Patent Application
20070246099
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become clear upon reviewing the following description of the embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
The core retaining member in the invention should not be limited to the nozzle shape such as of the valve body 10. The core retaining member may be a wall constituting an outer shell formed with the core mounting hole 11, for example.
A valve core 20 comprises a cylindrical core base 21 having an insertion bore 21A formed axially centrally. A movable shaft 30 is inserted through the bore 21A. The core base 21 is tapered from a proximal end toward a distal end (from an upper end toward a lower end as viewed in
The valve core 20 is inserted into the core mounting hole 11, and the male thread 22A is in threading engagement with the female thread 12. A driving force of the threading engagement causes the positioning flange 23A to abut against the middle tapered portion 13 of the core mounting hole 11, whereupon the flange 23A is positioned, and a cylindrical sealing member 25 attached to the groove 23B is caused to adhere closely to the tapered portion 13 thereby to close an inter-circumferential faces of the core mounting hole 11 and the core base 21.
The core base 21 is divided in a part near to the proximal end thereof into first and second components 22 and 23 which are rotatably coupled to each other. As a result, only the first component 22 of the core base 21 is rotated so that the male thread 22A threadingly engages the female thread 12, whereupon the cylindrical sealing member 25 and the positioning flange 23A can be pressed against the tapered portion 13 without being rotated. Furthermore, the first component 22 has an end face on which a bridging portion 22B is formed so as to stride over the opening of the bore 21A. The bridging portion 22B is formed with a through bore 22C through which the movable shaft 30 is inserted.
A compression coil spring 26 is housed in the core base 21. The spring 26 is made by winding a spring wire material into a conical shape. The movable shaft 30 extends through a central interior of the core base 21. The movable shaft 30 has a spring locking protrusion 30B formed on its portion located near to the proximal end thereof. The spring 26 has a smaller-diameter side end engaged with the protrusion 30B thereby to be locked. On the other hand, the core base 21 has an inwardly opening protruding wall 23C formed on the distal end thereof. The spring 26 has a larger-diameter side end engaged with the wall 23C thereby to be locked. Accordingly, the spring 26 is located between the protrusion 30B and the wall 23C in an expanded state to bias the movable shaft 30 toward the proximal end of the shaft.
The protruding wall 23C has a core base side tapered portion 23E located opposed to the locked portion of the coil spring 26. The tapered portion 23E has an inner diameter which is gradually increased toward the distal end opening of the core base 21. Furthermore, the wall 23C has a cylindrical portion 23Y formed on an axial middle thereof and having a uniform inner diameter. A boundary between the smaller-diameter side end of the tapered portion 23E and the cylindrical portion 23Y is composed of a boundary corner 23D in the invention.
The movable shaft 30 includes a shaft end flange 30F, a rubber ring fitting portion 30E and a metal glass fixing portion 30C formed sequentially on the distal end side thereof as shown in
The rubber sealing member 31 is formed into an annular shape and has inner and outer circumferential surfaces which are concentric and both end faces are parallel. The rubber sealing member 31 is press fitted into the rubber ring fitting portion 30E.
The metal glass sealing member 32 is formed into a cylindrical shape as a whole and has an entering portion 32A formed on one end of the sealing member 32 at the side away from the rubber sealing member 31. The entering portion 32A has a uniform outer diameter. The metal glass sealing member 32 includes a sealing member side tapered portion 32B having an outer diameter which is gradually increased from a location near to one end of the sealing member 32 to the other end. Furthermore, the metal glass sealing member 32 has a central bore 32C with an inner diameter which is smaller than the outer diameter of the metal glass fixing portion 30C. The central bore 32C has an opening edge at one end side. The opening edge is formed with a fitting guide surface 32D.
A metal glass made into the sealing member 32 is a titanium alloy containing a Va group element including vanadium, niobium and tantalum, a IVa group element including zirconium and hafnium and oxygen or nitrogen. More specifically, for example, the metal glass sealing member 32 is made from metal glass commercially sold under the registered trademark, “Gum Metal” (Registration No. 4458751 owned by Toyota Central R & D Labs., Inc.). The gum metal has an elastic deformability of 2.5% or above. Since a metal usually composing a metal seal (brass, for example) has an elastic deformability ranging from 0.3 to 0.4%, the aforesaid gum metal has a sufficiently high elastic deformability.
An elastic deformability is obtained by dividing proof strength of a material by Young's modulus (elastic deformability=(proof strength)/(Young's modulus) where proof strength refers to stress in the case where a predetermined amount of strain (generally 0.2%, for example) is applied to the test specimen.
