Seal and valve device having the same

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a seal and a valve device having the same. The valve device comprises a valve body, a valve core and a seal. The valve body has a plurality of flow passage ports. The valve core is arranged in the valve body and is provided with at least one valve core flow passage. The valve core can be driven to rotate to switch the communication relationship between the plurality of flow passage ports and the at least one valve core flow passage. The seal is arranged between the valve body and the valve core and is fixedly connected with the valve body or the valve core. The seal provided by the present disclosure comprises a plurality of flow passage holes and a plurality of positioning portions. The plurality of flow passage holes are arranged at intervals along the rotation direction of the valve core. The plurality of positioning portions are used to cooperate with a plurality of limiting portions correspondingly arranged on the valve body or the valve core to fixedly connect the seal with the valve body or the valve core. The positioning portions are distributed between at least two adjacent flow passage holes. Through the cooperation of the plurality of positioning portions and the plurality of limiting portions, the seal can be fixedly connected with the valve body or the valve core, and the seal is stationary relative to the valve body or the valve core, thereby avoiding the leakage of the valve device caused by the slippage of the seal.

Description

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202520616653.6, filed on April 2, 2025, entitled "Seal and Valve Device Having the Thereof", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0002] This disclosure relates to the field of fluid control, and in particular to a seal and a valve device having therein. Background Technology

[0003] Valve devices are commonly used in equipment or systems with fluid control requirements, such as vehicle thermal management systems. To prevent fluid leakage, valve devices typically include seals. However, with increased usage time and changes in the operating environment, the sealing performance of these seals can be affected and gradually decline. For example, in high-temperature environments, seals may creep due to thermal expansion. Furthermore, during high-pressure operation, the seals may deform due to prolonged pressure. The creep or deformation of a seal relative to its original mounting position under pressure, temperature, or mechanical stress is called seal slippage. This slippage can lead to seal failure and ultimately, leakage problems. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of this, the present disclosure provides a seal and a valve device aimed at solving the problem of leakage in the valve device caused by slippage of the seal.

[0005] The sealing element disclosed herein is used in a valve device, which includes a valve body, a valve core, and a sealing element. The valve body has multiple flow ports. The valve core is disposed within the valve body and has at least one flow channel. The valve core can be driven to rotate to switch the communication relationship between the multiple flow ports and the at least one flow channel. The sealing element is disposed between the valve body and the valve core and is fixedly connected to the valve body or the valve core. The sealing element disclosed herein includes multiple flow holes and multiple positioning portions. The multiple flow holes are spaced apart along the rotation direction of the valve core. The multiple positioning portions are used to cooperate with multiple limiting portions correspondingly disposed on the valve body or the valve core to fix the sealing element to the valve body or the valve core. Positioning portions are distributed between at least two adjacent flow holes.

[0006] Through the cooperation of multiple positioning parts and multiple limiting parts, the seal can be fixedly connected to the valve body or valve core. When the valve core rotates, the seal either remains stationary with the valve body or rotates together with the valve core, that is, the seal remains stationary relative to the valve core. Therefore, the cooperation of multiple positioning parts and multiple limiting parts can enhance the connection strength between the seal and the valve body or valve core, preventing the seal from slipping and causing leakage in the valve device. At the same time, the positioning parts distributed between adjacent flow channel holes can enhance the connection between the portion of the seal located between adjacent flow channel holes and the valve body or valve core, so that when the valve core rotates, the portion of the seal located between adjacent flow channel holes can remain stationary relative to the valve body or valve core.

[0007] In one possible implementation, the seal is provided with multiple stress relief portions, which are multiple stress relief recesses provided on the seal.

[0008] When the valve core rotates, if the seal is fixedly connected to the valve body, the positioning part will be constrained by the limiting part, thus restricting its rotation with the valve core; if the seal is fixedly connected to the valve core, the positioning part will be driven by the limiting part and rotate with the valve core. Regardless of the fixing method, the stress on the positioning part will be higher than the surrounding area, causing uneven stress distribution on the seal, which may lead to seal slippage. According to the valve device provided in this disclosure, multiple stress-relieving recesses on the seal can disperse stress, preventing deformation of the seal due to stress concentration, thereby ensuring the sealing performance of the seal and extending its service life.

