Abstract:
A plate ( 9, 10 ) made of hard material, having at least one flat surface machined by means of lapping and intended to be used as a member to control the flow in a hydraulic equipment unit, that consists of a thermosetting synthetic polymer, is made by means of molding and has in the regions different from its flat surface configurations suitable for cooperating directly with some specific members of a hydraulic equipment unit. The thermosetting synthetic polymer can be mixed with a solid lubricant. When the plate is a fixed plate, it presents the characteristic configurations of a bottom member that is directly connected to the cage ( 1 ) of a cartridge, whereas when the plate is a movable plate, it presents the characteristic configurations of a slide that cooperates directly with guide members and with members for operating the cartridge. The plate ( 9, 10 ) can incorporate configurations that constitute noise absorbing members ( 26, 27 ), connections or supports for seals ( 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 ), and it can form a couple with another plate having similar or different features or with a conventional plate.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates to plates made of hard material, intended to be used as members to control the flow in hydraulic equipment units.  
           [0002]    Currently, in many kinds of hydraulic equipment such as faucets, mixing faucets, thermostatic faucets, sequential faucets, switch valves, distributors, flow subdividers and others, use is made of hard material plates as flow control members. These plates are made of ceramics, silicon carbide or other similar materials treated by means of sintering or similar procedures for high-temperature consolidation, after which one of their surfaces is machined with a high degree of finish, namely, it is lapped. Two plates of this type, one fixed and the other movable, placed with their lapped surfaces in mutual contact, produce optimum hydraulic sealing and are thus capable of being used as flow control members. For this purpose, the plates are made with suitable peripheral configurations and/or with properly shaped recesses or with properly shaped openings that extend through them. However, in the known embodiments, these plates made of hard material entail some problems.  
           [0003]    Considering their production method, these plates usually are made only with relatively simple configurations; in particular, it would be difficult and costly to shape them with the relatively complex configurations that are necessary in order to cooperate directly with the specific members of a hydraulic equipment unit, such as the cage or casing of a cartridge or the guide and operating members of a cartridge or valve. Consequently, every plate made of hard material is linked to an appropriate support member or auxiliary member; particularly, for the fixed plate said support member is a bottom member having the configurations needed to receive the fixed piate and to cooperate with the cage of a cartridge and with the body of a hydraulic equipment unit containing said cartridge, and for the movable plate said support member is a slide having the configurations that are needed to hold the movable plate and to cooperate with the guide members and the control members of the cartridge or valve (in this respect see, for example, the European Patent No. 0,362,041). These support members are generally made of plastic material and can therefore be shaped without any difficulty with the configurations necessary, on the one hand, for receiving a plate made of hard material and, on the other hand, for cooperating with other components of a hydraulic equipment unit. But the need for providing similar support members and the seals that are necessary between them and the plates made of hard material entails an increase in the number of component parts of the equipment unit, along with serious difficulties and burdens for effecting an entirely instrumental assembly of the components. This leads to some problems of practical implementation, plus higher costs.  
           [0004]    Furthermore, the presence of these support members leads to an increase in the height of a cartridge; this is always an inconvenience and, in some cases, this inconvenience becomes serious.  
           [0005]    The passage openings for the flow, presented by the plates, are subjected to serious limitations and cannot be designed freely; for example, only with serious difficulties they can have a reduced thickness, they can be separated by a reduced thickness of material, or they can present major variations of their cross-section along the thickness of the plate, which would be useful in the fixed plates in order to connect the passage openings cooperating with the movable plate with the water intake and outlet openings.  
           [0006]    In particular, it is difficult to make deep seats in these plates for the purpose of holding the packings, and the packings housed in rather shallow seats can easily be expelled due to an overpressure. In order to have the packings adequately retained, resort may be had to the use of additional members retaining the packings (see, for example, the European Patent No. 0,647,807). By the same token, it is almost impossible to make in the plates made of hard material the very deep seats that are needed to hold the dynamic packings in the form of sleeves (see, for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,842).  
