US2332556A - Thermal control adjuster - Google Patents

Description

' the sleeve 1.

Patented Oct. 26, 1943 l THERMAL CONTROL ADJU STER James L. Breese, Santa Fe, N. Mex., assignor to Oil Devices, Santa Fe, N. Mex., a limited partnership of Illinois Application February 3, 1941, Serial No. 377,143

My invention relates to an improvement in control valves and has for one purpose the provision of a thermally controlled valve applicable for use with liquid fuel lines'. I

Another purpose is the provision of a control valve in which the flow of oil may be caused to vary in response to temperature conditions.

Another purpose is the provision of such a valve in which the response of a valve to temperature changes may be adjusted or controlled.

Another purpose is the provision of means for interrupting or cutting out the thermal control.

Other objects will appear from time to time throughout the speciiication and claims.v

I illustrate my invention more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying. drawing, wherein- Figure l is a vertical longitudinal section through a iloat valve and chamber;

Figure 2 is a plan view of the structure shown in Figure l.

Like. parts are indicated by like characters throughout the specification and drawing.

Referring to the drawing, I indicates any suitable iioat chamber having a removable cover plate 2. 3 is a fuel line adapted to deliver a liquid fuel to the chamber I from any suitable fuel source not herein shown. -It communicates with the fuel inlet passage 4 having a bore 5 and avalve seat 6. 'I is a sleeve extending upwardly abovev the inlet passage 4 and having a somewhat 7 Claims. (Cl. 236-99) valve.- The valve stem 23 has an upward prolongation 21 of smaller diameter which may be suitable abutment 30 on the Yvalve stem 23.

larger bore 8.y 9 are liquid flow passages above the valve seat formed in the sleeve lo is a bracket upwardly and outwardly extending from Mounted thereon as at I I, is a valve control lever l2 secured at the outer end of which is a suitable iloat I3. Axially movable within the bore is a valve stem I4 which is loosely ltted to the lever I2 as at I5. It may include, for example, a conic valveportion I6 adapted to engage the valve seat 6. It will be understood that when the level of liquid fuel` within the chamber I, reaches a predetermined height, the oat I3 rises and moves the valve I6 into closed position, thus cutting 01T any further supply of fuel to the chamber I.

20 is a liquid fuel outlet line extending, for example, to any suitable burner or` other fuel consuming mechanism not herein shown. 2l is a fuel outlet passage member extending upwardly f Pivoted on the bracket Ill as at 3| is a bell crank lever having a generally vertical arm 32 and a generally horizontal arm 33. The horizontal arm 33 may be apertured as at 34 to permit the valve stem extension to pass therethrough and the arm 33 abuts against any suitable shoulder 35y of the valve stem. 36 isany suitable heat responsive member herein shown as a bellows with a communicating passage 3'I to any suitable bulb not here shown. It will be understood that in response to heat conditions, at the burner or elsewhere, the bellows may expand as the temperature rises Yand may contract as the temperature drops. The bellows is formed with a member 38 carrying any suitable pin or stem 39 which may engage a depression 40 in the bell crank lever arm 32. 1t will be observed that as the bellows 3E expands, lt exerts pressure against the lever 32 which tends to depress the vother bell crank lever arm 33 and thus to close the valve stem 33 against the compression of the spring 29, thus cutting down the flow of fuel along the line 20. The

' eiect of heat on the expansion of the bellows 3B may be varied, however, by means susceptible of manual adjustment. I illustrate, for example, a control knob 3|, having a stem 42, screw threaded in any suitable bearing 43 mounted on or formed in the cover 2. The lower end of the stem 42 engages the bell crank lever arm 44 of a lever pivoted as at 45 in relation` to the iloat chamber. A lower or depending bell crank lever 46 is opposed to the bell crank lever arm 32 and between them is compressed aspring 47 whichtends to resist the expansion .of the bellows 36. The compression of the spring 41 may be adjusted by rotation of the manual knob 4I as its rotation causes the stem 42 to rise or fall in relation to the cover 2. I may, limit this rotation, for example, by any suitable pins or suitable range of rotation of the knob 4I but I have indicated a rotation of about -degrees.