[0009] In one possible implementation, at least one stress relief part is provided between at least two adjacent positioning parts among a plurality of positioning parts.

[0010] The stress relief section is located between adjacent positioning sections, which allows the stress in the positioning section to be quickly released to the stress relief section, thereby preventing the seal from slipping due to stress concentration and damaging its sealing performance.

[0011] In one possible implementation, the plurality of positioning portions are positioning recesses, and the limiting portion corresponding to each positioning portion is a positioning protrusion extending into the positioning recess. At least some of the stress relief recesses among the plurality of stress relief recesses have the same shape as at least some of the positioning recesses among the plurality of positioning recesses.

[0012] By constructing the positioning part as a positioning recess and extending into it, a fixed connection between the seal and the valve body or valve core can be achieved, with the contact surface located inside the seal. Taking the fixed connection between the seal and the valve core as an example, when the valve core rotates, the driving force of the valve core can be transmitted to the inside of the seal through the limiting part, thereby causing the entire seal to rotate with the valve core and preventing slippage. In addition, since the stress relief recess and the positioning recess have the same shape, the positioning part and the stress relief part can be machined simultaneously when processing the seal, thereby improving production efficiency.

[0013] In one possible implementation, the seal includes a central ring portion, a plurality of flow channel holes are arranged at intervals on the radially outer side of the central ring portion, the central ring portion is provided with positioning portions, and at least some stress relief portions are scattered in the central ring portion.

[0014] By arranging the positioning part and the stress relief part in the central ring, it is possible to prevent the central ring from slipping and to release the stress in the central ring to the stress relief part. This prevents the central ring of the seal from deforming due to stress concentration, thus avoiding damage to its sealing performance.

[0015] In one possible implementation, the plurality of positioning parts include at least one linear positioning part and a plurality of point positioning parts, with the plurality of point positioning parts arranged at intervals around the outer periphery of the at least one linear positioning part.

[0016] The linear positioning part provides a basic fixing range, while the dotted positioning part surrounds the outer periphery of the linear positioning part and can form a larger fixing range with the linear positioning part to fix the seal to the valve body or valve core.

[0017] In one possible implementation, at least one linear positioning portion is a V-shaped positioning portion, which opens radially outward to the seal.

[0018] Because the opening of the V-shaped positioning part faces radially outward from the seal, the orientation of each side of the V-shaped positioning part is the same as the edge of the adjacent flow channel hole. In this way, when the portion between the V-shaped positioning part and the adjacent flow channel hole tends to deform towards or away from the edge of the flow channel hole, the V-shaped positioning part can cooperate with the limiting part to uniformly restrict the deformation of the seal in the direction of rotation of the seal, ensuring that the edge of the flow channel hole remains straight and that the seal experiences little or no creep.

[0019] In one possible implementation, the multiple positioning portions also include grooves configured to extend radially outward from the outer edge of the flow channel hole.

[0020] Because the groove extends outward from the outer edge of the flow channel hole, it can mate with the limiting part to prevent slippage of the outer edge of the seal. Furthermore, since the groove extends outward from the outer edge of the flow channel hole, it is possible to arrange the groove on the seal even when the distance between the outer edge of the flow channel hole and the outer edge of the seal is short. This effectively increases the distribution rate of the positioning part on the seal.

[0021] Secondly, this disclosure also provides a sealing element used in a valve device, the valve device including a valve body, a valve core, and a sealing element. The valve body has multiple flow ports. The valve core is disposed within the valve body, the valve core has at least one valve core flow channel, and the valve core can be driven to rotate to switch the communication relationship between the multiple flow ports and the at least one valve core flow channel. The sealing element is disposed between the valve body and the valve core, and is fixedly connected to the valve body or the valve core. The sealing element provided in this disclosure includes multiple flow port holes and multiple positioning portions. The multiple flow port holes are spaced apart along the rotation direction of the valve core. The multiple positioning portions are used to cooperate with multiple limiting portions correspondingly disposed on the valve body or the valve core to fix the sealing element to the valve body or the valve core, and the multiple positioning portions are arranged circumferentially around each flow port hole.

