Patent ID: 6899127
Filing Date: 2005-05-31
Classification: F16K,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A ball check valve comprising: (a) a valve body, the valve body defining a valve body chamber having an inlet opening, an outlet opening and a longitudinal axis; (b) a ball disposed within the valve body chamber between the inlet opening and the outlet opening, the valve ball being free to travel between an upstream-most position and a downstream-most position; (c) a valve seat disposed within the valve body, the valve seat adapted for receiving the ball; (d) a body clearance section defined within the valve body chamber downstream of the inlet opening; and (e) a bore section defined within the valve body chamber downstream of the body clearance section; wherein the valve body, the ball, the valve seat, the body clearance section and the bore section cooperate so that fluid flow is allowed to flow through the valve body from the inlet opening through the outlet opening, but fluid flow through the valve body from the outlet opening through the inlet opening is prohibited by the interaction of the ball and the valve seat, wherein the body clearance section smoothly transitions to the bore section via an upstream transition section; wherein the bore section smoothly transitions to the outlet opening via a downstream transition section; and wherein the distance i along the longitudinal axis between the upstream end of the body clearance section and the downstream end of the bore section is between about 1.2 h and about 1.3 h, h being the distance along the longitudinal axis between the downstream end of the body clearance section and the downstream end of the bore section.