It will be understood that the cover may be provided with any suitable calibration so that the user may set the knob at high, mediumlow or off or any desired intermediate settings. It will be understood, for example, that more than the four positions herein shown in Figure 2 may be calibrated. In order to cut out or short circuit the thermal control, I provide means associated with or operated by the knob 4I for positively moving the valve stem 23 to the minimum flow or off position. I illustrate, for example, a cam 53 located below and rotating with the knob 4|. Any suitable cam may be employed but I find it advantageous to employ. a spring cam. This cam, when the knob 4I ismoved to the off positionoverrides the upward extension 28 of thevalve stem 23 and positively closesi the valve against the compression of the spring 29 and entirely cuts out the operation of the above described bellows. In other words, when the knob 4| is moved counterclockwise to 180 degrees, referring to the position of the parts in Figure 2, the cam53 is eiective positively to move the valve to a minimum setting and no changes in temperature or changes in expansion or contraction of the bellows 36 will have any eect on the setting of the valve stem 23. At all othertimes, however, the bellows may effectively control the valve by shutting it off' in response to expansion of the bellows by heating of the bulb in communication with the passage 31,. The response of the bellows to temperature conditions is in such case controlled or varied by the compression of the spring 41, which in turn is controlled by the manual setting of the knob 4 I.

It will be understood that, whereas I have shown a very simple form of control, with the direct connection between the adjusting knob and the valve stem, in more complicated forms of control it may be necessary to employ intermediate levers, linkages, or the like.

Lt will be realized that my description and drawing are in a broad sense illustrative or diagrammaticv and that I do not wish to be limited to the specic showing herein. Many changes may be made in the size, shape, number, proportion and disposition of parts without departingfrom the spirit of my invention. I may,

for example, have any suitable intermediate actuating connection between the knob 4| and the stem 23 and the employment of a bellows l is merely an illustration of a practical heat responsive element.

The-use and operation of my device are as follows: In controlling the flow of liquid fuel, for example. to a pot type burner, although my control may be used with other types of burner, I find it advantageous to provide both a mechanical shut off and a thermally responsive control. Assume that the operator of it off altogether or to set it at a pilot minimum;V

the burner wishes to turn/ he need only so actuate the knob 4| or itsequivalent that the valve stem 23 is positively closed. If the parts are proportioned for a complete shut off, then no fuel at all will flow. If an oil pilot is employed with the burner, the valve'23 may be so proportioned and set as to permit the passage of a minimum flow of fuel sufficient to maintain pilot combustion when the valve stem is moved into its minimum ilow position. Assume, however, that the operator wishes to have the ow of fuel respond to heat conditions at the burner or elsewhere, he then moves the control knob 4| in such position as to place the cam 53 out ofl line with the valve stem extension 28. The flow through the line 20 is then basically governed by the expansion and contraction of the bellows 36 or its equivalent. For example, in the form herein shown, an ,increase in heat causes an expansion of the fluid within the bellows/36 and thereby causes a thrust .iof'the pin 39 against the lever arm 32 which is'effective to, move the lever arm 33 downwardly and thus depress the valve 23. This reduces or cuts off the ow of fuel depending upon the degree of expansion of the bellows 36, and causing the controlling temperature to drop. This in turn causes a contraction of the bellows 36 and permits the arm 33 to rise and spring 29 to move the valve stem 23 to a more open position. The user can control or adjust the response of the valve stem 23 to the expansion or contraction of the bellows 36 byvarying the spring loading provided by the coil spring 4l under compression between the lever arms 32 and 46. This variation or control of the spring loading is obtained by rotating the knob 4| in the particular embodiment of the invention herein described and shown. If the knob 4| is so rotated as to cause the screw threaded stem 42 to descend, then the loading the spring 41 is increased and the expansion of the bellows 36 is resisted. Therefore, greater heat is required to expand the bellows .36 sufficiently to move the valve 23 to the closed or pilot position.

'I claim: l

l. In a valve structure for controlling the iiow of liquid fuels, a fuel chamber and means for maintaining a supply of liquid fuel therein, a fuel outflow line in communication therewith, a valve seat therefor, a movable valve memberadapted to move toward and away from said seat, a heat 'responsive element and means for varying the setting of Asaid valve in responseto actuation of said heat responsive element, and means for varying the movement of said heat responsive element and thus for varying its effect upon the seating of said valve in response to temperature changes, including spring loading means aligned withand opposed to said heat responsive element and means for varying the loading of said spring loading means including an exterior manually movable control element and a connection between `said control element and said spring loading means, and an additional connection `between said manually operable control element and said valve means independent of 'and in parallel with the spring loading means and the connection between the control element and the spring loading means adaptedat one position of said manually operable control element to move said valve means independently of the operation of said 'heat responsive element. J

2. In a valve structure for controlling the flow of liquid fuels and the like, a fuel chamber and means for maintaining a supply of liquid fuel therein, a fuel outflow passage in communication therewith-and a fuel valve adapted to control iiow through the passage, a lever adapted to control the position of the valve, a heat responsive element adapted to rotate the lever, spring means aligned in opposition to the heat responsive element adapted to resist movement of the valve in the closing direction and manually controlled means adapted to vary the e'ect of the spring, said manually controlled means being movable to vary the effect of the spring throughout a predetermined range and positive means controlled toward the lower extremity ofthe range of movement thereof for positively closing the valve.

