Abstract:
An indicator post has a head assembly for use with an underground post indicator valve or a wall mounted post indicator valve. The head assembly includes an upper body having a removable cap rotatably supporting an operating stem coupled to an operating rod for engaging the valve. A leading bogie assembly is threadably mated to a threaded sleeve of the operating stem and includes open and shut targets slideably supported on the bogie assembly to allow adjustment of the targets for valves that open and shut with different numbers of revolutions.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/831,252 entitled UNIVERSAL INDICATOR POST, filed on Jun. 5, 2013, by Philip A. Liles et al., the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to an indicator post which can be employed for actuating and indicating the status of underground or wall mounted valves. 
     Indicator posts are employed with water supply systems, particularly those employed in in commercial establishments and also in fire sprinkler water supplies to actuate valves supplying water to such systems. They specifically provide a visual display of the status of the valve as open or shut. Due to different mounting of such valves either underground or within the walk of the buildings in other installations, the design of the indicator posts have been different requiring different castings for use in connection with the manufacture and assembly of such indicator posts. 
     Upright posts used with underground valves typically have a removable handle which can be locked once the valve is in the desired position and is removed and attached to an operating stem for the actuation of the valve. As the handle is rotated, a threaded sleeve associated with the operating stem moves a bogie having display targets with indicia indicating the open or shut position of the associated valve. Depending on the valve employed and its size, the rotation required to fully open and shut a valve can vary from 9 to 50 or more complete turns. Thus it is necessary to have the indicator targets adjustable to allow for the difference in number of rotations of the operating rod coupled to the different valves. With past indicator posts, it has been necessary to disassemble the bogie assembly and move the individual open or shut targets to their respective positions when the valve is fully opened or fully shut. This adjustment has required considerable effort. 
     Similarly, with wall mounted indicator posts, the number of turns required utilizing, typically a handwheel, varies with the valve type and again the indicator post targets move a distance related to the number of turns the valve requires to fully open or fully shut. Such wall mounted posts also have required disassembly for the synchronization of the indicating targets with the valve handwheel rotation. 
     Thus there exists a need for an indicator post which can be used for both upright indicator posts used for underground valves as wall as wall mounted indicator posts for wall mounted valves utilizing the same components. Further, it would be desirable to have indicator targets which can be easily adjustable to display either open or shut positions regardless of the number of rotations required for given valve to move between fully open and fully shut positions. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a solution to these problems by providing an upper body which can be employed for both upright and wall mounted indicator posts. A cap and an operating stem likewise is identical for both applications as is a bogie assembly including target plates displaying open and shut valve positions. The leading bogie assemblies include slideable and lockable adjustment targets or placards showing open or shut positions which can be selectively slid along a support rod and locked into position with a locking set screw to quickly and easily adjust the display of the placards when valves requiring a different number of rotations are employed. 
     Indicator posts embodying the present invention comprise a head assembly for use with an underground post indicator valve or a wall mounted post indicator valve. The head assembly includes an upper body having a removable cap rotatably supporting an operating stem coupled to an operating rod for engaging the valve. A leading bogie assembly is threadably mated to a threaded sleeve of the operating stem and includes open and shut targets slideably supported on the bogie assembly to allow adjustment of the targets for valves that open and shut with different numbers of revolutions. The use of a single head assembly which can be employed with either type of valve system provides an economical product using the same components. The leading bogie with its slideably adjustable targets provides ease of installation of the indicator post with different types of valves. 
     These and other features, advantages and objects of the present invention will be further understood and appreciated by those skilled in the art by reference to the following specification, claims, and appended drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a front elevational view partly in cross section of an upright indicator post assembly including the head assembly of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a front elevational view partly in cross section of a wall mount indicator post assembly including the head assembly of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view of the body of the head assembly showing the operating stem and leading bogie; 
         FIG. 4  is a front elevational view of the operating stem; 
         FIG. 5  is a right side elevational view of the operating stem, partly in cross section; 
         FIG. 6  is a top view of the system shown in  FIG. 5 ; 
         FIG. 7  is a bottom view of the stem shown in  FIG. 5 ; 
         FIG. 8  is an enlarged left side perspective view of the leading bogie assembly; 
         FIG. 9  is top perspective view of the leading bogie assembly; and 
         FIG. 10  is an exploded perspective view of one side of the leading bogie assembly. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring initially to  FIGS. 1 and 2 ,  FIG. 1  shows an upright indicator post  10  embodying the present invention while  FIG. 2  shows a wall-mounted indicator post  20 . Each of the indicator posts include an identical head assembly  12 . The same components in assemblies  10  and  20  bear the same part numbers. The only difference between the upright post assembly  10  and the wall-mounted post assembly  20  is the use of a lever-type operating wrench  14  for the upright post  10  and a hand wheel  16  on the wall-mounted indicator post  20 . Each of the head assemblies  12  include an upper generally cylindrical body  18  which houses the internal components discussed below. The generally cylindrical body  18  is covered by a cap  22  through which operating stem assembly  30  ( FIG. 3 ) extends terminating in a nut  32  to which the operating wrench  14  or wheel  16  is secured for rotating an operating rod  34  ( FIGS. 1 and 2 ) which is coupled to the stem of a valve (not shown) by a conventional coupling  36 . 
