An earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve having a valve bottom portion with a generally horizontal floor having a ball seat and a valve seat surrounding a gas outlet passageway. A ball having an elastomeric outer surface is held in the ball seat and in the event of an earthquake, the ball is shaken out of the ball seat and rolls into the valve seat to stop the flow of gas. The ball can either be a solid elastomeric ball or a metal ball with an elastomeric outer coating.
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0. 11. An earthquake and manually actuated automatic gas shutoff valve comprising:
a valve body having an upper area, an inlet area having means for connection to a gas inlet line and a gas inlet passageway forming an entry into an interior of said valve body, an inner shaped wall and a bottom area having a generally horizontal floor having a ball seat and a valve seat surrounding a gas outlet passageway and said gas outlet passageway having means for connection to a gas outlet line; a ball larger than said valve seat so that when the ball is moved over said valve seat, the ball will shut off the flow of gas through said valve; means external of said valve for manually moving said ball from a position where it shuts off the flow of gas to a position where it rests in said ball seat and does not interfere with the flow of gas through the valve; and means external of said valve for manually moving said ball from a position where is rests in said ball seat to a position where it rests over said valve seat.
6. An earthquake and manually actuated automatic gas shutoff valve comprising:
a valve cover portion having means for connection to a gas inlet line and a gas inlet passageway; a valve body portion affixed to said valve cover portion, said valve body portion having an inner shaped wall; a valve bottom portion affixed to said valve body portion, said valve bottom portion having a ball seat and a valve seat surrounding a gas outlet passageway and said gas outlet passageway having means for connection to a gas outlet line; a ball larger than said valve seat so that when the ball is moved over said valve seat, the ball will shut off the flow of gas through said valve; means external of said valve for manually moving said ball from a position where it shuts off the flow of gas to a position where it rests in said ball seat and does not interfere with the flow of gas through the valve; and means external of said valve for manually moving said ball from a position where is it rests in said ball seat to a position where it rests over said valve seat.
8. An earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve comprising:
a valve cover portion having means for connection to a gas inlet line and a gas inlet passageway; a valve body portion affixed to said valve cover, said valve body portion having an inner shaped wall; a valve bottom portion affixed to said valve body portion, said valve bottom portion having a generally horizontal floor having a ball seat and a valve seat surrounding a gas outlet passageway and said gas outlet passageway having means for connection to a gas outlet line; a ball having an elastomeric outer surface, said ball being larger than said valve seat so that when the ball is moved over said valve seat, the ball will shut off the flow of gas through said valve; and means external of said valve for moving said ball from a position where it shuts off the flow of gas to a position where it rests in said ball seat and does not interfere with the flow of gas through the valve comprising an actuating arm supported by said valve body portion near the valve cover and above a side of the valve body portion closest to said valve seat; at least one downwardly depending arm held by said actuating arm and extending downwardly to a position adjacent said generally horizontal floor adjacent side of the valve body portion closest to said valve seat and said at least one downwardly depending arm being biased toward said side of the valve body portion closest to said valve seat; a ball contact arm held near said lower end of said at least one downwardly depending arm, said ball arm contact arm including means for moving a ball contact point on said ball contact arm upwardly as it moves the ball out of contact with the valve seat; and means external of said body portion for turning said actuating arm whereby when said ball is over said valve seat and said actuating arm is turned, said ball contact arm will touch and roll said ball out of contact with the valve seat and into said ball seat and further including means external of said valve from manually moving said ball from a position where it rests in said ball seat to a position where it rests on said valve seat to permit the manual turning off of the gas shutoff valve.
1. An earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve comprising:
a valve cover portion having means for connection to a gas inlet line and a gas inlet passageway; a valve body portion affixed to said valve cover, said valve body portion having an inner shaped wall; a valve bottom portion affixed to said valve body portion, said valve bottom portion having a generally horizontal floor having a ball seat and a valve seat surrounding a gas outlet passageway and said gas outlet passageway having means for connection to a gas outlet line; a ball having an elastomeric outer surface, said ball being larger than said valve seat so that when the ball is moved over said valve seat, the ball will shut off the flow of gas through said valve; and means external of said valve for moving said ball from a position where it shuts off the flow of gas to a position where it rests in said ball seat and does not interfere with the flow gas through the valve wherein said means external of said valve for moving said ball from a position where it shuts off the flow of gas to a position where it rests in said ball seat comprises: an actuating arm supported by said valve body portion near the valve cover and above a side of the valve body portion closest to said valve seat; at least one downwardly depending arm held by said actuating arm and extending downwardly to a position adjacent said generally horizontal floor adjacent the side of the valve body portion closest to said valve seat and said at least one downwardly depending arm being biased toward said side of the valve body portion closest to said valve seat; a ball contact arm held near said lower end of said at least one downwardly depending arm, said ball contact arm including means for moving a ball contact point on said ball contact arm upwardly as it moves the ball out of contact with the valve seat comprising a pair of downwardly depending arms and vertical slots at the lower end of each downwardly depending arm and said ball contact arm being held in said slots so that it can move upwardly as the ball contact arm rolls the ball out of contact with said valve seat; and means external of said valve body portion for turning said actuating arm whereby when said ball is over said valve seat, and said actuating arm is turned, said ball contact arm will touch and roll said ball out of contact with the valve seat and into said ball seat.
