Bleed Air Switching Valve Assembly With Asymmetric Sleeve Orientation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The assembly of bleed air valves in aircraft engines poses challenges due to the directional nature of sleeve components, which can lead to misorientation and improper sealing, affecting the valve's functionality and reliability.
Innovation Solution
A valve design featuring a piston housing with a cylindrical chamber and a sleeve extending from a mating connector, where the sleeve's ends are stacked at different heights to ensure proper alignment and secure engagement, preventing rotation and axial movement, thus facilitating correct assembly and operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a spring-mounted piston with a sealing ring is used in a sleeve, then the valve can govern air intake effectively, but the assembly process becomes complex and error-prone due to the directional nature of the piston components
Solution Approach 1:
The piston body incorporates asymmetric features including a first axial piston surface with a first distance to the first sleeve end and a second axial piston surface with a second distance to the first sleeve end, where the second distance is greater than the first distance. This asymmetric configuration provides built-in orientation cues that guide correct assembly, eliminating the complexity and errors associated with directional component installation while maintaining effective valve operation
2Reliability
If the piston body is directional with specific features facing the high-pressure side, then proper sealing and function are achieved, but misorientation during assembly can occur leading to improper sealing
Solution Approach 1:
The design employs asymmetric dimensional relationships between the piston body and sleeve, where the first axial piston surface is positioned at a first distance from the first sleeve end and the second axial piston surface is positioned at a second distance from the first sleeve end, with the second distance being greater than the first distance. This asymmetric configuration creates inherent orientation guidance that prevents misorientation during assembly, ensuring that the piston's directional features correctly face the high-pressure side and achieve proper sealing without relying solely on operator precision
Solution Approach 2:
The asymmetric distance configuration is built into the component design before assembly, providing pre-established orientation cues. This preliminary action of encoding directional information into the geometry itself guides the assembler to correctly orient the piston body before final assembly, preventing misorientation errors rather than relying on post-assembly adjustments or inspections
Data Source
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AI summary
A valve (40) for an air system in an aircraft engine (10), comprising: a housing (42) defining a chamber (C) having a valve axis (AV); a body (64) within the chamber (C) about a piston axis (AP) collinear with the valve axis (AV), extending from a first surface (64a) to a second surface (64b), defining a bore (64C) extending from the first to the second surface (64b), having a mating connector (M) defined by the second surface (64b) and located radially outward of the bore (64c) relative to the piston axis (AP); and a sleeve (72) extending from a first end (72a) matingly engaged with the mating connector (M) to a second end (72b) along a sleeve axis collinear with the valve axis (AV), the first end (72a) axially stacked on the body (64) via the first surface (64a) to define a first distance between the first end (72a) and the first surface (64a), and via the second surface (64b) to define a second distance between the first end (72a) and the second surface (64b) greater than the first distance.