The invention relates to a hydraulic control arrangement for the load-independent control of a consumer and a pressure compensator for a control arrangement of this type.
The basic structure of such control arrangements is known, for instance, from WO 95/32364 A1. In such a load pressure-independent flow distribution (LUDV)1 system each consumer is allocated to an adjustable metering orifice including a pressure compensator down the line, the latter keeping the pressure drop above the metering orifice constant so that the amount of pressure medium flowing to the respective hydraulic consumer is dependent on the opening cross-section of the metering orifice and not on the load pressure of the consumer or on the pump pressure. Since, for instance, in mobile working implements a plurality of such valve arrangements are connected in parallel, it is achieved by the individual pressure compensators of the system that, in the case that a hydro pump of the system has been adjusted up to the maximum stroke volume and the pressure medium flow is not sufficient to maintain the predetermined pressure drop above the metering orifices of the respective valve arrangements allocated to a consumer, the pressure compensators of all operated hydraulic consumers are adjusted in the closing direction so that all pressure medium flows are reduced by the same percentage. Due to this load-pressure independent flow distribution (LUDV) all operated consumers move at a velocity which is reduced in percentage by the same value.
LUDV hydraulic systems of this type are employed to an increasing extent in mobile working implements of combined movements. The operating movements of these mobile working implements (mini and compact excavators, combined dredger-loaders, telescopic loaders, compact loaders etc.) are to be performed free of vibration and pressure of the control by the driver. It has turned out that for the vibration-free control a damping of the LUDV pressure compensators is required.
A damping is known, for instance, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,989 B1. In this known solution the pressure compensator includes a rear pressure chamber and an annular pressure chamber to both of which pressure acting in the closing direction on a pressure compensator piston can be applied, while the pressure applied downstream of the metering orifice, usually the load pressure of the driven consumer, acts in the opening direction on a front face of the pressure compensator piston. Between the rear pressure chamber and the damping chamber a damping nozzle is provided through which the pressure medium has to flow out of the damping chamber or into the same upon the axial displacement of the pressure compensator piston so that the movement of the pressure compensator piston is damped. Such a damping necessarily entails delays when opening and closing the pressure compensator with the consequence of a delayed start of operating movements with high load.
Compared to that, the object underlying the invention is to provide a control arrangement and a load-pressure independent flow distribution pressure compensator suited for this purpose in which the delay of the operating movement of a consumer is minimized despite the damping of the pressure compensator.
This object is achieved regarding the hydraulic control arrangement and regarding the pressure compensator by the features disclosed herein.
In accordance with the invention, in addition to the damping nozzle connecting the damping chamber to the pressure chamber a connecting recess having a larger cross-section than the damping nozzle is provided by which the damping chamber is communicated with a rear pressure chamber which can be shut off by a check valve opening toward the damping chamber. By this measure the movement of the pressure compensator piston in the opening direction in response to the orifice cross-section is relatively strongly damped, while in the closing direction the check valve opens and thus controls a comparatively large cross-section to be opened —i.e. the pressure compensator is damped single-sided so that the pressure compensator of a consumer having a lower load pressure closes quickly, for instance, and in this way permits the quick pressure build-up to a higher load pressure in a different disk.
In a preferred embodiment the pressure compensator piston is in the form of a stepped hollow piston, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,989 B1. This hollow piston is guided on an axial male member provided with a blind-hole bore which opens into the rear pressure chamber. An inner annular face confines the damping chamber by an appropriately formed portion of the male member. The pressure downstream of the metering orifice is applied to the bottom-side annular face of the step piston in the opening direction of the pressure compensator.
In the known solutions a rear control chamber of the pressure compensators is connected to the load-detecting line in which the highest load pressure of all driven consumers tapped by a shuttle valve chain is applied. If the load pressure of an operated hydraulic consumer quickly increases above the currently prevailing highest load pressure, the pressure immediately increases at the front side of the pressure compensator piston of the corresponding pressure compensator, while a respective pressure increase occurs in a delayed form in the rear control chamber via the shuttle valve chain and the load-detecting line. The temporary imbalance of forces caused thereby at the control piston of the pressure compensator can have a negative influence on the control of the hydraulic consumer. For instance, the hydraulic consumer may temporarily drop somewhat or the load-independent flow distribution may be disturbed.
In order to avoid such an undesired dropping of the consumer, in the aforementioned solutions additional load-holding valves are inserted in the pressure medium flow path between the consumer and the pressure compensator so that the pressure medium can be prevented from flowing from the consumer by the pressure compensator. However, such additional load-holding valves render the control arrangement more expensive and require considerable construction space.
In order to eliminate this drawback, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,067,389, 5,890,362 and 4,787,294 pressure compensators are suggested in which the load-holding function is integrated in the pressure compensator. The pressure compensator is provided with two pressure compensator pistons connected in series which are switched such that the pressure compensator is closed when the pressure applied to the entry of the pressure compensator is lower than the individual load pressure while the pressure compensator piston is open.
DE 40 05 966 C2 suggests a solution in which a shuttle valve by which the pressure downstream of the metering orifice and in the load-detecting passage is compared and is signaled to the rear control chamber is integrated in the pressure compensator piston.
