Patent Publication Number: US-2021180703-A1

Title: Control valve

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This patent application is a divisional patent application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/018,842 filed on Jun. 26, 2018 and entitled “CONTROL VALVE”, which is a non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) on Patent Application No(s). 201820713027.9 filed in China on May 14, 2018, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The disclosure relates to a control valve. 
     BACKGROUND 
     In a cooling system, a control valve or bypass valve is commonly used to change the direction of fluid. Taken the control valve as an example, there are a rotary spool-type valve and a slide spool-type valve. The rotary spool-type valve is a valve that can pivot about its axis, and the slide spool-type valve is a valve that can slide along its axis. These valves can be operated either manually or electrically. 
     Generally, in order to ensure low leakage, a valve gate of the control valve is usually made spherical. However, the spherical valve gate is larger than a through hole of a valve body of the control valve, thus the spherical valve gate cannot be directly installed into the valve body via the through hole. The valve body must be able to be disassembled into many pieces for installing the spherical valve gate into the valve body. This makes the configuration of the control valve complicated and is inconvenient for assembly and manufacturing. 
     SUMMARY 
     Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a control valve which is simple in structure so as to avoid the inconveniences in the conventional control valve. 
     One embodiment of the disclosure provides a control valve, including a valve body having an inner space and a valve gate movably located inside the inner space. The control valve has a lower flow rate limit which is greater than zero. The valve body has a plurality of first fluid inlets, a plurality of second fluid inlets and a fluid outlet, the plurality of first fluid inlets are located at a side of the fluid outlet, the plurality of second fluid inlets are located at another side of the fluid outlet, the plurality of first fluid inlets and the plurality of second fluid inlets are arranged along a radial direction of the valve gate, the valve gate has a main channel, the main channel has a first inlet end, a second inlet end and an outlet end, the first inlet end is connected to the plurality of first fluid inlets, the second inlet end is connected to the plurality of second fluid inlets, and the outlet end is connected to the fluid outlet. 
     According to the control valve as discussed in above, the control valve has a lower flow rate limit which is greater than zero when it is in the closed position, which ensures fluid to still flow to a lower temperature heat source even when most of the fluid flows to a higher temperature heat source, thereby having a minimal cooling effect on the lower temperature heat source. 
     Furthermore, the lower flow rate limit has no necessary to be zero, thus it is acceptable to have a cylindrical valve gate but not a spherical valve gate. Therefore, the valve gate can be directly installed into the valve body via the opening, which allows the valve body to be made of a single piece so as to simplify the processes of manufacturing and assembly. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present disclosure will become better understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only and thus are not intending to limit the present disclosure and wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a control valve according to a seventh embodiment of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional view of  FIG. 2 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known main structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing. 
     Please refer to  FIGS. 1-2 .  FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a control valve according to a seventh embodiment of the present disclosure.  FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional view of  FIG. 1 . 
     This embodiment provides a control valve  10   g . The control valve  10   g  includes a valve body  100   g , a valve gate  200   g , a driving element  300   g , and a plurality of seal rings  400   g . The valve body  100   g  is, for example, made of a single piece, by injection molding process or cutting process. The valve body  100   g  has an inner space  110   g  and an opening  120   g  corresponding to the inner space  110   g . The valve body  100   g  has an inner wall  130   g  surrounding the inner space  110   g.    
     The valve gate  200   g  is pivotably located inside the inner space  110   g  and is pivotable between a closed position and an opened position. In detail, the valve gate  200   g  includes an insertion portion  201   g  and a cylindrical head  202   g  which are connected to each other. The insertion portion  201   g  is disposed through the opening  120   g , and the cylindrical head  202   g  is located in the inner space  110   g . The seal rings  400   g  are, for example, rubber rings, and are sleeved on the insertion portion  201   g , such that the insertion portion  201   g  and the seal rings  400   g  together seal the opening  120   g . The driving element  300   g  is fixed on the valve body  100   g , and is configured to drive the valve gate  200   g  to pivot about an axis A (e.g., in a direction of a) with respect to the valve body  100   g.    
     In detail, the valve body  100   g  has a plurality of first fluid inlets  140   g , a plurality of second fluid inlets  140   g ′ and a fluid outlet  150   g  which correspond to the inner space  110   g . That is, the opening  120   g , the first fluid inlets  140   g , the second fluid inlets  140   g ′, and the fluid outlet  150   g  are all connected to the inner space  110   g . The fluid outlet  150   g  is located at the bottom surface of the valve body  100   g . The first fluid inlets  140   g  are located at a side of the fluid outlet  150   g . The second fluid inlets  140   g ′ are located at another side of the fluid outlet  150   g  opposite to the first fluid inlets  140   g , and the first fluid inlets  140   g  and the second fluid inlets  140   g ′ are arranged along a radial direction of the valve gate  200   g . As shown, the same side of one of the first fluid inlets  140   g  is directly connected with the rest of the first fluid inlets  140   g , and one of the first fluid inlets  140   g  extends in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the valve gate  200   g  while the rest of the first fluid inlets  140   g  extend in the same direction as the axial direction of the valve gate  200   g ; similarly, the same side of one of the second fluid inlets  140   g ′ is directly connected with the rest of the second fluid inlets  140   g ′, and one of the second fluid inlets  140   g ′ extends in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the valve gate  200   g  while the rest of the second fluid inlets  140   g ′ extend in the same direction as the axial direction of the valve gate  200   g . In this embodiment, the first fluid inlets  140   g  and the second fluid inlets  140   g ′ are respectively located at two opposite sides of the fluid outlet  150   g , but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some other embodiments, the first fluid inlets and the second fluid inlets may be respectively located at two adjacent sides of the fluid outlet. 
