Patent Application
20180298988
The present invention is related to a speed adjustable returning apparatus for an electric actuator, capable of preventing damages of relevant equipment and providing greater safety of use thereof.
Currently, the most common restoring component used in the market is a known spring restoring device utilizing the concept of mechanical energy storage to control the automatic closing and opening of valves. The main features of such known spring restoring device rely in that during the normal power supply, the motor is actuated to generate spring deformation of the spring restoring device in order to store energy, and under the condition where power is insufficient during such as power outage, the spring is able to restore from the deformation by releasing the stored energy in order to drive the valve to return back to the normal state (such as completely closed or completely opened) automatically. However, since the speed of such returning process is fast (approximately 2˜3 seconds only), it is extremely likely to cause a huge instant difference in the flow, leading to explosion of pipe (also known as the water-hammer effect) and damages of the pipe.
In addition, despite there are some returning components known to have installed with manual devices, such as hand wheels etc., nonetheless, the manual device tends to rotation on its own along with the opening or closing of the valve. As a result, there is potential risk of damages caused by the self-rotation of the manual device in collision with the surrounding objects; and similarly, when the manual device is accidentally moved, it also tends to drive the valve, leading to damages of the device as well.
An objective of the present invention is to increase the safety of use and reduce the possibility of the damage of an electric actuator.
To achieve the aforementioned objective, the present invention provides a speed adjustable returning apparatus for an electric actuator, having an opening/closing assembly and an operating device arranged on one side of the opening/closing assembly and connected thereto for actuation, and the operating device comprises at least one transmission axle set arranged at one side of the operating device adjacent to the opening/closing assembly and configured to connect to the opening/closing assembly for actuation together; at least one operating unit arranged at one side of the transmission axle set away from the opening/closing assembly; at least one clutch device arranged between the operating unit and the transmission axle set and configured to allow the operating unit to selectively drive the transmission axle; and at least one one-way driving device arranged between the transmission axle set and the clutch device and configured to selectively control the transmission axle set to drive the clutch device.
Accordingly, when the opening/closing assembly is actuated, the transmission axle set is driven to operation; however, with the cooperative configuration of the one-way driving device and the clutch device, the operating unit is prohibited from being driven by the transmission axle set but remains stationary in order to prevent damages on the surrounding due to the rotation of the operating unit; therefore, the safety of the device is improved. In addition, in the event where the operating unit is accidentally moved, since the clutch device is able to prohibit the operating unit from directly driving the transmission axle set and the opening/closing assembly, it is able to reduce the possibility of damaging the opening/closing assembly due to abnormal transmission of the transmission axle set caused by accidental actions on the operating unit. Based on the aforementioned technique, the drawback of damages on the surrounding due to self-rotations of the manual device associated with the known spring returning device can be overcome, and the issue of the damages caused by abnormal actuation due to collision on the manual device can be solved in order to achieve the advantageous effects of preventing damages of relevant equipment and making the application of the user relatively safer.
As shown in
The operating device 1 comprises at least one transmission axle set, at least one operating unit 12, at least one clutch device 13, at least one one-way driving device 14 and at least one positioning device 15. The transmission axle set 11 is arranged at one side of the operating device 1 adjacent to the opening/closing assembly 2 and is configured to connect to the opening/closing assembly 2 for actuation. The operating unit 12 is arranged at one side of the transmission assembly set away from opening/closing assembly 2. The operating unit 12 comprises a transmission member 121 and at least one auxiliary member 122 arranged on the transmission member 121. In this embodiment, the rotating member 121 is a hand wheel, and the auxiliary member 122 is a rotating handle as an example of the embodiment.
The clutch device 13 is arranged between the operating unit 12 and the transmission axle set 11. In addition, the clutch device 13 comprises a first clutch member 131 arranged at one side of the operating unit 12, a second clutch member 133 arranged at one side of the one-way driving device 14 and at least one clutch elastic member 135 arranged between the first clutch member 131 and the second clutch member 133. The clutch elastic member 135 is configured to selectively disengage from the first clutch member 131 and the second clutch member 133. In addition, an end portion of the first clutch member 131 adjacent to the second clutch member 133 includes at least one first engagement portion 132, and an end portion of the second clutch member 133 adjacent to the first clutch member 131 includes at least one second engagement portion 134 having a shape corresponding to a shape of the first engagement portion 132 in order to allow the operating unit 12 to selectively drive the transmission axle 11.
The one-way driving device 14 is arranged between the transmission axle set 11 and the clutch device 13 in order to selectively control the transmission axle set 11 to drive the clutch device 13. In this embodiment, the one-way driving device 14 comprises any one of a gear and a ratchet.
The positioning device 15 is arranged between the clutch device 13 and the one-way driving device 14. In addition, the positioning device 15 comprises at least one follower 151 connected to the clutch device 13 and the one-way driving device 14, at least one positioning rod 153 arranged at one side of the follower 151 and at least one positioning elastic member 154 arranged at one side of the positioning rod 153. Furthermore, the follower 151 includes a plurality of positioning slots 152 formed thereon and provided for the positioning rods 153 to be selectively inserted therein for positioning.
The opening/closing assembly 2 comprises at least one kinetic energy transmission device 21 arranged at one side of the transmission axle set 11 and connected thereto for actuation, at least one power driving device 22 arranged at one side of the kinetic energy transmission device 21 and connected thereto for actuation, at least one returning device 23 arranged at one side of the kinetic energy transmission device 21 and connected thereto for actuation, at least one speed adjusting device 24 arranged at one side of the returning device 23 and connected thereto for actuation and at least one opening/closing device 25 arranged at one side of the kinetic energy transmission device 21 and connected thereto for actuation. In this embodiment, the kinetic energy transmission device 21 is a planetary gear set and the opening/closing device 25 is an opening/closing valve as examples of the embodiment. Moreover, the valve further includes a regulating device 27 installed at one side thereof and used for controlling an opening/closing angle of the opening/closing device 25.
The power driving device 22 comprises a speed reduction mechanism 221 connected to the kinetic energy transmission device 21 and a motor 222 connected to a side of the speed reduction mechanism 221. In addition, an least one one-way transmission device 26 is installed between the speed reduction mechanism 221 and the kinetic energy transmission device 21. The returning device 23 comprises at least one energy storage units 231 and at least one securement device 232 arranged at one side of each one of the at least one energy storage units 231. In this embodiment, the energy storage unit 231 is an elastic coil as an example of the embodiment. The speed adjusting device 24 comprises at least one power generation device 241 connected to the returning device 23 for actuation and at least one damping device 242 arranged at one side of the power generation device 241 and connected to the returning device 23 for actuation. Furthermore, it can be understood that the aforementioned structure refers to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention only, and the present invention is not limited to such type only.
As shown in
Furthermore, since the clutch elastic member 135 of the clutch device 13 is able to keep the second clutch member 133 and the first clutch member 131 disengage from each other without relative movements, the operating unit 12 is prohibited from rotating along with the kinetic energy transmission device 21; therefore, it is able to prevent damages of the surrounding by the operating unit 12. In addition, since the clutch elastic member 135 of the clutch device 13 is able to keep the first clutch member 131 and the second clutch member 133 disengage from each other without relative movements, any accidental movements of the operating unit 12 would not drive the transmission axle set 11 and the kinetic transmission device 21 to move; consequently, damages due to interactions during actuation can be prevented.
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