Hydraulically operated post valve yoke

Abstract

A hydraulically operative post valve yoke mounting system. The system (10) includes one or more hydraulically operated yokes (41-44). Each yoke is operative to engage with a tank or cylinder (21-24) for placing the tanks in fluid communication with a high pressure source of gas (50). Each yoke includes a yoke body (140). The upper ends of each yoke body include a bore (116). A pin (104) is operative to slide through each bore. Each yoke body includes an opening (124) that is operative to receive a post valve (108) of a tank (110). Each yoke is operative to urge the post valve with the pin into sealed engagement with a passageway (142) in the lower end (114) of each yoke responsive to hydraulic fluid pressure. The hydraulic pressure may be supplied by a hydraulic pump (28) in fluid communication with hydraulic yoke.

Description

[0001] This application claims benefit pursuant to 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119(e) of Provisional Application No. 60 / 198,978 filed Apr. 21, 2000.[0002] This invention relates to post valve yoke connections. Specifically this invention relates to a system for quickly engaging and disengaging a yoke to a post valve of a tank for receiving a supply of compressed gas.[0003] Yokes for mounting to post valves on tanks or cylinders of compressed gases are known in the art. Yokes provide a tank with a relatively safe connection to a pressurized supply of a gas for filling the tank. One example of a prior art yoke is the CGA 870 Yoke. This device is specifically designed to mount on a CGA 870 post valve of a tank to supplying oxygen gas for filling the tank. Such tanks are commonly used to supply the oxygen needs for medical devices. FIG. 1 shows an example of such a prior art yoke 310. The yoke 310 includes a yoke body 312 with an opening 316. The opening 316 is operative to accept a post valve 320...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] It is a further object of the exemplary form of the present invention to provide a yoke that is operative to quickly engage and disengage with a tank.

[0012] It is a further object of the exemplary form of the present invention to provide a yoke that is operative to automatically compensate for differences in sealing tolerances between the post valve of a tank and the yoke.

[0016] By manipulating the flow of shop air to the hydraulic pump, the present invention enables an operator to simultaneously control the engagement and disengagement of a plurality of yokes to corresponding tank post valves. This described system significantly reduces the amount of labor and time that is necessary for connecting multiple tanks to a supply of pressurized gas such as oxygen.

[0017] In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the system may include a yoke that is manually engaged and disengaged from a post valve of a tank with a lever arm. The lever arm is operative to urge a plunger or pin toward the post valve for engaging the post valve to the yoke. Once engaged the lever arm includes a trigger locking mechanism for maintaining the yoke in an engaged position. By releasing the trigger lock, the lever is operative to raise the plunger and disengage the tank from the yoke. Such a manual lever provides a much faster method of engaging and disengaging a yoke to a post valve of a tank than the prior art yoke described previously.

[0021] To fill the tanks with a compressed gas, the passageway is placed in operative connection with a high pressure source of the gas. Once filled, the post valves may be closed, the gas pressure in the common passageway may be normalized with a bleeder, and the yokes disengaged from the tanks. The exemplary hydraulic yokes may be automatically disengaged responsive to operation of the hydraulic pump. The exemplary lever operated yokes may be manually disengaged by moving their respective lever arms to a disengaging position. Thus exemplary hydraulic and lever operated yokes of the present invention provide a safe and fast method of connecting individual and multiple pressurized tanks to a high pressure supply of a gas. Each of the exemplary embodiments are operative to provide a longitudinal force that moves a pin or plunger in a linear reciprocating motion. It is to be understood that a linear reciprocating motion is defined herein as a generally straight back and forth motion without the pin or plunger revolving about its axis.

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately the manual act of rotating the tee-bar for engaging and disengaging the yoke accounts for a significant portion of time to fill a tank.

For large suppliers of compressed tanks of oxygen, a significant amount of the cost of labor to fill tanks is consumed by the prior art, manual operation of rotating each tee-bar a plurality of times to engage, and disengage yokes from post valves.

Unfortunately, in practice there are slight variations in tolerances between different yokes and tanks of the same type even by the same manufacturers.

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