2. The earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve of
3. The earthquake actuated automatic gas shut off valve of
4. The earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve of
5. The earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve of
7. The earthquake and manually actuate gas shutoff valve of
9. An earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve comprising:
a valve cover portion having means for connection to a gas inlet line and a gas inlet passageway; a valve body portion affixed to said valve cover, said valve body portion having an inner shaped wall; a valve bottom portion affixed to said valve body portion, said valve bottom portion having a generally horizontal floor having a ball seat and a valve seat surrounding a a gas outlet passageway and said gas outlet passageway having means for connection to a gas outlet line; a ball having an elastomeric outer surface, said ball being larger than said valve seat so that when the ball is moved over said valve seat, the ball will shut off the flow of gas through said valve; and means external of said valve for moving said ball from a position where it shuts off the flow of gas to a position where it rests in said ball seat comprises comprising: the earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve of is an actuating arm supported by said valve body portion near the valve cover and above a side of the valve body portion closest to said valve seat; at least one downwardly depending arm held by said actuating arm and extending downwardly to a position adjacent said generally horizontal floor adjacent the side of the valve body portion closest to said valve seat and said at least one downwardly depending arm being biased toward said side of the valve body portion closest to said valve seat; a ball contact arm head near said lower end of said at least one downwardly depending arm, said ball contact arm including means for moving a ball contact point on said ball contact arm upwardly as it moves the ball out of contact with the valve seat comprising a pair of downwardly depending arms and vertical slots at the lower end of each downwardly depending arm and said ball contact arm being held in said slots so that it can move upwardly as the ball contact arm rolls the ball out of contact with said valve seat; and means external of said valve body portion for turning said actuating arm whereby when said ball is over said valve seat, and when said actuating arm is turned, said ball contact arm will touch and roll said ball out of contact with the valve seat and into said ball seat and further including a deflection plate positioned in a gas flow pack between said gas inlet passageway and said gas outlet passageway and adjacent said gas inlet passageway to deflect the flow of gas away from said ball.
10. The earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve of
0. 12. The earthquake and manually actuated automatic gas shutoff valve of
a valve opening actuating arm supported by said valve body near the upper area of said valve body; at least one downwardly depending arm held by said valve opening actuating arm and extending downwardly to a lower end adjacent said generally horizontal floor adjacent the valve seat and said at least one downwardly depending arm being biased toward a portion of the inner shaped wall closest to said valve seat; a ball contact arm held near said lower end of said at least one downwardly depending arm, said ball contact arm including means for moving a ball contact point on said ball contact arm over a portion of said valve seat as it moves the ball out of contact with the valve seat; and means for turning said valve opening actuating arm whereby when said ball is over said valve seat, and said valve opening actuating arm is turned, said ball contact arm will touch and roll said ball out of contact with the valve seat and into said ball seat; and wherein said means external of said valve for manually moving said ball from a position where is rests in said ball seat to a position where it rests over said valve seat comprises:
a valve closing actuating arm supported by said valve body near the upper area of said valve body; at least one downwardly extending arm held by said valve closing actuating arm and extending downwardly to a lower end adjacent said generally horizontal floor adjacent the ball seat and said at least one downwardly extending arm being biased toward a portion of the inner shaped wall closest to said ball seat; a ball contact arm held near said lower end of said at least one downwardly extending arm, said ball contact arm including means for moving a ball contact point on said ball contact arm over a portion of said ball seat as it moves the ball out of contact with the ball seat and into position to cover said valve seat; and means external of said valve body portion for turning said valve closing actuating arm whereby when said ball is over said ball seat, and said actuating arm is turned, said ball contact arm will touch and roll said ball out of contact with the ball seat and into said valve seat to shut off the flow of gas.
