Low-Torque Valve and Assemblies Including Said Valve

Abstract

A low-torque valve for regulating fluid flow between a valve inlet and a valve outlet is disclosed. The low-torque valve has a stationary valve element and a rotatable valve element. The stationary valve element and the rotatable valve element each may have a respective axially-facing mating surface in contact with each other. At least one opening in the rotatable valve element is rotationally positionable with respect to at least one opening in the stationary valve element between an open position and a closed position in order to regulate fluid flow from the valve inlet to the valve outlet based on an alignment of the openings of the stationary valve element and the rotatable valve element. In some forms, a torque threshold that is required to rotate the rotatable valve element into the open position from the closed position is less than 10 ounce-inches.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 399,807 filed on Sep. 26, 2016, the contents of which are incorporated by reference for all purposes as if set forth in their entirety herein.STATEMENT OF FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT[0002]Not applicable.FIELD OF INVENTION[0003]This disclosure relates to a low-torque valve and the operation thereof.BACKGROUND[0004]Motor-driven valves are known for the automated operation of valves in many applications. Typically, a power source, such as mains power or a battery, selectively drives the motor to open or close the valve in the presence of some condition (e.g., a controller receives a signal that a condition has been met and the motor is driven to a particular position to alter the state of the valve).[0005]In many applications, installation of mains electricity to the motor-driven valve can be quite expensive, especially where mains power is not ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]Proposed herein are various designs for a low-torque valve that requires less power and torque to operate the valve which can thereby prolong the operational life of a device implementing the valve between battery changes are required. This can make the use of batteries in a motor-driven valve viable in contexts where it would be commercially unacceptable to need to replace batteries frequently (e.g., faucets, flush valves, and so forth). However, such low-torque valves could be equally powered by mains power.

Problems solved by technology

In many applications, installation of mains electricity to the motor-driven valve can be quite expensive, especially where mains power is not currently run to the physical location at which the motor-driven valve is to be used.

Unfortunately, in those situations, limited battery life provides a hard constraint on the convenience of and / or the ability to use such motor-driven valves when mains power is not a viable option.

Thus, it becomes essential to either routinely replace the batteries before they are consumed (which is highly inefficient) or to provide just-in-time replacement of batteries when they are consumed.

In either case, there are significant maintenance costs associated with monitoring and replacing batteries.

Such maintenance and cost issues associated with batteries have prevented wider adoption of battery-driven motor-driven valves for applications when use of mains power is not a viable option.

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