Patent Application
20070289646
Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will be made clear by the following detailed description, provided purely by way of example and without restrictive intent, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:
In
The valve body 2 also forms an outlet manifold, indicated by 5.
With reference to
The chamber 6 communicates with the inlet connector 3 for hot water, while chambers 7 and 8 both communicate with the inlet connector 4 for cold water.
The inlet 3 for hot water and the inlet 4 for cold water are connected to the chamber 6 and to chambers 7 and 8 respectively through corresponding calibrated passages whose cross section is selected in such a way that the ranges of the corresponding flows of hot and cold water, respectively, are related to each other by ratios whose values lie within predetermined ranges, as explained more fully below.
The communication between the chambers 6, 7 and 8 and the outlet manifold 5 can be controlled by means of corresponding shut-off solenoid valves or on-off solenoid valves 12, 13 and 14, of the normally closed type. These solenoid valves are of a known type, and each has a corresponding main plug 12a, 13a, 14a including a membrane and interacting with a corresponding valve seat formed between the corresponding chamber 6, 7, 8 and the associated outlet passage 9, 10, 11. The main plug of the solenoid valve 12′ has a corresponding axial passage normally shut off by an associated plug 12b positioned above it and carried by a ferromagnetic core 12c on which a helical spring 12d acts inside an associated exciting coil 12e.
The structure of the solenoid valves 13 and 14 is substantially the same as that of the solenoid valve 12.
In the embodiment illustrated by way of example and without restrictive intent, all the solenoid valves 12, 13 and 14 extend parallel to each other with their corresponding directions substantially orthogonal to the outlet manifold 4. However, other relative positions of these solenoid valves are possible.
The solenoid valves 13 and 14 are hydraulically connected in parallel between the second inlet 4, for cold water, and the outlet manifold 5, and, when open, allow the passage of a first and a second flow of cold water respectively from the inlet 4 to the outlet manifold 5, with the respective specified flow rates which can be equal to or different from each other.
In the illustrated embodiment, the solenoid valves 12, 13 and 14 have corresponding pairs of electrical connecting terminals in the form of flat pins 15 (
The connector 16 comprises a body 17 of electrically insulating material, for example moulded plastics, having an elongate shape, and incorporating within it three shaped electrically conducting members 18, 19 and 20. Each of these members has corresponding connecting terminals 18a, 19a and 20a at one end, in the form of flat pins, which are coplanar in the illustrated example of embodiment. These terminals extend outside the insulating body 17, inside a recess 21 (
The conducting members 18-20 can be incorporated in the insulating casing 17 of the connector 16, for example by overmoulding this casing 17 on to them.
The conducting members 18-20 of the connector 16 have corresponding aligned holes 22 (
The mixer valve 1 is associated with a control unit 100, designed to set the solenoid valves 12-14 selectively to a plurality of different modes, in order to provide a flow of water whose temperature can take a plurality of predetermined levels at the outlet 5 of the valve 1.
The control unit 100 is designed, in particular, to set the solenoid valves 12-14 selectively to one of the following modes:
a) valve 12 for hot water and valve 13 for cold water are open (ON), while valve 14 for cold water is closed (OFF);
b) the first valve 12, the second valve 13 and the third valve 14 are open (ON); and
c) the third valve 14 is open (ON), while the first and second valves 12 and 13 are both closed.
Modes a), b) and c) above provide a flow of water at the outlet manifold 5 having a maximum temperature in mode a), a minimum temperature in mode c), and an intermediate temperature in mode b).
Conveniently, the control unit 100 can be designed to additionally set the valves 12-14 to a further mode in which the first valve 12 is open (ON) while the second and the third valves 13 and 14 are both closed (OFF), and/or to a mode in which the first and third valves 12 and 14 are open (ON), while the second valve 13 is closed (OFF).
In Table 1 below,
the first three columns show the states of the valves 12, 13 and 14 for the five operating modes described above (if the state is not shown, it is considered to be OFF). The fourth and fifth columns show preferred ranges of the ratios B/A and C/A respectively, where A indicates the flow rate of hot water (valve 12), B indicates the flow rate of cold water through valve 13, and C indicates the flow rate of cold water through valve 14. The column farthest to the right of the table shows the corresponding temperature values T1-T5 found in the outlet manifold 5 for the five operating modes defined above.
Tables 2-6 below show the ranges of flow rate for the flows of cold water with respect to the flows of hot water, and the corresponding temperatures that can be obtained in the outlet manifold 5, for another five preferred actuation modes of a mixer valve for liquids according to the invention. In these tables, the significance of the symbols is the same as that described above with reference to Table 1.
Clearly, provided that the principle of the invention is retained, the forms of application and the details of construction can be varied widely from what has been described and illustrated purely by way of example and without restrictive intent, without thereby departing from the scope of protection of the invention as defined by the attached claims.
