US761607A - Steam-valve. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTBD MAY 31, 1904.

T. a, J. R. RAY. STEAM VALVE.

APPLIOATIQH FILED FEB. 11, 1903.

H: Moguls PETERS c0, PHOTO-LUNG, WASHINGTON n c nb.7eneoa UNITED STATES f Patented May 31, 1904.

PAT NT OFFIC v I ,.srEAM-vALvE."

V SPECIFICATION forming part 'of Letters Patent No. 761,607, dated May 31, 1904i Application filed February 11, 1903. erial No. 142,943. (No model.)

.To aZZ whom zfrmay' concern.- I

Be it known that we, T l-roMAs RAY and JOSHUA R. RAY, citizens of the United States of America, residing at Manistee, in the county of Manistee and State of -Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Steam-Valves, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to an improved construction of the steam-actuated valve of the steam-cylinders for steam pumping-engines,

by which all extraneous mechanisms are dis-' pensed with, and consequently the cost of production reduced and wear and tear and repairs made less.

This inventionhas reference more particularly to that class of valves which are operated by the direct application of steam-pres sure to the end surfaces of the steam-valves or steam-valve plungers.

Generally speaking, our invention consists of an ordinary steam-piston made steam-tight in its cylinder by rings in the usual manner and cooperating with suitable trip-portsor passage-ways to alternately connect the bore of the cylinder with the valve-chambers of the valve-chest. in which operation the main steampiston is adapted to serve as a valve to the trip-ports, thus alternately controlling the admission of steam to the valve-chambers of the valve chest' for the purpose of reversing the steamvalve or alternately driving it back and forth in the valve-chest to reverse the motion of the main steam-piston by the inlet and outlet of steam to the main cylinder through suitably -arranged steam and exhaust passageways controlled by the steam-valve, as hereinafter described Referring to the accompanying drawings,

tion of a portion of the engine and taken on the line 4 4: of Fig. 1; and Fig. 5 is an en larged viewof'a portion of Fig. 1, showing the arrangement of the check-valves.

In the drawings, A represents a'steam-cylinder containing a piston B and having mounted thereon a valve-chest C. The valve-chest extends througha perforation in the partition E with a steam-tight'working fit. The steam-inletH on top of the valve-chest 0 opens into passage-waysI 1, leading to ports J J near the outer ends ofthe valvechambers, while the exhaust-outlets K K open from the ends of an exhaust-chamber L on top of thecylinder A and extending crosswise thereof with upwardly-extending elongated passage-waysM M, reaching up to the Valve-chambers and communicating therewith through exhaust-ports-N N near the inner ends of said valve-chambers.

Ports O O in the valve-chambers between the ports J J and the outer ends of said valvechambers communicate by means of passageways P P with the cylinderat its extreme ends, and ports Q Q at the extreme inner ends of the valve-chambers communicate by means of passage-ways R R with the cylinder near The openings of the pasv the ends thereof. sage-ways R R, however, are sufficiently distant from the ends of the cylinder to be closed by the piston when nearing the end of its strokeand remain closed thereby until the piston has fairly started on its return stroke.

'All of the ports 0, 0, J, J, N, Q, and

Q are in the form of annular grooves on the interior walls of the 'valvechambers andare adapted to be-opened and closed by the valveheads F F.

From the extreme outer end of each valve-j chamber a small passage-way S S leads to the cylinder ata position where it will be closed by the piston during the latter part of its inder-casting and the valve-chest they are enlarged to form pockets T T, which contain ball or other valves U to permit of a passage of steam upward through said passage ways, but serve as check-valves to prevent its passage downward therethrough. hen the piston B has nearly completed its left stroke, the several parts are in the positions shown in Fig. 1, where the valve is in its left position, admitting steam through passageways I and P to the right end of cylinder A. The passage S has just been uncovered and live steam is now admitted therethrough to the left end of valve-chamber D to cause the valve to move to its right position. In so doing ports J and O are closed and ports Q and N are opened, thereby cutting off the supply of steam to the right end of cylinder A and opening it to the exhaust, while in the other valve-chamber ports J and 0 have been opened and ports Q and-N have been closed, cutting off the left end of cylinder A from the exhaust and admitting live steam thereto. Consequently the piston B is driven to the right end of the cylinder, and just previous to reaching the end of its stroke it closes the exhaust through passage-way R to cushion the remainder of its stroke by the entrapped steam, and then as it reaches its limit it uncovers passage-way S and admits live steam to the right end of valve-chamber D to throw the valve to its left position again, and thereby restore original connections to cause the piston to be driven in the left direction, and these actions are repeated.