           [0007]    It would also be difficult to make configurations that involve small studs or lamellae in order to mechanically suppress the turbulence and noise resulting from a flow; such configurations are given to other components of the equipment or to specific additional components (see, for example, the Italian Patent No. 1,156,920). In this connection, it is possible, although with some difficulty, to make in the plates relatively simple configurations with steps (as according to the U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,264), which however offer only a reduced effectiveness.  
           [0008]    By the same token, it would be almost impossible directly to make in the hard plates certain deep seats that can accommodate and retain some capsules made of yielding material, intended to pneumatically absorb the vibrations, the rapid cyclic variations in the pressure and the noise deriving from a flow.  
           [0009]    Furthermore, considering the method by which these plates are made, they are subjected to major deformations and to shrinkages that cannot be exactly foreseen, whereby the finished plates present a wide tolerance in the geometry and in the dimensions of their configurations. Also, considering the serious geometry tolerances, the plates could not directly cooperate in a reliable manner with other members of the hydraulic equipment that are different from the appropriate supports and, sometimes, even their insertion in the supports may cause difficulties. Furthermore, the dimensional tolerances, which are added up on top of those of the other components of the equipment, create the need for providing means to compensate for the overall tolerances of the equipment. For example, a cartridge for a faucet, equipped with these plates, cannot be fixed in its seat simply by tightening all the way a lid of the faucet because in that way, the pressure created upon contact between the plates could undergo excessive variations from one equipment unit to the other, from a value that would be insufficient to ensure a sealing, up to a value that would block reciprocal movements. It is thus often necessary to tighten the lid that holds the cartridge by using a dynamometric wrench, or by relying on the particular sensitivity of an operator. This introduces further difficulties in the instrumental assembly of a cartridge in the body of a faucet.  
           [0010]    Furthermore, the surfaces that are not lapped, of the plates made according to the known procedures, do not present a roughness sufficiently reduced in order to cooperate by effectively sealing with damping capsules, with dynamic packings such as certain packings in the form of sleeves, or with packings applied with limited pressure, but only with effectively tightened static packings.  
           [0011]    Furthermore, the need for subjecting the hard plates to high temperatures during their production makes it difficult or impossible to incorporate in them any solid lubricants that are capable of reducing their friction coefficient and especially the static friction (slip-stick effect).  
           [0012]    Finally, the known method for producing hard plates is somewhat difficult and costly and leads to rapid wear and tear of the forming molds.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0013]    An object of this invention is therefore to allow the production of plates made of hard material that would not entail the inconveniences mentioned or that would present them to a substantially reduced degree.  
           [0014]    The invention is based on the observation that there are materials, that however have never been used before in making the plates considered, which present a hardness and structural characteristic that would make it possible to submit them to the lapping which is necessary for the hydraulic sealing, but that at the same time are suitable for being shaped by inexpensive processes, also with very complex configurations, and which during their production undergo negligible deformations and shrinkages that can be predicted with precision. These are the so-called thermosetting synthetic polymers, such as especially the phenolic, carbamidic, melaminic and similar resins.  
           [0015]    These materials can be shaped in molds under pressure at moderate temperatures and with reduced wear and tear of the molds, hence, in an economical manner, and they undergo negligible deformations and shrinkages that can be precisely predicted, so that it is possible to use them for making members with very complex shapes, provided that they present a flat surface free from any projection, capable of being machined by means of lapping so as to constitute a sealing surface intended to cooperate with another lapped surface. The configurations of all of the other portions of these members can be designed with a great degree of freedom so as to be able to cooperate directly with any member of a hydraulic equipment unit. It is thus possible to omit the appropriate support members for plates made of hard material and the necessary additional packings; this also offers many other advantages, as will be explained below.  
           [0016]    Therefore, the subject of this invention is a plate made of hard material, presenting at least one flat surface free from any protrusion, machined by means of lapping to a high degree of finish, intended to be used as a flow control member in a hydraulic equipment unit, characterized in that it consists of a thermosetting synthetic polymer, it is made by means of molding, and it presents, in its regions different from said at least one flat surface, configurations capable of cooperating directly with the specific members of a hydraulic equipment unit.  