In DE 296 17 735 U1 a pressure compensator is described in which the load is detected by a complex shuttle valve circuit including check valves and nozzles so as to keep the pressure compensator of the load-holding function in the closed state.
All the described known solutions having a load-holding function in the pressure compressor share the drawback that a considerable effort is necessary to tap off a control pressure which is applied to the pressure compensator piston in the load-holding function in the closing direction.
In accordance with an embodiment, the damping chamber is connected to the passage guiding the individual load pressure via the damping nozzle so that, in case that the pressure decreases below this load pressure at the entry of the pressure compensator, the pressure compressor piston is brought in its closing position by the individual load pressure applied to the damping chamber so that the pressure compensator also adopts the load-holding function. Vis-à-vis the above-described solutions including a load-holding function, the design according to the invention excels by an extremely compact and simple construction.
As an alternative, the damping nozzle can also connect the damping chamber to the rear pressure chamber, wherein the load-holding function is renounced, however.
It is preferred that at a bottom-side end portion of the male member a transverse bore opening in the blind hole is provided which is controlled to be completely opened in the opening position of the pressure compensator piston so that the pressure is tapped off downstream of the metering orifice and is guided into the rear pressure chamber.
In an especially preferred embodiment a bore or a recess is formed at the smaller diameter of the pressure compensator piston which can be positioned in such manner with respect to the transverse bore that the pressure downstream of the metering orifice is signaled in the blind hole bore.
In the case of an alternative solution according to the invention, this connection between the passage downstream of the metering orifice and the rear pressure chamber is always opened. In a preferred solution this connection is controlled to be opened, however, only during the initial stroke (seen from the closing position) and with a completely open pressure compensator, whereas in the range lying therebetween this connection is closed so that the maximum effective load pressure is then applied to rear pressure chamber, whereas at the beginning of opening the pressure compensator the pressure downstream of the metering orifice—i.e. approximately the pump pressure—is applied to the rear pressure chamber.
The check valve according to the invention can be formed by a simple O-ring which is placed on the male member or by a closing plate biased into a closing position. As an alternative, also conventional check valves including spring-biased closing members can be used.
The pressure compensator piston can be biased in the closing position by a comparatively weak control spring.
Other advantageous further developments of the invention constitute the subject matter of further subclaims.
Hereinafter preferred embodiments of the invention will be illustrated in detail by way of schematic drawings, in which:
The distribution valve 4 includes a slide valve 12 biased by a centering spring arrangement 14 into the shown home position. The slide valve 12 is actuated via an operating portion 16 laterally guided out of the valve disk 1 which is hinged to an actuating lever or the like in the driver's cabin.
The slide valve 12 is guided in a valve bore 18 which is extended in the radial direction to a pressure chamber 20, an inlet chamber 22, two outlet chambers 24, 25 arranged approximately symmetrically to the pressure chamber 20, two working chambers 26, 28 arranged on both sides thereof as well as two adjacent reservoir chambers 30, 32. The slide valve 12 includes a central metering orifice collar 34 which, jointly with the remaining ring land between the pressure chamber 20 and the inlet chamber 22, defines a metering orifice forming the velocity member 6. On both sides of this metering orifice collar 34 two control collars 36, 38 and two reservoir collars 40, 42 of the directional members 8, 10 are arranged at the slide valve 12.
The pressure chamber 20 is connected to the pressure connection P and the two reservoir chambers 30, 32 are connected to the reservoir connection T. The inlet chamber 22 is connected to the entry of the pressure compensator 2 via an inlet passage 44. The exit thereof is connected to the outlet chamber 24 and, resp., 25 via two outlet passages 46, 48. The two working chambers 26, 28 are connected to the working connection A and, resp., B via working passages 50 and, resp., 52.
The structure of the pressure compensator 2 is illustrated by way of the enlarged representation in
An inner annular face 76 delimits, by a ring face 78 of the male member, a damping chamber 80 in the axial direction which is connected to the blind hole bore 66 via a damping nozzle 82 passing through the circumferential wall of the male member 58 in the radial direction (normal to the plane of projection). In parallel to this damping nozzle 82, in the male member 58 plural radially extending connecting recesses 84 are formed which equally extend between the blind hole bore 66 and the damping chamber 80. The damping nozzle 82 has a comparatively small diameter relative to the connecting recesses 84. The opening area of the connecting recesses 84 at the side of the damping chamber is closed by an elastic O-ring 86 acting as check valve which prevents a pressure medium flow from the damping chamber 80 through the connecting recesses 84 into the blind hole bore 66 and admits the same in the opposite direction.
At the bottom-side end portion of the male member 58 an annular groove 88 is formed into which a load-detecting orifice 90 opens by which the entry of the pressure compensator 2 is connected to the blind hole bore 66. This load-detecting orifice 90 is controlled to be opened when the pressure compensator 2 is completely opened so that the pressure prevailing at the entry of the pressure compensator, i.e. the individual load pressure acts also in the rear pressure chamber 72 and is signaled into the LS passage 74. In the closing position of the pressure compensator piston 56 the load-detecting orifice 90 is closed in the embodiment represented in
In the home position of the slide valve shown in
In the case in which only the one consumer is driven, the pressure compensator 2 opens completely so that the load-detecting orifice 90 is opened and accordingly the load pressure prevailing in the working passage 46 is guided into the pressure chamber 72 and thus into the LS passage 74.
