Split Valve Vacuum Sealing Prevents Granular Material Scattering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing split valves in pharmaceutical and food industries fail to prevent granular material from scattering due to imperfect hermetic engagement between valve bodies, allowing material to intrude into gaps and scatter when the transfer is completed.
Innovation Solution
A split valve design featuring an upper and lower valve body with spherical surfaces and a shaft, where the valve bodies are hermetically engaged by vacuumizing a chamber between them, ensuring secure communication between discharge and receiving ports to prevent material intrusion and scattering.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the divided split valve is integrated by pressing force, then the valve can be assembled, but the end faces are not perfectly hermetically engaged allowing granular material to intrude into gaps
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses vacuum pressure (pneumatic principle) to create hermetic engagement between the valve body end faces. The vacuum pressing mechanism applies suction force to press the end faces together, ensuring complete sealing that prevents granular material from intruding into gaps, while still allowing for easy assembly and disassembly of the valve components.
2Ease of operation
If the split valve is simply integrated by pressing force, then assembly is easy, but granular material scatters when transfer is completed and valve is removed
Solution Approach 1:
The vacuum pressing mechanism uses pneumatic suction to maintain hermetic sealing between valve bodies during operation. This prevents granular material from intruding into gaps and subsequently scattering when the valve is disassembled, while keeping the assembly process simple and easy to operate.
3Reliability
If vacuum pressing mechanism is added to achieve hermetic engagement, then granular material intrusion is prevented, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The vacuum pressing mechanism serves multiple functions: it creates hermetic sealing between valve bodies, maintains engagement during rotation and operation, and enables easy assembly and disassembly. By combining these functions into a single mechanism, the patent achieves reliable hermetic engagement without proportionally increasing device complexity.
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 design effectively prevents granular material from intruding into gaps between valve bodies, thereby preventing scattering during and after transfer, ensuring a secure and efficient transfer process.
Implementation Method 1
a lower valve body that constitutes a lower portion of the hemisphere and has a spherical surface abutting on a spherical seat surface of the receiving port to block the receiving port and has a protrusion fitted to the hollow of the upper valve body on an upper surface, a shaft that is connected to the lower valve body and can rotate the lower valve body, and an air supply/discharge mechanism that is configured to supply/discharge an air pressure to/from a chamber defined by the protrusion and the hollow. The lower valve body and the upper valve body are hermetically engaged with each other by causing the upper surface of the lower valve body and the lower surface of the upper valve body to abut on each other and vacuumizing the chamber
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2B
Figure 3
AI summary
A split valve (100) includes: an upper valve body (12) having a spherical surface (12a) abutting on a seat surface (11a) of a discharge port (4) to block the discharge port (4) and a hollow (12b) on a lower surface; a lower valve body (32) that blocks a receiving port (5) by causing a spherical surface (32c) to abut on a seat surface (31a) of a receiving port (5) and has a protrusion (32a) fitted to the hollow (12b) of the upper valve body (12) on its upper surface, a shaft (33) that rotates the lower valve body (32), an air supply/discharge mechanism (35) that supplies/discharges an air pressure into/from a chamber (41) defined by the protrusion (32a) and the hollow (12b).