           [0017]    Preferably, said thermosetting synthetic polymer is chosen from the group comprising the phenolic, carbamidic and melaminic resins.  
           [0018]    According to a feature of the invention, said thermosetting synthetic polymer can be mixed with a solid lubricant capable of reducing the friction coefficient and especially the static friction without, however, causing obstacles to the lapping operation. Among the solid lubricants that are suitable for this purpose may be mentioned tetrafluoroethylene, phenanthrene, phthalocyanine, graphite, molybdenum sulfide, talc and bentonite.  
           [0019]    According to another feature of this invention, said thermosetting synthetic polymer can be mixed by adding powdered materials capable of reducing the friction coefficient and especially the static friction, of reducing the wear due to abrasion, of improving the thermal conductivity as well as of supporting a possible surfacing with deposited hard materials. Among said added powdered materials may be particularly mentioned: aluminium oxide, other metal oxides, triclinic crystallographic lattice silica, powdered stainless steel, other metal powders, silicon carbide, other carbides, aluminium nitride, other metal nitrides, carbon fibers, other fibrous materials such as wollastonite (Ca Si O 3 ). Said materials can be added either singularly or in various combinations among them and with other additives.  
           [0020]    Among the hard materials which may be deposited on the surface of the plates of thermosetting synthetic polymer may be particularly mentioned: cubic crystallographic lattice carbon, metal carbides and nitrides and other hard materials. Preferably, such materials can be physically or chemically deposited from a gaseous medium.  
           [0021]    In particular such a plate, when it is intended for use as a fixed flow control member, presents in its regions different from said at least one flat surface the characteristic configurations of a bottom member capable of being linked directly to the cage of a cartridge and of cooperating directly with a fixed part of a hydraulic equipment unit.  
           [0022]    On the other hand such a plate, when it is intended to be used as movable flow control member, presents in its regions different from said at least one flat surface the characteristic configurations of a slide capable of cooperating directly with guide members and with the operating members of a cartridge.  
           [0023]    In correspondence to the lapped flat surface, the plate can have variously shaped flow guide recesses and/or through extending openings, freely designed, also having a reduced thickness and/or separated by reduced thicknesses of material. The passage openings can vary greatly in terms of cross-section along the thickness of the plate, so as to replace the connections usually made in the supports of the plates.  
           [0024]    The configurations of the regions of the plate, different from the flat lapped surface, can comprise connecting members and/or coupling members intended to cooperate with fixed parts of the cartridge, guide surfaces and/or coupling surfaces intended to cooperate with fixed or movable parts of the cartridge, smooth but not machined surfaces suitable for cooperating with static or dynamic seals, recesses or reliefs of considerable depth suitable for accommodating inserted packings or packings directly shaped in or on the plates, and cavities having other purposes.  
           [0025]    In correspondence both to the regions of the plate different from the flat lapped surface, and to recesses provided in the lapped flat surface, the plate can present configurations similar to lamellae or studs, constituting mechanical members for absorbing the noise coming from a flow, deep seats capable of receiving pneumatic flow noise absorption capsules and, for the fixed plates, deep seats intended to receive the insertion of positioning members.  
           [0026]    As will be readily understood, thanks to these features or a part of them, a couple of plates according to the invention, or even a single plate according to the invention constituting a couple with a plate made of hard material according to prior technique, can be made in complex shapes with substantially simple and economical processes and can be used to constitute flow control members of a hydraulic equipment unit, suitable for cooperating directly with other members of the equipment unit, thus making it possible to entirely suppress the usual supports of the plates, to drastically simplify the structure of the equipment unit and to reduce its number of components and its dimensions. In particular, these plates can have deep seats for the purpose of retaining packings, both normal packings and dynamic packings in the form of sleeves, and/or to hold capsules made of yielding material constituting pneumatic dampers, or even for other purposes. These plates may also comprise small studs or lamellae constituting mechanical dampers. The plates are subject to practically zero deformations and to precisely predictable shrinkages, so that they can present very limited dimensional tolerances, which may render superfluous any means intended to compensate for the overall tolerances of the equipment, so that a cartridge for a hydraulic equipment unit, provided with these plates, can be fixed in its seat simply by thoroughly tightening a lid, and this radically simplifies the mounting operation thereof. By using accurately machined molds, the non-lapped surfaces of the plate made according to the invention can be caused to present surfaces having a roughness sufficiently reduced for being able to cooperate directly with dynamic packings or with packings that are applied with limited pressure. The fact that certain solid lubricants can be incorporated in the material constituting the hard material plates makes it possible to reduce their friction coefficient and especially the static friction.  