During opening movements of the pressure compensator piston 56 pressure medium must be displaced from the diminishing damping chamber 80. Since the comparatively large cross-section of the connecting recesses 84 is shut off by the O-ring 86, the pressure medium flows through the small damping nozzle 82 into the blind hole bore 66 so that the opening movement of the pressure compensator piston 56 is relatively strongly damped.
If a second consumer having a higher load pressure is actuated, this higher load pressure acts in the LS passage 74 common to all consumers—the pressure compensator piston 56 is appropriately moved to the closing direction until a pressure balance is brought about. In this control position the pressure drop above the corresponding metering orifice is kept constant, whereby also the amount of flow selected at each consumer is kept proportionally constant.
During this closing movement of the pressure compensator piston 56 the damping chamber 80 is enlarged so that pressure medium is appropriately allowed to flow from the blind hole bore 66 into the damping chamber 80. The elasticity of the O-ring 86 admits a pressure medium flow in this direction so that pressure medium is allowed to flow through the comparatively large cross-section of the connecting recesses 84—the closing movement of the damping piston is performed almost undamped so that the consumer having the higher load is driven practically without delay.
In the
The basic structure of the pressure compensator 2 is the same in each case as in
In the embodiment shown in
The basic structure of the embodiment shown in
In the variant according to
Moreover, at the end portion of the pressure compensator piston 56 having a smaller diameter a bore 110 is formed which is in alignment with the load-detecting orifice 90 in the closing position of the pressure compensator 2 shown in
The damping chamber 80 moreover acts as spring chamber for a spring 112 which is supported on the adjacent annular face of the male member 58 and acts on the inner annular face 76 of the compensator piston 56. Also this spring 112 serves for compensating the structurally predetermined play in the axial direction and for ensuring a quick closing of the pressure compensator piston 56—basically the spring 112 could be dispensed with.
In the home position of the spool valve and with a closed pressure compensator 2 the load pressure acts on the corresponding consumer through the working passages 46, 48 and the small damping nozzle 83 in the damping chamber 80. The O-ring 86 shuts off the passageway to the blind hole bore 66. In the blind hole bore 66 and in the connected pressure chamber the pressure is effective in the inlet passage 44 via the load-detecting orifice 90 and the bore 110.
Upon actuation of the slide valve 12 this pressure prevailing in the inlet passage 44, i.e. the pressure downstream of the metering orifice initially corresponds substantially to the pump pressure so that in the pressure chamber 72 equally pump pressure is applied. In this embodiment thus the LS passage 74 is filled via the pump in the shown home position of the pressure compensator and not—as in the afore-described embodiments—via the load so that a drop of the consumer is prevented during the control due to a filling of the LS passage 74.
The pump control of the non-represented pump allows the applied pump pressure to increase until the load pressure which keeps the pressure compensator closed is reached. Since the pump pressure is active in the LS passage 74 at the beginning of the control and it is further signaled to the pump controller, the latter so-to-speak pulls “itself up” until the balance of forces with the force active in the closing direction is reached, which force is substantially determined by the load pressure acting on the inner annular face 76 (and the pressure prevailing in the rear pressure chamber). The pressure compensator piston 56 then starts to open the passageway to the working passage 46, 48 and thus to the consumer. At the same time, the overlapping of the load-detecting orifice 90 with the bore 110 is eliminated so that the load-detecting orifice 90 is controlled to be closed.
This operating state is represented in
If a further consumer having a higher load pressure is actuated, the pressure compensator of the first driven consumer is brought into its control position in the above-described manner so that the pressure drop above the metering orifice remains constant and all consumers are provided with pressure medium independent of the load.
If the pump pressure falls below the load pressure due to variations in the pressure medium supply, the pressure compensator piston 56 is quickly moved into its closing position by the load pressure acting on its inner annular face 76 and acts as a load-holding valve.
Ultimately
Thus, in this variant the load-detecting line of the control block is provided with pressure medium tapped off by the pump via all disks. Preliminary tests have demonstrated that this variant influences the LUDV control characteristic, because the LS line is supplied by all active consumers.
Applicant reserves itself the right to direct a separate patent application to the load-holding function, wherein the claim may be focused on applying the load pressure to the damping chamber 80.
A hydraulic control arrangement is disclosed for the load-independent control of a consumer with a continuously adjustable distribution valve having a pressure compensator down the line. According to the invention, the pressure compensator has a single-sided damping such that the movement in the opening direction is damped and the movement in the closing direction is substantially undamped. Furthermore, a control arrangement is disclosed in which a load-holding function is integrated in the pressure compensator.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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103 25 296 | Jun 2003 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP2004/005837 | 5/28/2004 | WO | 00 | 3/21/2006 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2004/109125 | 12/16/2004 | WO | A |
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