A manner of incorporating the metal glass sealing member 32 into the movable shaft 30 will now be described. The movable shaft 30 is inserted into the central bore 32C of the metal glass sealing member 32 while not being formed with the spring locking protrusion 30B or the like. In progress of insertion, the fitting guide surface 32D of the sealing member 32 slides on a tapered surface 30Q of one end of the metal glass fixing portion 30C of the movable shaft 30 such that the diameter of the metal glass sealing member 32 is increased. The metal glass sealing member 32 is pushed in until one end face thereof abuts against the stepped surface between the metal glass fixing portion 30C and the rubber ring fitting portion 30E. As a result, the metal glass sealing member 32 is positioned relative to the movable shaft 30 and fitted with the metal glass fixing portion 30C. The aforesaid spring locking protrusion 30B is formed on the movable shaft 30 so as to assume a location near to the proximal end of the movable shaft 30. A head 30A (see
The metal glass sealing member 32 has one end surface which is in abutment with a part from the inner edge toward the outer edge of one end surface of the rubber sealing member 31. As a result, the rubber sealing member 31 is axially held between the metal glass sealing member 32 and the shaft end flange 30F. The opposite surfaces of the shaft end flange 30F and the metal glass sealing member 32 are formed with locking protrusions 30T and 32T respectively. The locking protrusions 30T and 32T bite into the rubber sealing member 31, thereby preventing the movable shaft 30 from falling off. Furthermore, an outer edge corner of the sealing member 31 located at the sealing member 32 side protrudes more laterally than the metal glass sealing member 32. The outer edge corner of the sealing member 31 abuts against the core base side tapered portion 23E as shown in
The valve core 20 having the above-described construction will operate as follows. When the valve core 20 is mounted, for example, on a refrigerant charging portion (not shown) in a refrigerant passageway of an air conditioner, the distal end side of the valve core 20 is subjected to refrigerant pressure in the refrigerant passageway. As a result, the valve core 20 is closed by the refrigerant pressure and the biasing force of the compression coil spring 26 as shown in
When a refrigerant supply pump (not shown) is connected to the valve body 10, the movable shaft 30 is pushed to the distal end side by the pressure of the refrigerant from the pump, whereupon the sealing members 31 and 32 depart from the distal end of the core base 21. Consequently, the insertion bore 21A of the core base 21 is opened so that the refrigerant is charged into the refrigerant passageway.
When the refrigerant charge is stopped, the movable shaft 30 is moved to the proximal end side by the refrigerant pressure and the biasing force of the spring 26. Then, the rubber sealing member 31 firstly abuts against the core base side tapered portion 23E of the core base 21. An amount of deformation of the sealing member 31 is increased as the sealing member 31 is pushed to the smaller-diameter side of the tapered portion 23E deeper, whereupon the sealing member 31 adheres closely to the tapered portion 23E. As a result, a rubber seal is provided between the distal end of the movable shaft 30 and the open distal end of the core base 21 by the rubber sealing member 31.
Once the rubber seal is provided, the boundary corner 23D of the core base 21 abuts against the sealing member side tapered portion 32B of the metal glass sealing member 32. Since the sealing member 32 made from metal glass is easy to deform, the refrigerant pressure and the spring force of the spring 26 can cause the boundary corner 23D and the tapered portion 32B to adhere closely to each other. The boundary corner 23D can be caused to bite into the tapered portion 32B of the metal glass sealing member 32 depending upon a degree of the gas pressure. Consequently, a metal glass seal is provided between the distal end of the movable shaft 30 and the open distal end of the core base 21 by the metal glass sealing member 32.
As obvious from the foregoing, in the valve core 20 of the embodiment, the rubber and metal glass sealing members 31 and 32 provide a double seal structure which can tightly close the insertion bore 21A and the core mounting hole 11 of the valve body 10. Additionally, the metal glass constituting the metal glass sealing member 32 has an exceedingly higher elasticity than ordinary metallic materials constituting a metal seal. Accordingly, the metal glass sealing member 32 can be caused to adhere to a counterpart to provide a seal by application of a smaller force than the metal seal. Moreover, since the metal glass is amorphous like oxide glass, gas is difficult to permeate the metal glass. Consequently, the above-described valve core can reduce an amount of gas leak as compared with conventional valve cores having only the rubber seal or conventional valve cores provided with the combination of the rubber and metal seals. Additionally, since the metal glass sealing member 32 also serves to retain the rubber sealing member 31, the number of components can be reduced. Furthermore, since the locking protrusions 30T and 32T formed on the shaft end flange 30F and the metal glass sealing member 32 bite into the rubber sealing member 31, the rubber sealing member 31 can be prevented from being detached from the movable shaft 30 in opening the valve core 20 even when high pressure causes the rubber sealing member 31 to adhere to the core base side tapered portion 23E, for example. Consequently, the rubber sealing member 31 can be removed from the counterpart.
