Sanitary Mixing Valve Waterway Separation via Insert
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional sanitary mixing valves with cast partition walls in the housing require complex molds, many cores, and often suffer from leaks, leading to high manufacturing costs and rejects.
Innovation Solution
The use of a receiving insert with axially parallel ribs interacting with the cast housing's inner surface to separate waterways, eliminating the need for cast partition walls and allowing for a continuous internal cavity, which can be manufactured with fewer cores and reduces the risk of leaks by using injection-molded plastic parts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cast partition walls are used to separate waterways in the housing, then the structural integrity and separation of waterways is ensured, but the manufacturing complexity increases and leak risks arise
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is divided into two functional parts: a cast housing providing structural integrity and a separate receiving insert providing waterway separation. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function - the cast housing for strength and the insert for precise waterway isolation without requiring complex cast molds with multiple cores.
Solution Approach 2:
The partition walls are extracted from the cast housing and relocated to a separate receiving insert made of injection-molded plastic. This extraction eliminates the need for complex casting molds and cores, simplifying manufacturing while maintaining effective waterway separation through the insert's geometric design.
2Reliability
If cast partition walls are used to separate waterways, then waterway separation is achieved, but manufacturing costs and reject rates increase due to leaks
Solution Approach 1:
The receiving insert is made from inexpensive injection-molded plastic, replacing expensive and complex cast partition walls. Although the insert is a separate component requiring assembly, its low material cost and simple manufacturing process significantly reduce overall production costs and eliminate reject issues associated with leak-prone cast partitions.
Solution Approach 2:
The receiving insert acts as an intermediary component between the cast housing and the control cartridge. It provides the necessary waterway separation function without requiring the cast housing itself to have complex internal partitions, thus simplifying the manufacturing of the main housing while achieving the same separation effect.
3Ease of manufacture
If a continuous internal cavity is used in the cast housing, then manufacturing is simplified with fewer cores, but waterway separation becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The waterway separation function is segmented from the housing structure and assigned to the receiving insert. This allows the housing to maintain a simple continuous cavity for easy manufacturing, while the insert provides the necessary separation through its geometric design with axially parallel ribs that create distinct waterway channels.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of creating complex three-dimensional partition walls within the cast housing, the solution uses a two-dimensional approach with axially parallel ribs on the receiving insert that extend along the water flow direction. This dimensional simplification achieves effective separation while maintaining manufacturing ease.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4
AI summary
The fitting has an accommodation space, a cold water path, a warm water path and a mix water path, which are provided at an inner space of a cast housing (1). The accommodation space for a control cartridge is provided in a support insert (13). The cast housing does not have cast walls, which separate the different water paths from each other. Outer shape of the support insert is designed in such a manner that the support insert cooperates with the sealing surfaces at an inner side of the cast housing and separates the different water paths from each other.