JP2822641B2 - Flow control valve - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a flow control valve for variably controlling a flow rate of a fluid.

2. Description of the Related Art In a flow control valve, for example, there has been used a flow control valve intended to increase a massage effect and a feeling of comfort by changing a flow rate of a shower.

Conventionally, this type of flow control valve is disclosed in, for example,
As shown in FIG. 6 shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 170640, a time-varying signal is sent from a signal generator 1 to an electromagnetic solenoid 3 of a flow control valve 2, and a pilot valve 4 is opened and closed to drive a flow control valve. The second main valve 5 varies the tapping flow rate with time in the range between the maximum flow rate and the minimum flow rate.

More specifically, in the flow control valve 2, water enters the valve chamber 7 from the inflow passage 6, and flows into the secondary pressure chamber 9 through a gap between the main valve 5 and the main valve seat 8. Reference numeral 10 denotes a diaphragm cooperating with the main valve 5, and the diaphragm 10
The back pressure chamber forms a back pressure chamber, and the back pressure chamber 11 has a spring 12
And urges the secondary pressure chamber 9 side. The water that has flowed into the secondary pressure chamber 9 is supplied to the heat exchanger 15 through the bypass hole 13 for setting the minimum flow rate and the pilot valve seat 14, heated and supplied to the tapping pipe 16. Bypass hole 13 and pilot valve seat 14
Is guided to the back pressure chamber 11 through a communication hole 17. The solenoid 3 that opens and closes the pilot valve seat 14 includes the pilot valve 4
The movable part 18 that operates
And a yoke 20 and a spring 21 for pressing the pilot valve 4 against the pilot valve seat 14. In addition, 22 is a gas burner and 23 is a gas amount control device.

In the above configuration, when power is supplied from the signal generator 1 to the electromagnetic solenoid 3 and the pilot valve 4 is opened, the secondary pressure chamber 9 is opened.
Pressure decreases, and conversely, the pressure in the back pressure chamber 11 increases,
The main valve 5 is driven by the force of the spring 12 and the diaphragm 10.
Is further pushed open, and the maximum amount of water flows.
When the power supply from the signal generator 1 to the electromagnetic solenoid 3 is stopped, the pilot valve 4 closes, the pressure in the secondary pressure chamber 9 increases, and the pressure in the back pressure chamber 11 decreases. Operates so that the gap with the main valve seat 8 is reduced,
It was a state of minimum flow.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, such a conventional configuration requires the diaphragm 10 and the pilot valve 4, and has a problem that the configuration is complicated and large.
Moreover, the pilot-type electromagnetic solenoid 3 has a configuration requiring a large driving force. This is because the bore of the pilot valve seat 14 is not sufficient in terms of pressure loss, but is assumed to have an inner diameter of 10 mm, and the secondary pressure chamber 9 acting on the pilot valve 4
Also the pressure as 1 kg / cm ² when viewed in order small, the force of the spring 21 to close the pilot valve 4 is about at least 80
0 grams or more is required. That is, the spring 21
In order to overcome this problem and open the pilot valve 4, the electromagnetic driving force of the electromagnetic solenoid 3 must be able to generate a force of about 1 kilogram. Moreover, since the diaphragm 10 and the main valve 5 are driven by the pressure change of the secondary pressure chamber 9 and the back pressure chamber 1 through the operation of the pilot valve 4 to change the flow rate, the operation response is not satisfactory. Did not. In other words, if the electromagnetic solenoid 3 and the pilot valve 4 and the pilot valve seat 14 are used alone, and the diaphragm 4 and the main valve 5 have a simple configuration without the need for a high-speed response, the valve 4 is used. The force required to open and close the valve seat 14 is large and is not practical. In addition, since the valve 4 suddenly closes the valve seat 14 and the flow rate suddenly becomes zero from the maximum, a so-called water hammer phenomenon occurs, which adversely affects the piping in the range. To mitigate the water hammer phenomenon, the electromagnetic solenoid 3, the pilot valve 4, the parrot valve seat
14 and the bypass hole 13, the valve 4 is a valve seat
Even if 14 is suddenly closed, the flow rate changes from maximum to minimum,
Although the water hammer phenomenon is alleviated because it does not become zero, the problem that the force required for opening and closing the valve 4 is large was not solved, and it was not practical.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a flow control valve which is small in size, has a simple structure, consumes low power, has high speed response, and has no water hammer phenomenon.

