Patent Application
20100012197
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic water diverter for a bath faucet, and more particularly to a water diverter, which is capable of automatically changing a switching position through utilizing the resistance of a water passage, and alleviating switching noises of the faucet and satisfying the flow standard of a spray member by disposing a diverting assembly at an upstream of a check valve.
2. Related Art
Generally, a conventional diverter valve for a bath faucet is configured with a structure as disclosed in US Patent Publication No. U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,541, which provides a spray member function. The diverter valve includes a seal to engage a valve housing and prevent back siphonage, and further includes a piston head and a valve seat to provide secondary against back flow.
When the spray member is closed, the seal of the diverter valve (first head) is forced to move away from a sealing position and allow the fluid flow to the spout. When the spray member is open, the fluid pressure can cause the diverter valve to close off fluid from entering to the spout, and allow fluid flow past the piston (second head) into the spray member.
Although the conventional diverter valve provides a water diverting function, the structure is then used and practically tested, it results that no fluid flows out from the spray member when the spray member is open when an inlet fluid pressure is a low pressure (20 PSI) with no water economizer added to the spray member, due to a locking force at one head of the seal is smaller than that of one head of the piston, If a water economizer is further added, the situation is much worse.
When the inlet fluid pressure is a high pressure (80-125 PSI) with no water economizer added to the spray member, the outlet pressure for the spray member is 80-125 PSI. However, switching the diverter valve may result in a water hammer effect to force the spray member generate vibrations and produce noises, and the outlet flow is then larger than a standard value of 9.5 L/M. If a water economizer was added to the spray member, the water economizer produces a blocking effect, therefore, the pressure within an inner cavity of the diverter valve is increased and forces the piston to open. As a result, the fluid flows out from both the spray member and the other outlet, and it is impossible to achieve the function of water diverting.
Therefore, it has become a technical problem to be solved by the inventor of the present invention how to provide an automatic water diverter capable of automatically diverting the water, reducing the vibrations and noises generated during switching, and satisfying the standard of the outlet flow.
In view of the above problem, the present invention is directed to a water diverter, which is capable of automatically changing the resistance of the water passage through utilizing the fluid pressure, thereby alleviating the vibrations and noises generated during switching and satisfying the flow standard.
In order to achieve the above objective, the present invention provides an automatic water diverter, which includes: a valve seat, a diverting assembly, and a spring. The valve seat has a passage disposed in the center thereof, which axially penetrates therethrough. A flange protruding inwards is annularly disposed on an inner peripheral surface of a top side of the passage, so as to form a through hole. An upper side of the valve seat is connected to an upper outlet pipe, a lower side thereof is connected to a lower outlet pipe, and the valve seat is connected to at least one inlet pipe. The diverting assembly is sleeved within the valve seat, and includes: a seal, a diverting rod, a sliding sleeve, and a check valve. The diverting rod has a suitable length and is sleeved in the passage in a manner of moving up and down. An upper side of the diverting rod is fixed to the seal, and the check valve is disposed at a lower side of the diverting rod and is made of a compressible elastic material. The sliding sleeve is sleeved on the diverting rod and disposed between the tapered seal and the check valve. The sliding sleeve has a via hole corresponding to the inlet pipe, which is provided for the fluid to pass through. The spring is disposed within the sliding sleeve, one head of the spring is pressed against a bottom surface of the flange, and the other head is pressed against the sliding sleeve.
A water limiting element is further connected to a bottom part of the sliding sleeve, so as to control the fluid flow.
Therefore, the automatic water diverter of the present invention uses the fluid pressure effect to force the diverting rod of the present invention move up and down to automatically control the diverting direction and reduce the vibrations and noises generated during the movement. Meanwhile, through the mutual motions between elements, the water limiting function may be achieved, so as to satisfy the flow standard of the spray member.
In order to the make aforementioned and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, the embodiment accompanied with figures is described in detail below.
Definitely, the present invention allows some variations on certain parts or arrangement of the parts, but the embodiment selected in the present invention is illustrated in detail in the specification, and the construction thereof is shown in the accompanying drawings.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below for illustration only, and thus is not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
As for the technical means adopted in the present invention to achieve the above objective, a detailed illustration is given below through the embodiment and accompanying drawings.
The valve seat 3 has a bushing 30 sleeved therein, and the bushing 30 has a passage 31. A flange 32a protruding inwards is annularly disposed on an inner peripheral surface at a middle section of the passage 31, so as to form a through hole 32 that may be tapered (not shown), but it is not limited herein. An upper side of the valve seat 3 is connected to an upper outlet pipe 33, a lower side thereof is connected to a lower outlet pipe 34, and two sides are further respectively connected to a cold water inlet pipe 35 and a hot water inlet pipe 36. The bushing 30 has inlet holes 30a and 30b respectively corresponding to the cold water inlet pipe 35 and the hot water inlet pipe 36, which are provided for the fluid to flow therein.