[0022] Through the cooperation of multiple positioning and limiting parts, the seal can be fixedly connected to the valve body or valve core. When the valve core rotates, the seal either remains stationary with the valve body or rotates together with the valve core, meaning the seal is stationary relative to the valve core. Therefore, the cooperation of multiple positioning and limiting parts enhances the connection strength between the seal and the valve body or valve core, preventing seal slippage. Simultaneously, arranging multiple positioning parts circumferentially around each flow channel hole strengthens the connection between the portion of the seal surrounding the flow channel hole and the valve body or valve core, ensuring that when the valve core rotates, the portion of the seal surrounding the flow channel hole remains stationary relative to the valve body or valve core.

[0023] Thirdly, this disclosure also provides a valve device that includes the seal described above. Attached Figure Description

[0024] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of this disclosure, the accompanying drawings used in the embodiments will be briefly described below.

[0025] It should be understood that the following figures only illustrate certain embodiments of this disclosure and should not be construed as limiting the scope.

[0026] It should also be understood that the same or similar reference numerals are used in the accompanying drawings to denote the same or similar elements.

[0027] It should also be understood that the accompanying drawings are only schematic, and the dimensions and scales of the elements in the drawings are not necessarily precise.

[0028] Figure 1This is a schematic diagram of a valve device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0029] Figure 2 yes Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the valve core structure.

[0030] Figure 3 yes Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the sealing element in the diagram.

[0031] Figure 4 yes Figure 2 A portion of the cross-sectional view of the seal.

[0032] Figure 5 yes Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a portion of the seal.

[0033] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the seal of a valve device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Detailed Implementation

[0034] The embodiments of this disclosure are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that there are many ways to implement this disclosure, and it should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. The embodiments set forth herein are only for a more thorough and clear understanding of this disclosure.

[0035] This disclosure provides a valve device 100. As an example, the valve device 100 can be a multi-way valve and can be applied to devices or systems with fluid control requirements. For example, the valve device 100 can be applied in an automotive thermal management system to switch the flow path of fluid.

[0036] refer to Figure 1 The valve device 100 includes a valve body 10, a valve core 20, and a sealing element 30. The valve body 10 includes an upper shell 11 and a valve cavity end face 12, the valve cavity end face 12 having multiple flow channels 13. The valve core 20 is disposed within the space enclosed by the upper shell 11 and the valve cavity end face 12. Figure 2 and Figure 3 The valve core 20 is provided with at least one valve core flow channel 21, and the valve core 20 can be driven to rotate to switch the communication relationship between multiple flow port 13 and at least one valve core flow channel 21. The sealing element 30 is disposed between the valve core 20 and the valve cavity end face 12.

[0037] refer to Figures 1 to 3 The sealing element 30 is provided with multiple flow channel holes 31, which are spaced apart along the rotation direction of the valve core 20. The sealing element 30 is fixed to the valve core 20, and the multiple flow channel holes 31 are aligned with the multiple valve core flow channels 21 to prevent fluid leakage from the flow path formed by the flow channel holes 31 and the valve core flow channels 21.

[0038] It is understood that in some other embodiments, the seal 30 may also be fixed to the valve cavity end face 12 and the plurality of flow channel holes 31 and the plurality of flow channel openings 13 may be aligned respectively.

[0039] However, with increased usage time and changes in the working environment, the sealing performance of seals is easily affected and gradually declines. For example, in high-temperature environments, seals may creep due to thermal expansion. Furthermore, during high-pressure operation of valve devices, seals may deform due to prolonged pressure. The creep or deformation of a seal relative to its original installation position under pressure, temperature, or mechanical stress is called seal slippage. This slippage can lead to seal failure and subsequent leakage problems.

[0040] In view of this, refer to Figure 2 and Figure 3 The sealing element 30 provided in this embodiment includes a plurality of positioning portions 32, which are used to cooperate with a plurality of limiting portions 22 correspondingly provided on the valve core 20 to fix the sealing element 30 to the valve core 20. In this way, when the valve core 20 rotates, the sealing element 30 can rotate together with the valve core 20, that is, the sealing element 30 is stationary relative to the valve core 20. Therefore, through the cooperation of the plurality of positioning portions 32 and the plurality of limiting portions 22, the connection strength between the sealing element 30 and the valve body 10 or the valve core 20 can be enhanced, and the slippage of the sealing element 30 leading to leakage of the valve device can be avoided.