Means for Solving the Problems To solve the above problems, a flow control valve of the present invention is provided with a valve housing having an inflow passage and an outflow passage, and provided in the valve housing,
A valve body that varies a flow rate, a valve seat corresponding to a flow rate control flange that receives the inflow pressure of the valve body, a cylinder portion that guides a pressure balance flange of the valve body that also receives the inflow pressure, and the valve body. An urging means for urging, an electric urging force generating means for applying a force to the valve body in opposition to the urging force of the urging means, and a communication passage for communicating the cylinder portion and the outflow path, A minimum flow passage for ensuring a minimum flow when the valve body closes the valve seat.

According to the present invention, when the electric urging force generation means is not energized and there is no electric urging force, the urging means keeps the flow control flange of the valve body urged away from the valve seat by the urging means. Up to the maximum flow rate. When the electric urging force generating means is energized to generate the electric urging force, the electric urging force opposes the urging force and acts to bring the flow control flange of the valve body closer to the valve seat. The fluid flow rate is reduced in accordance with the amount of electricity. The fluid flow rate decreases as the amount of electricity supplied to the electric urging force generating means increases. Fluid entering from the inflow passage acts so that the inflow pressure acts on each of the flow rate control flange and the pressure balance flange of the valve body in the opposite direction, and the inflow pressure cancels out the force for biasing the valve body as much as possible. It is possible to control the flow rate with a slight electrical biasing force that acts and almost overcomes the biasing force of the biasing means. For example,
Whereas the configuration of the conventional example requires an electromagnetic driving force of about 1 kilogram, the configuration of the present invention requires one-tenth of that.
The same flow control can be performed with an electric biasing force of about 100 grams, and the flow control valve can be made simple, small in size, and driven with low power, instead of a complicated structure using a diaphragm. Moreover, when the flow rate control flange of the valve element closes the valve seat, the fluid flows through the minimum flow passage and acts so as not to be throttled below the minimum flow rate, so that the water hammer phenomenon is also suppressed. Also, when applied to a shower, in the case of a normal shower used without changing the shower flow rate, it is not necessary to energize the flow rate control means, which saves power, and also varies the shower flow rate according to a signal that changes over time. Even in the case, for example, the flow rate of the shower can be fluctuated with a short energizing time and energizing amount, such as returning to the maximum flow rate when energizing the flow control means only at the moment of decreasing the flow rate and stopping energizing, so that the stimulating feeling and massage effect Thus, it is possible to reduce the power consumption of a shower device that can provide such a function.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 24 denotes a memory IC for recording music as an example of a tone signal generating means. When the tone signal generating means 24 is operated, a tone signal is output. This tone signal is input to the flow controller 25 and the speaker 26. The flow controller 25 detects a rhythm element from the tone signal, and outputs an electric output corresponding to the rhythm element signal to a flow control valve.
27 to the electromagnetic coil 28. The method of detecting the rhythm element by the flow controller 25 is to extract a rhythm section of a musical tone signal, for example, only a frequency band of a sound of a musical instrument such as a drum by a frequency filter, and apply a current to the electromagnetic coil 28 according to the volume of the frequency band. Configuration. Flow control valve 27
The movable iron core 30 is slidably inserted into the axis of the electromagnetic coil 28 via a guide pipe 29.
Outside, a magnetic circuit is configured by the yoke 31 and the yoke plate 32. That is, the electromagnetic coil 28, the guide pipe 29, the movable iron core 30, the yoke 31, the yoke plate 32, the seal cap 33, and the like form an electric urging force generating means. Further, urging means 36 is provided so that the valve body 35 contacts the end face of the movable iron core 30.
Are arranged. The flow path inside the valve housing 37 of the flow control valve 27 has an inflow path 39 leading to a hot water supply port 38 and a discharge port for discharging hot water.
A valve seat 43 and a cylinder portion 44 are formed in the middle of the flow path between the outflow passage 42 leading to the hand shower 41 having 40, and the valve body 35 is inserted so as to slide on the cylinder portion 44. Have been. Further, a communication passage 46 having a sufficient passage area is formed between the cylinder bottom 45 where the urging means 36 is disposed and the outflow passage 42. The valve body 35 is formed with a flow control flange 47 and a pressure balance flange 48, and a longitudinal gap of about 0.2 mm is provided between the inner diameter of the cylinder portion 44 and the outer diameter of the pressure balance flange 48. The gap is used as the minimum flow passage 49. FIG. 1 shows a state in which the electromagnetic coil 28 of the flow control valve 27 is de-energized, the valve body 35 is urged by the urging means 36, the flow control flange 47 moves away from the valve seat 43, and the maximum flow rate flows. It is. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the maximum current is flowing through the electromagnetic coil 28, and the electric urging force generating means 34
Electromagnetic force overcomes the force of the urging means 36, and the plunger 30
Pushes the valve body 35, and the outer diameter tapered surface 50 of the flow control flange 47 is in contact with the valve seat 43. At this time, the fluid entering from the inflow path 39 reaches the outflow path 42 from the minimum flow path 49 via the communication path 46. This is a so-called minimum flow state.
FIG. 3 shows a state in which a shower main body 51 incorporating the flow control valve 27 of the present invention is mounted on a wall in a bathroom.
Reference numeral 52 denotes a hot / water mixer tap having an automatic temperature control function that can be adjusted to a desired hot water temperature. Reference numeral 54 denotes a battery power supply unit incorporated in the shower main body 51, which is replaceable and has a waterproof structure. 55 is a fixed nozzle capable of discharging hot and cold water from the upper part of the shower body separately from the hand shower 41. The switching between the hand shower 41 and the fixed nozzle 55 is performed by operating a switching electromagnetic valve 57 (not shown) from the operation unit 56. It is. The switching solenoid valve 57 is
It is constituted by a self-holding type solenoid valve which can be switched by one-shot energization in order to reduce consumption of the battery power supply 54. The flow controller 25 and the flow control valve 27 are configured to be built in the shower main body 51. 58 is a mirror.

