This invention relates to a valve arrangement for valves of the i 5 kind including to mutually displaceable part of which one, which can form a valve house, presents at least one opening connected to an external channel and the other part, which can be a valve body, includes at least one in and out of tightening engagement against such opening displaceable sealing means and 10 in which the displacement essentially is in directions essentially in parallel with or radial to the plane of the opening.

As examples on such valves may be mentioned valves for flow 15 control wherein one valve housing surface localized in a radial plane shows at least one opening whereas a valve body displaceable essentially linearly relativly to the surface and essentially in parallel with the plane of the opening, or rotatably has at least one sealing means adapted to engage said 20 opening.

This invention especially relates to valves included in anaestetic systems and other medical apparatuses where there is a demand for simple dismantling and assembly and where there 25 are high demands on tightness.

Background of the invention

Valves of the kind mentioned above are known in many designs and common to them all is that the valv body sealing means on

30 both opening and closing passes sidewise over or by the edge of one or more openings at the valve house wall. In such cases the valve is arranged as a cock or a ball valve there are no true sealing means as the tighteing is achieved by the valve body, the cock or the ball closely and fitting adhering to the

35 wall of the valve house shaped in a complementary way. Cock or

ball valves can be left out of discussion. On valves where a valve body is displaced linearly or rotated and valve body and valve housing are not tighteningly fitted together some sort of sealing means are necessary in order to achieve the necessary tightening or sealing towards the opening and around the same respectively. At slide valves of cylindrical slide type it has earlier been suggested that the openings leading to external channels where equiped with bars or grids facilitating the passage of the sealing means in over and by the openings. Such devices inply that the sealing means is adapted to sealingly engage the smoth surface surounding the opening which puts high demands on contact pressure and results in increasing the force necessary to set said valve in a non acceptable way.

One aspect of the invention is to bring about a valve so arranged that it gives little resistance on setting and has a good sealing ability inspite of moderate contact pressure.

Another aspect of this invention is to bring about a valve device easy to manufacture and maintenance and so arranged that it for this disinfection purposes or the like is easily dismanteld and assembled again.

Su-a-βary of the invention

Characteristic for the invention is that a sealing means is equiped with a sliding and guiding body adapted to facilitate the movement during the motion of the sealing means along opposite surfaces beyond one or more openings and keep the true sealing at a distance from the opposite surface and during the movement of the sealing means to and from sealing position at an opening guide the true sealing of the sealing means by the edge of the opening.

As a sliding and guiding body is axially displaceable it will bias the sealing surrounding the sliding body so that after arrival of the sealing means in to an opening closing position it will resiliantly move a little outwardly and enhance the pressing of the sealing towards the surrounding edge of the opening. On displacing the sealing means from its opening closing position the guiding body will slide up on the edge of the opening and simultaneously press the true sealing inwardly so that it will not drag against the surface adjacent the opening.

Brief description of the drawings

A pair of embodiments of the arrangement according to this invention will be more closely described in the following with references to the accompaning drawings, in which

Fig 1 is a schematical axial sectional view through one embodiment choosen as an example of a valve arrangement according to the invention.

Fig 2 is similar radial sectional view of same valve.

Fig 3 is a schematical elevated section of a modified embodiment of the sealing means and

Fig 4 is a schematical perspective view illustrating a modified embodiment of a valve arrangement according to this invention.

Detailed description of preferred embodiments

The valve shown in figures 1 and 2 and choosen as an example is made as a three-ports-two-ways valve and has a valve housing

1 with a cylindrical valve chamber 2, at the bottom surface 3 of which are arranged three symetrically localized openings 4,

5 resp. 6, the last one not visible. The openings are connected to channels by means of appropriate connecting means such as threaded connections 6, 7 resp. 8. Inside the valve chamber there is a valv body 9 limitedly rotatable. The valve body 9 has two axially arranged channels 10 resp. 11 opening up at the flat bottom surface 12 and these communicate inside the valve body with a crosswise arranged channel 13, which may be left open sideways towards the mantle of the valve body. At the bottom surface of the valve body there is a further opening 14 and in this a sealing device 15 is arranged. The two channels 10 and 11 and the sealing device 15 are symetrically localised in the same way as the openings 4, 5 and 6.

The valve body 9 has along part of its mantle surface projecting into the valve housing a friction surface reducing circum- ferential recess 16 defining an inner and an outer guiding edge 17 resp 18 and a latter presents a circumferential groove for an 0-ring 19 sealing against the wall of the chamber. Along part of the circumference of the upper valve body edge 18 there is a groove 20 into which a locking and guiding screw 21 threaded through the wall of the chamber, will engage partly in order to keep the valve body in its place and partly to limit the rotating movement of the same.