[0041] It is understood that in some other embodiments, the multiple positioning portions on the seal can also cooperate with the corresponding multiple limiting portions on the valve body to fix the seal to the valve body. In this case, the seal can remain stationary relative to the valve core, which can also prevent slippage.

[0042] refer to Figure 3 According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the sealing member 30 has a positioning portion 32 distributed between at least two adjacent flow channel holes 31. The positioning portion 32 distributed between adjacent flow channel holes 31 can enhance the connection between the portion of the sealing member 30 located between adjacent flow channel holes 31 and the valve core 20, so that when the valve core 20 rotates, the portion of the sealing member 30 located between adjacent flow channel holes 31 can rotate together with the valve core 20, that is, remain stationary relative to the valve core 20, thereby avoiding slippage.

[0043] Furthermore, when the portion between any two adjacent flow channel holes 31 in the seal 30 can be stationary relative to the valve core 20, the inner edges of the plurality of flow channel holes 31 at least spaced apart in the rotational direction can be stationary relative to the valve core 20, that is, aligned with the plurality of valve core flow channels 21, so as to avoid fluid leakage from the flow path formed by the flow channel holes 31 and the valve core flow channels 21.

[0044] refer to Figure 4 Multiple positioning portions 32 can be positioning recesses 32, and each positioning portion 32 has a corresponding limiting portion 22 that extends into the positioning recess 32. According to the sealing member 30 provided in this disclosure, the limiting portion 22 extending into the positioning portion 32 enables a fixed connection between the valve core 20 and the sealing member 30, with the connecting surface located inside the sealing member 30. When the valve core 20 rotates, the driving force of the valve core 20 can be transmitted to the interior of the sealing member 30 through the limiting portion 22, thereby causing the entire sealing member 30 to rotate with the valve core 20, thus preventing slippage.

[0045] When the valve core 20 rotates, the positioning part 32 is driven by the limiting part 22. This causes the stress in the positioning part 32 to be higher than in other areas, resulting in uneven stress distribution on the seal 30, which may lead to slippage of the seal 30. To solve this problem, refer to... Figure 3 and Figure 4 The sealing element 30 provided in this disclosure is further provided with a plurality of stress relief portions 33, which are a plurality of stress relief recesses 33 provided on the sealing element 30. The plurality of stress relief recesses 33 provided on the sealing element 30 can disperse stress and prevent deformation of the sealing element 30 due to stress concentration, thereby ensuring the sealing performance of the sealing element 30 and extending the service life of the sealing element 30.

[0046] It is understood that the multiple positioning parts 32 and the multiple stress relief parts 33 can have various relative positional relationships, and this disclosure does not impose any particular limitation on this. As an example, see [reference needed]. Figure 4 At least one stress relief part 33 may be provided between at least two adjacent positioning parts 32. The stress relief part 33 is provided between adjacent positioning parts 32, which allows the stress of the positioning part 32 to be quickly released to the stress relief part 33, thereby avoiding deformation of the seal 30 due to stress concentration and damage to its sealing performance.

[0047] Furthermore, combined Figure 5 When the seal 30 includes multiple positioning portions 32 and multiple stress relief portions 33, the multiple positioning portions 32 and multiple stress relief portions 33 can also be arranged alternately along a certain direction, such as the radial direction of the seal 30. In this way, it can be ensured that the stress of the positioning portions 32 can be quickly released to the stress relief portions 33, and the distribution area on the seal 30 can be effectively utilized to increase the number of multiple positioning portions 32 and multiple stress relief portions 33 distributed on the seal 30.

[0048] It is understood that the positioning part 32 can be constructed in various shapes, such as circular, square, etc., and the embodiments disclosed herein do not impose any particular limitation on this. As an example, refer to Figure 5The plurality of positioning portions 32 may include at least one linear positioning portion 321 and a plurality of point positioning portions 322, the plurality of point positioning portions 322 being arranged at intervals around the outer periphery of the at least one linear positioning portion 321. The linear positioning portion 321 can provide a basic fixing range, while the plurality of point positioning portions 322 surrounding the outer periphery of the linear positioning portion 321 can form a larger fixing range with the linear positioning portion 321 to fix the seal 30 to the valve body 10 or the valve core 20.

