Segmented Control Valve Caps for Easier Pilot Chamber Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing control valve design with a single cap on one side of the valve housing becomes cumbersome and difficult to attach as the size and weight of the cap increase, making handling and attachment challenging, especially when scaling up the control valve.
Innovation Solution
The control valve design incorporates multiple caps attached to the valve housing, with a communication path allowing pilot chambers and maximum pressure introduction passages to communicate, reducing the weight and size of each cap and simplifying the attachment process by dividing the cap into multiple sections with larger intervals between pilot chambers, allowing for easier handling and reduced external pipelines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a single cap is provided on the valve housing to accommodate multiple pilot chambers, then the control valve can maintain a compact structure, but the cap size and weight increase making attachment difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The single cap is divided into multiple separate caps, each accommodating a subset of pilot chambers. This segmentation reduces the size and weight of each individual cap, making them easier to handle and attach to the valve housing, while collectively they still accommodate all required pilot chambers.
2Device complexity
If a single cap is used to house all pilot chambers, then the structure appears simplified, but the cap weight increases making handling difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The cap structure is segmented into multiple smaller caps corresponding to different groups of pilot chambers. Each smaller cap has reduced weight compared to a single large cap, improving handling ease during assembly and maintenance while maintaining the overall functional integration of the control valve.
3Volume of stationary object
If pilot chambers are arranged closely in a single cap, then the valve housing size is reduced, but the cap becomes too large and heavy for easy attachment
Solution Approach 1:
The pilot chambers are grouped into sets, with each group housed in a separate cap. This allows the valve housing to be assembled with multiple smaller caps rather than one large cap, reducing attachment difficulty while the internal arrangement of pilot chambers within each cap maintains compactness.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of arranging all pilot chambers in a single cap along one dimension, the invention distributes them across multiple caps in different spatial positions. This dimensional redistribution reduces the size of each individual cap while maintaining the overall compact arrangement of all pilot chambers within the valve housing.
Data Source
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AI summary
A control valve (100) includes a plurality of caps (101) attached to one side surface (1a) of a valve housing (1), a maximum pressure introduction passage (110) into which a maximum pressure in the pressures of the plurality of pilot chambers (3) is introduced, and a communication path (104) provided in the cap (101) and allowing the pilot chamber (3) and the maximum pressure introduction passage (110) to communicate with each other. The maximum pressure introduction passage (110) has a first passage (111) provided on a side opposite from the valve housing (1) across the pilot chamber (3) and connected to the communication path (104), a second passage (112) extending from the first passage (111) to the valve housing (1) and opened in the one side surface (1a) side of the valve housing (1), and a third passage (113) provided so as to allow the second passages (112) of the plurality of caps (101) to communicate with each other in the valve housing (1).