The sealing device 15 includes the true sealing 22 which is made of an appropriate elastomeric material such as teflone and is shaped like a slightly domed disc having a central opening 23. The outer edge can be arranged with a bead like thickening and is intended to be received in an annular groove 24 arranged at the outermost portion of the recess 14 where only a thin material portion lies between the groove 24 and the endface of the valved body. The guiding and sliding body 25 is attached to the sealing ring 22 and includes a shaft portion 26 and a dubble head 27 formed by two axially spaced discs integral with the shaft. The sealing plate or ring 22 is to be threaded onto

the guiding and sliding body so that the edge portion surrounding the central opening 23 of the annular sing 22 projects into the annular space 28 between the two head plates. The guiding and sliding body shaft 26 is received in a bottom bore 29 in the recess 14 and a compression spring 30 is put between the head 27 and the bottom of the recess 14 in order to keep the sealing device 15 in an outwardly displaced possition.

From the bottom bore 29 to the sidewise channel 13, possibly to open air leads a pressure equalizing channel 31, having the purpose to prevent the generation of superpressure or under¬ pressure inside the plate 22 making the movement of the plate and the sealing difficult. This channel may be narrow for underpressure systems where it only acts as a pressure equalizer but given greater area for superpressure system in order to make it possible to use this channel also for pressure medium biassing the sealing device contact pressure.

By rotating the valve body between the two ends of the guiding groove the sealing device will be moved between two of the openings at the bottom of the valve chamber whereby the flow will be switched from the one to the other direction. On setting or adjusting the valve, the guiding and sliding body 25, having insignificantly smaller diameter than the openings, will practically immediately meet the edge of the opening and slide up on this and simultaneously lift the true sealing out of engagement with the edge. On the arrival of the sealing device at next opening the head of the guiding and sliding body will support the true sealing and keep it at a distance from the edge of the opening until an approximately centered possition has been reached.

The embodyment according to Figure 3 is intended to be used at valves where there is a need for a flow axially through the

sealing device. A sealing device 15' according to Figure 3 differs from the one already described in that the sliding body 25 shaft 26' has a greater radial extension than the earlier described one for the reason that a channel 33 extends through the same and opens up in the hole of the valve body into which the shaft 26' is received and axially displaceable. Naturally there is also within the very valved body a channel or the like communicating with the said hole into which the shaft 26' extends and said channel is so arranged that medium passing through the shaft channel 33 in an appropriate way can be diverted on.

The embodyment regarding to Figure 3 can be utilized where for example a number of input channels debouch at the bottom of the valve housing each channel leading to or from a medium container or the like and a rotatable valve body having preferably as many sealing devices as the number of such input channel openings, wherein of the sealing devices the ones through which medium is allowed to pass axially, on a given setting possition, are arranged as the sealing device 15', i.e. with a through channel 33.

Such an arrangement allows selective leading through of one or more mediae to one or more receivers and allowes quick switching with insignificant wear of the true sealingε 22 as those will not drag against opposite surfaces but be kept at a distance from this by the sliding bodies.

It is obvious that the arrangement according to this invention is useful also for switch valves where the flow may be changed between different channels, for stop valves where a sealing device with a non perforated sliding body is moved between a closing position opposite to an opening in an opposite valve wall or the like and a laterally displaced opening position at

a distance from the opening which in this case may be in line with a channel at a valve body supporting said sealing device.

In the embodyment shown in Figure 4 the sealing devices are intended to act in an other direction than the one mentioned already. In a valve house 1' there is a preferably through bore 2' and into this three narrower bores 4' and 5' respectively open. A valve body 9' has a radial through bore 10' and a recess in which a sealing device 15 or 15' is arranged. By rotating the valve body 9' a number of different flow paths may be established and closed respectively and one by one be closed and sealed off.

The arrangement according to the invention is useful for a number of types of valves where a valve body with one or more openings and any connecting channels is displaced relatively to a surface of a valve housing or the like with one or more openings with or without internal connections and where it is desired after choice to close one or more of the openings.

Valves arranged according to the above are preferably connected up in such a way that the system pressure acts in the closing direction of the sealing devices so that leaked by medium will press the sealing devices harder against the edge of the opening. In such cases the device is mounted the opposite way an additional pressing force will have to be compensated by stronger springs at the guiding and sliding body. This is true especially at under pressure systems. At super pressure systems the spring even can be left out as the inherent elasticity of the sealing ring will be utilized together with the pressure acting in closing direction.

Because of the tightening occuring so to say down stream you dont have to fear that leaking from a closed channel will occur

as the leaked through medium necessarily will leave through an open channel.