In the above configuration, at the operation unit 56 of the shower main body 51,
When the discharge from the hand shower is instructed, the switching solenoid valve 57 opens by one-shot energization to open the hand shower 41.
Hot water spouts from the discharge port 40 of. In this case, the flow control valve
Since power is not supplied to the flow path 27, the flow path of the flow control valve 27 remains fully open, and a shower jet with a fully opened flow rate is obtained. As shown in FIG. 4, this is a flow control valve according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The characteristic 27 is due to the configuration in which the flow rate is maximum when the electric input is zero or minimum and the flow rate is minimum when the electric input is maximum. In the case of such a configuration as the conventional example shown in FIG. 6, unless the electromagnetic solenoid 3 is energized, a shower jet with a normal full-open flow rate cannot be obtained. As described above, in the case of the normal shower used without changing the shower flow rate, it is not necessary to energize the flow control valve 27, and power is saved. In the characteristic shown in FIG. 4, the reason why the minimum flow rate is maintained even when the input current to the electromagnetic coil 28 is increased from the point P is that the flow rate control flange 47 abuts on the valve seat 43 and closes the valve seat 43. This is because the fluid that has entered from the inflow path 39 flows through the minimum flow path 49 with a fixed gap to the communication path 46 and the outflow path 42. Therefore, even if the input current to the electromagnetic coil 28 rapidly changes from zero to maximum or from maximum to zero, the flow of the fluid stops only by continuously changing from the maximum flow rate to the minimum flow rate or from the minimum flow rate to the maximum flow rate. Since there is no intermittent change, the water hammer phenomenon can be suppressed.

