Patent GB-1267461-A (GB)
Title: Hydraulic control apparatus for driving a drivable member
IPC: F15B11/02
Filed: 1969-04-30
Abstract: 1,267,461. Hydraulic control apparatus. CINCINNATI MILLING MACHINE CO. 30 April, 1969 [8 May, 1968], No. 22095/69. Heading B3B. An hydraulic control apparatus for operating driven members, e.g. a machine tool table or slide, by a motor 10 driven by a variable delivery pump 12 in response to a control pressure to compensate for load variations, wherein the motor is connected to the pump through a control valve 16 which also connects the motor to a reservoir 14, a relief valve 42 being connected to the pump for supplying said control pressure to the pump, and wherein an hydraulic rectifier 30 is connected across said motor and to said valves whereby either the input pressure or the output pressure of the motor or the difference between said input and exhaust pressures are employed for supplying the control pressure to the pump. In Fig. 1, motor 10 is reversible and the pump 12 has a swash-plate 12A and is connected to either of lines 18 and 20 dependent on the position of a spool 22 in control valve 16. The position of the spool is determined by a known feedback system shown in the upper right of Fig. 1. Operation.-Assuming a signal from the feedback system strokes an arm 11 of a torque motor 28 to the right an orifice 19 is partially closed and an orifice 21 partially opened. This momentarily increases the pressure at the left-hand end and decreases the pressure at the right-hand end of valve 16. Spool 22 is thus moved to the right until an equilibrium position is reached, e.g. as in Fig. 1. The increase and decrease in pressure also increases and decreases the pressure at opposite ends of a spool 36 of the hydraulic rectifier 30. Thus spool 36 moves to the right causing a chamber 40 of relief valve 42 to be subjected to the pressure in line 18 through an orifice 23 and a line 38. Movement of the spool 22 to the left would connect pump 12 to line 20 and line 20 to line 38 and thus chamber 40. Pump 12 has piston cylinder arrangements 61 and 63 to control a swash-plate 12A. As the load increases the input pressure P1 to the motor 10 increases. Since P1 is connected to chamber 40 this will cause spool 50 to move to the right and thus close orifice 52 and open orifice 53. In turn this connects piston cylinder 61 to the supply pressure P5 and piston cylinder 63 to the reservoir. Thus the angle of swashplate 12A is increased and the output of the pump is increased. This means that pressure P1 is kept proportional to the load. It can be shown that the pressure drop in a flow path across the valve 16 is constant and further that the flow rate through the motor is proportional to the displacement of the valve spool 22. Thus the output of the motor can be dependent only on the displacement of spool 22 and can be independent of the load. There is a safety relief valve 85 and restrictors 57, 59 and 61 add stability to the apparatus. Further stability is achieved by having orifices 52, 55 and 53 shaped as in Fig. 2 so that the apex is the first exposed or last closed to avoid abrupt flow changes. Fig. 3 shows an alternate relief valve 42 which is simplified to be only three-way and in which piston 75 has an end area one-half that of piston 77. In Fig. 1 the spools 22 and 36 of the control valve 16 and the rectifier valve 30 move in the same direction. This could be achieved mechanically or the spools could be an integral part of the same valve as shown in Fig. 5. Displacement of the central valve spool 122 can be controlled; by mechanical connection to a torque motor 28-1; by using a pilot pressure means as in Fig. 1; manually; by a mechanical feedback from the load. The hydraulic rectifier 30 could be replaced by a series of check valves to expose chamber 40 of relief valve 42 to the input pressure of motor 10. In a modification, Figs. 6-8 (not shown), the exhaust pressure from the motor 10 is used as the control pressure to the relief valve. A yet further modification, Figs. 9-11 (not shown), uses the change in the difference between the input pressure to, and the exhaust pressure from the motor for controlling the output of the pump.