           [0027]    The freedom in designing the plates according to the invention can also be exploited by making, with them, a couple of plates having respectively different characteristics, for example, made up of different polymers and/or incorporating different solid lubricants, or even only one of the plates may incorporate a solid lubricant, or it is also possible to use a plate according to the invention in cooperation with a plate made of hard material according to prior technique.  
           [0028]    An additional advantage offered by the employment of thermosetting polymers in the manufacture of the plates according to the invention resides in the fact that these polymers offer very limited adhesion to deposits of limestone. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0029]    These and other features, objects and advantages of the subject of this invention will appear more clearly from the following description of some embodiments constituting nonrestrictive examples, with reference to the attached drawings, wherein:  
         [0030]    FIGS.  1  to  9  show the sections of various examples of cartridges for single-control mixing faucets using the plates according to the invention.  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 10 shows a view from below, illustrating the fixed plate according to FIG. 5.  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 11 shows a view from above, illustrating the fixed plate according to FIG. 7.  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 12 shows the section of a single-control mixing faucet comprising a cartridge made with plates according to the invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0034]    The examples shown refer to cartridges for single-control mixing faucets, namely to one of the most frequent applications of the invention, but it must be understood that the invention can also be applied to cartridges used for any type of hydraulic equipment. as well as to hydraulic equipment of the type not equipped with a cartridge.  
         [0035]    Referring to FIGS.  1  to  9  and  12 , a cartridge for a single-control mixing faucet comprises, in the exemplary embodiments shown, a cage or casing  1  that ends below with a retaining shoulder  2 , a lid  3  coupled with elastic release by means of teeth  4  to openings of cage  1 , a ring member  5  rotatably seated in lid  3 , an operating lever  6  with an internal control member  7 , pivoted by means of an axis  8  to the rotatable ring  5 , an operatively fixed plate  9  and an operatively movable plate  10 . According to the invention, these plates  9  and  10 , which in a well-known manner are intended to work as flow control members by means of properly shaped recesses and openings, are made by means of molding a thermosetting synthetic polymer and subsequently lapping the flat surfaces of the plates which, when in the mounted state, are in mutual contact.  
         [0036]    As is well known in the state of the art, using lever  6 , which can be oscillated or rotated, one can impart translation and rotation movements to the movable plate  10  with respect to the fixed plate  9  in order to control, thanks to suitable configurations in terms of recesses and openings of these plates, the flow of delivered mixed water as well as the mixing ratio between cold water and hot water.  
         [0037]    With reference to FIG. 12, a cartridge of the kind shown here as an example is intended to be inserted in body  11  of a hydraulic equipment unit, which in this example is a single-control mixing faucet and, in the shape shown in FIG. 12, is provided with a delivery spout  12  (while, in other cases, the delivery takes place through a pipe); body  11  of the faucet is reached by two water pipelines, respectively for cold water and hot water, only one of which,  13 , is visible in FIG. 12. Body  11  of the faucet is closed on top by a lid  14 , which for example may be screwed and is intended to retain the cartridge in its operating position.  