Next, when the mode switch (not shown) of the musical sound fluctuation of the operation unit 56 is turned on in the state of the normal shower jet, a musical sound signal is generated from the musical sound signal generating means 24, and the musical sound is simultaneously heard from the speaker 26 and the music is heard. The flow rate of the shower jet changes in conjunction with the rhythm of the shower jet. The fluctuation associated with the musical tone is caused by the flow controller 25 detecting a rhythm element from the musical sound signal and outputting an electric output corresponding to the rhythm element to the electromagnetic coil of the flow control valve 27.
It happens by applying to 28. Flow controller at this time
FIG. 5 shows a state where the input current applied from 25 to the flow control valve 27 changes and a state where the shower flow rate changes.
Thus, the shower flow rate changes according to the time-varying rhythm element signal, and a rhythmic stimulus can be obtained. In this way, according to the sound intensity of the rhythm element that changes with time, the flow control valve 27 is energized only at the instant of each signal, and the movable core 30 is driven by the electromagnetic force generated in the electromagnetic coil 28 of the flow control valve 27. Acts to overcome the force of the urging means 36 and push the valve body 35, and the instantaneous shower flow decreases. Also, between the pulses of the rhythm element signal, the input current from the flow controller 25 to the flow control valve 27 stops, and the electromagnetic force of the electromagnetic coil 28 of the flow control valve 27 at that moment also disappears. It is fully opened by the force of the urging means 36 and acts immediately to return to the maximum flow rate. In the flow control valve 27, the inflow pressure from the inflow passage 39 acts on the flow rate control flange 47 and the pressure balance flange 48 of the valve body 35, and the valve body pressure acting force due to the inflow pressure is almost offset.
The valve body 35 can be driven by only the force of the urging means 36, for example, only by the electromagnetic force of the electromagnetic coil 28 that can withstand about 100 grams, thereby enabling lower-power driving. Connecting passage 46
It is also effective to further reduce the acting force of the fluid pressure valve body, that is, assuming that there is no communication passage 46, the inflow passage
The inflow pressure from 39 is applied to the urging means 36 of the pressure balance flange 48.
Since it goes around to the installation side and acts as a force to push the valve body 35 toward the movable iron core 30, an extra electromagnetic force is required, which requires a large amount of electric power.
Further, the flow control valve 27 is different from the conventional one in which the pilot valve 4 is driven to change the flow rate by driving the main valve 5 through a change in the force acting on the diaphragm. Since it is a so-called direct-acting configuration in which the movable iron core 30 on which a force acts is directly driven, a quick response is obtained, and the flow rate can be varied in conjunction with a fast change signal such as music. Even when the flow rate is changed at a high speed as described above, the water hammer phenomenon is suppressed by the operation of the minimum flow path 49 described above. Further, as described above, by using the flow control valve of the present invention, the flow rate fluctuation can be performed with a short energizing time and energizing amount, and a shower device that can provide a feeling of irritation and a massage effect can be provided with extremely low power. It can be realized. Therefore, in order to realize such a fluctuating shower conventionally, a commercial power supply is required, and when installing in a bathroom, electric work is required along with hot water supply piping work, and the bathroom needs to be renovated or renovated. However, the flow control valve of the present invention makes it possible to use a battery-powered type flow rate fluctuation shower device as shown in FIG. 3, which eliminates the need for electrical work and bathroom remodeling, etc. It can be easily attached to bathrooms etc.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the flow control valve of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) a valve housing having an inflow passage and an outflow passage, a valve body provided in the valve housing and varying a flow rate, a valve seat corresponding to a flow control flange for receiving an inflow pressure of the valve body, and the valve A cylinder portion for guiding a pressure balance flange of the body that also receives the inflow pressure, an urging means for urging the valve body, and an electric force acting on the valve body in opposition to the urging force of the urging means. Since the flow control valve includes a target urging force generating means, a communication passage for communicating the cylinder portion with the outflow, and a minimum flow passage for ensuring a minimum flow when the valve body closes the valve seat, the The inflow pressure from the passage acts on the flow rate control flange and the pressure balance flange of the valve element, and the valve element receiving pressure acting force due to the inflow pressure is almost cancelled, and a slight electric biasing force that can substantially resist the force of the biasing means. The valve can be driven with a small and simple configuration. There is an effect that the flow control can be so in duck low power.

(2) Unlike the conventional configuration in which the pilot valve is driven and the main valve is driven through a change in the force acting on the diaphragm to vary the flow rate, the valve body is directly driven by the electric urging force. With the configuration, there is an effect that a quick response can be obtained and the flow rate can be varied in conjunction with a change signal of music or the like.

(3) Since the valve body is provided with the minimum flow passage for ensuring the minimum flow when the valve seat is closed, the water hammer phenomenon can be suppressed even though the valve is a high-speed response flow control valve.

(4) By applying the flow control valve of the present invention to a shower, a flow fluctuation can be achieved with a short energizing time and energizing amount, and a shower device that can provide a stimulating feeling and a massage effect can be realized with extremely low power. It becomes possible. Therefore, there is no need for electrical work with a built-in battery power source, renovation of the bathroom, and the like, and a unique effect that a high value-added shower that can be easily attached to an existing bathroom or the like can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a flow control valve according to an embodiment of the present invention applied to a shower device, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a state when a maximum current is input to the flow control valve, and FIG. Perspective view of the installed state of the shower device incorporating the same flow control valve,
FIG. 4 is a characteristic diagram of the flow control valve, FIG. 5 is a dynamic characteristic diagram of the flow control valve, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view in which a conventional flow control valve is applied to a water heater. 27 ... Flow control valve, 34 ... Electrical biasing force generating means, 35 ...
… Valve element, 36… urging means, 37… valve housing, 39… inflow path, 42… outflow path, 43… valve seat, 44… cylinder section, 46
…… Communication passage, 47 …… Flow control flange, 48 …… Pressure balance flange, 49 …… Minimum flow passage.

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-1-2699769 (JP, A) JP-A-2-34877 (JP, U) JP-A-58-187668 (JP, U) JP-B-63-43632 (JP) , B2) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) F16K 31/00-31/11

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A valve housing having an inflow passage and an outflow passage, a valve body provided in the valve housing and varying a flow rate, and a valve seat corresponding to a flow control flange for receiving an inflow pressure of the valve body. A cylinder portion that guides a pressure balance flange of the valve body that also receives the inflow pressure, and an urging unit that urges the valve body,
An electrical urging force generating unit that applies a force to the valve body in opposition to the urging force of the urging unit; a communication path that communicates the cylinder portion with the outflow path; A flow control valve having a minimum flow passage for ensuring a minimum flow when the valve is closed.