[0049] It is understood that the embodiments of this disclosure do not impose particular limitations on the orientation, number, and positional distribution of the linear positioning portions 321. For example, the linear positioning portions 321 may extend along or approximately along the radial direction of the seal 30. Also, the number of linear positioning portions 321 may be multiple; in this case, the multiple linear positioning portions 321 may be independently distributed or may intersect. As an example, refer to... Figure 5 At least one linear positioning portion 321 can be a V-shaped positioning portion 321, which opens radially outward of the seal 30. Since the opening of the V-shaped positioning portion 321 opens radially outward of the seal 30, the orientation of each side of the V-shaped positioning portion 321 is the same as the edge of the adjacent flow channel hole 31. In this way, when the portion between the V-shaped positioning portion 321 and the adjacent flow channel hole 31 tends to deform towards or away from the edge of the flow channel hole 31, the V-shaped positioning portion 321 can cooperate with the limiting portion 22 to uniformly restrict the deformation of the seal 30 in the rotation direction of the seal 30, so that the edge of the flow channel hole 31 remains straight, and the seal 30 does not experience or experiences minimal creep.

[0050] It is understandable that the multiple stress-relieving recesses 33 can also be constructed in various shapes. As an example, see [reference]. Figure 4 and Figure 5 At least some of the stress relief recesses 33 are constructed as dot-shaped recesses, which have the same shape as the dot-shaped positioning portions 322 in the plurality of positioning recesses 32. Since the stress relief recesses 33 and the positioning recesses 32 have the same shape, the positioning portions 32 and the stress relief portions 33 can be processed simultaneously when machining the seal 30, thereby improving production efficiency.

[0051] In addition to providing positioning portions 32 between adjacent flow channel holes 31, positioning portions 32 can also be provided at other locations on the seal 30. As one possible implementation, see [reference]. Figure 3The seal 30 may include a central ring portion 34 (the portion enclosed by the dashed line in the figure), with a plurality of flow channel holes 31 arranged at intervals on the radially outer side of the central ring portion 34. Positioning portions 32 are distributed throughout the central ring portion 34, and at least some stress relief portions 33 are also distributed throughout the central ring portion 34. Arranging the positioning portions 32 and stress relief portions 33 in the central ring portion 34 can prevent slippage of the central ring portion 34 and allow the stress in the central ring portion 34 to be released to the stress relief portions 33, thereby preventing deformation of the central ring portion 34 due to stress concentration and thus avoiding damage to its sealing performance.

[0052] refer to Figure 5 The multiple positioning portions 32 may also include grooves 323, which are configured to extend radially outward from the outer edge of the flow channel hole 31. Since they extend outward from the outer edge of the flow channel hole 31, the grooves 323 can engage with the limiting portion 22 to prevent slippage of the outer edge of the seal 30. Furthermore, because the grooves 323 extend outward from the outer edge of the flow channel hole 31, even when the distance from the outer edge of the flow channel hole 31 to the outer edge of the seal 30 is short, the grooves 323 can be arranged on the seal 30, thereby effectively increasing the distribution rate of the positioning portions 32 on the seal 30.

[0053] The following is combined Figure 6 The following are illustrative examples of variations of this disclosure. It should be noted that the foregoing embodiments and the following variations share some common elements. In the following variations, these elements will use the same reference numerals as in the foregoing embodiments to omit repeated descriptions.

[0054] refer to Figure 6 A modified example of the seal 30a of the present disclosure is shown. The seal 30a includes a plurality of positioning portions 32a for cooperating with a plurality of limiting portions 22 correspondingly provided on the valve body 10 or the valve core 20 to fix the seal 30a to the valve body 10 or the valve core 20. The plurality of positioning portions 32a are arranged circumferentially around each flow channel hole 31.