A metal glass sealing member 33 includes a first flat surface 33A formed in an axial middle thereof so as to be directed to the proximal end of the movable shaft 30. An annular protrusion 33B extends from the first flat surface 33A. Both first flat surface 33A and annular protrusion 33B are continuously formed over a whole circumference of the sealing member 33.
On the other hand, a stepped portion is provided between the core base side tapered portion 23E and the cylindrical portion 23Y in the opening protruding wall 23C of the core base 21. A second flat surface 23F directed to the open distal end of the core base 21 is formed in the opening protruding wall 23C. The second flat surface 23F is continuously formed over a whole inner circumference of the core base 21 and opposed to the flat surface 33A axially with respect to the core base 21.
According to the construction of the second embodiment, the annular protrusion 33B of the metal glass sealing member 33 abuts against the second flat surface 23F of the core base 21 upon closure of the valve core 20, so that the distal end of the annular protrusion 33B is slightly collapsed and adheres closely to the second flat surface 23F. Consequently, a metal glass seal is provided between the distal end of the movable shaft 30 and the open distal end of the core base 21 by the metal glass sealing member 33.
The rubber sealing member 31 has a rounded outer circumferential surface in the seventh embodiment. Furthermore, the core mounting hole 11 of the valve body 10 is formed with a tapered portion 14 with a diameter gradually reduced toward the proximal end of the valve core 20. When the valve core 20 is closed, the rubber sealing member 31 adheres closely to the tapered portion 14, thereby providing a rubber seal.
An experiment was conducted using the valve core 20 of the first embodiment. Two valve cores 20 described in the first embodiment were produced as product 1. Furthermore, two other valve cores 20 from each of which the metal glass sealing member 32 was eliminated were produced as comparative product 1.
A core mounting hole was formed in a wall of a closed container. Each product 1 was inserted into the core mounting hole thereby to be mounted therein. A predetermined amount of gas is charged through the valve core of product 1 into the container. Two containers (product containers) on which products 1 were mounted respectively were prepared. Two other containers (comparative product containers) onto which comparative products 1 were assembled, instead of the products 1, were prepared.
The aforesaid four containers were accommodated in a thermally insulating chamber. An atmospheric temperature in the chamber was set at a predetermined value so that the pressure in each container was kept at 1 MPa for a week. An amount of gas leaking from each container was measured in this period. In the similar manner, the pressure in each container was kept at 6.4 MPa, 10 MPa and 15 MPa for a week. An amount of gas leaking from each container was also measured in this period. Mean values of gas leak amounts were obtained regarding the two products 1 and the two comparative products 1 respectively. TABLE 1 shows obtained mean values.
As obvious from the results of TABLE 1, product 1 could reduce an amount of gas leak more than comparative product 1. Furthermore, when gas pressure was at 15 MPa, a gas leak amount in product 1 could be limited to one thirtieth of a gas leak amount of comparative product 1.
The invention should not be limited to the foregoing embodiments. The embodiments can be modified as will be described in the following. These modifications are within the technical scope of the invention. Furthermore, the invention can be practiced in forms other than those described below without departing from the gist of the invention.
The metal glass constituting the sealing member 32 is the titanium alloy in each foregoing embodiment. However, the sealing member 32 may be a magnesium alloy, a zirconium alloy, a lanthanum alloy or the like, instead.
The valve core 20 in each foregoing embodiment comprises the core base 21 and the compression coil spring 26 housed in the core base 21. However, the compression coil spring inserted through the movable shaft 30 may be provided between the bridging portion 22B and the head 30A of the movable shaft 30 in an expanded state, instead.
The valve core 20 is provided for charging the refrigerant of the air conditioner in each foregoing embodiment. However, the valve core 20 may be used in tire valves, instead.
The foregoing description and drawings are merely illustrative of the principles of the present invention and are not to be construed in a limiting sense. Various changes and modifications will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. All such changes and modifications are seen to fall within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-117255 | Apr 2006 | JP | national |
