Valve Device Sealing Disk Units for Compact Motor Vehicle Applications
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Solution Overview
Problem
Valve devices with multiple connection openings face challenges in ensuring tightness under varying pressure conditions, leading to potential leakage issues, especially in compact designs for motor vehicle applications.
Innovation Solution
A valve device with two sealing disk units, each comprising a fixed and a rotatable sealing disk, where the rotatable disks are connected to an actuating shaft and designed with overlapping flow openings to separate chambers, ensuring tightness through axial pressure and additional spring elements for enhanced sealing, and a form-fitting anti-rotation mechanism for efficient operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If multiple valve elements are provided in a valve housing with at least three connection openings to control fluid flow in compact motor vehicle applications, then the device achieves a compact design suitable for narrow installation spaces, but adequate tightness becomes difficult to ensure under varying pressure conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The valve device is segmented into multiple sealing disk units (first and second sealing disk units) with fixed and rotatable sealing disks. Each sealing disk unit independently separates adjacent chambers, allowing compact arrangement while maintaining reliable sealing through multiple discrete sealing interfaces rather than relying on a single complex sealing mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sealing surfaces are provided with locally optimized properties: fixed sealing disks provide stable mounting surfaces, while rotatable sealing disks provide flexible sealing contact. The sealing surfaces are specifically designed with appropriate hardness, smoothness, and geometric profiles to ensure tight sealing under varying pressure conditions in each local region.
2Ease of operation
If rotatable sealing disks are connected to an actuating shaft to enable flow cross section control, then the valve device achieves simplified operation with single actuator control, but ensuring consistent sealing under pressure fluctuations becomes challenging
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple rotatable sealing disks are merged onto a single actuating shaft, allowing one actuator to control the opening and closing of multiple flow cross sections simultaneously. This combining approach simplifies operation while the distributed sealing design across multiple disks maintains reliability under pressure fluctuations.
Solution Approach 2:
The rotatable sealing disks are designed to dynamically respond to pressure conditions. Under pressure fluctuations, the sealing disks can adjust their contact pressure and positioning to maintain consistent sealing, while still being driven by the single actuating shaft for simplified operation.
3Device complexity
If two sealing disk units are provided to separate three chambers, then the valve device achieves compact design with reduced number of components, but complex assembly and alignment requirements increase error-proneness
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing disk units are designed with universal, standardized features that serve multiple functions: the fixed sealing disks provide both structural support and sealing surfaces, while the rotatable sealing disks provide both flow control and sealing functions. This multi-functionality reduces the total number of unique components needed, simplifying manufacturing and assembly despite the compact multi-chamber design.
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 achieves high tightness with minimal leakage, cost-effectiveness, and reduced error-prone assembly, maintaining sealing integrity across pressure fluctuations and ensuring secure locking while allowing for simple and efficient operation of flow cross-section adjustments.
Implementation Method 1
a spring element, in particular a helical spring, to be arranged under tension between the two sealing disk units
Implementation Method 2
the rotatable sealing disk and the fixed sealing disk of each sealing disk unit each having at least one throughflow opening in order to allow in at least one Overlapping position of the flow openings to release a flow cross section between the adjacent chambers
Implementation Method 3
an actuating shaft which is non-rotatably connected to the rotatable sealing disks. Two sealing disk units are therefore provided, which separate the three chambers from one another in the valve housing when the through-flow openings of the sealing disks lying against one another are not in an overlapping position
Data Source
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AI summary
The application relates to a valve device, including a valve housing which has at least three connection openings, each of which open into a chamber of the valve device, including two sealing disc units arranged at a distance from each other, each of which lies between two adjacent chambers and has a fixed sealing disc and at least one rotatable sealing disc, wherein each of the rotatable sealing discs and the fixed sealing discs of each sealing disc unit has at least one throughflow opening in order, in at least one overlapping position of the throughflow openings, to release a throughflow cross-section between the adjacent chambers, and including an actuating shaft, which is connected to the rotatable sealing discs for conjoint rotation.