the reservoir 37, when the piston -10 'is witlulrawn, through a check valve 42, and is forced out, when said piston is pushed in, through a check valve 43 and the pipe 35 leading to the manifold 33. Fronrsaid manifold the liquid flows through any on all of the pressure lines 29, depending on the settings of the stop-cocks 3%, to the cylinders 22 of the respective valves 19, and said valves are thereby opened. Inasmuch as the system is at all times full, it requires only one, or at most a very few strokes of the pumppiston 40 to open the tank valves 19, and as the liquid is trapped by the check valve 43, said tank valves are held open, by the pressure of the liquid, until it is released by the operator.

For etiecting such pressure release, to permit the tank valves 19 to be closed by their springs 25, each control device 31 is provided with a stop-cock 44 in the pipe 36 leading from the manifold 33, as shown in Fl 5. 1 and (i, said stop-cock or release valve 44 HIV- ing a pipe 4.3, Figs. 1, 6 and 7 leading back into the reservoir 37. The release valve 44 is manually operated by a rod 46 and a conveniently located handle 17. Thus by opening the release valve 41 by means of its handle 47, the pressure fluid is allowed to flow back into the reservoir 37, and the springs 25 are permitted to close the tank valves 19.

It will be apparent from the foregoin that the tank-valves 19 will be instantly ant positively closed bv their springs 25 in the event of any accident to the pressure lines 29, the apparatus being automatic to this extent. It should also be noted that there are no moving parts except the pump lunger and the valves themselves, thus oin away with the necessity for cumbersome an noisy rods or other mechanical connections for operating the safety tank-valves.

I claim:

1. A vehicle having a tank with a fluid outlet in its wall; a fluid delivery pipe fitted to said outlet and thence extending exteriorly of the tank to the point of discharge; a valve wholly housed within the tank and adapted to control said fluid outlet; fluid actuated connections for operating said valve; and members comprised in said connections, lying exterior to the tank and proximate the discharge end of the delivery pipe, adapted to automatically effect the closing of the valve in case the fluid connections are impaired by injur to said exterior members.

2. A vehicle having a tank with a fluid outlet in its wall; a fluid delivery pipe fitted to said outlet and thence extending exteriorly of the tank to the point of discharge; a valve wholly housed within the tank and adapted to control said fluid outlet; fluid actuated connections for operating said valve; a liquid containing reservoir exterior to the tank and in proximity to the discharge end of the tank delivery pipe; a pump included in said reservoir for drawing liquid therefrom, and a pipe connecting said pump with the'fluid actuating connections of the outlet-controlling valve.

3. A vehicle having a tank divided into a plurality of compartments, each with a fluid outlet in its wall; a plurality of delivery pipes, one fitted to each of sad outlets and each pipe thence extending exteriorly of the tank to the point of discharge; a plurality of valves one associated with and adapted to control its respective fluid outlet; fluid actuated connections associated with each oif said valves; and means for selectively distributing the actuating fluid to each of said connections.

4. A vehicle having a tank divided into a plurality of compartments, each with a fluid outlet in its wall; a plurality of delivery pipes one fitted to each of said outlets and each pipe thence extending exteriorly of the tank to the point of discharge; a plurality of valves one associated with and adapted to control its respective fluid outlet; fluid actuated connections associated with .eachof said valves; means for selectively distributing the actuating fluid to each of said connections; means for releasing the pressure of said actuating fluid; and means for automatically closing the valves upon the release of said pressure.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

WILLIAM S. PENFIELD.

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