     The upper body  18 , as seen in  FIG. 1 , of the upright indicator post  10  coupled to an adjustable cylindrical center body  38  which typically is partially underground and is coupled using fasteners  37  to a cylindrical barrel  39 , in turn, coupled to lower body  40  associated with an underground post indicator valve. The identical upper bodies  18  of posts  10  and  20  are shown in greater detail in  FIG. 3  and include a pair of opposed windows  42  and  44  for displaying the open and shut targets  72  and  74  respectively of a leading bogie assembly  70  which is best seen in  FIGS. 8-10 . The upper body  18  of the wall-mounted indicator post  20  is threaded to mounting flange  19  ( FIG. 2 ) which can be secured by fasteners extending through apertures  21  into a wall-mounting plate or other conventional attachment for such an indicator post. 
     As seen in  FIG. 3 , the upper body  18  supports the operating stem  30  which includes a circular flange  46  which rests on the upper surface of cap  22  of the head assembly  12 , as seen in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . A circular recess  48  is formed in vertically spaced relationship to flange  46  and receives a conventional snap ring to prevent the operating stem from being removed from the head assembly  12 . The operating stem is seen in detail in  FIGS. 4-7  and has a generally cylindrical body  50  with a lower end which is externally threaded at  52  for threadably fitting within a threaded aperture  76  formed in the leading bogie  70  as best seen in  FIG. 9 . The operating stem  30  includes a central aperture  54  which is square and slightly larger than the square operating rod  34  that fits within aperture  54  in the operating stem in a conventional manner. Operating stem  30  includes an undercut recess  56 , seen in  FIGS. 3-5 , which prevents the leading bogie  70  from threading above the top mounting flange  15  of the upper body  18 . Cap  22  is conventionally secured to flange  15  by suitable fasteners. The rotation of the operating stem  30  by handwheel  16  or lever handle  14  causes the rotation of the operating rod  34  to open and close a valve attached to coupling  36  in a conventional manner. Rotation of the operating stem  30  also moves the leading bogie  70  to display either the open or closed state of the valve through windows  42  and  44  as described below. A tab  47  on flange  46  includes an aperture  49  which is aligned with a similar tab  23  and aperture  24  on cap  22 , as best seen in  FIG. 2 , to allow sealing wire to extend between the cap  22  and operating stem  30  when the valve is fully open. This provides the additional safety feature of allowing an inspector to determine if the valve has been tampered with or changed in position. Flange  46  includes an aperture  43  to allow the admission of a lubricant into the control volume  41  of operating stem  30  and extend through aperture  51  stem body  50  to reach the threads  52 . 
     The leading bogie assembly  70  includes a leading bogie  80 , which has a central aperture  86  threaded at  76 . Aperture  86  is threaded and dimensioned to interface and threadably move on the threads  52  of body  50  of the operating stem  30 . Bogie  80  has a pair of outwardly extending alignment ears  81  and  83  ending with a slot  85  therebetween. As best seen in  FIG. 9 , the slots align with inwardly projecting, vertically extending, elongated guide rails  13  of the upper body  18 . This prevents rotation of the leading bogie within the upper body  18  as the valve control is rotated and interengaging threads  52 ,  76  cause the bogie assembly  70  to raise and lower the targets  72  and  74  with respect to the opposed viewing windows  42  and  44  of the indicator post. 
     Leading bogie  80  includes opposed outer surfaces  82  and  84  ( FIG. 9 ) which receive end extension plates  90  and  92  ( FIG. 8 ) secured thereto by suitable fasteners  91  ( FIG. 10 ). Each plate includes a vertical slot  94  for slideably receiving the targets  72  and  74 . Extension plates  90  and  92  each include an inwardly extending ledge  96  at the lower end, as best seen in  FIG. 8 , for supporting a guide rod  100  on which the targets  72  and  74  can slide. Each of the targets  72  and  74  include an inwardly projecting tab  75  ( FIG. 8 ) with an aperture which slides on rod  100  and within slot  94  of the extension plates and allows the targets  72  and  74  on each side of the bogie assembly  70  to be slideably vertically adjusted. For such purpose, each of the targets  72  and  74  include a threaded aperture for receiving a set screw  102  ( FIGS. 8 and 9 ) which selectively engages rod  100  when tightened, allowing the targets to be adjusted for valves with different numbers of rotations between open and shut positions. The installation and adjustment of the targets on rod  100  can be accomplished according to a table provided in an installation guide. Thus, the targets  72  and  74  can be prepositioned on rod  100  and within slots  94  in the plates  90 ,  92  a predetermined distance apart depending on the valve for which the indicator post will be used. Also, the top open target is positioned a predetermined distance below cap  22 . 
     With the present invention, both the indicator posts have identical head assemblies  12  with the same internal components thereby greatly reducing the cost of manufacturing and assembly of indicator posts used for underground and wall mounted valves. They include the unique leading bogie assembly  70  which provides easy adjustment of the open and shut targets  72 ,  74  with respect to the windows  42 ,  44  provided in the upper body  18 . 
     It will become apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications to the preferred embodiment of the inventions as described herein can be made without departing from a spirit or scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.