The pressures on the valve by which it is caused to make the movements above described are as follows: When the valve is in the left position, as shown in Fig. 1, and during the main part of the piston-stroke to the left that is, up to the point just previous to the openingof passage-way Sboth faces of valvehead F are subjected to the exhaust-pressure, and the inner face being of less area than the outer face on account of the difference made by the stem G the tendency here would be to move the valve to the right. However, both faces of the valve-head F being subjected to live-steam pressure and the difference in areas of its two faces being opposed to that of valvehead F and the tendency to move the valve to the left produced thereby being greater than the before-mentioned tendency to move to the right, by reason of the greater pressure on Valve-head F, the resultant force is in the left direction and keeps the valve firmly stationed at the left end of the valve-chest. When the piston has reached the position shown in Fig. 1 and opens passage-way S to the live steam, the effect is changed, for the valve-head F instead of having exhaust-pressure on its outer face now has live-steam pressure, which is sufficient to more than overcome the exhaustpressure on the other face of valve-head F and also the difference in pressure on the two faces of valve-head F, and as the result the valve is rapidly thrown to its right position, making the changes of connections between ports, as before set forth. Now the same conditions exist as at first, but the parts are oppositely located and their action is the same as just described.

The object of the ball-valves U in the passage-ways S S is to prevent the escape of steam from the outer end of chambers D D when the valve is being thrown, so as to form a cushion to ease the blow of the valve against the heads of the valve-chambers. It is found in practice, however, that with engines of the larger sizes where the area of the valve-chambers is so much greater than the area of the passage-ways S S these check-valves may be dispensed with, as then the outlet through the passageways is so slow that a sufiieient amount of steam is held in the valve-chambers to cushion the valve.

The object of locating the cylinder ends of passage-ways R R in advance of the passageways P P, besides for cushioning the end of the piston-stroke, as before described, is to provide for closing said passage-ways R R by the piston B before the valve is thrown to admit steam through the corresponding passageway P or P. The piston B tightly fits the cylinder, and when covering the ends of passage-ways R R prevents the passage of steam thereto from either side of said piston, which would interfere with the complete throw of the valve. Should steam gain admission to the passage-way R when the parts are in the position shown in Fig. 1, it would be entrapped therein when the valve is thrown past the port N and form a cushion to prevent the complete movement of the valve.

Having fully described our invention in detail, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A device of the character set forth, comprising a main cylinder and a valve-chest having steam supply and exhaust ports, said valve-chest provided with a partition dividing it into a pair of chambers, said chambers and cylinder being formed with ports and passages through which each of said chambers has communication with said supply and exhaust ports and each end portion of said cylinder has communication with the ends of the respective chambers each through a plurality of passages connecting the same at different places in the travel of the parts, a piston in said cylinder controlling the flow of steam from the same, and a valve in said chest, said valve being primarily moved by the steam alternately propelling the piston back and forth, and comprising a stem extending through said partition and a head in each of said chambers arranged to open and close the ports therein.

2. In a device of the character described, a cylinder, a piston operating therein, a pair of valve-chambers each having connection at its IIO der and also with the exhaustrport and each having connection at its outer end with its respective-end of the cylinder and also with the steam-port, avalvc comprising avalve-head in each of the valve-chambers adapted'to close the connections at either end of the valve-chamber and a stem of smaller diameter than the valveheads connecting said valve-heads and passing through the-partition between the valve-chambers, and apassage-way at each end of the-cylinder leading from a point entirely passed by the piston during its movement and terminating at the outer end of the corresponding valvecharnber. Y

3. In a device of the character described, a cylinder, a piston operating therein, a pair of valve-chambers each having connection at its inner endwith its respective end of the cylinder and also with the exhaust-port and each having connection at its outer end with its respective end of the cylinder and also with the steam-port, a valve comprising a valve-head in each of the valve-chambers adapted to close the connections at either'end of the valveterminating at the outer end of the corre-- sponding valve-chamber, and a check-valve in each passage-way.

4. In device of the character described, a

cylinder, a piston operating therein, a pair of valve-chambers each having connection at one end by means of passage-ways with the eX- i haust-port and with an end of the cylinder, the passage-way connecting with the cylinder terminating at a snflicient distance from the end of said cylinder to be closed by the piston before completing its stroke, each of the valve chambers also having connection at its other end by means of passage-ways with the steamport and with an end of the cylinder at a point nearer the end of the cylinder than the corresponding before mentioned passage way connecting with the cylinder, a valve comprising a valve-head in each of the valve-chambers adapted to close the connections at either end of the valve-chamber and. a stemof smaller diameter than the valve-heads connecting said valve heads and passing through the partition between the valve-chambers, and a passageway at each end of the cylinder leading from a point in the cylinder entirely passed by the piston during its movement and terminating at the second-mentiond end of one of the valvechambers.

-In testimony whereof we aflix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

THOMAS RAY. JOSHUA R. RAY.

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