     The valve gate  200   g  has an external wall  210   g  and a main channel  220   g . The main channel  220   g  is in a cylinder shape. The main channel  220   g  penetrates through the external wall  210   g . The main channel  220   g  has a first inlet end  221   g , a second inlet end  221   g ′ opposite to the first inlet end  221   g , and an outlet end  222   g  connected to and corresponding to the fluid outlet  150   g . When the valve gate  200   g  is in the opened position, the first inlet end  221   g  and the second inlet end  221   g ′ are respectively aligned with and connected to the one of the first fluid inlets  140   g  and one of the second fluid inlets  140   g ′, such that fluid can flow in a direction of F towards the fluid outlet  150   a  via the main channel  220   g . When the valve gate  200   g  is in the closed position, the first inlet end  221   g  and the second inlet end  221   g ′ are completely unaligned with the first fluid inlets  140   g  and the second fluid inlets  140   g ′, which prevents fluid from flowing through the main channel  220   g.    
     In this embodiment, the first inlet end  221   g  of the main channel  220   g  and the first fluid inlet  140   g  and the second fluid inlet  140   g ′ of the valve body  100   a  are the same in shape, and/or the first inlet end  221   g  of the main channel  220   g  and the first fluid inlet  140   g  and the second fluid inlet  140   g ′ of the valve body  100   g  are the same in size. By this configuration, when the first inlet end  221   g  and the second inlet end  221   g ′ of the main channel  220   g  are respectively aligned with the first fluid inlet  140   g  and the second fluid inlet  140   g ′ of the valve body  100   g , fluid can flow in the direction of F from the first fluid inlet  140   g  and the second fluid inlet  140   g ′ to the fluid outlet  150   g  in a smoother manner. However, the present disclosure is not limited to such configuration. In some other embodiments, the first inlet end  221   g  of the main channel  220   g  and the first fluid inlet  140   g  and the second fluid inlet  140   g ′ of the valve body  100   g  may be in different shapes and sizes. 
     Then, taking a liquid cooling system in a server cabinet (not shown) as an example to explain the reason why the lower flow rate limit of the control valve  10   g  is greater than zero. The liquid cooling system in the server cabinet (not shown) includes a plurality of water blocks, a plurality of pipes, a pump and a plurality of control valves  10   g . The water blocks are disposed at different servers in the server cabinet so as to exchange heat with these servers, or disposed at different heat sources in the same server so as to exchange heat with these heat sources. The pipes are connected between the water blocks and the pump so as to form a cooling circulation. The control valves  10   g  are installed on the pipes in order to control the flow rate for each heat source. It is understood that a higher temperature heat source requires larger flow rate, and a lower temperature heat source requires lesser flow rate, thus the control valve  10   g  corresponding to the higher temperature heat source would be switched to the opened position, and the other control valve  10   g  corresponding to the lower temperature heat source would be switched to the closed position so as to ensure most of the fluid to flow to the higher temperature heat source. Even so, the control valve  10   g  corresponding to the lower temperature heat source still have a lower flow rate limit which is greater than zero, thus fluid still will flow to the lower temperature heat source even when most of the fluid flows to the higher temperature heat source, thereby having a minimal cooling effect on the lower temperature heat source. 
     On the other hand, the lower flow rate limit has no necessary to be zero, thus it is acceptable to have a cylindrical valve gate  200   g  but not a spherical valve gate. Therefore, the cylindrical head  202   g  of the valve gate  200   g  can be directly installed into the valve body  100   g  via the opening  120   g , which allows the valve body  100   g  to be made of a single piece so as to simplify the processes of manufacturing and assembly of the control valve  10   g.    
     In this embodiment, the quantity of the seal rings is two, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some other embodiments, the control valve may only have one seal ring or more than three seal rings. Furthermore, in the previous embodiment, the valve gate is driven by an electric motor, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some other embodiments, the valve gate may be driven or controlled by fluid pressure. In addition, the valve body may further have heat fins for heat dissipation. 
     According to the control valve as discussed in above, the control valve has a lower flow rate limit which is greater than zero when it is in the closed position, which ensures fluid to still flow to a lower temperature heat source even when most of the fluid flows to a higher temperature heat source, thereby having a minimal cooling effect on the lower temperature heat source. 
     Furthermore, the lower flow rate limit has no necessary to be zero, thus it is acceptable to have a cylindrical valve gate but nor a spherical valve gate. Therefore, the valve gate can be directly installed into the valve body via the opening, which allows the valve body to be made of a single piece so as to simplify the processes of manufacturing and assembly. 
     Moreover, the different widths of the cross sections of the two sides of the main channel help the flow rate control of the valve gate to become more of a linear trend line. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present disclosure. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary embodiments only, with a scope of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims and their equivalents.