Pressure Relief Valve Detent Assembly for Repeatable Release
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pressure relief assemblies lack reusability and reliability in deploying pressure relief valves, often failing to maintain consistent performance due to mechanical degradation and simultaneous release of detent engagement surfaces.
Innovation Solution
A pressure relief assembly with a spring-loaded detent mechanism that allows the valve body to be released from the frame upon a minimum pressure differential, featuring a detent engagement surface and a compression spring to ensure reliable and repeatable deployment without mechanical degradation, and includes a vent for airflow parallel to the valve pathway.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a pressure relief assembly uses a detent mechanism to hold the valve body, then the valve can be securely retained in the closed position, but the detent engagement surfaces may experience mechanical degradation and simultaneous release leading to unreliable deployment
Solution Approach 1:
The compression spring is pre-loaded in the detent mechanism to store mechanical energy before deployment is needed. This preliminary action ensures that when deployment is required, the stored energy immediately drives the detent engagement surfaces apart, overcoming any mechanical degradation and ensuring reliable valve release without requiring the surfaces to be perfectly clean or undamaged.
Solution Approach 2:
The detent mechanism transitions from a static engagement state to a dynamic release state through the compression spring. The spring-loaded design allows the detent engagement surfaces to move dynamically apart under spring force, preventing simultaneous release and accommodating wear by maintaining sufficient engagement force through the elastic properties of the spring.
2Reliability
If the valve body is designed with an extension portion extending through the valve opening, then the valve can be reliably positioned and sealed, but the valve body occupies excessive space within the frame
Solution Approach 1:
The valve body extension portion is nested within the valve opening space, with the extension fitting through the opening and the sealing rim forming a seal at the opening plane. This nesting arrangement allows the valve body to achieve reliable positioning and sealing without requiring excessive protrusion into the frame, optimizing the use of available space while maintaining functional reliability.
3Ease of operation
If the frame has a large inner minimum cross-dimension across the valve opening, then the valve body can be easily positioned and sealed, but the overall assembly size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The frame's inner minimum cross-dimension is optimized locally at the valve opening region to provide sufficient space for reliable sealing, while the rest of the frame maintains a more compact profile. This local quality approach ensures ease of valve positioning and sealing at the critical interface without unnecessarily increasing the overall frame area and assembly size.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The assembly provides reliable and reusable pressure relief with predictable deployment at a consistent minimum pressure differential, allowing performance testing and reuse, while preventing contamination entry and maximizing pressure equalization.
Implementation Method 1
a compression spring to ensure reliable and repeatable deployment without mechanical degradation
Implementation Method 2
a vent for airflow parallel to the valve pathway... maximizing pressure equalization
Data Source
AI summary
A pressure relief assembly has a frame having a coupling structure and a valve opening within the valve mounting surface. A valve body has an extension portion extending axially from a sealing rim through the valve opening to a first end of the valve body. In some embodiments, opposite first and second detent engagement surfaces releasably engage the valve body to the frame. The frame has an inner minimum cross-dimension across the valve opening that is greater than or equal to a distance from an end point of the inner minimum cross-dimension laterally across the valve opening to an outer surface of the extension portion between the inner minimum cross-dimension of the valve opening and the first end. in some embodiments a first detent ball is translatably disposed in a detent channel and does not make contact with the channel wall.