[0055] Through the cooperation of multiple positioning parts 32 and multiple limiting parts 22, the sealing element 30 can be fixedly connected to the valve body 10 or the valve core 20. When the valve core 20 rotates, the sealing element 30 either remains stationary with the valve body 10 or rotates together with the valve core 20, that is, the sealing element 30 is stationary relative to the valve core 20. Therefore, through the cooperation of multiple positioning parts 32a and multiple limiting parts 22, the connection strength between the sealing element 30 and the valve body 10 or the valve core 20 can be enhanced, and the slippage of the sealing element 30 can be avoided. At the same time, arranging multiple positioning parts 32a circumferentially around each flow channel hole 31 can enhance the connection between the portion of the sealing element 30 surrounding the flow channel hole 31 and the valve body 10 or the valve core 20, so that when the valve core 20 rotates, the portion of the sealing element 30 located around the flow channel hole 31 can remain stationary relative to the valve body 10 or the valve core 20.

[0056] It should be understood that the term "comprising" and its variations as used in this disclosure are open-ended, meaning "including but not limited to". The term "according to" means "at least in part according to". The term "one embodiment" means "at least one embodiment"; the term "another embodiment" means "at least another embodiment".

[0057] The scope of protection of this disclosure is not limited to the above embodiments. Any variations or substitutions that can be conceived by those skilled in the art within the scope of the technology disclosed in this disclosure should be included within the scope of protection of this disclosure. Therefore, the scope of protection of this disclosure should be determined by the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A seal for use in a valve assembly, the valve assembly comprising: Valve body, the valve body having multiple flow channels; A valve core is disposed in the valve body. The valve core has at least one valve core flow channel and can be driven to rotate to switch the connection relationship between the plurality of flow channel ports and the at least one valve core flow channel. The sealing element is disposed between the valve body and the valve core, and is fixedly connected to the valve body or the valve core; The sealing element is characterized in that it comprises: Multiple flow channel holes are provided at intervals along the rotation direction of the valve core; Multiple positioning parts are provided, which are used to cooperate with multiple limiting parts correspondingly provided on the valve body or the valve core to fix the sealing element to the valve body or the valve core. The positioning parts are distributed between at least two adjacent flow channel holes.

2. The seal according to claim 1, characterized in that, The sealing element is provided with multiple stress relief portions, which are multiple stress relief recesses provided on the sealing element.

3. The seal according to claim 2, characterized in that, At least one stress relief part is provided between at least two adjacent positioning parts among the plurality of positioning parts.

4. The seal according to claim 3, characterized in that, The plurality of positioning portions are positioning recesses, and the limiting portion corresponding to each positioning portion is a positioning protrusion that extends into the positioning recess. At least some of the stress relief recesses among the plurality of stress relief recesses have the same shape as at least some of the positioning recesses among the plurality of positioning recesses.

5. The seal according to claim 2, characterized in that, The seal includes a central ring portion, the plurality of flow channel holes are arranged at intervals on the radial outer side of the central ring portion, the central ring portion is provided with the positioning portion, and at least a portion of the stress relief portion is scattered in the central ring portion.

6. The seal according to claim 1, characterized in that, The plurality of positioning parts include at least one linear positioning part and a plurality of point positioning parts, wherein the plurality of point positioning parts are arranged at intervals around the outer periphery of the at least one linear positioning part.

7. The seal according to claim 6, characterized in that, The at least one linear positioning part is a V-shaped positioning part, which is open to the radially outward side of the seal.

8. The seal according to claim 1, characterized in that, The plurality of positioning portions also include grooves configured to extend radially outward from the outer edge of the flow channel hole.

9. A seal for use in a valve assembly, the valve assembly comprising: Valve body, the valve body having multiple flow channels; A valve core is disposed in the valve body. The valve core has at least one valve core flow channel and can be driven to rotate to switch the connection relationship between the plurality of flow channel ports and the at least one valve core flow channel. The sealing element is disposed between the valve body and the valve core, and is fixedly connected to the valve body or the valve core; The sealing element is characterized in that it comprises: Multiple flow channel holes are provided at intervals along the rotation direction of the valve core; Multiple positioning parts are provided, which are used to cooperate with multiple limiting parts correspondingly provided on the valve body or the valve core to fix the seal to the valve body or the valve core. The multiple positioning parts are arranged circumferentially around each flow channel hole.

10. A valve device, characterized in that, Includes the seal as described in any one of claims 1 to 9.

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