Patent ID: 9702480
Date: 2017-07-11
CPC Classifications: F16K,Y10T

Claim:
1. An apparatus to aid in controlling a valve having a body, a passageway through the body and an articulable member mounted to a valve stem and positioned within the passageway, the position of the articulable member determining the degree of openness of the passageway, comprising: a housing removably attachable to the valve body; a shaft extending through the housing, one end of said shaft couplable to the valve stem such that movement of said shaft moves the valve stem; a mounting plate including slotted holes for mounting of the mounting plate to the housing; a shaft position sensor mounted to the mounting plate; a position sensor actuator coupled to said shaft, said position sensor actuator capable of interacting with said shaft position sensor to induce said shaft position sensor to acquire a state having an associated electrical property indicative of shaft position; a motion limiter coupled to said shaft for limiting the range of motion of said shaft and rotating conjointly therewith; a first lock member coupled to said shaft and rotating conjointly therewith; a second lock member coupled to said housing, said first and second lock members selectively cooperate to allow said shaft to be locked in a first position; wherein the mounting plate has an adjustable mounting to the housing along a range of the slotted holes to allow an angular mounting position of the shaft position sensor relative to the position sensor actuator to be changed so that the shaft position sensor actuates at different user-selected angular positions of the shaft position sensor relative to the position sensor actuator.