         [0038]    As it can be seen in FIGS.  1  to  9  and  12 , the operatively fixed plate  9  has an upper protruding rim  15 , intended to cooperate with the retaining shoulder  2 , and it is mounted in casing  1  by simply inserting it in the casing prior to the introduction of the other components. This particularly manner of assembly, which is advantageous especially for an instrumental assembly, is made possible, on the one hand, thanks to the possibility of giving the plate according to the invention certain particular configurations, such as rim  15 , and, on the other hand, thanks to the reduced shape and dimension tolerances which can be obtained for the plates and which permit the effective coupling of the fixed plate  9  with casing  1  of the cartridge. This is one of the reasons why it is possible to omit a related support member in the form of a bottom member, for the fixed plate according to the invention.  
         [0039]    Furthermore, the fixed plate  9 , as usual, presents openings  18  extending through it, that are suitably shaped and are intended to establish controlled communications between the intakes and the outlet of the waters. These parts generally are not modified by the application of the invention, except that their shapes can be chosen by the designer with a greater degree of freedom. For example, in order to regulate the flow, each passing opening  18  of the fixed plate can be made up of a plurality of narrow openings separated by thin material dividers, that could be made only with great difficulty and high costs according to the prior state of the art.  
         [0040]    In turn, the movable plate  10 , as shown in FIGS. 1, 3 to  8  and  12 , has itself a seat that cooperates with the internal control member  7  of the operating lever  6 . As an alternative, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 9, the movable plate  10  can be so shaped as to receive a member  16  that presents a seat which cooperates with the internal control member  7  of the operating lever  6 . Member  16  serves primarily to permit the employment of the same fixed plate  10  in the presence of differently shaped control members  7 . As a matter of fact, these control members can have, for example, the shapes of flat discs, as shown, or of studs. Furthermore, member  16  can advantageously have an antifriction effect. In this case, likewise the former case, the advantageous configurations described can be implemented easily, on the one hand, thanks to the possibility of giving the movable plate according to the invention certain configurations that are difficult to make in the plates according to the prior technique and, on the other hand, thanks to the reduced shape and dimension tolerances that can be obtained for the plates and that permit effective coupling of the movable plate  10  with the control member  7  of the cartridge or with member  16 . This is one of the reasons why it is possible to omit a related support member in the shape of a slide for the movable plate according to the invention.  
         [0041]    Furthermore, as usual, the movable plate  10  has a recess  17  that is appropriately profiled and is intended to establish communications between the passing openings  18  of the fixed plate  9 . These parts generally are not modified by the application of the invention, except that their shapes can be chosen by the designer with a greater degree of freedom. It is also to be understood that the profiled recesses  17  of the movable plate  10  can be replaced by passing openings and/or by a particular outline of the periphery of the plate  10 , according to the teachings of the known state of the art.  
         [0042]    As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the fixed plate  9  can have seats that are sufficiently recessed to hold packings  19 . These seats can also be very deep, as shown by FIGS. 5, 6 and  12 , in order to retain very high packings  20 , which are particularly safe against the danger of expulsion and which can also perform the function of compensating for the machining tolerances; they can have complex configuration, as shown for example in FIG. 10.  
         [0043]    The seats for packings made in the fixed plate  9  can also take on larger dimensions in order to accommodate a dynamic packing  21  in the form of a sleeve, as shown in FIG. 7, or to accommodate packings  22 , equipped with internal pipes  23  for purposes of rigidification, as shown in FIG. 9.  
         [0044]    As an alternative, as shown by FIGS. 3, 4 and  8 , the fixed plate  9  can have accentuated reliefs on which can be inserted or directly molded packings  24 . These packings, as shown in the mentioned figures, can extend so as to work also radially, in addition to axially, and thereby they render the employment of separate radial packings superfluous when a radial seal is necessary.  
         [0045]    As shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and  12 , the fixed plate  9  can furthermore have flarings  25  that may also be rather extensive, which modify the cross section of its passing openings from point to point along the thickness of the plate, in order to optimize the connection between the openings that cooperate with the movable plate and the openings for intake and outlet; a function which so far was assigned to the supporting bottom member of the fixed plate.  
         [0046]    In turn, the movable plate  10 , as shown in FIG. 7, can have in its recess  17  configurations  26  like studs or lamellae, constituting a mechanical flow noise absorber; and it can also have an extended seat in order to hold a capsule  27  for the pneumatic absorption of the flow noise, as shown in FIG. 8.  