3. A control for oil burners and the like comprising a oat chamber, spaced fuel inlet and outlet passages, a bracket associated with the fuel inlet, a lever pivoted on the bracket, a iloat at one end. and a fuel inlet control valve at the other end of the lever, a metering valve for the fuel outlet, yielding means tending to urge the metering valve toward the open position, a heat responsive element in the housing, a valve actuating bell crank lever pivoted on the float lever bracket, having a generally horizontal arm loosely engaging the metering valve, a shorter generally vertical arm and a connection between it and the heat responsive element, a second bell crank lever pivoted in the housing, having a short generally vertical arm in opposition to the vertical arm of the valve actuating lever, a loading spring interposed between the two short arma-a screw, threaded in the housing, a manual control button supported thereon outside of the housing, the inside end of the screw engaging the longer arm of the second lever, the metering valve having a stem projecting upwardly through the wall of the housing adjacent the control button, a cam carried by the screw adapted to engage the stem of the metering valve to force it to closed position independent of the valve actuating lever.

4. A control means for oil burners and the like comprising a float chamber, spaced fuel inlet and outlet passages, a bracket associated with the fuel inlet, a lever pivoted on the bracket, a oat at one end, and a fuel inlet control valve at the other end of the lever, a metering valve for the fuel outlet, yielding means tending to urge the meteringvalve toward the open position, a heat responsive element in the housing, a valve actuating bell crank lever pivoted on the float lever bracket, having a generally horizontal arm loosely engaging the metering valve, a shorter generally vertical arm and a connection between it and the heat responsive element, a second bell crank lever pivoted in the housing, having a short generally vertical arm in opposition to the' vertical arm of the valve actuating lever, a loading spring interposed between the two short arms, a screw,

threaded in the housing, a manual control but" ton supported thereon outside of the housing, the' inside end of the screw engaging the longer arm of the second lever, the metering valve having a .stem projecting upwardly through the wall of the housing adjacent the control button, a cam car-- ried by the screw adapted to engage the stem of the metering valve to force it to closed position independent of the valve actuating 1ever,`the cam l being so positioned so as to engage the stem of outlet., a heat responsive element in the housing,

a valve actuating bell crank lever pivoted on the float lever bracket, having a generally horizontal arm loosely engaging the metering valve, a shorter generally vertical arm and a connection between it and the heat responsive element, a second bell crank lever pivoted in the housing, having a short generally vertical arm in opposition to the vertical arm of the valve actuating lever, a loading spring interposed between the two short arms, a screw, threaded in the housing, va manual control button supported thereon outside of the housing, the inside end of the screw engaging the longer arm of the second lever, the metering valve having a stem projecting upwardly through the Wall of the housing adjacent the control button, a cam carried by the screw adapted to engage the stem of the metering valve to force it to closed position independent of the valve actuating lever. 6. Means for controlling 'the flow of liquid fuels and the like including a housing container, a fuel chamber, means for maintaining a supply of liquid fuel therein, a fuel supply passage leading therefrom and a fuel valve controlling the passage, the valve having a stem projecting beyond the housing, a valve actuating bell crank lever within the housing engaging the valve at one end, a heat responsive element enclosed within the housing engaging the other end of the bell crank lever. a second bell crank lever pivoted within the housing, a spring adapted lto be compressed be. tween the one end of the valve actuating lever and the second lever, an adjusting screw, threaded in the wall of the housing adapted to engage the free end of the second lever, a manual control member on the free end ofy the screw where it projects beyond the housing, and a connection between said manual control member and the outer end of said outwardly projecting valve stem adapted, in response to a predetermined movement of said `manual control member, positively to urge said valve stem toward valve closing position. y

7. Means for controlling the flow of liquid fuels and the like including a housing container, a fuel chamber, means for maintaining a supply of liquid fuel therein, a fuel supply passage leading therefrom and a fuel valve controlling the passage, the valve having a stem projecting beyond the housing, a valve actuating bell crank lever within the housing engaging the valve at one end, a heat responsive element enclosed within the housing engaging the other end of the bell crank lever, a second bell crank lever pivoted within the housing, a spring adapted to be compressed between the one end of the valve actuating lever and` the second lever, an adjusting screw, threaded in the w'all of the housing adapted t0 engage the free end of the second lever, a hand wheel on the free end of the screw where it projects beyond the housing, Va cam carried bg the hand wheel adapted to engage the end of the .valve stem stone end of the excursion oi' the

Images