The diverting assembly 4 is sleeved within the valve seat 3. Particularly, the diverting assembly 4 is disposed in the passage 31 of the bushing 30 and includes: a tapered seal 41, a diverting rod 42, a sliding sleeve 43, a stopper 44, an O-ring 45, and a check valve 46. The diverting rod 42 has a suitable length and is sleeved in the passage 31 in a manner of moving up and down. An upper side of the diverting rod 42 is protruded from the through hole 32 and is fixed with the tapered seal 41. The tapered seal 41 has a tapered surface 41a corresponding to the through hole 32. A diameter of the through hole is between a minimum diameter and a maximum diameter of the tapered seal 41, so that the tapered seal 41 can partially pass through the through hole 32 and sleeve with the through hole 32 in order to seal the fluid.
The check valve 46 is disposed at a lower side of the diverting rod 42 (i.e., the head close to the lower outlet pipe), and is made of a compressible and elastic material (e.g., rubber), which cross-section is disk-shaped and an inner diameter is slightly smaller than that of the passage 31. The check valve 46 has a lip edge 46a at a periphery thereof, and the lip edge 46 is provided with a tapered space 46b increasingly expanding downwards disposed at an inner side thereof. The lip edge 46a has a suitable thickness and desirable flexibility, such that the lip edge 46a may expand outwards or shrink inwards by a fluid pressure effect.
The sliding sleeve 43 is sleeved on the diverting rod 42 and disposed between the tapered seal 41 and the check valve 46. Two sides of the sliding sleeve 43 respectively have a via hole 43c, and each via hole 43c is disposed corresponding to the inlet holes 30a and 30b, which is provided for the fluid to pass therethrough.
The spring 5 is disposed within the sliding sleeve 43, one head of the spring 5 is pressed against the bottom surface of the flange 32a, and the other head thereof is pressed against the stopper 44 or merely pressed against the bottom part of the sliding sleeve 43. The diverting rod 42 sequentially passes through the tapered seal 41, the through hole 32, the spring 5, the sliding sleeve 43, and the check valve 46, and the elements are pressed against each other, such that the diverting rod 42 is maintained in the center position.
Therefore, with the above structure, through turning on or off the switch of the spray member and utilizing the fluid pressure, the diverting rod of the present invention can be forced to move up and down to automatically control the diverting direction, thereby reducing the vibrations and noises generated during movement. Meanwhile, through the mutual motions between elements, the water limiting function may be achieved, so as to satisfy the flow standard of the spray member.
In addition, the sliding sleeve 43 is configured in a sliding manner, so that the via hole 43c and the inlet holes 30a and 30b may be disposed in a misalignment manner. Therefore, as the sliding sleeve 43 moves to another position, the size of the flow path formed between the via hole 43c and each of the inlet holes 30a and 30b may be changed accordingly. That is, when the tapered seal 41 seals the through hole 32, and the fluid is forced to flow downwards through the check valve 46, a smaller flow path is formed between the via hole 43c and the inlet holes 30a and 30b (the state as shown in
Furthermore, under the common requirement of a large outlet flow at the outlet (larger than 8 GPM under a pressure of 40 PSI), the outlet flow of the spray member must be smaller than 9.5 L/M. For the structure of the present invention, when the cold water pipe 21 or/and the hot water pipe 22 has a low pressure (20 PSI) therein, the fluid pressure in the passage 31 is also the low pressure (20 PSI), while the locking force of the tapered seal 41 can be improved through the spring 5, such that it can also achieve the diverting function. When the cold water pipe 21 or/and the hot water pipe 22 has a high pressure (80-125 PSI) therein, the fluid pressure in the passage 31 is smaller than 80 PSI, so as to lower the pressure in the cold water pipe 21 or/and the hot water pipe 22, thereby reducing the vibrations and impacting noises caused by the water hammer effect. That is, the sliding sleeve 43 is provided for attenuating the fluid supply pressure force. Therefore, no matter the diverting assembly 4 moves upwards or downwards, the force applied thereon is smaller than that of the conventional structure, so the vibrations and impacting noises generated by the water diverter 1 are greatly alleviated.
Therefore, the automatic water diverter of the present invention can surely achieve the objective of the present invention.
The disclosure of the embodiments is intended to illustrate the present invention, but not to limit the scope of the present invention, so the variation of cited values or replacement of equivalent elements still falls within the scope of the present invention.
Through the above detailed descriptions, it is apparent for those skilled in the art that the present invention surely achieves the above objectives, which conforms to the provisions of the patent law, so as to apply for the patent application.