         [0047]    As shown in FIG. 10, the fixed plate  9  can have one or several seats  29 , intended to receive positioning studs. These seats  29  can be made in a number larger then the number really required for the positioning studs, which thus can be given differentiated positions, depending on the various practical application requirements or the different requests of the clients.  
         [0048]    The freedom in designing the shapes of the plates according to the invention also makes it possible, where this is considered advisable, to make cavities in them that may be more or less large, such as the cavities  30  shown in FIG. 5. These cavities are used in particular to localize the action of the extractors used during molding, in regions where the traces and reliefs that they generally leave on the workpiece will not cause any disturbance. Furthermore, these cavities make it possible to keep the thicknesses of the molded piece relatively uniform, thus preventing deformations due to shrinkage, constitute containment spaces for a lubricating grease, and reduce the material consumption.  
         [0049]    Thanks to the possibility of attaining a very low degree of roughness also on the surfaces of the plates that are not machined mechanically, when it is necessary to establish a seal between the fixed plate  9  and the casing  1  of the cartridge it is possible to use packings  28  that are simply inserted, as shown in FIGS.  5  to  7  and  12 .  
         [0050]    Looking at the figures, it may be observed that all the component parts of a cartridge can be assembled by introducing them into the casing in the correct order from the top and ending the assembly by inserting the lid  3 . It is thus very easy to mechanize the assembly of the cartridge. It will also be remarked that, by using many common component parts and by selecting only few special component parts, it is possible to make up cartridges of different types, for example, cartridges of the closed type. (namely, with outlet through a pipe, as shown in FIGS.  1  to  3 ,  5  and  9 ), or cartridges of the open type (namely, with a lateral outlet), as shown by FIGS. 4, 6 to  8  and  12 , as well as cartridges having special functions, as it has been described above.  
         [0051]    Since it is possible to comply with strict tolerances and also in view of the possibility of employing packings having a great thickness, capable of compensating for these tolerances, by correctly dimensioning the component parts can be ensured the possibility of fixing the cartridge in the body of a hydraulic equipment unit (such as the one shown in FIG. 12) and against its bottom by simply thoroughly tightening the lid, and therefore through an easy and safe operation that can be done by any not particularly skilled person, or can be mechanized.  
         [0052]    The use of plates according to the invention makes it possible to reduce the number of necessary packings and, in general, the number of component parts and the height of a cartridge.  
         [0053]    The possibility of choosing within a relatively wide field the composition of the material constituting the plates and the possible additives introduced in it makes it possible to provide plates with different characteristics, that can be adapted for various uses, and this possibility is furthermore expanded by the possibility of composing plate couples including plates having different compositions and possibly different additives, as well as of composing plate couples including a plate according to the invention and a plate made according to prior technique.  
         [0054]    It has been said that some materials, when mixed to the thermosetting synthetic polymer, are intended to improve the thermal conductivity of the resulting plate. A good thermal conductivity prevents overheating in particularly heavy work conditions. Such conditions are encountered, for example, in executing some tests, wherein an overheating can alter the results of the tests by compromising the behaviour of the plates during the tests.  
         [0055]    The plates manufactured according to the invention are particularly suitable for receiving the surfacing with hard materials, especially by means of physical or chemical deposition from a gaseous medium. This is due both to the nature of the materials forming the plates, and to the possibility of mixing to the same other materials capable of favoring the deposition and of improving the adhesion of the deposited materials.  
         [0056]    It must be understood that the invention is not confined to the embodiments described and illustrated as examples. Several modifications have been indicated in the description and many others are within the reach of those skilled in the art. For example, while according to this description and the claims the plates are intended for a cartridge, it must be understood that the same plates can also be used in a hydraulic equipment unit that does not have a cartridge, in this case the parts of the cartridge intended to cooperate with the plates being replaced by corresponding parts of the structure of the equipment unit. These and other modifications and any substitution with technically equivalent means can be introduced in what has been described and illustrated without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of this patent, as defined by the appended claims.