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The field of the invention is earthquake actuated gas shutoff valves. There is a large variety of designs of such valves. One such valve is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,223 which has a ball held on a pedestal. This patent is a continuation in part of U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,345. During an earthquake the ball of the '223 patent falls off of the pedestal and falls over a valve seat. The valve is reset externally by turning an arm which moves the ball off of the valve seat and back onto the pedestal. Another design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,385 where a ferromagnetic ball rolls out of a depression and causes a valve member to move against a valve seat thereby blocking the flow of gas. In a different embodiment, the ball is held in a depression and rolls into a valve seat in the gas flow path. The ball is manipulated magnetically to reset the valve.
Another version of a ball which rolls out of a higher position to a lower position where it blocks a valve seat is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,345. Yet another version of a ball held in a depression which moves into a valve seat is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,429. Another version is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,150. Still another valve using a ball resting on a pedestal is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,394. A relatively simple design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,616 where the ball is reset by a string attached to the ball.
One inherent disadvantage of using a steel ball is the damage the steel ball can do during shipping. Various approaches have been used to reduce this problem, some of which involve the addition of packing materials during shipping. Occasionally, during installation, the installer will forget to remove the packing materials. Also, many of the prior art valves do not have any means of determining when the valve is open or closed from the exterior of the valve.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve which can be shipped without the necessity of capturing the ball during shipping and which is equipped with means for determining whether the valve is open or closed from the exterior of the valve.
The present invention is for an earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve which has a valve cover, a valve body and a valve bottom. The valve bottom has a generally horizontal floor with a ball seat formed in the floor. A valve seat surrounds a gas outlet passageway in the floor. An elastomeric ball is placed in the ball seat and during an earthquake the ball moves out of the ball seat and falls into the valve seat, and a moving arm is operated from outside the valve to move the ball from the valve seat back to the ball seat. Preferably, the valve includes a sight glass which shows whether or not the ball is in the valve seat or on the ball seat. The ball can be either a solid or hollow elastomeric ball or can have an elastomeric outer layer and a metal inner layer. The valve can also be equipped with a manual shutoff feature. In this way the user can easily turn off the flow of gas without the necessity of manipulating the large and often difficult to close shutoff valve in the main gas line.
An earthquake actuated automatic gas shutoff valve is shown in FIG. 1 and has a valve body 1, a cover 2 and a bottom 3. Cover 2 has a hexagonal portion 2' shown best in
An elastomeric ball 4 is shown on a ball seat 5 in
As shown in
A beneficial feature of the present design is the provision of means to manually close the valve even when there is no earthquake. This is accomplished by rotating shaft 31, also supported by body 1 in FIG. 4. Shaft 31 also extends out of body 1 and has a screwdriver or coin slot 32. A pair of rods 33 shown best in
Another feature of the valve as shown in
The preferred construction of ball seat is shown best in
Another interesting advantage of the use of an elastomeric ball 4 is its ability to form a gas tight seal in seat 13 without the necessity of using an O-ring. The elastomeric ball under higher pressures tends to form a very tight seal and this could make it difficult to remove the ball from the seat if a conventional bar was used. For this reason, it has been found useful to provide a rotating ball contact arm 10. As indicated in
In
Another interesting feature of the valve of the present invention is the provision of sight glass 37 shown best in
Another beneficial feature can be added by counter sinking shafts 31 and 8. A conical depression 31' and a conical depression or recess 8' permits these shafts 31 and 8 not to extend outwardly from the valve body so that they are less likely to be damaged during shipment and construction. It is not uncommon for a workman to drop a hammer or brick and if the shafts extend a significant distance away from the body, the likelihood of damage to the valve is increased. By recessing these shafts, a valve results which is more resistent to rough handling.
The shape of the wall 18 is designed to provide several actions. First, the wall and the rods 33 are positioned so that the center of gravity of the ball is always over ball seat 5 once the ball has been pushed back away from valve seat 13. In this way, after resetting, the ball will always fall back into ball seat 5. A portion of wall 18 is angled as indicated by reference character 19, which helps in the event of cross-axis shaking (up and down as viewed in FIG. 2). The ball will not simply bounce back and forth over the ball seat 5 but instead, will ricochet off angled portion 19 toward valve seat 13.
Construction of the valve is simplified by providing that the body, cover and bottom are in three separate pieces as shown in FIG. 1. This three-piece configuration is not essential, however, but it does permit the extrusion of the valve body. In order to secure the body pieces into one strong unit, four special screws 27 (see
A valve cover 2 is shown in
Elastomeric balls can change hardness with temperature and it has been found that by the use of a fluorosilicone elastomer, a very wide range of temperatures is permitted without any degradation of the elastomeric properties of the ball. It is, of course, possible to use a solid hard plastic ball or a metal ball in the valve of the present invention, but the sealing features and the damage-free features would be adversely affected.
The present embodiments of this invention are thus to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive; the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are intended to be embraced therein.
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